For Agents Who Want To Look Professional Online... And For Those That Think They Do

A would-be client walks into your office. They’re greeted by towering stacks of files, scattered papers, overflowing waste baskets, and no one at the front desk to welcome them.

Your prospect takes one look and runs out the door.

That would never happen, right? An untidy office makes you look bad – and that’s why you don’t have one.

Do you hold those same standards to your website?

These days, many of your clients will never step foot in your office…but you can bet they’ll be checking you out online. Your website is a virtual, 24-hour extension of your office. And if you’ve got a sloppy and unwelcoming site it could be costing you leads.

*Blink*

That’s how much time you have to impress your prospects.

Researchers have discovered the human brain forms an opinion about a website in 50 milliseconds (Behaviour and Information Technology, 2006.) That’s less time than it takes to blink.

If your visitor likes what they see in that brief glimpse, they are more likely to view the rest of the site positively. They’re also more likely to pay your site a return visit. But if your site fails to impress, your visitors will be clicking the “back” button so fast they’ll miss out on everything you have to offer.

And if you’re investing in a pay-per-click campaign to drive traffic to your sloppy site, you can kiss your investment goodbye.

So what are people looking for? And what’s turning them off? How can you make a great impression in just 1/20th of a second?

Public Enemy #1…through 5

There are a number of goofs that will drive visitors away from your site. Five of the worst:

1. Images that don’t have anything to do with what you’re selling.

Sure, the dancing smiley face is cute. But what exactly does it have to do with selling insurance? Any image on your site should serve a purpose – whether it’s a photo that your target audience will relate to or a graphic that serves as a call to action. The best converting websites show someone interacting with the product.

2. You’ve even got the kitchen sink.

You’ve got a lot of different products you want your visitors to know about. And you load all of them onto your homepage so prospects see them right off the bat. But that leads to a laundry list of links that confuses prospects and obscures your biggest sellers.

Think about your target audience. What products do you want them to check out the most? A broad category like, “Health Insurance for Individuals and Families” will draw in more visitors than listing all the types of plans you have available. Your main products should be displayed prominently and concisely.

3. Burying your calls to action “below the fold.”

If a visitor is forming their opinion in a 20th of a second, you can bet they’re not bothering to scroll down a lengthy homepage. In the newspaper business, “above the fold” is that prime space in the top half of a folded paper that catches the eye first. On the web, it’s everything your prospect sees without having to touch the mouse.

If you devote your valuable “above the fold” space to wordy bouts of content or an overpowering logo, your prospects are more likely to miss the point of your site. Think headline style and put the most important services or products you offer right where your visitor will look first.

4. Poor font choice.

Advertising legend David Ogilvy said regarding design, "The eye is a creature of habit." Don’t be tempted to use fonts that look interesting over fonts that your visitors are familiar with.

Avoid the free fonts that are available on the web. Yes, using a “cool” font like “Radikal Sanz” will set your site apart from your competitors. It also will make it nearly impossible for your visitors to read your copy.

Stick to tried and true web fonts that your visitors are already comfortable with. Fonts like Georgia, Times, Verdana, or Trebuchet are always good choices

5. Hard to read.

Going hand in hand with font choice, you need to make your copy as easy on the eye as possible. A black background with white text isn’t just hard to read, it looks unprofessional.

Don’t make your prospects work to read your copy: Choose a light background with dark text. In tests, Arial 10 performs well (12 pt is better), especially when marketing to people over 40.

You can avoid these and other problems by choosing the right person or company to build your website. Your nephew may be a whiz at writing web code, but that doesn’t mean he can build a site that gives your agency a professional image and attracts prospects.

When in doubt, consider a professional template that can be customized with your agency’s information. Some companies offer templates that are designed specifically for the insurance industry and can be effortlessly integrated with a quote engine. It’s a headache-free way to get a site that has been tested to convert visitors into prospects.