Your Image, Presence, and Agency Online

Let me ask you something…when was the last time that you “Googled” your agency online? Or, while we are on the subject, when is the last time that you Googled your name, as the owner of the agency? It’s important that you understand how your audience perceives you online, and it should be no surprise that it starts with Google. The way your agency is perceived online can be seen in several areas, but I mention Google first and foremost because, let’s face it, they own a majority of the Internet. Your customers and clients can find and interact with your agency on multiple avenues online though, including social media, your agency’s website, on Google, and more. Let’s take a journey into your customers’ eyes to see how your agency is perceived online, and in turn, see how we can capitalize on our agencies’ online images to leave long-lasting, positive, and personable impressions on our audience.

As I mentioned earlier, Google owns a majority of the Internet, and that’s not a bad thing for us Independent Agents and Brokers, especially not when so many people are searching for “insurance” on Google on a daily basis. We live in a world where word-of-mouth referrals are the strongest way to generate new business, especially for small or local businesses, but it may not remain that way for much longer. When we consider the customer’s experience, the first step is identifying a problem or need, and the second is to look for a solution. People will ask friends and family before looking anywhere else, which is why word-of-mouth referrals are still great for our agencies, but the second most common place for them to look for a solution is on the Internet. As technology advances, and keeps on advancing, we may see that the Internet could jump to the first place a customer looks for answers to their problems, so it’s important we capitalize on our appearance online to make lasting first impressions.

If you haven’t already Googled your agency or your own name, I’d suggest that as the first place to start. Once you Google your agency, you’ll notice that your agency’s physical information, such as your phone number and address, should be listed at the right. There is a lot of information in this right-hand pane though, and it’s important not to leave anything out. Have you claimed your business on Google yet? If not, you need to take care of that as soon as possible, before someone else claims YOUR insurance agency on Google (because that could become a difficult situation very quickly). By claiming your business on Google, you can edit the information that Google displays in this right-hand pane. To claim it, click on the link that says “Do you own this business?” and Google will direct you through the steps to authenticate your ownership.

Now that you own your business on Google, you can edit what is displayed when someone searches for your business online. This includes your open hours, the pictures that display of your business, your phone number and address, your website, and more. There is one thing you can’t edit by yourself though that shows up in this pane, and that’s Google reviews. Google reviews can be a very strong asset for your agency. Think about it this way, your customers first looked to their friends and family for a referral, and then came to the Internet for an alternate solution; if they can hear from their peers about their experiences with your agency, you’ll be one step closer to a warm lead. Reviews cost your agency nothing as well, except for your time and effort, of course. In order to get reviews, you have to ask your “raving fans” for them, or your most loyal customers to your agency. We request reviews as part of our automated onboarding email process to all of our new customers, but we also ask our most loyal customers in person or over the phone if they would be so kind as to leave our agency a review. If we discuss it with them over the phone, we follow up with an email that has a link to leave us a review on Google. If you need help setting up this type of a link, feel free to reach out to my agency’s Marketing Manager, Joe, at bestey@paradisoinsurance.com to get the ball rolling.

So now that your agency looks a bit sharper when you show up in Google search, the next place a prospect is going to land is your agency’s website.

This is where your prospects will get an idea of what it’s like to do business with your agency for the first time online. There are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind for your website, but at the forefront, your brand should be present in all aspects when it comes to the visual design. If you visit my website at paradisoinsurance.com, our brand will be jumping off of the page as soon as you arrive. There are pictures of our staff, our agency inside and out, and even our office mascot, Max, my rescue dog who greets customers at the door. We have featured reviews on our homepage as well, so people can get others’ opinions before they commit to giving us a call or asking for a free quote. Speaking of free quotes, we invite all of our website’s visitors to fill out a free quote request form when they arrive, making the process easy and seamless for them. We also have our mobile app download featured on our homepage, and a brief story about our agency. We talk about protecting the American Dream, make promises to all of our customers and stick to them, and highlight our commercial clients to make them feel appreciated.

This is all done right on the homepage of our website, because we want our customers to know that they matter the most to us, and we wouldn’t be successful without their help.  There are a few fundamentals for your agency’s website that I’d also like to mention while we are on the subject, because without these fundamentals you could miss out on opportunities to generate leads. First of all, your agency’s phone number should be at the upper right-hand corner of every page to make it easy to get in touch with your agency, and your logo should be at the upper left-hand corner to help your branding efforts. You should have a way to request a quote on every page, or close to every page, and if a quote request is not present then shoot for another call-to-action, like a contact us form, a request to download your agency’s mobile app, or anything else you can think of. Your agency’s physical address and information should be at the bottom of every page as well, and if you can, try to include a map as well to make it easy to find your agency. Other than that, include your social network icons that are linked to your agency’s social profiles, to make it easy for your customers and clients to connect with you in the social world.

Speaking of social media, once a prospect has become a customer or client of your agency, it’s important that you invite them to connect with you on their favorite social media so you can nurture the relationships you develop online.

This is our last stop for how your agency is perceived online, and there are a few things that you’ll want to keep in mind for interacting with and posting to social media on your agency’s networks. First and foremost, when it comes to social media, you should have multiple networks to give your customers a choice on how they want to communicate with you. Our agency makes use of Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, and we’ve found individual success on each of these networks. The next thing you’ll need to think about is how you use these networks. When it comes to social media, you can’t just constantly push out salesy messages like your agency’s products and/or services, or else people will not be encouraged to interact or engage with your networks (whether that means sharing your content, liking or commenting on your content). You have to have a personable approach, and remind them that your agency is made of real people with real solutions to their problems.

We have a healthy balance of personable posts and salesy related posts on our social media networks, but I can tell you right away that you will see the scale is tilted in favor of personable posts, and that gets us the most engagement online. We post pictures of our office mascot, Max, pictures of company events, community involvement and charities, pictures to honor our veterans, or just pictures of our staff and office, and our audience LOVES it! We will from time to time also make some salesy posts to our social media accounts to highlight specific types of insurance we offer, discuss our mobile app, or ask our customers for referrals and so on, but we try not to go overboard with these posts. We want our customers to see us as personable, and we want to have a warm and welcoming approach to our social media to encourage new customers to connect with us, and for existing customers to stick around.

No matter what angle you look from, whether it’s from Google, social media, or directly from your agency website, your audience will have a very strong impression of your agency after simply visiting you online. It’s our job to capitalize on our agency’s image in the digital world, and to do so we have to display a personable, positive image to “wow” our customers and earn their business. Good luck everyone, and I will see you all online!