agents marketers: February 2018

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Tuesday, February 20, 2018

#1:Final Expense - The Truth About Final Expense Commissions

A common yet important question all final expense agents should ask is, "What can I expect to earn in the final expense burial insurance business?"

The answer, of course, is, "It depends!" And this article will set out to define what to expect regarding commission levels and also to further investigate what details final expense agents need to be concerned with

#1:The Lies Told to Insurance Agents

When you have been involved in the Insurance game as long as I have you come across some pretty disturbing practices done by a few (not many) of the companies that represent insurance products.

This is not to say that everyone is out to take advantage of someone. Far from it. I think the reason a lot of abuse happens to agents is that companies and managers fail to understand the person they have just

#1:How To Sell Final Expense: Should Agents Follow A Script?

There are a couple of different perspectives in how to sell final expense; should your presentation be canned, word-for-word, following a specially designed script? Or should you follow a final expense sales process that is more open-ended, and not so scripted?

#1:How to Sell Final Expense - Why Agents Fail In the Final Expense Business

The reason agents fail learning how to sell final expense is fairly simple. The unfortunate reality of sales, no matter the industry, is that 90% of all sales people fail or quit within the first 12 months of starting their sales profession. Why is that the case?

#1:Agency or Producer Lead Generation - Who Should Prime the Pump?

Who is responsible to prime the pump and fill the top of the funnel? Many agencies and brokers expect their sales team to cold call, network, and send emails to build their own pipeline, and fill the top of the funnel. It reminds me of the old slogan, "Let your fingers do the walking". The slogan referred to the Yellow Pages, the omnipresent database of the time. Regardless of the database used, be it the online Yellow Pages, Google

#1:LLC's and Trusts: To Insure Properly or Not

The phrases that can strike fear (or should) in the heart of a personal insurance professional is when a client or prospect says:

"My home is in a trust" or "I own properties in an LLC."

The practice of clients obtaining a trust or forming an LLC is becoming quite commonplace these days. In the "old days," corporations belonged in "Commercial" insurance and individuals in "Personal" insurance. There

#1:When to Contact Your Insurance Company About Updating Your Policy

An insurance company offers policies to the public either by selling directly to individuals or through other sources such as employees' benefits packages. This provision allows you some peace of mind in case of a misfortune. It is best that you review your coverage from time to time. There are a few reasons why you would need to upgrade or change your coverage. Let's touch upon a few of those reasons.

#1:6 Key Steps For Effective Insurance Landing Pages

Most insurance brokers and agencies want to grow the top line by supplying their producers with insurance leads. A robust top of the sales funnel helps ensure more consistent results at the bottom of the funnel. Insurance email marketing and social media marketing offer two excellent methods to accomplish this. The goal is to drive in profile prospects to a website, webinar or, as we'll discuss here, a dedicated landing page.

#1:5 Essential Marketing Activities Every Insurance Agency, Broker and Wholesaler Needs

Insurance marketing is becoming the norm today, as agencies, brokers and wholesalers seek to gain a competitive edge and improve their economy of scale. It's rare that an agency owner says they don't care about their website, or that they are unaware of digital marketing opportunities such as insurance email marketing or insurance social media marketing. When it comes to Producers, there are five essential

#1:Why Working in the Insurance Industry As An Independent Contractor Can be Great

There are quite a few good reasons for working in the insurance industry as an independent contractor. Being able to be your own boss and be the person that is ultimately responsible for your own income potential is a pretty great feeling. There are also other benefits to being an independent contractor and working in the insurance industry. As we review some of these benefits think about how your life would be

#1:Mind Blowing Metrics For Insurance Social Media Marketing

Perhaps there are still some insurance agencies, brokers and wholesalers out there who consider social media to be a fad. Something akin to Hula Hoops, Water Beds, Zoot Suits and Rubik's Cube. But looking at these numbers will likely convince even the most skeptical insurance executives that social media is here to stay, and a force to be reckoned with.

#1:How to Succeed in Being an Insurance Agent

Many people think of insurance agents as peddlers. Someone that is just trying to "get the sale" but the reality is those days are quickly fading away and the newer insurance agents (producers) are redefining what it means to work in the insurance business.

#1:Insurance Agent Marketing Online - Build Trust by Writing Articles

As insurance agents it can sometimes feel a little challenging to know how to best market online without coming across poorly. One of the best methods for establishing yourself in the marketplace is to build trust by writing articles.

#1:The Qualities Every Insurance Agent Should Have

Every insurance agent should have these qualities. The qualities that we are going to explore will cover all aspects of the person from who they are on the inside and what they look like on the outside. It is about becoming the person that you can look at with respect and feeling confident in the person looking back at you in the mirror.

#1:Insurance Agency Blogs Should End With a Bang Not a Whimper

I often say that great insurance marketing starts with a good insurance blog. However, if your blog posts have a weak ending you are not optimizing the full marketing value of your insurance blog. Conclusions for blog posts are often misused, under-appreciated or ignored entirely. A good blog post ending will be short, engaging and inspire your reader to perform an action.

#1:Understanding How to Analyze Personal Insurance Risks

Working with inexperienced Insurance Producers, I am aware that the concept of analyzing risk can be quite foreign to those newer to the industry. I'm finding that there is a lack of knowledge in the proper placement of risk in the personal insurance arena in general. I'm hoping to make that concept a bit easier to understand by examining what components of a risk need to be considered when making carrier placement decisions.

#1:Insurance Lead Generation in a Changing Marketplace

One of the most critical activities for an insurance producer is "filling the sales pipeline" with prospects to whom you can discuss their insurance program. Did you notice that I didn't say "to whom you can sell insurance?" You are in a unique position to positively impact lives. You know what can happen when people are not properly insured, typically your prospects don't!

#1:Top Ten Tips For A Successful Insurance Agency Blog

Why take the time to create and maintain an insurance agency blog? There are many benefits to blogging, from showcasing agency expertise, to improving insurance agency search engine optimization. Suffice it to say, an insurance agency website is missing a vital component if it lacks a blog. Here are ten important tips to ensure your agency deploys a successful insurance agency blog:

#1:Top Tips To Leverage LinkedIn For Insurance Agency Web Marketing

If your target market includes businesses, then you need to add LinkedIn to your Insurance Marketing strategy. With LinkedIn you can connect and network with business professionals in your target markets, and better determine the decision makers for these companies. LinkedIn differs from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, it's a business centric social media platform requiring a different approach to be successful. Here

#1:4 Qualities of a Successful Insurance Broker

Whether you are running a business or having your own restaurant, it is your duty to protect it from liabilities. The public who are coming to the office premises can face several problems or accidents due to negligence of employees who are working in office. These results in liability claims and situations come when you have to pay huge sum of money to the sufferer. This affects brand name and popularity. In the time of crisis, if you

#1:Why You Need an Insurance Broker

Whether you own your own business and need group health and other insurance benefits for your employees, or you want or need health, life, accident or other insurance for yourself and/or your family, finding an insurance broker is a wise decision. An insurance broker does not add to your cost of insurance, yet an insurance broker does guide you through the maze of information that you need to know to purchase

#1:10 Reasons to Be Thankful You Work in Insurance

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we compiled this list of 10 reasons to be grateful for your career in insurance. If this is the only industry you've worked in, it can be easy to take all the perks for granted and even if you've worked here for 30 years it's always good to remember just how good we have it:

#1:How Can Insurance Agency Marketers Maintain A Clean And Healthy Prospect Email List?

This article reviews what agencies and brokers should do once they've created an opt-in target prospect list. List building is a separate topic from list maintenance, and one which is worthy of significant discussion. That said, once agencies and brokers have created a list, they should quickly establish list maintenance best practices. Maintaining a clean insurance email list helps agencies and brokers improve their online reputation,

#1:Tips for Choosing a Professional Insurance Agent

A good auto insurance agent is able to help you find and get the best insurance coverage that will suit your personal needs and vehicle types. With their help, you will save a significant amount of time and money while getting the coverage you need very quickly and efficiently. A professional insurance agent will be able to find an auto insurance plan that is affordable and offers the optimum amount of coverage. Often times this will be

#1:Using LinkedIn Publishing To Improve Insurance Web Marketing

Creating blog posts for your insurance agency website is an important way to connect with customers and attract new prospects. Creating articles to post on social media sites, including LinkedIn, helps extend agency reach and showcase expertise.

#1:Top 10 Google Tools For Insurance Agency Marketing

Google provides some great tools for insurance agency marketers, most of which are free. Some of these are really well known, while others may come as a surprise to producers and agency marketers. These tools are easy to find on Google (just Google them), though I included a couple of links to help you get started. The Google Tools below are not ranked in any particular order. That said, I think every insurance agency and

#1:Tips To Choose the Best Insurance Broker for Business

The insurance sector is full of opportunities and risks. That is why it is advisable to take the help of an insurance broker before insuring your business. Insurance brokers are also known as professional intermediary or agents.

#1:How & Why Insurance Agencies Should Test For Duplicate Content

What happens if your insurance agency uses the same generic boilerplate content as 100 other agencies? What type of review would you give your current website, if you reviewed if from the perspective of a prospect, potential employee or possible partner? If your agency is simply copying boilerplate content, you're likely in the penalty box, placed there by both Google algorithms and your prospective clients. Let's

#1:Truck Agency Appointment Setting 101 - Tips, Techniques & Best Practices

Does your trucking insurance agency leverage telemarketing to set up in profile appointments with demographically selected prospects in your targeted geography? If so, how successful are your initiatives, and is there anything your agency can do to refine them? For example, are they producing 10, 20 (or more) in profile appointments per month? And if your trucking agency is not leveraging an appointment setting

#1:Web Beacons And Insurance Agency Email Marketing

Let's begin with a simple definition of a web beacon. It is an object embedded into an email, to determine if a user accessed the content sent. There are other names used for web beacons such as tracking pixel, invisible pixel, pixel tag, pel and clear gif.

#1:Using An Insurance Buyer Persona To Improve Prospecting & Closing

An insurance buyer persona is a composite representation of your ideal customer based upon existing client profiles, preferred prospect profiles and market research. The profile should include demographics, personal and business attributes, and behaviors that are typical of your ideal prospect. Let's review some examples to better illustrate this definition:

#1:The Who, What, When, Where & Why Of Insurance Email Marketing

Insurance email marketing often seems like a daunting task to insurance agencies and brokers, because of the complexity of CAN-SPAM Act and opt in email marketing best practices. Conversely, some agents think you simply need to buy an email list and blast out an offer. Today, email marketing is a highly nuanced method to engage both clients and prospects, and should be a staple for any agency or broker.

#1:Using Insurance Marketing Videos To Improve SEO & Extend Your Agency Reach

Videos have great shelf life and offer insurance agencies and brokers an opportunity to provide educational, sticky, and effective content. Videos can range from recorded webinars, to voice over PowerPoint, to professionally composed whiteboard productions with scripted voice over and complimentary background music.

#1:Top 10 Tips To Improve Insurance Agency SEO

Effective insurance agency search engine optimization can help drive traffic to your website, generate inbound leads, and increase the health and credibility of your insurance website. Let's review these top 10 tips when it comes to improving your insurance agency search engine optimization.

#1:Hire Trusted Brokers and Get the Finest Insurance Policy

Insurances are vital these days for businesses which include several risk factors. The insurance policies not only offer coverage to the business from external threats or other risks but also provide complete peace of mind. The policy coverage is important nowadays for almost all businesses irrespective of the volume. Hence, hiring professional brokers for help is useful since they help in selecting policies that suit best for

#1:Talk To Your Agent Before It's Too Late

Rising health care costs coupled with an ever increasing litigious society has made insurance needs more important than ever. To be sure, there isn't a cheaper way to protect yourself then calling your insurance agent and setting up a free review of your policies. Having specialized in insurance almost half of my life, I come across a lot of people who have had the same coverage for 10 plus years and have never met their

#1:Hiring and Fostering Dynamic CSR's Even in Rural America! (3 Easy Steps)

If there is one resounding challenge I hear when visiting with agency managers is that they are struggling to hire and maintain staff. I have an approach that I think can enable anyone to hire not just someone, but someone dynamic regardless of the job you're hiring for or where your business is located. I will elaborate some of my theory behind this in the 3 step outline.

#1:6 Cyber Security Tips to Help You Protect Your Insurance Website From Hacking

Cyber security threats are constantly changing. It is important to stay on top of emerging trends to keep your insurance agency website secure. A secure website not only protects your customers, it protects your brand. Here are the six top tips to help you keep your insurance website protected.

#1:Malware Trends Insurance Agencies Should Watch Out For In 2017

Insurance agencies and brokers should remain vigilant when it comes to their websites and possible malware attacks. They need a backup plan, a fallback plan and should be sharing website and email security best practices with all their employees on a consistent basis.

#1:10 Insurance Agency Online Marketing Ideas For Agents & Brokers

Starting an internet marketing campaign or even improving an existing one can be a challenging task. Where should insurance agencies begin, and what should they focus on? Here are 10 great online ideas to help your agency improve your online marketing initiatives.

#1:Social Media Tips For B2B Insurance Agencies

A strong social media presence can be challenging to accomplish for B2B (business to business) insurance agencies. Many B2B companies struggle to showcase their professionalism, and build an audience through social media marketing. Consider the following tips to help make sure your agency is maximizing your social media marketing efforts.

#1:Mobile Friendly Insurance Agency Website Checklist

With over 50% of website visitors and email recipients viewing information on their mobile devices, and many doing so from their social media platforms, it's always a good idea to review your insurance agency website to ensure your clients and prospects have a positive website user experience. Here are some key areas to focus on when reviewing your insurance agency website:

#1:Insuring Your Future: Chatbots As Insurance Agents

The insurance industry has always been a tricky customer. And, when it comes down to insurance & technology, the penetration is rather slow.

Why?

It's because unlike the banking sector, transactions in the insurance industry are not faceless. These are transactions built on trust and are always done in person. So, unless they build a robot that can perfectly

#1:Insurance Agency Drip Campaigns & Email Workflow

Let's begin with a simple definition of insurance email drip campaigns. A drip campaign is a direct marketing method used to engage prospects and retain clients leveraging ongoing, dynamic content generated email marketing programs. The campaigns send targeted, and conditional content based upon existing and changing preferences. The content is sent to prospects and clients over varying periods of time to nurture

#1:Choosing The Right Insurance Agent

Personality of the Insurance Agent

Have conversations with prospective agents. Explain your situation and ask for a quote. Simply asking does not mean you have to work with them. This is a chance for you to get a feel for how they work and if you're comfortable with them.

#1:Tiny Agents of Success: Chatbots

Chatbots are gaining popularity in all the sectors of Service Industry. A chatbot is a computer program that simulates human conversations, they are powered by Artificial Intelligence. Organizations are adopting chatbots to provide customer support and work as knowledge assistants and business advisors. The insurance industry and chatbots go hand in hand. Insurance chatbots are helping the organizations to simplify

#1:Top Tips to Improve Insurance Agency Email Delivery

Business of all types can benefit from a well run email marketing initiative. Today however, they must take extra precautions to ensure they maintain a high quality sender reputation to optimize delivery, and improve conversions. Review these top tips and make sure your organization is following all of them:

#1:Using Long Tail Keywords to Generate Insurance Agency Leads

Have you heard the famous saying that about the tail wagging the dog? When it comes to long tail keywords, it can often be beneficial for the "long tail" to wag the dog. Long tail keywords are often a three to five (or more) word search phrase, many of which may only be searched five or ten times a month. These phrases are often very specific, but when a user types in the phrase, they can be your ideal insurance agency

#1:Thought Leadership Branding

According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, there are over 385,000 insurance sales agents in the US, with a mean average income of just over $67K. Of course it's not perfectly linear but if we simply divided the 385,000 by 50 we would have a mean average of 7700 agents per state, but that isn't how it works. In some states like Florida, California and Texas there are in excess of 30,000 agents.

#1:Why Insurance Agency Websites Need SSL

There are many compelling reasons why insurance agency websites should move to SSL, including security, encryption and trust. Google is making a big push to move all websites to SSL, and said that as of October 2017, "Passwords and credit cards are not the only types of data that should be private. Any type of data that users type into websites should not be accessible to others on the network, so starting in version 62

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Tuesday, February 20, 2018

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