The Internet has not yet fundamentally changed the marketing practices of most brick and mortar insurance agencies. Instead, a Web site is viewed as a supplemental marketing tool that may or may not enhance other marketing efforts. Most agency Web sites end up as static electronic brochures, a typical result of nominal planning and little regard to an overall business and marketing strategy and how the Internet can be used to support it.
One reason why many Web sites underachieve is due to the failure of the site owner to adequately define the site's audience or target market. To say that the audience of an insurance agency's Web site is anyone who needs insurance is too glib and imprecise. Typically, agents use the phrase "customers and prospects" to describe their audience, but this, too, is imprecise. Customers represent one distinct group of people, target market, or audience, while prospects represent another. The word "customers" more accurately refers to those who are presently clients of a business, people with whom an established sales relationship exists. On the other hand, prospects are people who you hope will become customers. The various activities used to take care of existing customers are quite different from the activities used to connect with and cultivate prospects. Most agency Web sites try to accommodate both existing customers as well as new prospects. Is that a good idea?
Prospecting for new business connotes a proactive marketing effort, something most Web strategies are ill equipped to do. Advertising campaigns, scheduled mailings, lead generation, referral follow-up, telemarketing, cold calling, and the like are conventional active prospecting techniques. Various Internet strategies, such as e-mail marketing, can also be used in a proactive manner.
Some insurance sales occur as a result of very little active effort on the part of the agency or a producer. The sale of a simple auto policy, for example, might result from a consumer calling an agency on the advice of a friend who is an existing agency customer. In this case, producer involvement is minimal and the consumer deals primarily with the agency itself.
Other insurance sales, especially larger and more complex commercial accounts, often require significant and prolonged effort. In some cases, prospect cultivation may take place over many months before a proposal is presented. In these situations, producer involvement is what eventually makes the sale, and what the consumer knows about the agency is primarily through the persona and representation of the producer. This kind of prospecting and selling could be enhanced by a personal Web site that the producer uses to cultivate relationships with prospects. Such a Web site is more narrowly focused for a specific market and is developed with a specific rationale.
A plausible scenario
Fictitious producer Paul Woolford of the Hammersmith Agency (a fictitious agency) is a commercial producer who specializes in agri-business. The agency's home office is based in Des Moines, but it has branch offices in Ames and Waterloo. Because Paul's territory is western Iowa and eastern Nebraska, Paul works from his home office in Council Bluffs, across the river from Omaha. As a field producer who needs frequent access to the agency's management system, prospects, and business contacts, Paul is well connected with a variety of technology tools.
Agri-business represents a significant portion of the Hammersmith commercial book, and both Paul and agency management place a lot of stock in personal service. Having grown up on a family farm, Paul knows that heartland farmers are a hardy and self-sufficient lot who, though relatively isolated by large rural expanses, appreciate personal contact with their business partners. As you might expect, Paul spends a lot of time on the road cultivating new prospects and servicing existing accounts.
Over time and as Paul has become better acquainted with his prospects and customers, he has learned the extent to which many use computers to manage various aspects of their farm-related business. Everything from accounting, crop yields, livestock management, inventory, payroll, equipment utilization, irrigation management, soil analysis records, maintenance scheduling, and a host of other applications involve computers. Of course, many farmers are also connected to the Internet for basic information, including weather reports, market trends, and trading activity, and rely on e-mail as an everyday communication vehicle.
It occurred to Paul that a personal Web site could be a useful tool in developing strong relationships with his prospects. With his Web site as a backdrop, he could initiate a number of proactive Internet-based strategies that could provide specific information to cultivate the relationship-building process. While he could direct his prospects to the agency's Web site, Paul feels that it is not adequately developed to appeal to the commercial agri-business market niche. Instead, the site is more or less generic in tone, reflecting a wider audience appeal despite the volume of agri-business premium Paul generates. What the site does include for commercial customers is primarily for retail business owners, contractors, and professional organizations in urban settings. The site includes some self-servicing features, but they are, of course, for existing customers. In short, the agency's Web site is not well-suited for attracting new agri-business prospects.
After a sales meeting, Paul took his manager aside and proposed the idea of a personal Web site. The idea made sense to his manager and the two of them approached one of the agency's partners. Initially, the partner disapproved of the idea, insisting that "the agency owned the account" and that he "didn't want customers to follow him if Paul left the agency." After further discussion in which Paul and his manager pointed out the value of producer connections to the agency's existent practice of providing high-touch personal service, the partner reconsidered. And as Paul added, the issue of who "owned" the account — producer or agency — was already spelled out in contractual agreements.
With approval in hand and a pretty good idea of what he hoped to accomplish, Paul set out to develop his personal Web presence.
Personal Web site content
Paul realizes that most consumers want to buy insurance from a person. He also believes that while companies and agencies are part of the chain, the prospecting and sales activity takes place person-to-person. Because Paul envisions his Web site as a means of building relationships with prospects, the focus will be primarily on what he can offer. He plans to mention the agency and provide a link to the agency Web site, but the site will bear Paul's name and focus on his personal involvement.
One of the site's purposes is to reinforce Paul's personal credibility. With that in mind, he plans to include a personal biography that describes his own farm experience, plus several photos of his prize-winning livestock in 4-H competition. His site will also highlight his college experience as an agriculture major and include several research projects he conducted. In addition, the personal section of the site will feature testimonials as well as details about his family. Paul wants to present himself as a knowledgeable and trustworthy family man who knows agriculture and the needs of farm-related businesses and the people connected with them.
Of course, Paul's site will feature his products and services. But instead of relying on typical marketing language similar to what you'd find in a company brochure, Paul plans to explain things in the context of actual case studies based on experiences of his customers. This way, Paul feels, the prospect can get a better idea of how he works and develops real-world solutions that can relate to specific needs and issues.
Paul's site will also include a long list of links to a variety of educational resources that focus on topics of interest to his prospects. But instead of simply waiting for prospects to come to his site to find them, Paul will summarize new additions to the list and send e-mails, with appropriate links, to specific prospects who can benefit from specific information. Not only will the e-mail provide something of use, but it will also keep Paul's name in front of the prospect. In a similar manner, Paul will develop an e-mail newsletter as a means to stay in regular contact and provide service.
Paul knows that farm people don't have lots of time to sit in front of a computer, so he plans to make his site a quick and handy resource for relevant information. His utilitarian homepage, though attractive, will be devoid of flowery marketing language, and instead focus on relevant agricultural news headlines, links to farm reports, weather information, commodities markets, and more. Paul wants to be perceived as a helpful resource, not just another insurance salesman.
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How practical?
Some might argue that a personal Web site is impractical, too time consuming, and too much effort for the actual rate of return. That depends. Some also argue that telemarketing and contact management campaigns are also impractical, too expensive, and not worth their while. Go figure. The fact of the matter is that any marketing technique requires persistent and consistent effort over the long haul before it can be pronounced a failure or success.
A personal Web site isn't for everyone, and it's not a panacea for an otherwise mediocre sales performance. But in some cases, a personal Web site can be an effective tool for those who take the time to develop a workable Internet strategy that targets a narrowly defined niche market. Ambitious producers might want to give such an effort a try.
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