How to Become a Digital Insurance Broker or Agency with truWeb
It’s no longer an option to become a digital insurance broker or agency – it’s a necessity. Today’s consumers have higher expectations for customer service, with many preferring to research, purchase, and communicate about insurance digitally. Your insurance brokerage or agency needs to have a strong digital presence and offerings in order to provide value to both your potential and existing clients as well as to give your business the competitive edge. Just having a website and occasionally communicating through email isn’t enough.
Becoming a digital insurance broker or agency isn’t easy. It can be confusing, frustrating, and expensive. But truWeb can help provide clarity and guidance on your digital journey. Whether you’re just starting out or are looking to edge out your competition, our team can help you move forward and get more return on your investment in digital.
Challenges Faced by Insurance Brokers & Agencies in Digital
Just because you see the value in being a digital insurance broker or agency doesn’t mean you know the exact path to get there. In fact, this journey is often not straightforward at all. This can leave you feeling confused and frustrated. Challenges faced by insurance brokers and agencies in digital include:
- Lack of expertise
- Inadequate training or skills
- Lack of strategy
- Expense
- Difficulty determining priorities or next steps
- Inability to properly vet vendors
- Transitioning technology into everyday practice
You may face these challenges because you’re an insurance broker or agent, not a digital expert. Your focus and expertise are in insurance. That’s where truWeb can help. Our team has experience in both the insurance industry and the technology world. We can be your experts when it comes to digital products and your brokerage or agency’s transformation. We can help you determine your strategy, implement technology, and vet vendors based on your brokerage or agency’s needs and budget.
Make potential customers more aware of your business.
The digital world is pretty crowded. truWeb’s digital marketing for insurance agencies helps you stand out. Appearing on social media and search engines helps your brand become recognizable. Even if they’re not ready to purchase, it increases the change an individual will consider your business down the road.
What does a broker need to be digital?
Fifteen years ago, you were cutting edge with a functioning website and an email address. That’s not enough anymore. Today’s digital insurance agency or broker needs a digital sales platform and a robust online presence. This includes:
- Website optimized for lead capture and search engines
- Email marketing
- Lead management system
- Social Media
- Search engine marketing
- Mobile optimization and marketing
- Digital ads
- Digital analytics
A Digital Insurance Broker or Agent’s Website
Today’s websites not only need to look great across a variety of screen sizes, but it also needs to function, provide value to your customers, and help you get sales. Trufla describes today’s websites as digital sales platforms, because that’s really what they’re engineered to be.
That means your website needs to work on desktop, tablet, and, most importantly, a mobile phone. It needs to be optimized for search engines to help potential customers find you, and it needs to be designed to generate leads for your brokers or agents to pursue.
We can help you evaluate your website and determine the next steps to transform it into a revenue generator. We can help you vet website designers and search engine optimizers, too.
Email Marketing for Insurance Brokers and Agents
Email marketing is one of the most effective and inexpensive forms of marketing, making it a great option for brokerages and agencies. Email marketing isn’t spamming with sales offers – it’s following up on leads and providing value to prospective and current clients. It gives you the opportunity to make a sale, upsell, or cross-sell, as well as build your relationships.
Even better? Email marketing can be automated, meaning your staff doesn’t have to do a thing.
truWeb can help you determine an email marketing strategy and find you a vendor that works for your needs and budget.
A Lead Management System Helps on the Digital Journey
If your website is optimized and you’ve turned on your organic and paid lead generation, you’re going to need a way to prioritize and organize your leads. Lead management systems help digital insurance agents and brokers capitalize on the best leads while still addressing the lower quality prospects.
How does this work? A good lead management system collects your leads – online, phone, and walk-ins – prioritizes them, and assigns them to a broker or agent to follow up. It can also enroll them in an automated email marketing campaign personalized for them. Your staff can note touchpoints, set tasks and reminders, and stay on top of incoming leads. A good lead management system provides excellent analytics, allowing you to identify lead sources, staff performance, and areas of opportunity in your sales funnel.
truLeads help you find and implement a lead management system that works for your brokerage or agency. We can help you find a vendor that works for your business and provide guidance on how to implement and use this technology to maximize your return on investment.
Social Media for Digital Insurance Brokerages and Agencies
Your brokerage may have a presence on social media, but are you using it effectively? There are many different platforms and where and how you use them depends on your business objectives and target customer. truWeb can help you determine where you need to be and what you need to do to meet your goals.
SEM and SEO: The Next Level for Digital Insurance Brokers and Agents
Search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) are lead generation tools for the next level of digital insurance brokers and agents. They’re next level because you need to have a website ready to funnel visitors into leads, a lead management system to help you handle the volume, and a social presence to help you build your internet reputation.
SEM is paid lead generation, or ads, with search engines. When you search for keywords, several ads show up on your results page. They can appear at the top as a result of the search or on the side as a relevant ad. These can generate a lot of traffic to your website.
Unfortunately, it can be both difficult and expensive to get your business seen. Search engines score your ad and insurance keywords are expensive. The truWeb team can help you determine an SEM strategy and help find you an SEM specialist who can get you results.
SEO is what helps get organic (unpaid) traffic to your website. There are technical aspects that involve your website being properly built for search engines and there are content aspects that are all about keywords and providing value to visitors. The challenge with SEO is that the search engine algorithms are always changing; it’s an ever-evolving art and science. truWeb and SEO can help you understand what you need to do to capitalize on organic traffic and generate leads for your insurance brokerage or agency.
Digital Insurance Agents and Brokers Must Prioritize Mobile
More and more consumers are researching, purchasing, and communicating about insurance on their phones. Your digital assets need to be mobile-optimized, especially your website.
There is also a lot of opportunity when it comes to mobile, especially in mobile marketing. Communicating via text is often preferable to your clients and an innovative way to set your insurance agency or brokerage apart.
Digital Ads Get Digital Insurance Agencies and Brokerages Seen
It can be tough to be seen online. There are a lot of businesses competing for your customers’ attention. More and more brokers and agents are transitioning to the digital world which makes it more competitive. Digital ads are the online equivalent of billboards and taking out an ad in the newspaper. Digital ads are even better because they’re so trackable and changeable – you can see how the ad is performing and adjust as you go.
There are different types of digital ads and you can find them on search engines, social media, and websites. We can help you determine a digital ad strategy and find you partners to deliver success.
Digital Analytics for Insurance Brokers and Agents
One of the most valuable aspects of digital is the information it brings. You can measure nearly every aspect of your marketing and sales. You can use digital analytics to evaluate your tactics, your performance, and learn about your sales funnel.
The challenge to digital analytics is that you need to know how to collect and interpret the information. You also need to know what your next step is. That’s where truWeb comes in. We can audit your brokerage or agency or help you interpret your data and come away with actionable items.
truWeb Can Help You Capitalize on Digital
We specialize in working with insurance brokers and agents and transforming them with digital. truWeb brings clarity to a sometimes confusing and frustrating journey. We help your brokerage or agency in three phases:
- Phase One: Discover
- Phase Two: Determine
- Phase Three: Deliver
In phase one, we audit your insurance brokerage or agency and provide recommendations that will improve your customer experience. We’ll give you regional and national insights along with digital best practices.
For phase two, we help you develop a plan for achieving your business objectives. We work with you to define your goals and create a road map with the major steps you need to get to achieve them.
Finally, in phase three, we help you achieve digital insurance broker or agent status. We provide ongoing support through the implementation of your plan, including providing guidance, vetting vendors, and resources.
Contact us today to see what truWeb has done for other digital insurance brokers and agents and what we can do for you!
Try truWeb now and see the results yourself!