5 Biggest Blunders Insurance Agents Make on Their Websites

We’re not naming any names. But we’ve been on the prowl looking at insurance agents’ websites and we’ve found some that are more naughty than nice. Are you guilty of the 5 biggest mistakes you could make on your website?

1. No personal photo. Can’t stress the importance of this little touch enough. More people than ever are comfortable making financial decisions online today, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to deal with a real live person somewhere in the process. The vast majority of insurance consumers still prefer to close a deal directly with an agent. Your smiling face on your website reassures visitors that yes, there is a man or woman behind the graphics and the quote engine. Without a picture you risk blending in with all the impersonal, anonymous-looking sites out there (and there’s a LOT of them) and turning off visitors that should convert into prospects. Your photo helps you stand out from the pack and starts building trust with your prospects off the bat.
   
   Solution: Add a photo of you or you and your family to your home page. If you’ve got a smaller staff, throw a picture of them on, too. Take the personalization even further by putting a caption under your team photo: “When you call ABC Insurance, you’ll speak directly with me, Bob or Linda. We’d love to discuss the affordable insurance options available to you.”
   
   
2. No testimonials. Satisfied clients sell your products for you. If you’ve invested any time and effort in collecting testimonials, you MUST add them to your site. (See #1 re: building trust.) If you don’t have a backlog of testimonials, start building this important marketing resource NOW.
   
   Solution: Add at least one testimonial (make sure it’s your most powerful one) to your home page and then either sprinkle several more throughout the rest of the site or create a separate testimonials page (or both).
   
   
3. Bare bones “About Us” page. Who are you? As more and more agents add quote engines to their sites you can’t rely on that tool alone to convert visitors into prospects. Savvy shoppers click on About Us pages because it’s the quickest way to do a little background check on you. Again, they really just want to know who you are, that you’re not just some anonymous internet company, and why they should trust you with their money. If you want your site to convey the image of a much larger agency and think too much information will tip your hand, keep in mind that the big companies and agencies all take pains to have detailed About Us pages. You don’t have to reveal the true size of your operation but you must provide visitors a peek at your business credentials.
   
   Solution: Here are the top things people want to see, and the minimum of what should be included on your “About Us” page:
1. Your name. Whether you head up a larger agency or are a one-man shop, one of the greatest web marketing sins you could make is to leave your name off your site.
2. Your contact info. Street address, phone number and email address. Availability is huge. People won’t trust you if you don’t offer a way (if not multiple ways) to communicate with you. If you won’t put your full contact info on your website, how do your prospects know you’ll be around when they need help down the road?
3. Your photo. Yup, this again. It’s that important.

Other non-essentials that are nice touches to include: how long you’ve been in business; your mission (this can just be a short statement of your goals, what you offer your clients etc.) and how you stand apart from the competition.

The About Us page is a great sales opportunity that you shouldn’t miss out on. Remember, it’s your chance to tell prospects in your own words why they should do business with you.


4. No carrier information. The advantage of being an independent agent or broker is being able to offer customers multiple products from multiple carriers. Seeing a variety of options assures prospects that you’ll be able to effectively shop around for them to find the best rate. It’s a huge selling point, but a lot of sites don’t reveal all their available carriers until after a customer has requested a quote. The carriers you work with already have built-in name-recognition and branding consumers trust – you should be capitalizing on it! Let your carriers’ professional image to rub off on your site.
   
   Solution: If possible, display carrier logos on your home page or on an easy to find “Companies We Work With” page. Can’t get the logos? Then at least list the companies!
   
   
5. Information dead ends. If you’ve got a link, some click happy visitors will check it out. A link that leads to an empty page looks unprofessional. Worse, it quickly frustrates a visitor who clicked in the good faith that they’d be provided the promised information. For example, if you have a “Companies We Work With” link, and visitors are sent to a template page with absolutely no companies listed, and zero content total, you’re seriously testing the already seconds-long attention span of the average online visitor.
   
   Solution: Put something of value that delivers on the promises on all your pages, or don’t give visitors the option to click on them!

The bottom line: If you want your site to consistently deliver quality leads, you’ve got to make it personal and deliver on your promises.