Why a Strong Website Is Important For Independent Insurance Agencies
June 22, 2023
Categories:
Digital Marketing
In the post-pandemic world the way people shop for goods and services has changed forever. Trips to the grocery store have turned into mobile ordering, and face-to-face meetings are almost exclusively done in online meeting rooms.
As a result, making sure people can research and purchase your products online is no longer something that’s nice to have – it’s become a non-negotiable for thousands of businesses across many different industries.
And for most business owners, that all starts with a strong website presence.
In the insurance industry, consumers who were already turning to search engines and mobile apps for their own research before the pandemic are even more “hip” to the digital game.
Even with that being the case, there are still hundreds, if not thousands of independent insurance agents who have yet to invest in building a strong website and digital presence.
5 Reasons Why Your Agency Needs A Strong Website
1) Customer Acquisition.
A strong website can help consumers find your business in their time of need, which helps you acquire more customers online. Whether they had a rate increase or a below-par experience with another agent or carrier, consumers by the thousands search online for insurance each month.
A great website helps your agency become more visible in their searches and helps convert those shoppers into paying customers.
2) Customer Retention.
A strong website can help educate your customers and get the necessary “touches” on them that are critical for keeping your agency top-of-mind when it comes to their insurance. Using resources like blogs, videos, FAQ pages, and digital learning centers, agencies can engage and educate their customers in ways that were not previously possible.
3) Integrations and Automations.
A strong website can integrate with other tools and software that your agency may be using and help streamline workflows and repetitive tasks in your agency. Things like quote request auto-responders, gathering declaration pages, embedded quote-bind-issue raters, and customer service portals, are all great examples of how your website can “talk” to the other tools you’re using in your agency.
Most importantly, a website that connects to your customer relationship manager (CRM) or agency management system (AMS) is a powerful way to save your agency hours of time throughout the year.
4) Facilitating Customer Service.
It’s no secret that providing great customer service requires major time and financial resources from most agencies. It’s why agencies have recently started turning to mobile apps and virtual assistants to help fulfill these requests, so they can spend more time engaging in profitable activities.
Utilizing your website for customer service requests is also a great way to help streamline your service process, as well as make the process super simple for your customers. Through web forms and conditional logic, it’s easier than ever to gather the information you need from your customers to help service them better and faster than ever before.
5) Resale and Acquisition Purposes.
In an environment where agencies are bought and sold by the hundreds each year, having a strong website can add significant resale value to your agency should you decide to sell it.
If you know your numbers like website analytics, top-performing pages, and conversion ratios, it can add another layer of profitability.
In the competitive online environment that we live in today—and considering how insurance consumers and customers research and buy insurance—having a strong website for your independent insurance agency is no longer something that’s nice to have. It’s a non-negotiable tool that your business needs to acquire and retain more customers.
