Insurance is something everyone needs. But in today’s day and age, your company’s website is crucial when it comes to drawing in new clients. Your website is one of the first impressions your client will have of your insurance agency, and first impressions are critical. Your potential customers may compare your site with a direct competitor’s site. According to Shopper Sciences, 88 percent of consumers research before they buy, consulting an average of 10.4 sources before making their purchasing decision. Among the Millennial generation, a majority prefer to research what they need over the internet, but admit they would still end up buying from an agent face-to-face.
Designing a web page for your insurance agency can be a difficult task – it is a crowded market, and insurance is not an easy thing to design for. Let’s face it — insurance isn’t sexy. No one gifts insurance on Valentine’s day. No one is unboxing it on a YouTube Channel. It is not a simple task to try to make insurance eye-catching or creative. By investing in your website, finding the right marketing agency, and keeping your website updated regularly, your agency can stay competitive in the digital world.
Here are a few web design practices your insurance company should follow.
Support Your Client
Insurance protects your most valuable assets, which is the reason why we need it. Focus on the things your potential clients love most and create content that resonates with them emotionally. Your insurance agency’s website is an interactive knowledge center for your clients. Treat users that visit your website like you would treat clients coming in through your doors.
When creating a website, create it for your audience. The templates you can buy online – or that boilerplate $3,000 website – do not take into account the user experience of your customer. Sure, there are pages for what they need – but the way the pages are connected, the way information is laid out, etc. is not created for your specific business and its audience.
Keep Navigation Simple & Easy
Three clicks – this is the best time frame to get the viewer to move through your site and where they need to go. Any more clicks than that and it becomes cumbersome and unintuitive for a potential customer. You should not force potential clients to work to find what they need. Keep in mind what your potential client is looking for.
Contact Info
Your contact information should be easily accessible and consistent throughout your website. Make sure it is accurate and updated regularly. If your insurance agents are easy to contact, that makes for happy clients. Don’t forget to make your contact information easily accessible for mobile users as well. Remember to use the contact information that your business can support. If your phone system is bad, do not have your phone number as the main CTA. If you have a live chat, make sure you answer it.
Add a Company Blog
Blogs are great tools for increasing site traffic, generating lead conversions, establishing industry thought leadership and promoting brand awareness. You can write about hot, current topics about the insurance world – such as health insurance, employment practices liability, cyber breaches, and more. Stay updated on trending insurance topics by following hashtags on Twitter or signing up for Google Alerts.
When posting a blog, ask yourself – if a potential client is reading this blog, does it make sense to send them to get a quote with a call to action, or does it make more sense to push them further down the buying funnel with more content?
Add a ‘Call to Action’ Link
You include keywords into your content, so you should also include calls to action (CTA). The CTA should be a logical next step in helping a potential client get to your page. The call to action helps sell your product. You need your readers to respond and complete an action in order to remain in the insurance business. It should help your readers engage further and redirect them quickly and easily.
Make sure your call to action is large, eye catching, easy to read, and includes key phrases. Some good key phrases for insurance agencies include “Get a Quote”, “Bundle”, and “Better Coverage for Less!”. The position of your call to action also plays a big role in the success of your website. Its placement depends on the message you want to send to your readers. The space around it should draw more attention to the action. Your homepage include a call to action, and so should every page of your site.
Aesthetic Images
Like we said, insurance isn’t to design for, but that doesn’t mean your website shouldn’t include images. Use large, authentic, clear, aesthetically pleasing images that will catch a potential client’s eye. You can use non-copyrighted, free-to-use images on websites such as:
- https://unsplash.com/
- https://www.pexels.com/royalty-free-images/
- https://pixabay.com/
- https://burst.shopify.com/
Invest in Your Website
Investing in your website = investing in your agency. When you’re running an insurance agency, you are running in many different directions. You may be responsible for sales, operations, and accounting besides your agency’s marketing. This is why it can be critical to hire a marketer for your agency.
Hiring a full-time marketer for the first time can be stressful. With a little bit of planning, you’ll know what skills and type of candidate you need. That will help you find the best person for your agency so you can find insurance marketing success.
Why Work With a Local Marketing & Consulting Agency?
We get it. We know what it’s like to be inundated with all of the obligations of running an agency, while trying to stay on top of emerging technology and its future impact on your business. When it comes to marketing you don’t even know where to start, who to trust, what’s working, what’s not.
NYB Creative’s marketing support ranges from full service marketing management to one-off website builds. Marketing is holistic. A website will not operate without being fed, and we make sure that what you are feeding your website has value to your business in the long-term. We get to the root of your marketing and offer pragmatic advice to get your business to the next level.
