Here it is — the last installment of my series on driving qualified visitors through your paid search (SEM) campaign.  In part one of this series, I discussed PPC keyword selection as the first two steps in qualifying traffic, and in part two I showed you how to optimize your ad copy in order to drive traffic from the visitors that you’d most prefer.

Remember that qualifying your paid search traffic has two parts:

Also remember that, as compared to organic search traffic (where you welcome visitors in all phases of the sales funnel), the most effective and efficient SEM campaigns can focus on driving visits that produce conversions.  Let your organic search optimization efforts drive the “information-gathering” traffic, use your PPC campaign to target the “purchasing” consumer.

Now that we’ve covered three steps to improve your campaign, let’s dive into the next tactic that will help you drive valuable clicks:

Step 4: Create Landing Pages to Promote Your Conversion Point

You’ve set up your PPC keywords, you’ve created some unbelievably enticing ad copy to get your audience to click … now what? The process of converting your traffic from visitors into customers is technically over, as you’ve now received a visitor from your SEM campaign.  But the most effective PPC campaigns do not stop optimization until after the most important part of this process – the conversion point.  If I am running a campaign to sell a widget, and I’ve received my captive audience through paid search, I want to make darn sure that I make the final piece of their purchasing process is both obvious and easy.

Once I’ve paid for this click, the last thing that I want the visitor to do is get distracted, bored, confused or frustrated. I want to subtly but firmly guide them through the conversion (or transactional) process.  That’s why the landing page in a paid search campaign is so important.  I’ll give you three quick tips to create an effective landing page, all geared towards promoting a conversion point.

Note that the page is simple, does not contain too much text, and provides no linking away from this page.  The visitor, who has arrived on a very specific keyword search (including the word “quote”) is confronted with exactly the type of information that they have requested, and are more likely to convert as a result!

There you have it – four easy steps to generating and converting qualified paid search traffic! Apply these tactics to your campaign and you just might get a more efficient use of your marketing dollars.

“How can digital marketing help grow my agency?” This is a very common question these days among independent insurance agents. If you missed the Astonish Results and NetVU Webinar last week on Sales and Training tactics for your agency, it can be viewed in its entirety below. During the webinar we answered the question, but first we had to define digital marketing.  Digital marketing is a bit different from traditional marketing (radio, TV and Print).  While traditional marketing is geared toward mass advertising (spray and pray methods), digital marketing is a purpose-driven, metric-minded approach to marketing a product or service to the “modern consumer.”
The modern consumer consists of 85%-90% of ALL consumers who search online FIRST before buying any product or service.  In order to effectively market to the modern consumer of today, you must have a plan.

Digital marketing is a blended strategy comprised of a lead generating website, effective email marketing, a consistent social media strategy, and a solid Search Engine Optimization initiative. This coupled with strong agency leadership, the right people and process and incredible sales skills will help pave the road for future success.

Astonish Results has a passion to help independent insurance agents grow their business.  It’s so important that independent agencies adapt to the ever-changing landscape around them and adopt the available digital marketing strategies to truly market and communicate more effectively to today’s modern consumer.

See the full recorded webinar on sales and training for the independent insurance agency here.

It is no secret that Twitter is a popular social medium to network and connect with people in your industry and community, but how can you leverage it to search for leads?

Twitter gives you the capability to build relationships and network one-on-one with people sharing advice, recommendations, and newsworthy links. But how can an independent insurance agency leverage Twitter to find leads? Here are some ways to start.

1) Use Twitter Directories.

Registering your Twitter handle to online directories cannot only help people find you, but help you find the right people to create your network. Sites such as Twellow.com and Wefollow.com have great search resources to use in starting your search for tweeps! For example Twellow.com has two different search options. You can use the map to search a broad region or search on a more specific area like the town that your agency IS in. You can also search by industry, niche, or topic. If you are an agency trying to sell more Missouri life insurance, you would search in Missouri under “families, doctors, and professionals”; people who you think could be potential clients.

2) Use Twitter Search.

Search.twitter.com is one way, and you can also search on the Twitter homepage or on any desktop application such as Hootsuite or Seesmic. You should be looking for geo-specific terms along with insurance related terms. People use Twitter to ask questions and for recommendations. So if someone tweets about needing auto insurance in your area why would you not be there to answer them? Searching on Twitter cannot only help you find people to follow but can also help you find the consumers who are looking for insurance advice or even an insurance agency. Imagine being the first one to respond to someone asking about a quote in your area. The dedication and customer service level of your agency shows right there.

3) Use Hashtags.

Hashtags are most often used to categorize tweets. Even today, hashtags are becoming a way for people to express (in short) what they are thinking. Hashtags also help people join a given conversation and give them an opportunity to comment on how they feel about a certain topic. But using hashtags for insurance-related tweets can help people find what they are looking for. Using #insurance, #auto #insurance, #California, #insuranceagents can all help categorize your tweets that consumers will see in search when looking for a possible recommendation. It also allows you to be more specific about the message you are sending out.

4) InboxQ.

I am sure there are other similar plugins out there, but one I have used is InboxQ for Seesmic, the Twitter desktop management platform. InboxQ allows you to create campaigns for different Twitter accounts using particular keywords you are interested in. You can also set the permissions based on the quantity and quality of the results you want to see. This is a newer tool but a great one to experiment with when searching for particular keywords.

5) Keyword Use on Twitter.

As I mentioned above, keywords are important. Google has confirmed that they incorporate social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter in their search results. Using your insurance keywords in tweets can help your search results over time, similar to using them in blog posts. The more people that re-tweet certain blogs you post will also help the ranking of that link. The search engines see that the more that people “like” a certain link by re-tweeting and sharing it, the more relevant the content is to the search query for those keywords. Ultimately they can be incorporated into the search results.

Still don’t think Twitter is valuable? It is all about engagement and usage. Having Twitter is one thing, but using it correctly is another. Putting the time and effort into creating the RIGHT community for your agency and networking with potential/current clients, along with industry leaders can build your following. Between building trust and relationships, along with searching for leads, Twitter can be a power tool in the insurance business.

Have you found a lead using Twitter previously? Share it below!

Earth Day is an underrated holiday. If you look at media headlines, Starbucks seems to be the most important 2010 Earth Day contributor with their promise of free coffee for those who bring travel mugs to participating stores on April 15th and 22nd.  Ditching paper cups for a travel mug may seem trivial, but when combined with tidying a state park or neighborhood, planting a tree, donating money to a “Green” charity, buying from a local farmer, gardening, recycling, educating, or performing any other act inspired by a heightened eco-consciousness, even if just for one day, it’s better than nothing.

I love Earth Day because it provides the opportunity to teach my son a lesson about the importance of respecting the planet so it can be preserved for future generations. He won’t really listen, but I’ll feel better. Then we’ll pick up one of the native Aquidneck Island trees they give out for free at my town hall and plant it in my parent’s yard.

Insurance agents and brokers don’t plant things, but they do help people that plant things. Maybe you know a farmer that could use a little extra marketing that goes beyond the hand-painted sign crookedly propped in front of his fence. Not to say all farmers are lacking, but most are opportunistic and would be open to a promotional blog entry, video, Facebook shout-out or anything your insurance marketing mind can come up with.

Beyond farmers and farms, there are thousands of opportunities to pitch in listed on EarthDay.org/events, just by typing in your zip code. And if there’s nothing, you have until Thursday April 22nd to get something together, perhaps a tire and electronics recycling drive, community supported garden, ride bike to work day, free tomato with purchase of homeowners policy, fern for the office…

Last year, Pear Analytics issued a report saying 40% of tweets are Pointless Babble. However, when used correctly, Twitter can be a valuable resource for insurance agents to monitor industry chatter, build a knowledge base and even generate organic leads with minimal but sustained effort.

Because it is such a minimalist social network, accurate statistics about Twitter usage are hard to come by, so playing the numbers game is tough. The best support from a usage perspective comes from the trusted folks at Nielsen who state:

“Twitter.com was the fastest-growing Web brand in May 2009, increasing 1,448 percent year over- year, from 1.2 million unique visitors in May 2008 to 18.2 million in 2009…The average time per person on Twitter increased 175 percent year-over-year, from 6 minutes and 19 seconds in May 2008 to 17 minutes and 21 seconds in May 2009.”

These numbers paint a prosperous picture of growth. But when contrasted against the 40% babble factor, Twitter can simultaneously be viewed as an endless stream of knowledge and networking opportunities or a colossal time-suck dedicated to people sharing what they had for breakfast.

To help decide whether Twitter is right for your insurance business, it’s best to ask yourself a few questions?

If the answer to all five questions is YES, congratulations, you’re ready to start conquering the world 140 characters at a time. If you’re still cloudy, take some time to reflect and get to your happy place. It might never be the right time, and that’s OK.

Use it or ignore it, Twitter is a major part of the communications landscape for the indefinite future. But it is NOT the end-all, be-all insurance marketing solution. It needs nurturing and support from a more robust marketing plan that includes search engine optimization, community building and effective web strategy that generates leads while positioning your business as a trusted resource for insurance-related knowledge.

When used correctly, Twitter can reach potential clients in a personal and resourceful way that positions you as a local “thought-leader” in the realm of insurance. When used incorrectly, people will know you had toast for breakfast.

Viewed by some as lunatics who needlessly put their bodies in harm’s way for a thrill, realistically, storm and tornado chasers provide valuable, ground level data about the force and course of devastating storms. Information is relayed to a radio or weather update station and the public is warned, possibly saving lives.

Tornado chasing doesn’t pay well (at all?) and is more like a skydiving-type hobby, but anyone willing to confront a column of wind and debris swirling at hundreds of miles an hour would be wise to insure their body and car. Beyond insurance coverage, a customer like the storm chaser requires a local insurance agent who understands the perils of their hobby and the effect the storm has on the local community. 

An independent agents can explain liability and what’s at stake for the individuals auto, life and health should the worst occur.  Storm chasers are an extreme example but any profession or hobby that puts a person and their property in danger requires considerations when it comes to choosing insurance.

Marketing in 2010 is a bit like eating at a Las Vegas buffet. So many options to gorge yourself on: direct mail fliers, email campaigns, banner ads, airplane banners, billboards, product placement, guerilla marketing and good old-fashioned newspaper ads. However, only relics can deny that we live in a digital age.  What may have worked ten years ago IS not working anymore and it’s hard to change your ways. Who likes change, right?

Back in the olden days, the Yellow Pages were king and the rest of us were just humble dominions living within its kingdom. If you weren’t in the Yellow Pages, your business was virtually unknown. Search engine experts were actually predicting its demise as long ago as 2007. 

The simple question then becomes, where do people go to find information today? The overwhelming answer is search engines. Google is the number one most visited website in the world, and more than likely, the way your potential customers are going to find you (along with Yahoo, MSN and Bing).

8 out of 10 insurance leads search for insurance on the internet before they make a purchase. So the question you need to ask is, will clients find you? And if they do find you; will your website convince them to contact you?

If you’re unsure of the answer to those questions, you’re not alone. Most independent insurance agents haven’t taken full advantage of the growth opportunity the internet provides. The ones that have are generating insurance leads, writing more policies, making more money and enjoying the evolution of the landscape.

Marketing in the digital age can put independent agents on par with corporate behemoths, provided they have a voice worth hearing and the right tools to be heard. Welcome to Insurance Marketing HQ.