As an insurance agent you know the value of relationships. But your website might be the closest your customers ever get to you. Does your website further your relationships? Does it reflect your professionalism and knowledge? Or, does it encourage your prospect to think of your site only as a place to "get a quote"?

Done properly, your agent website should communicate two straightforward ideas to your prospects:

1. Why are you the right insurance agent to meet their unique needs? Do you have the experience, knowledge, professionalism, and ethics to meet their needs? Do you understand them?
2. Do you work with the right carriers to meet their unique needs? Do the carriers you work with offer the right product, with the right rating, at the right price? Can you zero in to the product that is right for your prospect?


That's it!

If a prospect comes to your website and answers 'YES' to these two questions, you have an extremely good chance of closing the sale.

So why are insurance agent websites so complicated? Because, while there are only two things they have to get right, there are lots of ways they can mess them up. We've gathered the ten most common mistakes we see insurance agents make with their websites:

1. Confusing a "Quote Engine" with a "Website"

Putting a logo on a quote engine will not help your prospects trust you. In fact, it often does the opposite. By pushing your prospect to "get a quote" too fast, you're showing them that you are just interested in the sale, not meeting their needs.

2. Burying YOUR information and YOUR contact information

Make yourself present on your site. Put your picture on the home page, add your bio, and most importantly, make sure your contact information is easily found on every page of your site.

3. Failing to keep your site up-to-date

Just as old carpet and peeling wallpaper in your office gives the wrong message to your prospects; stale content tells your visitors that you aren't minding the store. Update your site often, keep the images seasonal and timely, and let your visitors know that you're an active participant in their online experience.

4. Skipping the basics

Even if they don't ask, your prospects don't know as much about insurance as you might think. Take the time to educate them, explain their options, and help them make the right decision.

5. Ignoring your prospect's perspective

The images you put on your site tell your client a lot about how well you understand them. Make sure your site reflects them - pick photos of people similar to your prospects doing activities that your prospects are likely to enjoy.

6. Forgetting to spread the word

Don't just turn your site on - launch it. Send an email to all of your clients, contacts, and business partners letting them know about your site. It's a great way to remind them of you, and they'll save the email for the next time they need you. Put your website on your business card, letter head, mailings, and email signature.

7. Isolating your site from the rest of the web

The web is meant to be connected, so don't isolate your site. Create a page where you feature links to partners you work with, local resources, or even other helpful sites you've found. Send an email to all of those sites telling them what you've done and ask them to link back to you in return.

8. Blogging

While blogs are easy to set up, they are very difficult to maintain. Unless you're a pent-up writer bursting at the seams with things to say, you'd be wise to skip the blog. At best, it's going to take time away from selling, and at worst it's going to make your site look neglected.

9. Cliché images

We've all seen the pictures of the men in suits shaking hands, the corporate head quarters, and the infamous globe on home pages. These cliché images don't communicate anything to your visitor. Select images that show personality and reflect the people that you sell to.

10. Not having a website at all

A website is no longer an option. Your prospects are online. If you aren't, they are going to go somewhere else. It's as simple as that.




Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aaron_Kassover

How does an agent cope with the health insurance market when the competition becomes fiercer by the minute? The answer to this question is very simple; health insurance leads generation. With the traditional way of finding prospect customers, the agents will have to promote their policies door-to-door, or via phone calls to randomly selected customers. However, spending this much of time on finding potential customers will not guarantee any return because most of the consumers will not appreciate this approach. So, a better solution has come; health insurance leads generation, a system to provide services to agents or agencies out there with a list of customers. This list is not a random one like the traditional list, but a list of customers who are really interested.

As the awareness of health goes more visible, it is undeniable that many people are looking for a suitable health insurance for their health coverage. Be it for them individually or to cover the entire family. When this occurs, consumers will go online and do some research for more information before they are committed with any insurance policy. This system actually provides an online form for customers to fill out their basic information and their desired policies. At the end of the day, the system will send an email to the agents with the complete information of the potential clients so that the agents could do follow-up for sales. By using this service, the insurance agents will spend less time in finding prospect customers and at the same time they can concentrate on selling their policies to those who are really interested.

By submitting themselves with health insurance leads generation, agents could be guaranteed to have a steady flow of customers without the need to rely on cold calls for customers. Instead, they will now have a constant source of potential clients in order to have a strong and steady business. With this, the agents will have to be alert at all times to make sure that they do the follow up as soon as possible to avoid the potential clients from getting cold feet. The best of all, now the agents will be able to know what the customers are looking for (from the information received) and sell them their desired policies at attractive prices!




Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Francis_Murphy

Remember the days when you used to call a travel agent to book that annual family vacation, your business trips or just a quick get-away? Your favorite travel agent knew you, your preferences and would even call you with that occasional "great deal."

Where is that travel agent today? Well, the traditional travel agent is an almost extinct species. Between 1996 and 2006, travel agents saw commissions from air travel, their historical "cash cow", all but disappear; going from 61% of their revenue to 7% of their revenue . Why? The Internet and do-it-yourself websites such as Travelocity.com and many other similar sites. Travel agents that didn't adapt went out of business. By the way, that agent that called you with the special offer or got you the seat in the exit row is still in business.

Today, with the increasing number of online insurance quoting and information sites, insurance agents are about to fight the same battle for survival that travel agents faced - and lost - 10 years ago. Fortunately, insurance agents still have time to reach out to their customers and buyers to avoid the same plight that awaited the travel agent. However, between regulatory changes, government mandates and, most important, buyers that want to handle more of their interactions online, insurance agents have a relatively small window to proactively establish their online presence.

We know customers of all ages are online - buying, researching, banking and networking. We also know that the 'silver tsunami' - the massive wave of boomers retiring within the next ten years - is becoming more comfortable conducting more of their activities online. If insurance agents don't adapt quickly, they will lose a major opportunity - communicating with customers and prospects online. Why is this so important? Because trending research shows that buyers are going online to validate with whom they're doing business. As a result, if an insurance agent doesn't have a high-quality website, there is a good chance they will also lose the customer.

One of the best solutions for independent insurance agents, small agencies and insurance brokers is a website-building platform that allows you to build, launch, and customize a professional website in minutes. The advantage of such a platform is that the agent doesn't have to have any technical expertise and can begin to direct customers and prospects to his or her website right away.

Agents that don't have a solid Internet strategy in place today are at risk of losing their customers in the near future. Simply putting your logo on a quoting engine is not enough. Having a high quality website is a critical piece of the toolkit that agents need to succeed.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dvora_Ivankowski