marketing & sales
Marketing is an investment, and the return on that investment is increased sales.
The key to increased sales lies in your ability to coordinate digital marketing tactics - social media, blogs, e-newsletters, and on-line forums - and the efforts of your producers.
Digital marketing techniques set the stage for sales by starting conversations with prospective buyers.
Producers follow-up on those conversations, turn suspects into prospects, and ultimately "ask for the business."
There are three objectives for the content of your web site:
The content of your web site reflects your marketing strategy. It takes your competitive differences - your value - and turns them into text and graphics that viewers can understand.
The content of your web site tells visitors:
Of the four, WHY is often the most important - because it addresses your values, vision, and philosophies. It gives visitors an emotional connection to your agency.
Too often agencies spend pages and pages talking about who they are and the things they have to sell. Few talk about WHY they are in business and what they are trying to accomplish with and for their customers.
Insurance is an intangible product. Establishing the emotional connection - the WHY - is critical to building trust.
The vast majority of agency websites pitch products and services. For decades, we have all believed that pushing our message out to viewers and readers is the right way to market. So we keep pushing and pushing through all media, including the Internet.
However, web users are getting tired of being sold. Yes, they want to know about your products and pricing, but they also want valuable information that makes them more intelligent buyers.
The content of your web site is an opportunity to show that you understand insurance buyer expectations, and that you can deliver on those expectations. It is a chance to use case studies, success stories, and thoughtful opinions to show industry leadership. After all, that kind of caring expertise is the core strength of the independent agency system.
We just have to show it.
Setting the stage for online sales, means attracting visitors to your web site - not just to view the content, but to actually start interacting with your agency. Viewer interaction is key to relationship-building and online sales.
Thoughtful content, social media and a variety of Internet marketing tools (see function) guide internet users to your web site and encourage them to take one or more of the following steps:
Each of these actions represent an expression of interest that can be used to start a conversation and build a business relationship.
The difference between brochure-ware content and business content is the ability to begin the "sales" process as you inform.