In this ever-competitive insurance industry how is an agency really supposed to get noticed? What key ingredients are needed to execute the best insurance marketing strategy? Do pay-per-click ads actually work?

Astonish Results co-founder and President, Tim Sawyer, recently had the opportunity to join former National Underwriter Editor in Chief Sam Friedman along with agency owners Will Penny, Rex Caton and Nathan Dagley to discuss what it takes to develop a successful paid search approach and strategy.

Sawyer opened the discussion with a striking realization regarding the success of paid search optimization, “99.0% of the time it doesn’t work, and the people that believe that are in no danger of it ever working—belief is the key,” Sawyer said openly.

Will Penny of Penny Insurance in North Carolina couldn’t agree more with the Astonish President.

When Sawyer asked how he felt about paid search Penny explained why the tactic works for his agency, “You got to believe in it, you got to have a process to make it work; you can’t just put stuff out there on the web and expect people to react to it, find you, call you up and beg to buy insurance from you,” stated the agency owner. “We have a very specific process. When somebody clicks on us and that lead comes in our agents react to it instantly”.

Both Sawyer and Penny agree that both speed and mobility are key:  the ability to stretch across a community and service the business effectively allows for independent agencies, such as Penny Insurance, to bring a local experience to a much broader geographical base.

Another concept that Sawyer brought up is one that may seem foreign to most—marketing outside one’s market.

Nathan Dagley of Dagley Insurance and Financial Services has developed a strategy that does just that. Marketing insurance in Houston, Dallas and Colorado may seem like a challenge to many, but Dagley and his agency are using paid search to their advantage. “It all comes down to processes,” the Texas-agency owners said. “And timeliness; when somebody calls in we have to be on that phone call immediately. Not only that we have to have scripts that we set aside for people to follow to make sure that there is consistency in that pattern—when you follow a great sales process it ends up getting great results”.

Rex Caton of Caton-Hosey Insurance agrees with the benefit that paid search brings to independent agencies, and explained how he justified the cost. “Think about this for a second, we have seeking insurance for themselves and asking you for it through pay-per-click”. Caton then followed up quite simply with a realization that was sure to hit home, “If you’re spending $5, $ 10, $15 per click, would you spend that if you knew you were going to close and close the right way? Of course you would”.

All in all it’s safe to say that paid search optimization is a powerful, successful tool when utilized in the right way. As Sawyer and Astonish Results are often recognized for saying, it’s all about having the right people and processes; both which are key ingredients for effective paid search campaigns.

With so much interesting insurance news out there, it’s hard to cover it all. Fortunately IMHQ has you partially covered. Below is a mix of useful and useless knowledge based on social web meanderings.

• One of my favorite headlines this week comes from National Underwriter’s Life and Health Insurance News: Employers: Workers Still Slugs. It’s basically a blame piece of insurance managers blaming health plan participants for living with poor health habits, thus causing coverage to be more expensive. They also found blame with companies hired to “persuade” plan participants to be healthier. My problem, if you need to be “persuaded” not to be fat or smoke cigarettes (etc.), than you don’t want to fix the problem in the first place and no company is likely to convince you otherwise. Great article title though.
   
• Walt Podgurski, the visionary behind the insurance industry’s most social forum (InsuranceCampus.org) reminds us of the importance of claiming your Google local listings. If you haven’t done so, set it up now. And while you’re at it, sign up for an account at InsuranceCampus.org, Tuesday is “Make-a-Friend Tuesday” after all. 
• According to CNBC.com, Hummer H2/H3 owners are the most likely drivers to receive speeding tickets, a full 4.63 times more likely to get pulled over someone driving say, as opposed to someone with a 2000 Toyota Camry with three missing hubcaps. We all know tickets affect insurance rates so think twice before topping triple digits in your land tank.
   
• Scared of flying, maybe you should be more scared of stubborn, bucking burros. Statistics show that donkeys contribute to more deaths every year than plane crashes. Obviously it’s a factor of more people relying on donkeys as opposed to airplanes for transportation globally, but when considered , you definitely should think about watching your a$$. Special thanks to USICNA Insurance for sharing this and many other bizarre facts with their Facebook Fans in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Nevada and Texas. 
• Struggling to fill your insurance blog with content that actually has an effect on lead generation? Follow Amherst, MA-based Encharter Insurance’s lead by finding a college kid to earn internship credit while blogging for free. It helps to be near an educational hub, but an insurance blogger doesn’t need to be an insurance expert, just get direction from one.

Video is an important educational and marketing tool, but like most things, it takes practice for people on both sides of the camera. Media overload and waning attention spans makes reaching people a challenge. However, in the competition for mindshare, compelling, concise video requires little investment from the viewer while leaving a lasting impression.    
 
Massachusetts Association of Insurance Agents (MAIA) member Melissa Murphy publishes an insurance blog with a personal, engaging approach that makes you feel like she’s telling it over a cup of coffee. Recently, she documented her experience creating videos with MAIA members and other insurance executives on the Property & Casualty Speaking blog. A solid effort, we hope to see the MAIA and other insurance groups using more video to humanize and improve the image of agents and agencies. 
 
Ms. Murphy also called attention to Astonish Results* VP Tim Sawyer for his contribution on a recent MAIA and National Underwriter, Serving the Modern Consumer video series dedicated to digital marketing. Showing further exquisite taste, she also referenced Insurance Marketing HQ (blushing).
 
If MAIA’s efforts aren’t enough to compel you to engage the idea of video, perhaps industry consultant and 100 Most Powerful People in the Insurance Industry honoree Rick Morgan is more convincing. In an appropriately brief post on the Rick Morgan Consulting blog, he showed how quick and painless it can be to drop wisdom in front of a camera. He also provides an excellent example of video being used by an insurance agent to connect with his community, while building a brand around his lifestyle.
 
There’s a reason Youtube and Hulu are two of the most popular websites in the universe. Coming from an avid reader, people love to binge on information, but long-winded, text-based content is not always the most efficient means of reaching Joe and Jane six-pack. Seizing attention before a waning six-second attention span evaporates, that’s another story. 
 
*Astonish Results owns the intellectual rights to Insurance Marketing HQ.