Did somebody change the channel? Where did my prospects go?

Insurance shoppers increasingly go online to research options

In the movie Poltergeist, Carol Anne, the five-year-old daughter of the family who is about to be haunted, announces the arrival of the spirits named in the movie’s title, by stating “They’re Here.” Of course the family initially discounts her story, but eventually her prescience is accepted as fact.

Today many independent agents believe that those who are shopping on the Internet for insurance are less desirable prospects, either because of their demographic data (e.g., age or loss history) or their price sensitivity. Like Carol Anne’s family, they don’t want to admit that the unthinkable has happened.

Sobering Statistics

Unfortunately, the world has changed.

• ComScore, Inc. tells us that a full 75 percent of insurance consumers start their research for auto insurance on the web
• Allstate, Geico, Progressive Direct, and State Farm spend $2.6 billion in marketing and advertising per year, most getting consumers to shop the web for insurance
• These four insurance companies get 71% of online quotes submitted
• 28% of consumers want to interact with their insurance provider via their mobile device
• A whopping 84% of millenials use the comments of others to help with purchase decisions; 70% of boomers do the same
• Almost 1/3 of millenials won’t purchase insurance without some other commentary from other consumers

While each of these facts provides individual challenges and unique opportunities, they clearly tell us that the consumer expectations are growing and that to remain relevant, the independent insurance industry must change.

To make matters worse, the vast majority of independent agencies won’t even show up in the first few pages of the search results when a consumer does a search for personal lines insurance. Search competition is less for commercial lines insurance, and agencies can effectively compete. Unfortunately very few agencies are taking advantage of the lack of competition to win with digital marketing.

What can your agency do?

The most effective way for an agency to become more effective is to expand their digital marketing savvy.

How does an agency know whether or not their digital marketing is effective? The first question is whether your existing web properties are performing.

• Do visitors show up on your website?
• How much time do they spend and how many pages do they look at while there?
• Are they new or returning visitors?

There are tools available which will enable you to measure your own performance on these and additional areas at little or no charge. Both Safeco and Hubspot provide simple tools to provide an overview of what you’re doing well and where you can improve. Visible has a more complicated tool, but that provides additional detail.

If you want, you can install Google Analytics on your site and get even more detailed statistics. Did you know that if you sign up for virtually any of the Project CAP medal packages, we will set up Google Analytics for you? (Yes, even the no-charge Bronze Package includes this option.) Give us a call for the details.

The next question is how well are you connecting to your prospects and customers?

• How many Facebook fans do you have? How often are you posting to your wall?
• Do you tweet? How many people are you following? How many are following you?
• Are you effectively using Linkedin?

Both Facebook and Twitter will provide you with these numbers. An easy way to watch your progress is to track the numbers week to week in a spreadsheet. Getting to 500 connections on Linkedin is key, so get connecting!

We will discuss additional ways your agency can effectively use digital marketing in upcoming posts, so please check back regularly. Got a question or comment? Please use the widgets below to tell us what you think!