Considering the various potential calamities that responsible people buy insurance for, the insurance implications of the family dog rank low on the totem pole. But dogs and insurance stories periodically surface, as evidenced by this story about dog bites that recently found its way onto the CBS Evening News.
Of the 3,500-some agency Web sites I've looked at, I cannot recall seeing an image, mention, or link related to the family dog on a home page. Yet, people are crazy about their pets, and agencies that want attract visitors and pull them into their sites might do well to consider including content relevant to pets.
According to a search engine specialist I know, "pet insurance" ranks among the top 25 terms people use when searching for insurance. Offering pet insurance could yield new revenue and help distinguish your agency from most others that don't.
But owning a pet, particularly a dog, creates other insurance concerns, especially when it comes to homeowners insurance. That's because dog bites, as the CBS story and others point out, creates the potential for liability exposure, which is usually covered by a homeowners policy. But that's changing. Some carriers are starting to exclude dog bites or exclude coverage based on the breed of dog. As an agent, you have a responsibility to inform homeowner policyholders about such issues.
While deaths from dog bites are rare, stories of such generate headlines and tend to overshadow the 4.7 people who, The Humane Society says, suffer dog bites annually. What's more, dog bites cost the P&C industry about $310 million in 2001, accounting for 1/3 of the total number of homeowners insurance liability claims, says the Insurance Information Institute.
Dog bite liability is no trivial matter. If you insure families and homeowners,
helpful information about pets and insurance could be a good addition to your
agency Web site content.
The June issue of Sounding Line featured an interview with Bill Wilson, director of IIABA's Virtual University. Bill covered a number of issues related to this excellent agent resource, which I believe is one of IIABA's best values for its agents — as well as anybody else who visits the site.
Bill didn't point out all of the VU's features and capabilities. One relatively new enhancement to the VU Web site is the addition of language translation, meaning that you can read the VU site in any of eight other languages — Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish. The translation is supplied by Alta Vista's Babel Fish, a rather widely used translation service that can be added to any Web site.
Babel Fish is an automated service, which means that things won't necessarily
be 100 percent grammatically correct or fluent, but it will get the job done.
Agents who wish to expand their Web site's capability — especially those
who do business in a multi-cultural market — would do well to include
this feature on their Web sites.
Lest you think having a Web presence can't or doesn't accomplish much, check out the Martha Stewart Web site that has become a PR machine of popular support as she faces her January 2004 securities fraud trial.
On June 6, the day after the site was launched, the homepage reported, "In its first day, the site has logged more than 2 million hits, and more than 20,000 visitors have taken the time to send messages of support and encouragement." Since then, in less than one month, the site has generated nearly 12 million hits and 58,000 personal notes to Stewart.
The current iteration of the home page includes an endearing photo of a casually dressed Martha about to sip a milkshake, presumably at a downtown New York soda fountain or restaurant. In my opinion, the PR value of the photo might be enhanced by including more customers in the photo as evidence of popular support.
In the first few days following the site's launch, virtually every media outlet reported on the site's success, acknowledging the tremendous PR boost and sympathy and support for the beleaguered celebrity.
But you retort, "My agency isn't famous or in the news." You may not be famous, but you could be in the news if you wanted to be and did something noteworthy and publicized it. In your local community you don't need 12 million hits or 58,000 visitors. Surely, you'd be satisfied with a few hundred hits and several dozen responses that yielded a handful of new customers and sales, wouldn't you? It doesn't take many Internet-delivered customers who buy insurance to offset the cost of having a Web site.
Here's a suggestion. If your agency does something newsworthy, send a press release to your local newspaper — they're always interested in community-oriented human interest stories. Then, maximize the story's value by posting the news item under the "What's New" or "News" section of your Web site. If you've collected e-mail addresses, send an e-mail announcing the press coverage and direct the recipient to your Web site.
PR raises visibility and enhances credibility. Consistently generated PR should be part of your marketing plan.
Time will tell whether or not Martha Stewart is convicted, but in the meantime, the favorable publicity generated by her Web site isn't hurting her cause.
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