Add an Insurance Agent Website to Your Social Media Strategy

It’s common to see insurance agents on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media sites. The problem comes when they put all of their eggs in the social media basket. Some insurance agents may resort to social media to fulfill all of their online marketing needs and that’s a big no-no! Insurance agents should have websites too!

Yes, social media is huge right now, but does it get the results? According to a study held by online business community, Manta, even though small businesses are increasing their time working on those platforms, most of them aren’t seeing the results they have hoped for.

 Add an Insurance Agent Website to Your Social Media Strategy

And a lot of this has to do with wrong expectations. They may think that social media is the answer to all their marketing prayers and that it could work as a replacement for a solid website. But this is where they get it wrong: social media shouldn’t be a standalone strategy and here’s why.

Why a Social Media Strategy is not Enough

You need a content hub

As I’ve stated before, content is the way to go: it adds to your SEO efforts and it gives value to your readers. This way, when users are searching for something related to your business, you appear first in the search pages and you retain their attention with quality information.

Social media alone lacks in this department: 140 characters won’t do when you’re trying to engage visitors with content. You need a place to redirect your visitors so they can learn more about you and engage with your business. A website to market yourself as an insurance agent represents this opportunity for you!

You’re losing control

From colors to typography and placement, you are expressing who you are through design! Social media gives you a predefined profile where you can add images and your information, but it doesn’t really portray what you’re about correctly. This means that you aren’t in control of the message being sent to your visitors.

This is incredibly important because a first impression is difficult to recover from. On the other hand, if they happen to come across your social media page and then are redirected to your site, they’ll get a better sense of the way you do business!

A site can portray a more trustworthy business

Tied up to the point above comes the trust a site represents. An insurance agent knows that to build a strong relationship with clients, you need to be trustworthy.

A Facebook fan page is easy to put up, specially since you don’t need to think too much about the details. It’s for this same reason that people trust a site more (as long as it’s updated and well designed): it takes time and commitment.

This can say a lot about who you are as an insurance agent: you’re someone who values the clients’ time, interests and concerns.

You don’t have the same possibilities of capturing leads

A site’s main purpose is to get visitors to convert or become leads. Everything is made so that this purpose is fulfilled: clear and visible CTAs, content that will give your visitors a sense of who you are, prominent contact information, among other things.

Social media is about a lot of things but capturing leads isn’t one of their strong suits. Sure, you’ll be able to include your phone number there, but your main CTA will be missing from your profile. Which means visitors coming in are often not becoming leads.

More over, social media can be very distracting: one second people are looking through your page and the other, they get a new notification or start to chat with others and they lose interest in your profile.

Plus, ads are constantly coming up and one of them may be from one of your competitors! Now, who would want their competitor’s face appear when they’re trying to close a deal? To sum it up, you need a platform where all the efforts are focused into capturing leads!

SEO may suffer

One of the main reasons you have a site is to gain visibility online. As you know, social media is great for getting exposure but some of the main elements to consider in SEO are missing.

For example, with every page in your site, you have a possibility to rank for a different set of keywords, making your chances of getting found greater. In social media you are somewhat limited in this aspect.

At the same time, one of the opportunities that you have when working on SEO is the chance to grow and learn from your visitors’ data. Through Analytics you can track what is working and what isn’t in your site so you can use this information in your favor and improve your online marketing strategy!

Though some social media does have some limited access to this information, you may be missing out on the possibility to better your site’s potential!

Marrying Social Media with Your Main Site

Now, of course you should use social media! It’s a great platform to gain more exposure, be constantly in your clients’ minds and get feedback from them. You can open communication channels through your profiles and create a community around your business.

But remember that social media is the backup that supports your main strategy: your site. Still, a question may arise: how will you merge the two of them together?

  • You not only need to have both elements in your marketing strategy, but they also need to be integrated. It’s common to see social media icons where you can click to be redirected to or share a particular site. In Empowerkit, you can add social media buttons and feeds to your site so visitors can “like” your business or even read recent posts directly from your site.
  • On the other hand, social media can work as a way to drive traffic into your site (and even filter those who are interested enough to visit your site). By sharing links to blog posts or inviting people to visit your site, you’re allowing a direct connection between both platforms. In other words, social media can be the hook that leads your client into your main site.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that you should have both elements in your marketing strategy: social media presence and your main site. After all, it’s all about getting noticed out there and joining the conversation regardless of the platform.

Remember that social media may be easy but, if you’re just working on Facebook profiles, your business and overall messaging may be suffering. Take advantage of both opportunities and grow your business in the world wide web!

If you have more questions about this post or Empowerkit, feel free to ask!

May 15, 2013

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