How to Market Your Insurance Agency like Geico or Progressive

Think. Do. Review.The Internet. Made  Simple.

#thinkdoreview@minetmarketing@mahoneyinternet

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Feeling a little... lost?

Last year I attended a lot of conferences and talked to a lot of marketers and business owners. I also talked to a lot of internet marketing industry experts. What I learned is that there is a lot of lingo flying about the marketing and sales world these days. None of which makes much of any sense to the people who could really benefit from it. Looking around at those who came to the conferences for some help and guidance, I see the bewildered look and started to wonder...Why doesn’t anyone use simple plain English anymore?

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Or perhaps have just too much on your plate?

Lately I have been talking with lots of insurance agents and agency owners. And like so many other small businesses, they have seen growth either decline or remain flat in the past few years.

In response to these economic challenges, industry leaders like esurance, Progressive, and Geico have launched aggressive 'name your own price' campaigns. It's not easy for local agents to compete.

If you are a producer for a company, you are expected to do sales, service and customer support. It’s a lot to juggle.

As agency owners, you growth either decline or remain flat in the past few years. Less assests and employees to insure due to the recesssion has made generating new business and cross selling difficult. How can you effectively use your producers’s time, get them qualified leads and measure your ROI? How much shoudl use use technology, should you be in social media? Who is going to manage all this and who really knows how to do it right?

Progressive, and Geico have launched aggressive 'name your own price' campaigns. It's not easy for local agents to compete. 

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What is the Opportunity?• searches done locally last month:

‘auto insurance’ = 1,220,000, ‘auto insurance quotes’ = 201,000‘home insurance’ = 450,000, ‘home insurance quotes’ =49,500

New drivers on Facebook:25,440 people

• who live in the United States• who live in Maine• between the ages of 15 and 20 inclusive• who like drivers ed, driving, driving fast, driving lessons, driving with windows down

music blasting, driving around aimlessly, driving with windows down, drivin n cryin, my first car, your first car will be, cars, car talk, muscle cars, working on cars, sports cars, pinks, classic cars, motorbikes, trucks or bikes

Using personal lines as an example. How can you take your local market in the face of the name your own price campaigns?

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The 3 Simple Steps

Now, while how each of these steps will play out and to what extent will vary from business to business (every business is unique after all- even if you are in the same industry). But everything you do for inbound internet marketing will fall under one of these 3 steps. What is great about this process is that it helps you to break the elephant into smaller more digestible pieces for easier project management. It will also help you to prioritize and scale your efforts.

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Step 1• What are your goals? How will

you measure the success of those goals?(increased revenue, lower cost per lead, higher conversion rate)

• What are the consequences of not reaching those goals? (layoffs, out of business, cut in pay)

• What is happening in your industry?

• What resources do you have? (time, money, people)

• Who is your best customer?

about where your audience is online, what they are interested in, why they would want to interact with you, what key words they use, what your goals are and how you will measure success.

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Some Examples:

1. Raise visibility and awareness in the overall market by increasing social media reach by X

2. Drive X more traffic to the website3. Generate X # of leads for sales4. Increase new sales by XXX%5. Cross sell XXX% current XYZ

customers 6. Reduce overhead costs by

streamlining and automate sales and marketing tasks to maximize sales representatives time.

What are the

goals?

Notice I am not listing have a facebook page, get X twitter followers. What are the goals for your business?

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Goals and Consequences

Really, it all comes down to revenue right? What other reason do you have to go to work?Remember SMART. Specific. Measurable. Actionable. Realistic. Timely.Just as important as setting your goals is setting how you will measure those goals. What metrics do you need from your analytics to make a decision on what is working and what is not? What metrics can be combined with sales metrics to get closed loop reporting? What action will you take on the results you get? Can you realistically meet those goals and when?

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Industry

• What changes are happening in your industry?

• Is it more or less competitive?

• How is the competition attracting customers?

• Where do you stand?

Also think about how your industry affects your customers and what their perspective is.

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Resources?• Budget= $1500- 5000 per

month

• Software tools: $250-2000

• Ad spend: $500-1000

• Writing/Design/ Development Services= $500-2000

• Time= 5-15 hours per week

• People= who has the knowledge, experience, or ability to learn within the organization? Who can you collaborate with in sales to align the marketing messaging and report results with?

No man builds a house without first sitting down to calculate the costs. Cost means more than $$$$. Inbound internet marketing will cost you in proportion, a certain amount of time and money. Remember also that your time is worth something. How much do you get paid or charge per hour? Calculate those costs as well. Training people also takes time and money. Untapped marketing resource= SALES. in the field, talking to customers, they should know the customer best.

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Your BEST customers(It’s not everyone.)

What is important to them? Personas= buying modes.

Why should they buy from you? What is your unique selling proposition? What do you do better than anyone?

How do they describe their need? What keywords do THEY use? (not your industry lingo)

How will they find you? Google? Facebook? Twitter? Forums? Blogs?

How will they interact with you online? Conversion mapping- plan their experience from beginning to end.

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Step 2• Wireframe

• Design

• Development

• Content Creation

• Social Media

• E-commerce

• Campaign Creation and launch

Step 1 should result in a plan to execute theseWireframe before design. Determine how the site will function and flow. What pages are needed to drive traffic to? What additional info will your customers need? What keywords will be used on those pages for SEO? Then bring in design with images and color. Function before form. = less design changesDevelopment= according to the wireframe. Less mistakes, less redo.Content creation= Assign keywords to pages. List blog topics with corresponding long tail keywords. (specific) Write whitepapers. Story board video, etc.Social media- share your content- set it free!E-Commerce- will you allow customers to get quotes, pay online?Campaign creation and launch= events, promotions, lead nurturing. Email, PPC, Video

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Tools & Tactics for Step 2

CMS, SEO, Social Media monitoring & response, Lead Nurturing, Blogging, Marketing Analytics

PPC Advertising

Forums, Advertising, Networking, SEO

Video Plays, Advertising

Interactive Video

SEO, Networking, Customer Service

E-commerce

Some of the tools available.13

How will you use the tools?• Online Advertising. Capture immediate low-hanging fruit with targeted

online PPC campaigns while building the SEO and social media presence.Most independent agencies are not doing this in their local markets. Progressive, State Farm,Geico are.

• SEO. Optimize the current site for target keyword phrases to appear to Google search.

• Social Media. Not many independents are engaging effectively on social media. Geico, Progressive, are. Social media will enable United to find new customers, connect with current ones, and increase SEO. (Search is now more based on social)

• Blogs. Few independents are educating consumers with expert advice. Regular blog articles drives traffic with SEO and social media.

• Email marketing. Cross sell current customers and nurture new leads with timely follow-up.

• Online Video. Convert more traffic with short video to raise awareness and connect with audience.

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Step 3• Web Traffic Sources

• Blog Analytics

• SEO Ranking

• Social Media Reach

• (Campaign) Click Through Rate (CTR)

• Conversion Rate (CR)

• Cost per Lead (CPL)

• Lead to Customer Rate (LCR)

• Average Order Value (AOV)

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

some examples of metrics to look at and measure. How will you measure success? How will you improve on results? What info is needed to make these decisions?

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Tools for Step 3

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Testing & Optimization

• A/B testing

• Multivariate testing

(What’s bad can be good, what’s good can be great...)The goal of education is not just knowledge, but action. It is only through experience that we go from knowledge to understanding.

What copy converts? Which color attracts the most attention? What image and placement gets more clicks?

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What now?

Start with step 1, item 1.Can be hard when so much else pressing for you attention. Make the time. Those of you who have attended, start by talking to a professional who is experienced. Not a fly by night social media guru, but seasoned internet marketers.

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You can start today.

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Want to get a jump start now? Email me at carole@minternetmarketing.com and getting started now with a free consult and a free 30

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