This is Part 2 of our series on marketing insurance websites. If you haven't already read Part 1, you can find it here.
Marketing Insurance Websites 2 - Start here for the fastest results
We kicked things off by looking at the three parts of the online insurance sales funnel: “attract”, “nurture”, and “convert”. By thinking about “insurance leads” in a more detailed way, you’ll be able to pinpoint where you need to focus to get more sales.
Here’s why understanding the three phases of the insurance sales funnel is really critical: I’ve worked with thousands of insurance agents, and almost every single one of them starts off focusing on the wrong part of the funnel. By focusing on the wrong first step, they make their work more difficult, and more importantly, slow down new sales. Let me explain.
Somewhere out there there is a mythical insurance agent who launched their insurance agency's website, got a flood of traffic, and is now on the beach sipping a mai tai while their website does all of the work generating a steady flow of insurance leads. It’s a great vision, but ultimately it’s a myth. It might have worked for one or two lucky insurance agents, years ago. But today, selling insurance online is a competitive business and getting traffic to your website is going to take some work. This is the “attract” phase, and it’s where almost every agent wants to start.
There is a faster path to success. It’s just not at the top of the funnel. Even if you are new to insurance sales, you already have contacts that need to know how you can help. And if you’ve been at it a while, you have an entire list of past clients. This is where you start: squarely in the “nurture” phase. You want to “nurture” every relationship you have, keeping the relationship strong. Once your relationship is strong, you can find people who are ready to buy and “convert” them. This is much faster, easier, and profitable than hoping people stumble upon your site… somehow.
Think about it this way. What’s going to get people to your site faster:
A) Hoping somebody stumbles across your site somehow (maybe Google will somehow send them).
— or —
B) Sending an email out to everyone you know giving them a specific reason to visit your site.
The answer is clearly B. I sat with an insurance agent recently who emailed 75 people the day he launched his site. All he asked was for them to simply “check it out”. Within two hours, he’d generated two insurance leads that resulted in sales within the week. True story. I’ve never seen results anywhere near that fast with search engines.
We’ve got plenty of time to dive into building new business through the “Attract” phase of your pipeline. And ultimately, that’s where you’re going to see big long term success. But for today, let’s get some results. So before we do anything else, I’ve got two very specific tasks for you to complete this week.
1. Gather up your email list
You’re going to need to build up an email list. The bigger the list the better. But even a tiny list is a start. So go gather up all of the emails of your friends, family, customers, prospects, and anybody else who would either be a customer or refer one to you. Go through your inbox and sent folder to gather up your email list. The more the better, but set a goal of getting at least 75 people.
2. Send them this email
Below is a super simple email to send out to everyone on your list. Feel free to revise it, rewrite it, or customize it for your audience. But no matter what, just do it. You’ll have plenty of chances to get fancy. Right now, we just need some action.
Subject: New Website
Dear ___,
I just launched a new website of my insurance business. I’m really excited for you to see it and get your feedback. Can you take just a minute to visit the site, and drop me an email letting me know what you think? Anything you think I should add to the site, or content you’d like to see?
Here’s the site: www.website.com
I appreciate your comments.
Thanks,
You
Done? Great. Now put that email list someplace safe. You’re going to be coming back to it. A lot.
Believe it or not - at this point, you've done more than most insurance agents will ever do to promote their agency website. So let’s call it a week.
Up next - We’re going to reveal the biggest mystery of online marketing: “Where Does Website Traffic Come From?” Stay tuned.