Build Your Brand Through Blogs

Most insurance agents spend inordinate amounts of time talking to people, getting leads, following up and trying to close business. The endless cycle goes on and on. But what if you could bring the business to you?

You can by positioning yourself as the expert. Build a marketing program that offers value to clients before it tries to sell them anything through using every value-building marketing tool at your disposal—a website with helpful content, white papers with important insurance tips, articles in leading publications—and by writing a blog. A blog is perhaps the most important marketing tool you can add to position yourself as a thought leader in your field, and it doesn’t have to cost you a dime.

A blog is simply a place that people create online to put in their two cents—sort of a running personal column in cyberspace. People blog about recipes for dog buiscuts, about building homes in Madagascar, about the view from their windows and the spots on their ceiling. But a blog can be an incredibly powerful tool for building your expertise in a marketplace that is saturated and an economy that is in a downturn. A blog can make you the “go-to” person in the insurance business.

Big online discount insurers are spending millions of dollars advertising their wares and developing agent locators that send people in your zip code to other agents. Use their weapon against them, and use your blog to pull people to your agency. People are becoming incredibly internet-savvy; it’s time you capitalized on that by showing them all the value you have to offer.

You can start a blog by putting it on your website, paying someone to start and manage it for you or starting it yourself with available tools. WordPress is a great option for the “do it yourself” approach because it offers many features and is so easy to use. Simply type “Wordpress.com” into your search engine and the following listing will come up: “Wordpress.com. Get a Free blog here.”

Using a blog, you can write whenever you want, edit anything you have written (even after it is displayed on the web), post whenever you feel like it, put a nice photo or image at the start, write subtitles, answer questions that people send to you and categorize your posts into different topics. You can pull something off if you don’t like it and put up something else. You can put photos, interviews and even videos on your blog. In fact, the more interesting you make it with different kinds of media, the more people will like it.

And here’s how to build your expertise: Post anything you can possibly think of that will be of value to potential customers. What does that include? Everything about your business! Everyone needs insurance, and most people need several kinds, so you are limited only by your imagination. Tell them why they need renter’s insurance. Explain how much variation there is in auto insurance. Show them 10 ways to save money on homeowners insurance. Interview a business owner who didn’t have errors and omissions insurance and now really regrets it. Give your opinion on why consumers need an agent who values the long-term customer relationship. Explain why some people might be paying for unnecessary coverage.

After a few months, you will have 30 to 40 blog posts which have valuable content for readers. Shamelessly promote your blog. Put the link on your business card, agency brochures and stationary. Link your blog to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. Talk about it at every meeting with potential customers. Print out especially good posts, make plenty of copies and keep them as handouts, or submit them to trade publications.

The Internet is growing as we speak. Use its capacity for blogging as a way to demonstrate your expertise and value for customers. When you start putting your value out there, you will be surprised at how many customers will see it and come to you, without you having to put a foot in any door at all.

Dr. Sally Wright is president of Alliance Consulting Group.

Your Blog, Your Voice

Don’t be intimidated by the prospect of writing your own blog—write like you talk. Don’t pontifi cate like a college professor. Tell stories, ask questions, provide checklists, use humor and heart and your own personal style to brand your blog as your own. People come to the Internet for information, but they stay because they are interested in what you have to say. Post frequently (at least three times per week) and make your posts interesting. Always provide valuable information to potential customers. This tool should help maximize your business so don’t digress by talking about the Yankees or your latest vacation. Stick to value in the insurance arena. And then have someone who is good at proofreading check your language, syntax and spelling before you post your entry.
—S.W.