Executive Summary
The original version (Link HERE) of this white paper focused on three key components of an agency website:
- Exhibits a Professional Design
- Generates Visitors
- Encourages Action
Each of those items is just as relevant today. In order to help
you achieve those objectives, this article focuses on tactical changes you can
make to your website. Some are frequent, others less so.
Echoing the comments from version one of Great Agency Websites,
an agency website need to be constantly refreshed to reflect positively on the
business. Any agency that wishes to attract and retain clients via their web
presence will need to allocate resources to maintain their website.
In this white paper, we will look at what you should be doing to
keep your website up to date and position your agency positively in the mind of
your customers and prospects.
Your Website: A Digital Version of
Your Agency
An agency’s physical space portrays an image of the business. You
maintain that space regularly such as janitorial services, and less frequently
with technology and furniture upgrades and remodeling.
Your agency’s website is your virtual storefront. As such, it is
critical that it is welcoming, well organized and showcases your capabilities
and expertise. And just like your physical office, you should do maintenance,
both on a regular schedule as well as upgrades from time to time.
Housekeeping
Some tasks need to be undertaken on a regular basis. Vacuuming,
or collecting the used coffee cups and filling the dishwasher isn’t
glamorous. And while those efforts
aren’t as fun or impactful as completely redecorating the office, they are a
key part of keeping up appearances.
Your website needs ongoing maintenance as well. Far and away, the
most important item on the list is to regularly expand your website by adding
content.
‘Content’ is a term that includes several different formats
ranging from a blog entry to a new web page to a video. And while each of these
items require slightly different methods to produce, they share a common
purpose. This content enables you and your staff to demonstrate your expertise
and personality to customers and prospects.
Many agencies have specialties or expertise that can be
overlooked by prospective customers. Perhaps you have a number of clients in a
specific industry or trade. What better way to attract new customers than by
telling them about how you have solved problems for your clients who are just
like them?
A good way to get into the habit of regularly updating content on
your website is to create a content calendar. Start slow, targeting one topic
per month. As you get comfortable with meeting that production schedule, you
can increase the frequency of updates.
Here are a couple of steps to get you started building a content
calendar:
- Create exercise with key staff to identify each
participant’s skills and expertise.
- Assign
each participant a task to write (record, film) a piece that focuses on one of
their identified skills, and a calendar date for publication.
- Determine editorial oversight.
- Identify who has the skills to make website
changes - this might be an employee or a third party.
- Schedule a follow up meeting to gauge progress.
A great way to encourage new behaviors is to offer carrots for
compliance. Perhaps the submission of a piece of content enables the author to
leave after lunch on a Friday, or maybe it is an entry for a drawing for a gift
card.
While completely outsourcing your content creation to third
parties isn’t ideal, you can certainly augment your efforts with good quality
content from outsiders.
Another opportunity to show off your expertise is to create
additional pages on your website. Perhaps your agency specializes in artisan
contractors. A web page that highlights specific exposures that small
contractors have, or how you can provide certificates 24/7 will solve a
specific issue for prospects.
Insurance professionals are all about detail, right? That
attention to detail is what creates an effective risk treatment strategy. If
so, then why do so many insurance websites have obvious mistakes?
You’d be mortified to meet with a client with a coffee stain on
your shirt, right? Bad grammar or misspellings are just as bad. Commit to
having a disinterested third party review your site (especially new content,
see editorial oversight above) regularly for mistakes.
Remodeling
How do you know when it is time for a complete web rebuild?
Unfortunately, the answer is that it is probably more frequent than you want,
perhaps every two to three years.
State of the art in web design is fluid and ever changing. Your
website doesn’t need to keep pace with every improvement but at some point,
your website begins to look like one of those homes on the HGTV channel: All
dark paneling and shag carpets.
The following evaluations are presented in order of difficulty,
with those easiest to assess first.
- Can your visitors find your contact information
easily? The primary purpose of your website is to provide customers and
prospects with answers to their questions, but more importantly, to get them to
reach out to you. If they can’t quickly find out how to phone, email or text
your agency, they’ll find somebody else.
- Is your content consumer friendly and specific?
Generic descriptions about your agency’s attributes (Professional) or what you
insure (All Lines) won’t make the grade. Customers & prospects want answers
to their questions, not vague platitudes.
- Are your images real photos of your staff and
clients? Nothing screams ‘generic’ like stock photography.
- Is your site well organized? Think like an
insurance newbie, not a professional. Do they really know that homeowner’s
insurance could be found under “Personal Lines”? Of course not. Organize your
content in a way that makes sense to nonprofessionals.
- Is your site mobile enabled? In 2017, 50.3% of
all searches took place from mobile devices. The good news is that financial-oriented
websites still lean toward desktops. But the days of websites not being mobile
optimized are over.
- Does your website use flash? If you don’t know,
your webmaster will. If it does, time to change.
- Are your page loads slow? Almost half of
visitors will abandon a site if the page hasn’t rendered within 2 seconds. As
an aside, Google will downgrade you if your pages are slow.
- How do your pages rank in a search result? If
your pages don’t rank well in search, the only people who will find your agency
will be those that know your agency’s name. Unfortunately, Search Engine
Optimization is a complicated, rapidly changing field, and there are few quick
fixes. The scope of that discussion is beyond this white paper however.
The final question is probably the hardest to answer, and that is
does your website ‘look’ clean and modern? Everybody has a different design
aesthetic; what one agency principal thinks is perfect might be the worst for a
different shop. But we can all agree that garish, text-only sites are so
1990’s!
Conclusion
The new buyer’s journey has changed the way customers interact
with product and services providers. A modern, informative website is critical
to presenting your agency in the best possible light, and to getting them to
reach out to you when they are ready for more information.
Change is a constant, and in order to maintain a positive digital
home, an agency must commit time, personnel and money to keeping their website
up-to-date.
Author: Marty Agather
PDF version of this article: 
Great Agency Websites V2 - Marty Agather.pdf