Over at one of the networking sites I belong to I found a question from Kevin asking about how to best market his business.  Kevin is in the Health and Life Insurance business.  Here is his question along with my reply.

I would like to know what regular families, self-employed and small business look for when they start their quest for health insurance. I am a “no pressure” type of sales guy that respects people and their decisions. How should I set up my website or maketing to attract folks, or let them know, I am not going to shove an insurance plan down their throat. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and I will implement it. My current website is www.insuremekevin.com

Hey Kevin,

I took a look at your website and it is my professional opinion that you must first deal with your website before you can begin marketing your health and life insurance company website.  The website you have now, is static and not very user or web 2.0 friendly.

The first thing I noticed was that your website isn’t at all interactive.  Your site should be interactive so that you can interact with your website visitors.  Especially since you describe yourself as a “no pressure kind of guy” casual interaction on your website is perfect for you.  Personal relationships are the best source of sales in the insurance field and networking both on and offline is important because the consumer has so many choices in insurance options.  Most people would like to do business with someone who they know, like, and trust and personal interaction from you especially without making your website visitors feel pressured will build trust and let them get to know you a little better.  You can also integrate social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to your site if you are using them.  Of the three, you should at least be using a Facebook business page if your market is individual insurance and LinkedIn if your market is business insurance.

Another thing to consider is the kind of content that you decide to provide on the site.  The copy that you have on the site now seems a bit like a sales pitch to me.  Articles you’ve written with titles like “How to Find Affordable Health Insurance in California” might seem more appealing to the 192 people per day who are searching “affordable health insurance in california”. This is where a little SEO comes in handy. It appears to me that very little or no SEO (search engine optimization) has been done so I have to wonder if you are getting any action to your website at all from the search engines?

It’s also important to think about whether the content on the homepage of your site is what the consumer will be expecting to see.  It’s not clear to me either through your copy or through any images that I am in the right place or that I will be able to find what I am looking for.

Finally, I don’t see a “call to action”.  What do you want your website visitor to do?  Call you?  Read something?  Request a Quote?  How about Get A Free Report?  This would help you build a list of prospects that you have permission to market to over time (relationship building) either by email or mobile texting depending on the information you collect.  You might offer something like a free ebook that you’ve written entitled  ”What Health & Life Insurance Agents Won’t Tell You!”  in exchange for your website visitor’s information (name, email, or Mobile number)  Then, you can market to them over time in a more personal way.

Here’s what’s important Kevin.

1.  You must identify who your target market really is. The easiest way I know how to do that is by looking at the demographics of your current customer base.  Are they business owners or individuals?  Each group has it’s own unique set of needs and the content you’ll want to provide each of these groups is different. It’s natural to want it all however from a marketing perspective, for now it would be wise to choose one or the other and become successful in that market before moving on to the next.

2.  You must get into the mindset of your target market. What words are YOUR target market using to search the internet for the information they want to find on your website?  For example, WordTracker shows me that there are 5,926 searches per day for the term “health insurance” however there’s no way to know what the intention of the person who is searching that term is.  We don’t know whether they are looking for insurance or selling it.  On the other hand, the 138 people who are searching “california health and medical insurance quote“ are people who have probably already done their homework, know they are looking for, and may already have their credit cards in hand and are ready to buy.  There is more to SEO than this but it is a good start to find out what YOUR TARGET MARKET is searching for and provide content on those topics so that you can rank in the search engines for it and they can find you.

3.  You must set up a website that people will stay on and not hit the back button as soon as they get there.  When a customer gets to your site, they must be able to identify almost immediately be able to tell what your website is about. Visitors want to know right away that your website has the health and life insurance info that they are interested in and seeking.  You will achieve this best by using a combination of text and images.

4.  You must have a call to action. Believe it or not, in most cases, people will do nothing if they aren’t told what to do next.

A WordPress website might be just what you need as it is so flexible and you can easily integrate social media, email marketing, and video marketing, which are all wonderful strategies for personal relationship building.  WordPress is also SEO friendly and RSS enabled.

I know that this is a lot to take in all at once and the truth is that there is much more involved than in just the things I mentioned here.  If you would like to learn more or if you decide that you need some help in getting this all set up, give me a call for a free consultation.  My number is in the header of this website.

Wishing you success in all you do.

Kindest regards,