This is Part 5 of our series on marketing insurance websites. If you haven't already read Part 4, you can find it here.
Marketing Insurance Websites 5 - Blogging Basics
You want more leads from your website. Your best strategy for getting organic (as in “free”) traffic and leads to your site is to rank for a wide variety of keywords. This means you need to create a wide variety of content on your site. And the best place to do it is your blog.
Through the course of this email series, we’re going to recommend you write posts to your blog. A lot. So to help you get the most out of your blog posts, follow these simple basic steps:
Start with your title.
Work from your title, down. A good title has the keyword you are targeting, is relevant to something your prospects are going to ask about (or should ask about), and is about 66 characters long. To avoid coming off as being “salesy", make your title a question. For example, instead of saying “Best Medicare Supplement Policy in Illinois”, say “What’s the best Medicare Supplement Policy in Illinois?"
Use your keywords, naturally.
You want to use the keywords you are targeting in the title and first paragraph. But you don’t want to come off as a spammer. Use the keyword naturally in your writing, and come up with several different variations of the keyword.
Don’t write too little.
Good content is detailed and thorough. Target 300-500 words for a typical post. Don’t be afraid to go over if you need to, but make sure you have at least 300 words.
Let your personality shine.
You are your best asset. Don’t be afraid to use your voice or share your thoughts.
Use images.
Give each post a header image, and use images where relevant throughout. Be careful about where you get your images from - you want to avoid copyright violations. You can use a service like Canva.com to quickly create blog header images.
Close with a call to action.
Your reader isn’t going to naturally come to the next step, so make sure you tell them. Have them call you, fill out a form, or take some other action that moves them toward becoming a lead.
Give and get links.
Link out in your content to other relevant pages on and off your site. It will help you keep your readers engaged. Then for your favorite blog posts, send an email out to some other site owners asking if they’ll link to you. If your content is good, you’ll be able to get links in as well as out.
Now let’s put it to work!
Kick off your blogging this week with an easy assignment: write a 300-500+ word blog post with this topic: “Why did I decide to be an independent insurance agent in _____?”, replacing the blank with your city, state, or region. If you’d like, you can replace “independent insurance agent” with more specifics about the product you work with. Tell us your story, how you help your clients, and what you love about your work.