Did you ever consider that the way that your insurance agency conducts itself on social media is a factor in the effectiveness of your social media marketing?

It’s true! Good social media marketing is about more than “likes,” “shares” and engagement – it’s also about how well your brand conducts itself while interacting on the various networks, too. What I mean is this: the way that you conduct yourself on social media impacts how your fans and followers perceive you. Social media consultants are charged with representing their brand across the sphere of the World Wide Web, and without keeping in mind some basic best practices when it comes to etiquette, your social media presence could be hurting more than it is helping.

While there are many social media networks out there that you may be building a presence on, let’s stick to two: Facebook and Twitter.

1. Facebook Etiquette

When it comes to Facebook, keep these best practices in mind:

• Always respond to questions and comments – You certainly do not want your followers to feel as if you are ignoring them, right? Even if the questions are tough, it is important to respond. The more you take note of what your followers are saying to you, about your agency, and in general, the more likely you are to get valuable insight into their preferences.

• Before tagging photos of fans, customers or your employees, get permission – When you are going to post on you agency’s page, you want to be sure that the person in the photo or post would be okay with the public recognition.

• Never “like” your own posts – Although it may seem like a great way to start fan engagement, liking your own posts makes it look as if you are desperate. If your content is unique and relevant, then people will naturally like it!

2. Twitter Etiquette

Next, let us talk about Twitter and some best practices:

• Avoid automatically sending direct messages to people who follow you. Auto direct messages on Twitter are recognized as spam. You can instead send them a relevant, engaging tweet to start the engagement and let them know you are grateful for their follow.

• Did you ever think about the fact that tweets with #lotsofhashtags are not only difficult to read, but not enjoyable to read? It’s true! Stick to one or two hashtags that are relevant to what you are trying to say. They act as a way to boost engagement from users who may not already follow you—and want to!

• Get creative and come up with a hashtag for your agency and use it all of the time. But never hijack another company’s hashtag. Only use hashtags that support your brand and its unique message.

These are merely a few of the do’s and don’ts that social media consultants should consider. Although there are surely more, keeping these in mind is the first step to having top notch social media etiquette.

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By Jonathan Monterecy, GM, Astonish

One of the most valuable actions insurance agency owners can make is listening to inbound phone calls. Most agency owners operate under the assumption that all their people are saying and doing the right thing on every call, every day. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. If you want to know why sales, round outs and renewals are down, listen to your calls. Most agencies blame a down economy or their marketing efforts when in actuality those have nothing to do with it. Listening to phone calls will provide tremendous insight as to the actual quality of the opportunity and your agency’s ability to sell.

Now, before we start pointing fingers at certain people, we must first understand that most agencies do not spend the necessary amount of time, energy and money investing in proper training for their agents. Listening to recorded phone calls is the best sales training exercise for any agency. These calls highlight areas of success and expose areas for improvement.

So many agencies are leaving money on the table simply because they aren’t trained to identify sales opportunities or handle objections that otherwise may have resulted in a sale.

Here are 5 simple Steps to Train through Phone calls:

1. Agency owners commit to listening to 10 calls a week

2. Share 5 good calls and 5 missed opportunity calls with your team and identify areas for improvement as a team

3. Create effective sales scripts as a team

4. Develop simple objection killer scripts in order to address concerns and move toward the sale

5. Monitor and measure the improvement

Rinse & Repeat!

Even though it’s intimidating at first, agencies that make listening to their phone calls a priority experience many benefits. To name a few:

• Agents develop stronger sales and service skills
• It increases agency morale when everyone is saying and doing everything they can to help the agency grow
• The agency provides a better overall experience to the customer/prospect

Not to mention agency owners now truly know what’s happening in their agency and are equipped to make informed business decisions.

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As the World Wide Web continues to evolve, so does the need for deriving business intelligence from Internet activity. Insight into visitor interactions on your website is crucial to the success of your digital marketing strategy. True web analysis goes far beyond the tracking of conversions or sales on your website. It is digging into the nitty gritty details of how your website serves its visitors – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

One may wonder if it’s beneficial to perform web analysis on insurance agencies sites and the answer to that is a resounding “YES!” But diving head first into web analytics platforms can seem daunting and overwhelming, so here are three helpful tips to get started. Specifically, we’ll look into Google Analytics, the leader in web analytics market share and the platform used for roughly 50% of the world’s websites.

1. Start with high level in your analysis – visitors.
• How many visitors are coming to your website each week? Are there specific days of the week you see the highest volume? Hours of the day? Can you staff your producers accordingly?
• Where are your visitors located? Google Analytics can identify which cities are generating the most traffic to your website. How is your brand presence and marketing activities in those cities?

2. Identify how your visitors are getting to your website.
• What is the breakdown of your traffic sources? Are your visitors coming to your site directly? Is Google or other search engines (organic) generating traffic to your site through search results? Are your visitors getting referred to you by social media or other partner websites? How can you better optimize these channels with your marketing efforts?

3. Determine which pages are being viewed the most by your visitors.
• Are visitors viewing individual product pages more frequently than others? Are you optimizing the correct products or marketing to the correct niche?
• Do you have traffic to your Contact Us page? Is your location and contact information up to date and easily identifiable?

For beginners, these three areas are great places to start your investigation into your site’s web analytics. As you build up your web analytics acumen, you will come to realize that the insight and information you can derive on your website and its visitors is immense. Stay tuned for future posts as we delve deeper into understanding your website and how to best apply web analysis best practices to your insurance agency website. And, don’t worry. As we move from beginner to advanced together, we’ll be building your website analysis toolbox with real-world examples and applications.

The post Web Analytics: Understanding for your Insurance Agency Website: Part 1 appeared first on Astonish.

By Kelly Donahue-Piro, VP of Client Services, Astonish

A large opportunity within health care reform is to be a resource for your team, customers and prospects. As many of you reading this may be aware there is a lot of mis-education on the coming changes. Just last week, I was chatting with a client about health care reform and a local business owner over heard our conversation. He started explaining what he knew about health care reform, which sad to say was completely wrong. This business owner had 200 employees and he promptly called his HR manager who confirmed his incorrect information. Low and behold our client scored a meeting with this company to set the record straight and review the account.

Here is the challenge, not only are your prospects confused but most likely your current customers may also be getting a lot of misinformation from their friends, the news or even your agency! Astonish has designed a three part plan for health agents to capitalize on this change, which includes:

• Effectively and Efficiently Educating your customers and employees
• A strong defense to keep your current book
• A HUGE offense to capitalize on market change

Our first of a three part series is on education and how to effectively and efficiently educate your customers and employees.

Education of Customers

In order to defend your current book of business you need to provide your customer with timely, accurate and easy-to-understand information on how this new law will affect their business. As you have seen rate increases of 20%-30%, there is a lot of fear around the uncertainty of how this will impact business in the future. You need to provide quick, timely and engaging information to customers, this can include:

• Monthly Health Care Reform E-Newsletter
• Content on Your Website
• YouTube Videos
• One-Page Guide Sheets
• Social Media Updates
• Webinars
• EBooks

The beauty of all the items listed above is that they are all scalable. Currently your team is having the same conversations over and over again with your customers. You can’t control what they say, how they say it and, even more importantly, how they update clients when changes happen. You need to have a standardized message that is in your control to effectively and efficiently educate your customers.

Education of Your Staff

In times of change it is mission critical that your team has standardized talk tracks about Health Care reform. This is not only to protect you from an E&O perspective but to equip your team with the most accurate and effective talk tracks. For example does your agency script out how to discuss a 30% rate increase? Do you know what you want them to say about fines from Affordable Care Act? Here are some sample conversations you should script out:

• My rate just increased to what??????
• I’m thinking of cancelling my group benefits and paying the fine
• I have questions on Health Care Reform. Can you give me the rundown of what I need to know?
• My friend told me….

Being able to control the message on this ever changing environment is critical to your agency’s ability to capitalize on the Health Care reform.

The post Is Your Agency Ready to Capitalize on Health Care Reform? Part 1: Education appeared first on Astonish.

The largest change to the health care industry is looming upon us. Currently health insurance agents are seeing 20-30% rate hikes for their insured while also fielding frantic phone calls from small business owners about how this will affect their bottom line. To add more complexity to a time of monumental change it seems that very few people actually know exactly how it will all work. Just like any legislation the true impact will come after the new law is tested and actually used!

So if you are in the health insurance space you have 2 options:
1. Keep trying to hold on
2. Plan to capitalize

If you selected option one, you can stop reading. If you are more an option two agent, stay with me! You need a strategy that accomplishes three things:

• Effectively and efficiently educate your customers and employees
• A strong defense to keep your current book
• A HUGE offense to capitalize on market change

Any time there is massive change in an industry there is an even bigger opportunity for those who are aggressive and strategic. Here is the great news: It’s easier than ever to become a thought leader in today’s digital world. You have tools such social media, email marketing, SEO, YouTube, webinars and even text message marketing. My three-part blog series will address exactly how your agency can capitalize on this rapidly changing environment.

As you read this three-part series, the most important factor in capitalizing on health care reform has to be strong leadership both to guide and direct your team and effectively educate your team, your current customers and the community on this new law. In times of extensive change, everyone looks to a strong leader to prevail and unite the communities.

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As we all reflect on the tragedy of the Boston Marathon Bombing we are reminded of all the truly important things in life. So many things in life are replaceable but the real things that matter can be so quickly taken from us. Simple things like security, safety and peace of mind are all impacted in the wake such horrific tragedy. We all hug our families tighter, say I love you more and for some reason the red, white and blue looks a little brighter as we are reminded of what matters in times like these.

As a local agent you provide peace of mind for things that are replaceable. When disaster strikes often next to the first responders you can find a call to an insurance agent or even the agent standing right there with the policy holder. On a smaller scale you provide security for your customers when they face all different levels of tragedy.

When events such as terrorist attacks occur, your community and clients are looking for ways to know they aren’t all alone. With your unique position in your community of protecting the things people value most, I encourage you to be a leader in regaining the feeling of security.

I have put together some ways you can show your support in the wake of tragedy:

• Send out an email to your clients with ways to donate in your community
• Have your team participate in a blood drive
• Use social media to post pictures and stories of heroes
• Help promote law enforcement efforts via social media
• Email out positive community activities for people to get involved in
• Get involved in a community activity as an agency and invite your clients to participate
• Shoot a video to share with your clients on how they can help a good cause

You have a unique privilege of protecting people’s most valued assets you can also comfort them in times of tragedy.

The post How the Local Agent Can Comfort the Community When Tragedy Strikes appeared first on Astonish.

One way to effectively promote your content online is via your agency’s social media networks. A good rule of thumb there is to ALWAYS post a link to EVERY blog post you publish on your agency’s Facebook page, Twitter account, and Google+ page. Make sure you include an image you have the rights to use when publishing each blog post so the image pulls through on Facebook, for example. Images can be very persuasive in getting more user engagement on social networks like Facebook.

Another way to promote your blog posts and get more traction for your website is by submitting links to your blog posts on social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon.

What is a social bookmarking site?

It’s a site people use to save content they find on the web that they think is interesting or useful and share it with others. When I say content, I mean blog posts, press releases, videos, etc. Many types of content fall into the “content category” online.

So, how can you best utilize these sites for the best results?

Here are some social bookmarking tips for insurance agencies:

Tip #1. Really get the headline right. The headline is the first thing people see and it greatly influences whether they’ll read the rest of the blog post, press release, or video. People love lists. They love top 10 lists or top 20 lists. Any number will do, though odd numbers sometimes get more views simply because not many people use odd numbers, so it stands out more.

Tip #2. Make sure the content is relevant to what the users of social bookmarking sites are bookmarking. Research before you write a blog post you plan to promote on social bookmarking sites. Find out what people are bookmarking. Is there a way you can do something similar without copying the topic outright?

Tip #3. Look at the way the content on the sites are categorized. On StumbleUpon the categories are things like “parenting,” “celebrities,” and “travel.” They don’t sound very connected to insurance do they? That’s okay there are also categories like “health,” “home improvement,” and “bargains/coupons.”

How could you write something that relates to insurance and also relates to the category (known as an “interest” on StumbleUpon)? Very easily! There are a million ways to write about health. The first article that came up was an article called “50 Incredibly Weird Facts About the Human Body.” This post alone got more than 7,000 Facebook likes, more than 3,400 Tweets, and more than 45 shares on Google+.

Why? It’s just truly fascinating. Could you write something similar? Something such as “49 Claims you’d Never Expect” or “55 Weird Facts about Auto Insurance” or “23 Myths about Home Insurance Explained.” There is a category for “insurance” too. It has 86,000 followers. That’s a great audience to start with!

Check out this blog post that got 27 Facebook likes, 11 Tweets, and 11 LinkedIn shares: “15 Insurance Policies You Don’t Need.”

Tip #4. When you sign up, sign up as yourself. The social bookmarking sites and users will view you as being more genuine than they would a business coming to the site for the sole purpose of promotion.

Tip #5. Don’t forget to engage with the site. How? By bookmarking other people’s content you find interesting. This could be a useful way to get ideas for future blog posts you’ll write for your own blog.

These tips are just the beginning. There are so many ways to leverage social bookmarking sites. The benefit is the more you promote compelling content, the more opportunities you’re giving web users to share your content with their audiences. It’s also a good way to encourage them to provide more links back to your site because every time they share your content, they provide a link. And those links can really impact your online presence!

The post Top 5 Insurance Marketing Tips for Using Social Bookmarking Sites appeared first on Astonish.

The Benefits of Google+ For Insurance Agencies

By now, you already know how important it is for your agency to take advantage of social media. The opportunity for brand recognition and engagement is abundant on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. When done successfully, social media tactics can be a huge benefit for your agency’s marketing strategy. But here’s a question: are you taking advantage of Google’s social network, Google+?

Seemingly, Google has taken over the web sphere. With their popular search engine, email system, web browser and more, there is not much Google hasn’t put its hands in. With the rapid, overwhelming success of anything Google touches, Google+ is sure to be something your agency needs to consider… right now.

What exactly is Google+?

Think of Google+ in the same way you think of any of your other social networks – this is Google’s version. You can share updates with your “circles” of friends, family, co-workers and more. That’s the difference though – the circles. Google+ allows you to segment your connections into circles. Within those circles, you can choose to share specific information, photos, updates, news and articles.

The lingo

We’ve already gone over circles, but there are a few more unique terms to Google+ that your agency will want to be familiar with before implementing a strategy around the network.

A “hangout” is a video conference through Google+. You can have up to 10 people in one “hangout” and an unlimited number of people in a public hangout. This can be great for conferences within your agency, but also great for sharing new and exciting updates with your customers.  Imagine your agency was able to secure a fantastic new coverage option; a “hangout” is a great way to let your customers share in the hype and learn more about it.

Next, “+1”—similar to a Facebook “like” – this allows you to give a “thumbs up” to a post you happen to enjoy. And finally, “notifications” – these are exactly like the way you receive them on Facebook; however, you get notifications for different things on Google+. For example, you will get a notification for shares and +1s as well as for updated information about your specific “circles”.

Why should my insurance agency use Google+?

With all social networks, there is a time period when people are still “catching on” to the hype. Right now is that time for Google+. This puts your agency at a distinct advantage – you can be some of the first movers within the Google+ Business pages. There were 1 million businesses and brand pages created within the first 6 months of Google+.

According to Google’s promotion for their business-specific pages, Google+ enables you to: get found globally, get face-to-face with your customers, and have your social media matter.

The great thing about Google+ is the data. Once you integrate with Google Analytics, you are able to see conversion reporting data, data on +1s to see what is working and what isn’t, and figure out how Google+ is helping your agency.

Here’s what we think about it:

• Connection with your customers – Whether through “hangouts” or your posts.
• Branding – Social media is a great way to brand your agency through your content and promote your VIO.
• Engagement – All social networks are about how you engage people. With a business to run, you want to be sure you are always connected to your customers.
• SEO – remember, your social sharing is linked to page rankings. Pages that are “liked” and “shared” are  going to be more relevant in search-engine terms.
• Social Search—Google+ means that those connected to you will show up above organic search results if their posts are relevant to your search in Google as a search engine. This is HUGE for your agency because it means that your content can show up before organic search pages and drive more traffic to your VIO.  When you can drive more traffic to your VIO, you can sell more policies – and of course, you want that!

There are already 250 million users on Google+, are you one of them? Get started with your strategy today!

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