Effective Marketing Strategies for Selling Insurance

in the Web 2.0 Era

Mike WiseVP – Insurance Technologies

IdeaStar Incorporatedmwise@ideastar.com

Engage the New Client Demographic

• How much business are you getting from the Web? Meanwhile, are your traditional selling strategies showing declining results?

• Are you engaged with your targeted prospects and get timely referrals from clients via email, messaging, twitter?

• What are other agents doing to be at the right place, at the right time, with the right message?

How to Use Web sites, Social Networking

E-Mail Marketing, And Blogs

How much do you know?

1. What is the most used navigational element of a Web browser?

2. What is the definition of “Twipsy”?3. What is User-generated Content?4. Is the Web more about the top of the

funnel or the bottom?5. What is ‘viral marketing’?

Current Landscape

Your Peers

ACT Web 2.0 Social Media Agent Survey

Option Personal Agency

Blog 17 7

Social Networking Sites 33 15

Wiki 19 7

Shared Media 25 1

Micro blogs 8 4

Virtual Gaming 3 1

Instant Messaging 26 15

Text Messaging 37 16

ACT Web 2.0 Social Media Agent Survey

Engage the New Agent Demographic

• Agents are looking for useful informationand share helpful information

• Provide ways to connect with each otherShare best practicesShare war stories

• Train them on social media and referrals• USER-GENERATED CONTENT is critical• No fear… Moderate

Engaging Agents

Background, statistics on consumer Web utilization versus

traditional advertising

• With the proliferation of broadband penetration, and growing

ubiquity of the Web at work and at home, the Internet garners one third of today’s consumer share of media consumption. http://tinyurl.com/pocec7

• The share of adult internet users who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four

years -- from 8% in 2005 to 35% at the end of 2008. http://www.pewinternet.org

• Almost half (49%) of internet users say they have used online classified sites, up from 22% who had done so in 2005. http://www.pewinternet.org

Common myths about insurance agents, Web traffic, and

closing business

• Insurance is face-to-face

• Insurance agents will suffer the same fate as… travel agents

• Insurance is too complicated to be sold online through Web sites

Best PracticesAgent-driven Web-enabled

insurance sales strategies

http://www.govaughn.com

• Right place, right time, right message• Consumer-driven Channel of Choice

–Primary Web site (www.GoVaughn.com)

–Blog (blog.GoVaughn.com)

–Facebook Fan page–Twitter @NibbyP–Linkedin–Email engine

Web sites “ The 8-second Rule”design and usability

• Professional Design• Content Management• Current Content• Useful Content• Low cost• Simple• Viral

Driving trafficbuzz, content email, referrals

social networks

• Main Site: News & Events (monthly)• Blog: Weekly Story, keywords, links• Twitter: Tweet both, RT others (daily)• Facebook: Share Tips, Ask Questions• Linkedin: Status, Reading, Trips, Network• Email: Weekly or Bi-weekly

Hire a Social Media Director??

Best PracticesAgents using

Facebook and Twitter

• Hometown Quotes

• Founders Insurance Group

• Anyone in the audience?

The RAW

POWER of BLOGS

The Raw Power of Blogs

• Written by Agents and for Agents• Reward Top Producers with Authorship

OK… with editorial help as needed! • Small, steady doses of engaging content• Pictures, podcasts, video, music video• Searchable for new agents coming on• Private or public• Clever search engine optimization• Social media integration• Email integration• Share-able

Why Blogs?

Example………

The Raw Power of Blogs

Integrated Strategies with Social Networks

According to a social media study by Michael Stelzner for the Social Media Success Summit 2009, 88% of marketers in a recent survey say they are now using some form of social media to market their business…

Marketer's Use of Social Media Tools

Social Media % Respondents Using

Twitter 86%

Blogs 79

Linkedin 78

Facebook 77

YouTube or other video 41

Social bookmark sites 38

Forums 38

StumbleUpon 28

Digg, Reddit or similar 26

FriendFeed 18Source: Social Media Marketing Industry Report, March 2009

Integrated Strategies with Social Networks

Why Integrated Strategies with

Social Networks?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

FinalExam

1. How often should you Blog?2. Where can you buy a Web 2.0?3. When was the last time you used the

old paper-based ‘Yellow Pages”?4. How do Social Networks drive traffic?5. What do you use the back of the

business card for?

Helpful tools&

Next Steps

• GoodBarry - $39/mo• Tweetdeck - free• Bloglines - free• Audacity - free• Sony Vegas - $50 license• CamStudio – free• FreeConference - free• ShareItNow - $39/mo• Others from the audience?

1. Take a day a week next month and do this:2. Set up a Blog and start Blogging

– Write, Podcast, Vidcast, Tweet– Show your prospects who you are and what you know

3. Set up a simple Web site– P1: About, Contact, News, Events, Carriers, Products, Viral– P2: Links to Quote Engines and e-Applications

4. Set up Facebook and Linkedin pages5. Continue to share and learn:

– http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2212210 – Big I Midwest Tech Conference 2009 Linkedin Group

Q & A

Mike WiseVice President – Insurance Technologies

216-674-1600 ext. 116mwise@ideastar.com

http://blog.insurance-technologies.com/http://twitter.com/mikewise07

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikewise07

Keeping the conversation going…

KAIA Linkedin Group