3 Ways To Increase Your Life Insurance Agency’s Online Presence Today

By Laura Hart
InsuranceNewsNet 

The new paradigm for online insurance sales has made pricing and purchasing insurance online simple and easy. So as an independent agent, your online presence must be front and center to fully support your reputation and book of business.

As a consumer, the process for locating the appropriate life insurance policy is all about finding affordable coverage and protection for yourself and loved ones in the event something happens to you.  You protect all of the assets that you hold valuable such as your home and car but what about yourself?  

The World Wide Web is the first place many modern day consumers turn to begin researching and obtaining a life insurance quote.  After browsing and comparing quotes, they may begin to make phone calls, send e-mails or even stop by your agency for a face-to-face meeting.  

Claim and optimize your local Google Places listing:

As an independent agent you want to live in the local space and ensure that you are dominating your local life insurance search terms that are converting.  Google Instant will provide local search results at the top of the page for certain geo-centric keyword searches.

These blended results will give you the opportunity to have your Google places listing appearing ahead of the organic search results. The local listing is a great place to start for many consumers and allows them to access your phone number, website and directions to your office in one location. The Places listing allows you to add photos and videos from YouTube and you can even direct them to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.  Blended results make local search more important than ever.

Social Networking Sites:

If the consumer is looking to stay local, the Places listing is likely to at least get an interested lead to your office, whether it is a phone call, e-mail or face-to-face consultation.  From there, a user may do some additional research on your office by reading online reviews, perusing your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.  

Each of these profiles in the social space will require you to be SOCIAL, but they are truly a valuable pipeline connecting you directly to your customers and allow you to gain valuable feedback. This is where your agency can truly shine.  Facebook and Twitter accounts allow you to give your agency a personality and give a potential customer to get a glimpse at the goods before they buy.  Creating social networking profiles will require that you actually maintain them but with a little work you can create following on each site.  

Blog on a Continuous Basis:

Starting a company blog may seem like an intriguing but daunting task. The truth is, your blog gives you a forum to continue to promote yourself and toot your own horn.  Stick to topics that revolve around your agency, commentary on industry articles and industry news and trends.

Your blog is a great place for all types of media including videos, photos and your own articles. Within your marketing plan, use your Facebook and other social media profiles to promote your blog and vice versa.

In closing, you want to drive traffic to your website. Once you have the traffic you want to convert that traffic. If your current or potential customer is using the internet to search for life insurance in your state, city or town you want to leverage your online presence to capture, convert and keep those clients before they go elsewhere. After all, you can’t use your website to grow your business if they never know your site exists.