Blogs are one of the most important facets in insurance marketing today. Yet many agencies do not embrace blogging because they don’t totally understand how to use a blog effectively. So many online resources are blogs. When you read sports updates, it’s a blog. When you read the news online, it’s a blog. Too often the word blog makes people intimidated and unsure. We are here today to reverse some blogging myths.
Blogs are not run by kids living in their mom’s basement. Blogging is a full time career today. You may have read a blog this morning and didn’t even know it was a blog. The purpose of a blog is to post news and updates quickly and efficiently. You can post job listings, events, staff updates and even insurance articles on your blog. Think of your blog as your running news stream on your business.
Now you may be asking who is reading your insurance blog? No one likes to read about insurance. Well you’re semi-right. There is one very big entity reading your blog. Google! Google loves fresh content on your website. In order to rise in the search rankings, Google likes to see constant activity on your website in the form of blogging. The more you blog, the more your search rankings increase. The more you’re found and the more opportunities come your way!
Next you have to throw your own parade. Don’t wait for people to find you. You need to share your blog on social media, email marketing and direct people to it. Once you get blogging down, you will find many uses for it. Every time something great happens, write a blog and throw your parade.
There is nothing worse than having a blog that is stagnant where no one has posted on it in 2 years. If that’s the case, get rid of your blog!
Next you need to not just blog about insurance. This is your opportunity to blog about your agency’s brand, your community, your team and then insurance. We recommend about 20% of your blog posts be insurance related; the rest can be about your agency. Also you have to make sure you’re writing blogs in a way that people become interested. Here are some examples: Top Ways to Punish Your Teen if They Break Curfew (ie: make them pay for their auto insurance), Best Campsites in New England (back your way into RV insurance), and Top 5 Employment Claims (then think about EPLI Insurance.) Your blogs need to be fun, site stats, and be about what the clients care about. Avoid being an insurance encyclopedia!
