Blogging Tips for Insurance Agents Part 2

This is the second part of the series named “Blogging Tips for Insurance Agents” so they can make the most out of their site and online marketing strategy. Looking for the first part? Try this link. Lets get going with the tips:

Target an Audience

This is a pretty basic one but people forget it from time to time. If you have not identified a target market, you should!  Just as you have a certain group of people that you target when selling insurance, you need to be specific about who you’re writing to as well. The more specific you get, the better you can focus your efforts.

target Blogging Tips for Insurance Agents Part 2

Once a target is set, you must talk to that market in your articles. This is important, because you address people differently according to whom you are speaking to. For example, you will want to set a tone for speaking to engineers who work in large international corporations, and another for grammar school teachers. It also has to do with the kind of insurance you are selling. For example: selling premium life insurance is different from economic auto insurance. You will want to set a different tone for each product.

Hook Them In

hook Blogging Tips for Insurance Agents Part 2

People read selectively online. Actually, according to a study by Jakob Nielsen (the “king of usability”), people do not read online; but rather scan web pages. This means we do not go word by word, but look for things that stand out and grab our attention.

In order to catch their eye, points must be made clear quickly. Thus creating an interesting title, an “attention grabber”, is fundamental. The first paragraph is also important, it should summarize what the article is about and if possible, why is it relevant to the reader. Images, infographics and videos may also help visitors stay and go through your posts for a longer time.

Use Scannable Assets

Derived from the same study from Nielsen (linked above), using text assets that ease the reading is also good for your posts. You should be already familiar with them, since they are used everywhere around the web, some of them include:

  • headings/subheadings
  • lists
  • formatting (bold/italics/etc.)

These assets make it easier to scan through an article. They are all useful and important but the ones that stand out the most are the headings. They should briefly summarize what the next few paragraphs are about. A few words that contain the essence of the idea being developed next. This way, readers will know what your post is about and will be able to decide if they want to read the whole thing or not.

Use RSS

rss Blogging Tips for Insurance Agents Part 2

The acronym RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, but is most popularly known as Really Simple Syndication. It’s a technology that allows the articles you publish, to be “syndicated”. Syndication consists in making a feed of updates (this feed being the posts you write on your Blog) available for indexing by a host of devices, software and websites.

For example, if you make an RSS feed available for your posts, any one can subscribe to it with different tools like Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Feedly, and a lot more. This way, similar to the way that emails work, every time you publish an article people subscribed to your list will automatically receive an update.

Remember SEO

In your Blog, you should be speaking to a specific audience, conveying a helpful message with valuable information. That is the priority. Yet you should also remember that you are building on the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. SEO is all about being the first results for a specific query on search engines (such as Google).

For example, if someone searches for a trending topic or something that you write about, you will want to be among the first results. Obviously, this will grant traffic to your Blog, where you and the products you offer will gain exposure. Here’s some advise on how to keep SEO in mind while writing about your topics:

  • Use the general keywords on your posts for which you want your site to rank (usually: name of your company, trade, city or cities of influence).
  • Use the specific keywords for a given topic on a specific article (for example, if you are shedding insight on recent events such as the implications of the gun regulations on life insurance, make sure to use those: “gun, regulation, law, life, insurance”, etc. on that specific article).
  • Build links across your articles (referencing the existing ones from new ones you publish and updating old ones to point to new posts).
  • Create references (links) from external sites. This tactic may require a few different approaches. For example: contacting the webmasters of other sites to request guest posting, or  a plain link back on their “resources” section, participating on forums and other blogs, etc.

Get There with Empowerkit

If you are serious about Content Marketing, take advantage of our platform and start building your Blog with Empowerkit today! Let potential customers find you and come to you instead of you going after them!

Have questions or comments? Let us know!

May 22, 2013

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