Have you ever done a Google search, looked at the paid search advertisements on the top and right side of the search results, and thought … “What does that advertisement have anything to do with my search?”

Recently, I executed a search for the keyword “insurance”.  Amongst all of the competition for top billing in these search results, I saw an ad for “Assurance Wireless” promoting a free cell phone:

Obviously, this is a poorly placed PPC advertisement.  The advertiser didn’t want to appear in results for the highly competitive and highly searched term “insurance”.  The obvious mistake is that the advertiser (either intentionally or not) targeted the misspelling of their brand name “Assurance”.  The advertiser will not be happy when it realizes that a large percentage of their paid search budget is eaten up by clicks that come from a keyword that isn’t relevant to their business at all. Inevitably, search engine users will see this ad, click through (perhaps by mistake) to the advertiser’s site, and quickly exit, obviously with a poor user experience.  The advertiser has potentially just paid $25-$30 for each click on this mistakenly placed advertisement.  That is an expensive mistake.

This is an extreme example of poor ad copy construction, but it got me thinking about three common PPC ad copy mistakes that advertisers often make.

Mistake #1: Using your brand name in the ad’s headline

The “headline” in a PPC advertisement is the blue bolded line at the top of every text ad.  It is the attention-grabber, the first thing that your audience sees when your ad comes up in search results.  One hint: don’t waste that space on introducing your company’s name.  Chances are (and I’m sorry to break the news), your small company doesn’t carry enough brand recognition to become an asset in text-based advertisements.  If someone searches on the term “auto insurance quote”, they’re not necessarily looking for a specific company (like yours), they’re just looking to get a quote.  So, instead of mentioning your company in the headline, why not focus on what is going to be most effective in drawing in the audience?  The first thing that searchers should see is the benefits of your “product” — such as “Free Auto Insurance Quote”.  Don’t waste valuable space on your company’s brand, unless you’re a company with strong brand recognition (like Geico).  Besides, if someone is actually looking for your company by name, you’ll show up in search results regardless (because you ARE advertising for your company’s name … aren’t you??).

Mistake #2: Don’t be too broad in your ad copy

Make sure that your ad is as close to the search query (the term that search users choose in Google) as possible. Be as specific as possible.  In keeping with the insurance example from above, imagine that you are an agency looking to attract new customers for home insurance, auto insurance, and flood insurance. Make sure that your ads for each category are specific to that search as possible.  When someone searches for “flood insurance”, make sure that the ad they are served doesn’t reference a broad and generalized “insurance company”.  Instead, make sure that you include language specific to “flood insurance”, otherwise your competition will have a leg up on you.

So, tailor your ad copy to each type of keyword search that you are targeting – don’t run a homogenized “insurance”-based ad copy for each type of insurance, make sure you speak to the search engine user’s intent with specific language in your ad.

Mistake #3: Target the audience that is at the end of the buying cycle

In other words, we want to attract search engine users who are ready to perform a specific action – such as “get an insurance quote” or “buy auto insurance”.   These people are the most qualified audience out there, those who have signaled their intent to purchase with their keyword search.  Not only do we want to show up on keywords like those I just mentioned, but we want to emphasize those behaviors in our ad copy.

Too many advertisers use broad language in their ads, with the hope of attracting as many users as possible.  I’ve actually seen some ads with the headline “Curious about insurance?” – an attempt at generating visits to the advertiser’s web site, no matter what the user is looking for.  Instead, make sure that you don’t waste your PPC budget on people at the top of the sales funnel (those who are just browsing, or are curious) by offering ad copy that speaks specifically to those who are close to purchasing.  Use language like “Buying auto insurance?”, “Need a home insurance quote?” , or “Get a fast and free business insurance quote now”.  Not only will you appeal to those who are near the end of their search, but you’ll actually dissuade those who are just browsing (and thus saving your PPC budget for more serious shoppers!).

The lesson, when constructing paid search advertisements, is to speak to your audience as specifically as possible.  It will benefit your campaign by providing just the traffic that you are searching for.

The world of Internet Marketing is always changing, so Astonish Results makes it a priority to provide employees with opportunities to educate themselves and stay on top of the latest trends. On April 2, I was lucky enough to attend Distilled’s LinkLove conference in Boston.

LinkLove is the ultimate gathering of the web’s top link builders. We met at the Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School (I like to think spending the day at Harvard made me smarter by osmosis) and had the honor of listening to nine speakers, each with their own area of expertise. The presenters were the best of the best in our field. If there was a king of SEO, Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz would be the reigning monarch…and he was there! Other presenters included Justin Briggs, Ross Hudgens, Rhea Drysdale, Wil Reynolds, John Doherty, Adam Audette, Colby Almond and Tom Critchlow – all AWESOME.

I learned a ton and look forward to implementing some things I learned in to Astonish’s link building tactics, but there are also some things I learned that are great for you as a business owner to keep in mind:

I want to thank Distilled for hosting such an outstanding conference and Astonish Results for giving me the opportunity to attend. I can’t wait to put all of the speakers’ great tips and tricks in to action for our clients!

Every writer gets writers block sometimes. With all the great content out there today, how can you find creative ways to stand out? Blogging is a great insurance marketing strategy on the Internet and, i’ll tell you, one of the best ways to think of a topic is finding inspiration from the season we are currently in. Whether it’s, winter, spring, fall, or summer, there are always great ways to spin an idea through that thought process.
Whether you read local newspapers, Internet blogs, or you find inspiration from your everyday life, thinking about the time we are in is important. Using the seasons as a starting point for your idea takes a timely and immediate approach to your writing.

Some ideas to get you started:

Finding inspiration and topics to write about can be difficult, but put a little fun in your topics and you are more likely to be interested in what you are writing about. The change of seasons will give you a plethora of ideas to choose from.

Remember always write your ideas down as you think of them so you can use other topics in the future. All the topics above you will be able to relate in many ways to your readers and, it will give you a more timely approach to your writing which is very important.  So stop draining yourself by thinking too hard and take a seasonal approach to your writing today.

Link building plays a significant part in how high your website ranks in the search engines. There are a variety of different ways to get links back to your website, but one of the most effective methods is to step away from the computer and out in to your community.

1) Sponsor an Event. Nearly every city or town has a few popular events that happen every year – music festivals, 5k runs, county fairs and restaurant weeks. What better opportunity to get your name in front of a big chunk of the local population? Check to see if any of these events have websites and if so, whether or not they link to their sponsors. If you find an event that makes sense for your business to sponsor and it seems like they will link to your website, go for it.

2) Be a Speaker. If you have a special talent for public speaking, you may have some great link building opportunities. Investigate your options to speak at local and national conferences and events. Finding knowledgeable, charismatic orators can be a challenge, so jumping on board with a relevant conference will usually be a mutually beneficial relationship. Bonus points if you can get a gig speaking at a college or university; their .edu URL holds extra authority and link juice.

3) Host Your Own Networking Event. Everyone loves free food and good company, but not everyone likes to play host. Put together a small (or large, if you’re feeling ambitious) networking event and hold it at your office or a more spacious venue. You could invite local artists to display their work, plan to have a guest speaker or maybe offer some kind of door prize or raffle. Whatever you choose, you need to give the attendees a reason to show up. Once you have decided the logistics of the event, use social media to spread the news. Write a post for your blog, Tweet your Followers and update your Facebook Fans; hopefully, those who follow you will begin to re-purpose your content and alert their followers about the event as well. The goal is to not just throw a great party, but get a nice amount of back links in the process.

These are just a few ways to get started with link building in your community. Don’t be afraid to get out there and network in person – you never know what kind of back link you might be able to secure!

In part one, we shared some of the effective ways to build a content strategy that encompasses your blog, social media profiles, and email newsletters. This week we’re going to take it to the next level. The goal of your content should be to generate leads for your insurance agency. How do you use content to achieve this? Here are some effective insurance marketing tips:

Tip #1. Provide an Incentive to Fill Out the Form. Few tactics work better than actually providing an incentive to fill out your lead gen form. This incentive can come from any number of places. Perhaps you turn it into a fundraising effort. Pick a local nonprofit and say you’ll donate $5 for every person who’s interested in insurance and fills out a form to get a free quote on your site. It’s important to use blogging to get the message out and then to drive traffic to the blog post through email blasts and social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Tip #2. Create a Whitepaper with a Landing Page. If you really want to get more leads from your site, consider creating a valuable whitepaper that would be of interest to your prospects. Next, create a landing page that contains a lead gen form that visitors would need to fill out in order to access the whitepaper. When you blog about the whitepaper or link to the whitepaper through social media channels or email, you’ll link to the landing page. When thinking about whitepaper topics, ask yourself: What are the most common questions our customers ask about insurance? Or consider writing about the top five ways to save money when buying insurance.

Tip #3. Drive Traffic to your Blog. What good is all that content without visitors who are actually reading it? Make sure you link to each blog post through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc. Also, consider bookmarking your blog posts on StumpleUpon, Reddit, Digg, Delicious, and Blink List.

The last thing you need to do is make sure you measure the effectiveness of your content strategy. Look at engagement metrics such as entrances, page views, bounce rate, and average time on page. But don’t skimp over looking at goal completions and traffic sources as well, to get a good take on what’s working.

A few weeks ago, I covered 15 different movies that you could incorporate into your blog posts in order to make them much more interesting and shareable. Why should the fun end at the movies? There are tons of television series that can also be thrown into your insurance marketing strategy mix!

If your readers are able to relate to the content that you are writing, you are sure to hit home. Bonus points if you can add a touch of comedy to your post!

Here are ten television series that deserve to be blogged about:

So, are you convinced that insurance and pop culture can actually work in harmony? The next time you watch an episode of your favorite television series, start taking notes! Chances are, you will have an awesome blog post by the end of the half hour.

As always, share your ideas in the comment section!

Whether your agency writes onsite blogs, offsite blogs, link building articles or all of the above, you obviously know the importance of having solid content. Content for the web is unlike any other forms because you’re trying to cater to a real audience (people) and also the search engines. While it may not seem like much on the surface, it’s actually a more daunting task than it seems. When contributing content to the web, it’s always important you’re holding yourself to a high standard to improve your insurance marketing website.

In the days of social media, blogging and search engines, quality content is more important than it has ever been. There’s no use in churning out writing that doesn’t live up to a certain level of integrity and style, so here are some tips to help you and your agency keep yourself alive in Google:

• Keep it concise: One of the general rules of thumb of online content is to keep as short as possible while still effectively delivering your message. Now, we’re not saying to write a single paragraph and leave it that, but to also not write a book, either. As an independent agency trying to get its website to show up in the rankings, you need to focus more on multiple posts and articles, not just a long one every so often. So get to the point as quickly as possible and leave out any unnecessary information.

• Use Headings: Naturally, human beings prefer to be directed at what they should be reading instead of just blindly going through content. If you publish a blog post or article that is on the longer side, it may be wise to separate each section with headings and/or subheadings to make it easier on the reader. With headings, readers will be able to skim down the page and read the parts that may be more of interest or value to them.

• Inverted Pyramid: Ever hear of the “Inverted Pyramid”? In journalism, the inverted pyramid refers to the strategy of placing information in any given article. Normally, the most important information will be up top and fill most of the article, followed by secondary information in the middle and any related but not as important information at the bottom. If you want to lower your bounce rate, you’ll want to make sure you have the important stuff at the top so the reader has a chance to take it in before leaving your website.

As an independent insurance agency, you want your website to not only serve as a way for people to sign up for quotes, but to also reel in potential customers through search engine optimization. Your content is the bridge connecting your website to new leads, so take pride in whatever you write. Remember: keep it simple, thoughtful and fun!

We have all heard that content is king and while this is true, there are other things to keep in mind while blogging. Of course you want to write a blog that is interesting and relevant to your readers, but you also need to make sure you spread the word to as many people as possible. What good is a well written blog if no one reads it?
For as many times as we have heard someone preach about the importance of a blog’s content we have also heard that the content needs to be “SEO friendly”. All of this is true but there are other things you can do to optimize on your blogging efforts.

Here a number of things which are just as helpful for driving traffic to the site that you may not have heard about yet:
1. Using email to promote your blog

If you have an email list why not use it for your blog? Email is a very effective channel of communication that should not be forgotten about. Sending a brief preview of your blog in an email or company newsletter with a link to “read more” will boost readership of your blog and traffic to your site. You could also include a link to your blog in your signature or reference your blog when addressing a specific question from a client or potential customer. With Social Media being the hot topic everyone is talking about it is easy to forget about email, but you shouldn’t.

2. Announcing your blog on Facebook and twitter

Like I said, social media is all the craze these days- and it can be used to broadcast your blog to a larger audience. By posting a link and a short enticing message about your blog on your social media pages you will be sure to drive more people to your blog. There is also an opportunity for people to share your content through their own accounts and help your content “go viral”. In this day in age the challenge is not deciding whether or not your company will use social media but instead how well you will use it.

3. Taking advantage of social sharing sites

In addition to sharing your blogs on your own social profiles you should consider taking advantage of social sharing sites such as StumbleUpon, Tumblr, and Reddit. These sites provide great channels for sharing your content but this requires some additional work. Each site has their own set of rules and formats for posting so you must make sure you play by those rules. If you want to receive the benefits of these online communities you must become a respectful member of the communities.

So the next time you publish a blog remember these tips and tools for optimizing your efforts. First you must write a blog with great content and then you must make sure that content gets the attention it deserves. Good luck and happy blogging!

Traditionally, Insurance Agencies were “Mom & Pop” businesses located on Main Streets.  The agents typically met their clients in the neighborhood where they worked.  They’d walk out on the street and greet potential clients with a handshake and a smile.  Perhaps they had booths at town events or sponsored the local baseball team.  They’d provide great customer service and their clients would give them referrals.  The best way to gain new clients was to build strong personal links in the community.

Nowadays, potential clients generally search on the Internet for insurance rather than on Main Street.  About 50% of new website traffic comes from search engines, and roughly 70% of that traffic comes directly from Google.  A potential client will probably open a search engine and type in something like, “Rhode Island home insurance,” and click on the results.  They might click a few of the links, and request a few quotes, but chances are they will only click the links on the first search engine result page.  In fact,  the top 10 results receive about 90% of the traffic.  The potential client is not going to go to the 10th results page and start clicking there.  That’s why you need to optimize your site!   Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of helping customers find your website via search engines.  A website with great SEO will come up higher in searches on sites like Google.  That means an optimized site will probably have increased traffic, and therefore, the company which runs the site will have more potential business opportunities and sales.

One way to increase your SEO is through link building…and no, I don’t mean the Main Street kind!  Web Link building is placing links to your website on other websites so that you can generate more traffic.  If a potential client is reading a website or blog about insurance, and it links back to your agency’s website, you might get a new client.  Or, if your website is linked on other webpages which have a high page rank (quality of the site, affecting the order in which results are shown on search engines), that will tell the search engines that your site is important and should show up higher in searches too!  This is really beneficial since we know that a higher search result means more traffic and more potential clients.

While it will always be important to build links in your community, remember the importance of building web links as well!

By now your agency mostly likely has a blog, social media profiles, and hopefully an email newsletter set up. The question is: Are you using these channels to communicate compelling information that your prospects find useful or interesting? (Useful and interesting enough to fill out a form on your site?) To answer this question, you first need to define your content strategy.

In part one of this blog series, we’ll talk about how to set up a content strategy. In part two we’ll discuss how to take your content strategy to the next level.

5 Steps to a Successful Content Strategy:

1. Define your business goals and objectives – Perhaps your goal is to increase the number of leads coming in through your website, perhaps it’s to accumulate a local following of blog readers in hopes that they will eventually convert.

2. Evaluate your customers – Analyze your current client base. Who are they? Look at demographics. The content strategy you create will have their interests in mind.

3. Brainstorm ideas for content that will compel visitors to take action or return to your site – Your goal should be to become a one-stop resource for local community information, advice about insurance, including ways to cut insurance costs, and useful tips for preventing accidents from happening. Resist the urge to tout all the benefits of buying insurance from your agency. Sales-y language won’t keep them coming back to your blog or social media profiles.

4. Add value – Create a whitepaper, video, or a fun contest to keep visitors engaged while also providing value. You can create a whole campaign around one of these ideas. For example: if you create a whitepaper, try promoting it with an article on your blog, then drive traffic to the blog post via social media channels and email.

5. Measure – Last, but not least, it’s important to measure the impact of your content strategy. Look at how much traffic you were able to drive to your blog, how much time people spent on the page, and whether or not they filled out the form. Measuring is the most important aspect of all insurance marketing strategies because it helps you figure out what’s working and what’s not.

One last tip when thinking about content: Keep it light – Insurance can be a complicated topic. When creating content, especially for your blog and emails, think about disseminating information in small, digestible chunks. Think of it in terms of “Top 5” ways to reduce your car insurance premium… or “Top 5” ways to mitigate risk, etc. More tips like this coming up in part two!