Man, I love that quote.

This will kind of be a rant since I received a marketing piece from another insurance marketing guru that irritated me.

They were pitching a “done for you” internet marketing plan. You pay them a huge chunk of change along with large monthly fees and they’ll manage your online marketing. I’m sure they’ll sell a lot and take advantage of a lot of really talented agents. However…

Guess what happens once you stop paying?

That’s right, you’re screwed…twice.

You shelled out a large amount of your hard earned cash over time and you lost a cash earning lead source (I’m assuming they’ll produce leads for you).

Now, think about this. You actually learn some basics of online marketing. It’s really not hard stuff so please keep reading this. You learn the basics. And, for less than the amount you would pay these marketing gurus you could outsource many things (like building a website) or you can do it yourself.

And, I’ll show you how for free over the next few weeks.

Marketing insurance online only consists of three simple things: Market Research, Traffic, Conversion. That’s it.

I’ll introduce you to the tools I use online to get sites listed fast. Some of the tools cost money and I highly recommend you buy them. If you’re slightly interested in marketing online these will save you many hours of your life. With them you can also help friends or businesses you work with and show them some of the tricks up your sleeve.

You don’t need to learn how to program websites, however some basics you’ll learn as you go. Most of what I do is plug and play. This will involve a bit of writing and time but if you dedicate 30 minutes to an hour each day you can have a site on the first page of Google within 30 days. No joke, I’ve done it a few times.

Now, the question for you is, do you want to be someone’s business opportunity or do you want to learn to fish?

If you’re marketing insurance online now, these are a must listen. If you’re thinking about marketing insurance online and don’t know where to start, these are a must listen.

The first is with Todd Officer

The second is with Scott Kirby

I don’t know if I should be sharing this but after Scott and I were done with the questions I kept the recorder going. Since he was one of my first people to take me up on the course I asked him some private questions about the course to see what I could add or improve. As you listen, keep in mine he went through the raw, unedited version of the course.

Listen to Scott’s damaging admission.

I guess I’ll have to live with this problem. And, as Scott said with his success, it’s something he’ll live with too.

Make sure you take out your pen and take notes. There are a couple small details in here that will slip by if you’re not paying attention.

Let me know what you think below.

Scorpions live here too.

My grandfather and his brother were in North Africa during WWII. They were in the Air Force (back then it was the Army Air Corps). He was with the 64th Division of the 57th Fighter Group aka the Black Scorpions. He said they got their name because the first thing they saw when they got off the plane was a large black scorpion and they had problems keeping them out of their stuff when they slept. I miss him and his ‘war’ stories.

Arizona scorpions are a little different than the big black scorpions my grandfather told me about. They like to hide. They’re difficult to be see. They’re rarely seen during the day and come out at night to eat. And, even at night they’re difficult to see unless you have a black light. Under a black light they glow like a Christmas tree.

I went out the other night to see if there were any around. Watch this, it’s very short compared to a lot of other videos on this site at just under 3 minutes. I apologize about the “Blair Witch” camera work. That wasn’t intended.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I was surprised to see the gecko at the end. We see gecko lizards during the day all the time. The gecko actually helps keep the scorpion population down by eating a lot of the same things the scorpions do and removing its food source.

At first I thought about the big auto insurance company with the gecko mascot that is taking market share by writing direct…and taking the agency channel food source.

Then, I thought about how finding your website online is like hunting for scorpions. Your potential customer searches are “auto insurance” or “health insurance.”  They’re not searching for “car insurance in Salt Lake City Utah” where you may be on page one of Google. This search is the equivalent of the the customer remembering to get a black light before searching for you. You’re anonymously hiding in the world wide web of crevices.

Then, I thought about how a highly targeted pay-per-click ad is like handing your prospect the black light before they search for you. Your customer types in the search term and your ad magically pops up in front of them, glowing brightly like the scorpions in the dark.

Then, I realized I can use as a quick teaching example on website design for lead generation.

Get A Quote Or Leave!

When a client lands on your website, do you know what they are doing? Most people don’t search for insurance related terms unless they’re in a buying mood. While there are a few people out there looking for information, the typical customer wants to get quotes, proposals, or find a local agent. They’re very specific in what they’re searching for.

My goal when I set up a website is to give them one decision when they land on the landing page: get a quote or leave. That’s it.

This is a screen shot of my original website (Click to enlarge).

This is a mildly effective site. As you look at it you’ll notice links on all types of insurance products. There is personal, business, life and health insurance. The reader can also read my “Free Report” if they want (As if there’s something magical I have written that isn’t posted somewhere else online for free). There’s also a lot of text to read. The eyes move around as you look at it and there’s a lot of distractions.

While it’s not a bad site, when someone lands on it for home insurance they see an option to get auto insurance quotes and may not get the home insurance because now they want to wait until they have their car insurance data so they can fill out the form. Then you’ve lost them forever.

This is a screen shot of a landing page from one of my pay-per-click websites, which I call micro-sites (click to enlarge).

When you look at it, you know what it’s about…Home Insurance. If you come for advice, wrong place. If you come for auto or health insurance, wrong place. It’s home insurance. The only links “above the fold” (which is what shows up on your screen when the page first loads) is my headline, two links to the quote page and my phone number. Every bullet is a benefit driven bullet to encourage them to fill out the quote form. There’s a photo of me standing there next to testimonials from satisfied clients, social proof we can do what they’re looking for and adding a human touch element.

While this is not a perfect website, in tests driven from pay-per-click ads, the one on the bottom will convert 38% more quotes than my original site. And, as a marketer that’s all I care about.

What’s Your Decision?

As I said above, the customer should have only one decision to make when they hit your landing page. Blogs are great to bring in traffic but they will bring traffic to an article. Then they’ll want to read the article, click around for other articles and get lost, even if they were searching for a quote form.

If you watched the video Where To Start Your Online Insurance Marketing then you saw the Google analytics between my first site, one of my blogs and one of my pay-per-click sites.  The amount of traffic that converts to quotes is ridiculously low on the traditional site and the blog. The pay-per-click site converts almost half the visitors into quotes.  I attribute this difference to two things: the “one decision” option they have when they land on the site and the targeting of the keywords.

So, how does your site rate? Have you looked at it from the customer’s perspective? Or, did it just make you feel good because it talked about how great you and your agency is?

I have a couple case studies from a couple of agents that have been testing what I teach. That will be posted tomorrow. They share some of what I teach so you’ll enjoy those.

Let me know what you think below and how you feel about this.

Search Engine Optimization, Blogging, Social Media, Long-Tail Keywords, Pay-Per-Click advertising, I run through a little of each.

• What drives the best traffic?
• What gets you the most quotes and new business?
• How can you use these and where do you need to be careful?

With technology changing, online fads coming and going, it’s hard to get started online and feel like you’re making a good decision. I share my experience online and what has produced the best results.

Make sure you watch to the end where I go through the Google Analytics (Google’s free tracking software that gives you real traffic statistics on your website) on some of my websites and you can see the actual traffic produced from these types of marketing and the number of insurance quotes generated.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I have some exciting things in the works for you over the next couple weeks.  Stay tuned and…

Share your thoughts and comments below.

Your website should be designed for one type of visitor in mind. If you’re trying to sell insurance, sell one line of insurance. If you work with various types of clients, pick one specific type of client and sell to that client. If you want a site for existing clients to make service requests on their policies, make a site just for servicing your clients.

When having a site built, or building one yourself if you have the knowledge, you need to determine what your goal is for the visitor of your site. Do you want them to call your office? Do you want them to quote online? Do you want them to make service requests?

If I’m your client and I come to your site for service I don’t want to have to hunt for the link to request service. It should be big and bold. More importantly, if you’re selling insurance on your website you need to have a large “Get Quote Here” button or some other easy call to action for the buyer to know the next step.

Also, don’t waste space talking about yourself on the main page. As great as it is that your agency has been around for 83 years, the typical consumer doesn’t care. Did you earn a CIC, CHFC, LMNOP designation? Who cares?

Always keep in mind the internet buyer has extreme attention deficit disorder. And, I mean EXTREME attention deficit disorder. They’re probably searching for information while at work trying to get things done before the boss walks by. Maybe they’re surfing on the weekend trying to get personal business done before the kids start screaming for attention again. Whatever it is, they want VERY fast, instant gratification.

So, if a buyer comes to your site and has to weed through a list of 30 links to get a quote for car insurance, you’re dead in the water. They’ll skip to the next site in a blink of an eye.

Keep you site simple and with a clear “next step” for your visitor. Remove all distractions and set up multiple sites for each purpose. You’ll be surprised what a better conversion rate you get once you follow this principle.