Want To Make 2007 A Big Success Online?
Here Are 4 Resolutions For The New Year
2007 is the time to take your online sales seriously. Everyone in the industry from carriers on down to neighborhood agents are waking up to the massive sales potential the internet offers — and they’re stepping up their efforts to harness it.
Make these 4 resolutions and 2007 could be your best online sales year yet.
- I’m going to really start measuring my online results. It’s easy to forget to crunch the numbers. But if you don’t keep a careful eye on your “web metrics”, your returns could shrink over time — while you keep pumping in more and more money into your online campaigns.
There are endless numbers you can measure to track your online performance. Instead, identify just 4-5 core metrics that will demonstrate how well you’re meeting your business goals for this year.
Some important numbers to be keeping tabs on:
- Website lead conversion. How many of your visitors become leads? If a lot of people are visiting and leaving without becoming your lead first, uncovering and fixing the problem can give you a big boost in conversions
- Website sales conversion. How many leads generated from your website actually turn into written policies?
- Cost Per Acquisition. Possibly the most important metric you can track. How much are you spending per online campaign, compared to the number of website visitors that are becoming leads? This is your cost per lead, also called the cost per acquisition (CPA). Also important is the cost per sale. How much are you spending on all campaigns and how many policies do you write as a result?
- Campaign effectiveness. Which specific campaigns are the most successful at bringing people to your site AND turning them into leads?
- Conversion process. See how people who become your leads behave on your website. What steps do they take? For visitors that don’t convert, see if there are certain pages in your process where they stall.
- I will focus more on email marketing. Email returns are booming. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) recently released a study showing email returned $57.25 for every dollar spent in 2005. Compare that to non-email Internet marketing, which only netted an average of $22.52 per dollar.
Email has the potential to be your most profitable avenue, and it’s predicted to be the dominant ROI leader for the foreseeable future.
Should you dump your print and Internet marketing? No. Should you plan on raking in 50 bucks per dollar spent? Probably not. But you should make email a significant part of your overall strategy in 2007.
Here are a few ideas to help you design better email campaigns.
- I will give my website visitors the best experience possible. The Customer Respect Group rated how insurance companies treat their online visitors last July — and they TANKED, scoring the lowest out of all industries studied.
Insurance sites were shown to actually confuse visitors. Poor navigation blocked them from getting to the information they wanted quickly. Only 24% of all sites have in-depth Frequently Asked Questions sections to guide visitors. And 11% actually gave visitors no way to contact them online.
Insurance companies are dropping the ball online… but that doesn’t mean you should.
- Give your online visitors a way to contact you — online. That includes a working email address or a “Contact Us” form that allows the visitor to ask a question.
- Give them clear access to the information they want. Whether that’s online quotes or just FAQs, your navigation should always be clear, never misleading.
Make service and improved usability top priorities in 2007 to gain a competitive edge against carriers who still give customers the cold shoulder online.
See my article last month to get ideas for improving your website.
- I will follow-up faster. The same Customer Respect Group study revealed that insurance companies ignore 27% of email inquiries. And only 11% managed to reply within a day. With 48% of internet users equating a company’s responsiveness to email with their overall customer service, this oversight is a BIGGIE.
It’s your chance to differentiate yourself from big companies that are slow to offer personalized, speedy service to customers.
In 2007, make it a priority to follow-up with customers quickly. If you don’t have the staff on hand, it might be time to hook up some autoresponders to do the work for you.
Add these resolutions to your New Year’s list and see your strongest online results yet.
 Jeremiah Desmarais and his team have won 3 awards in 2006 for their marketing initiatives that touch Norvax' client base and carrier relationships on a daily basis. He is author of several white papers including the applauded ‘Selling Insurance Online: Identifying 9 Top Trends for 2006’, and has been a contributor to the Agent’s Sales Journal, Health Insurance Underwriter as well as a guest speaker at various carrier events and workshops. He is a member of the Society of Industry Leaders. He welcomes feedback at jdesmarais@norvax.com.
|
