Masters of Marketing: Effective Blogging

Here's the presentation from yesterday's Masters of Marketing webinar on Effective Blogging. If you would like to join us every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. Central when we discuss marketing tips, you can register here.

Masters of Marketing: Effective Blogging

View more presentations from Darmini Kara.

Tip of the Iceberg

This is your Fun Friday posting, but it's actually a very honest depiction:

Be sure you let this one sink in!

Secret to Success

Here's a little tip that Google probably doesn't want you to know...

Happy Friday!

Let's Talk Expiration Dates

You've heard it time and time again. Content is King.

To show how your content is a reflection of your site to Google, let's consider expiration dates.

Somewhere, either sitting in your refrigerator, on your kitchen counter, under the seat in your car, or at your desk, you probably have food that will one day go bad. It will eventually sit there too long, start to grow mold, eventually stink up everything, and you will finally throw it out. Imagine if Google viewed your site the way you view that food.

Well it does. Kinda.

Google wants to expose its users to fresh sites. That means it will take note of sites that are updated often and updated with meanigful changes. Sites that are left too long and become stale will be tossed aside and may never be served up as a search result. So if it hasn't been stressed enough already, keep your site fresh.

How often should a site be updated? Often. Weekly, if possible.

How much should a site be updated? A lot. More should be changed than just the date, navigation, or advertisement.

What kind of content should be added to the site? New Pages. Not just new content on existing pages. Google wants to provide new value, so it wants to find new pages.

As a bonus, here's an infographic from bitrebels to further breakdown how to make your content King.

Anatomy of a Social Consumer [Infographic]

58% of consumers connect with brands on social media because they are a customer. When one follower shares information about you or something you've posted or written on social media, on average 77 people are reached. This can have a profound impact on increasing your agency's awareness. This infographic has more information and stats on how consumers are interacting with brands on social media.

Source:truaxis.com

How to Share Interesting Content on Social Media

There are countless articles online about social media, how to use it for business, how to engage your audience on social media, etc. etc. Almost always one of the tips include sharing content on social media your audience will find interesting. But how do you know what content to share?

Sharing content that you didn't write is called content curation. It can be a great way to be seen as knowledgeable and to build your social media audience.

Here are 4 tips to help you decide what content to share with your audience:

1. Be curious.

If you are curious about the same things your audience is curious about, posting articles that share in that knowledge and curiosity will be interesting and engaging.

2. Make the connections for them.

Ever see an article that is not directly about insurance, but you see how it could apply to insurance? Post it. There is no reason why you can't share seemingly unrelated content. Just make sure you make the connection for your audience when sharing.

3. Get excited.

When you get excited about an article, it shows when you share it with your audience. Your audience will respond to your enthusiasm. So if that article you found made you excited, share away!

4. Think about your audience.

Share content that is of interest to your audience. Strive for a balance of articles that you like with articles your audience will find interesting.

Masters of Marketing: Advanced Websites for Insurance Agents

Here's the presentation from today's Masters of Marketing webinar on Advanced Websites for Insurance Agents. If you would like to join us every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. Central when we discuss marketing tips, you can register here.

Masters of Marketing: Advanced Websites for Insurance Agents

View more PowerPoint from Darmini Kara

Build an Awesome Website: 8 Things to Do Before You Get Started

When done right your insurance agency website can be the best tool in your marketing toolbox. When done right it can actually help you sell insurance.

I know what you're asking. How do you build a website so it's done right? First, you need to realize that a website is more than just a pretty design. You should first focus on why you need a website and what you want it to do instead of what you want on it.

Do you want a website that is basic and has your agency's information on it? Or do you want a website that allows you to do online quoting, generates leads and integrates with social media? In other words, do you want a website that is an integral part of your online marketing plan driving leads, educating prospects and communicating with customers?

Here are 8 things to do before you get started on building your website:

Do:

1. Set goals. Make them realistic and measurable. Here are some great ideas to get you started: Generate leads online. Increase brand awareness. Expand your market to surrounding areas. Improve conversions.

2. Learn SEO basics. You absolutely will want help in optimizing your website for search engines. But understanding the basics of search engine optimization is something you need to know too. Plus, when SEO starts working, you don't have to spend so much time trying to improve your website traffic.

3. Plan on creating a mobile version of your website. 25% of the traffic to our client's websites comes from mobile devices. This number will continue to rise as more people buy smartphones and tablets and start using their mobile devices to surf the Internet instead of their desktops or laptops.

4. Look at your competitors. Are they doing something right on their websites? What do you like? What don't you like? This is your chance to identify opportunities your competitors might be missing out on that you can take advantage of on your new website.

5. Develop custom content. One of the most important elements of online marketing is custom content. When done correctly, it improves the readability of your website and helps to optimize it for search engines. Custom content also differentiates your agency from your competition and can improve the time visitors spend on your website. 

6. Include calls to action. A call to action will clearly indicate what you want your website visitors to do. Offer online quoting? Don't just say "We'll give you a free online quote." Say "To get your free online quote, enter your information below and click submit." Have free reports to download? Instead of saying "Free report on the basics of a homeowners policy" say "Click here to get your free report on renters insurance 101."

7. Answer the "Why?"question. Visitors won't subscribe to your newsletter or follow you on social media if you don't give them a reason why they should. Don't just put up a subscribe box or follow buttons without explaining what visitors will get out of subscribing or following.

8. Trust your web designer. You've hired an expert because building websites is what he does for a living. He knows the latest trends and tricks to make your website great. Let him do what he does best, and he's more likely to not only meet your goals but exceed them.

Insurance Website Builder specializes in insurance agency websites and giving agents a strong web presence through quality insurance web designs. Every website from Insurance Website Builder is customized and optimized to sell insurance and help agencies get more customers.

Friday the 13th

there will be a total
of 3 friday the 13ths this year,
and they are each 13 weeks apart.

and this is 2012,
which is technically the 13th year.

just an fyi.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Masters of Marketing: Basics of Search Engine Optimization

We had our second weekly Webinar yesterday, thank you to all that made it. As promised here is the presentation:

Masters of Marketing: Basics of SEO

View more presentations from iwb_insurance.