Do you work for or own an independent insurance agency? Have you seen growth either decline or just remain flat? Do you or your producers spend more time trying to find new business then you do servicing it?

1. How to Market Your
Insurance Agency like
Geico or Progressive
Think. Do. Review.
The Internet. Made
Simple.
@mahoneyinternet @minetmarketing #thinkdoreview
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2. Feeling a little... lost?
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Last year I attended a lot of conferences and talked to a lot of
marketers and business owners. I also talked to a lot of internet
marketing industry experts. What I learned is that there is a lot of lingo
flying about the marketing and sales world these days. None of which
makes much of any sense to the people who could really benefit from
it. Looking around at those who came to the conferences for some
help and guidance, I see the bewildered look and started to
wonder...Why doesn’t anyone use simple plain English anymore?

3. Or perhaps have just too much on your plate?
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Lately I have been talking with lots of insurance agents and agency owners. And like so many other small businesses, they have seen
growth either decline or remain flat in the past few years.
In response to these economic challenges, industry leaders like esurance, Progressive, and Geico have launched aggressive 'name
your own price' campaigns. It's not easy for local agents to compete.
If you are a producer for a company, you are expected to do sales, service and customer support. It’s a lot to juggle.
As agency owners, you growth either decline or remain flat in the past few years. Less assests and employees to insure due to the recesssion has made
generating new business and cross selling difficult. How can you effectively use your producers’s time, get them qualified leads and measure your ROI? How much shoudl use use
technology, should you be in social media? Who is going to manage all this and who really knows how to do it right?
Progressive, and Geico have launched aggressive 'name your own price' campaigns. It's not easy for local agents to compete.

4. What is the Opportunity?
• searches done locally last month:
‘auto insurance’ = 1,220,000, ‘auto insurance quotes’ = 201,000
‘home insurance’ = 450,000, ‘home insurance quotes’ =49,500
New drivers on Facebook:
25,440 people
• who live in the United States
• who live in Maine
• between the ages of 15 and 20 inclusive
• who like drivers ed, driving, driving fast, driving lessons, driving with windows down
music blasting, driving around aimlessly, driving with windows down, drivin n cryin,
my first car, your first car will be, cars, car talk, muscle cars, working on cars, sports
cars, pinks, classic cars, motorbikes, trucks or bikes
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Using personal lines as an example. How can you take your local
market in the face of the name your own price campaigns?

5. The 3 Simple Steps
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Now, while how each of these steps will play out and to what extent will vary from business to
business (every business is unique after all- even if you are in the same industry). But everything
you do for inbound internet marketing will fall under one of these 3 steps. What is great about this
process is that it helps you to break the elephant into smaller more digestible pieces for easier
project management. It will also help you to prioritize and scale your efforts.

6. • What are your goals? How will
Step 1 you measure the success of
those goals?(increased revenue,
lower cost per lead, higher
conversion rate)
• What are the consequences of
not reaching those goals?
(layoffs, out of business, cut in
pay)
• What is happening in your
industry?
• What resources do you have?
(time, money, people)
• Who is your best customer?
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about where your audience is online, what they are interested in, why they would want to interact with you, what key words they use, what
your goals are and how you will measure success.

7. What Some Examples:
are 1. Raise visibility and awareness in
the overall market by increasing
social media reach by X
the 2. Drive X more traffic to the website
3. Generate X # of leads for sales
4. Increase new sales by XXX%
goals? 5. Cross sell XXX% current XYZ
customers
6. Reduce overhead costs by
streamlining and automate sales
and marketing tasks to
maximize sales representatives
time.
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Notice I am not listing have a facebook page, get X twitter followers.
What are the goals for your business?

8. Goals and Consequences
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Really, it all comes down to revenue right? What other reason do you
have to go to work?
Remember SMART. Specific. Measurable. Actionable. Realistic. Timely.
Just as important as setting your goals is setting how you will measure
those goals. What metrics do you need from your analytics to make a
decision on what is working and what is not? What metrics can be
combined with sales metrics to get closed loop reporting? What action
will you take on the results you get?
Can you realistically meet those goals and when?

9. Industry
• What changes are happening in your industry?
• Is it more or less competitive?
• How is the competition attracting customers?
• Where do you stand?
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Also think about how your industry affects your customers and what
their perspective is.

10. • Budget= $1500- 5000 per
Resources? month
• Software tools: $250-2000
• Ad spend: $500-1000
• Writing/Design/
Development Services=
$500-2000
• Time= 5-15 hours per week
• People= who has the knowledge,
experience, or ability to learn within the
organization? Who can you collaborate
with in sales to align the marketing
messaging and report results with?
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No man builds a house without first sitting down to calculate the
costs. Cost means more than $$$$. Inbound internet marketing will
cost you in proportion, a certain amount of time and money.
Remember also that your time is worth something. How much do you
get paid or charge per hour? Calculate those costs as well. Training
people also takes time and money.
Untapped marketing resource= SALES. in the field, talking to
customers, they should know the customer best.

11. Your BEST customers
(It’s not everyone.)
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What is important to them? Personas= buying modes.
Why should they buy from you? What is your unique selling proposition? What do you do better
than anyone?
How do they describe their need? What keywords do THEY use? (not your industry lingo)
How will they find you? Google? Facebook? Twitter? Forums? Blogs?
How will they interact with you online? Conversion mapping- plan their experience from beginning
to end.

12. Step 2
• Wireframe
• Design
• Development
• Content Creation
• Social Media
• E-commerce
• Campaign Creation and
launch
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Step 1 should result in a plan to execute these
Wireframe before design. Determine how the site will function and flow. What pages are needed to
drive traffic to? What additional info will your customers need? What keywords will be used on
those pages for SEO? Then bring in design with images and color. Function before form. = less
design changes
Development= according to the wireframe. Less mistakes, less redo.
Content creation= Assign keywords to pages. List blog topics with corresponding long tail
keywords. (specific) Write whitepapers. Story board video, etc.
Social media- share your content- set it free!
E-Commerce- will you allow customers to get quotes, pay online?
Campaign creation and launch= events, promotions, lead nurturing. Email, PPC, Video

13. Tools & Tactics for Step 2
PPC Advertising
Video Plays, Advertising
Interactive Video
E-commerce
CMS, SEO, Social Media monitoring & response,
Lead Nurturing, Blogging, Marketing Analytics
Forums, Advertising, Networking, SEO
SEO, Networking,
Customer Service
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Some of the tools available.

14. How will you use the tools?
• Online Advertising. Capture immediate low-hanging fruit with targeted
online PPC campaigns while building the SEO and social media
presence.Most independent agencies are not doing this in their local
markets. Progressive, State Farm,Geico are.
• SEO. Optimize the current site for target keyword phrases to appear to
Google search.
• Social Media. Not many independents are engaging effectively on
social media. Geico, Progressive, are. Social media will enable United
to find new customers, connect with current ones, and increase SEO.
(Search is now more based on social)
• Blogs. Few independents are educating consumers with expert
advice. Regular blog articles drives traffic with SEO and social media.
• Email marketing. Cross sell current customers and nurture new leads
with timely follow-up.
• Online Video. Convert more traffic with short video to raise awareness
and connect with audience.
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15. • Web Traffic Sources
Step 3 • Blog Analytics
• SEO Ranking
• Social Media Reach
• (Campaign) Click Through Rate
(CTR)
• Conversion Rate (CR)
• Cost per Lead (CPL)
• Lead to Customer Rate (LCR)
• Average Order Value (AOV)
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
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some examples of metrics to look at and measure.
How will you measure success? How will you improve
on results? What info is needed to make these
decisions?

16. Tools for Step 3
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17. Testing & Optimization
(What’s bad can be good, what’s good can be great...)
The goal of education is not just knowledge, but action.
It is only through experience that we go from knowledge to understanding.
• A/B testing
• Multivariate testing
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What copy converts? Which color attracts the most attention? What
image and placement gets more clicks?

18. What now?
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Start with step 1, item 1.
Can be hard when so much else pressing for you attention. Make the
time. Those of you who have attended, start by talking to a
professional who is experienced. Not a fly by night social media guru,
but seasoned internet marketers.

19. You can start today.
Want to get a jump start now? Email me at
carole@minternetmarketing.com and getting
started now with a free consult and a free 30
day trial of Hubspot Software.
Send this webinar to your boss!
Free 30 Day Trial
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