Ready to (finally!) start blogging? What does it take and how can you foster business growth by doing it right? To help us figure out the blogging puzzle, we chatted with Daina Kawchack Smith, chief marketing officer of PersonalUmbrella.com, the first personal umbrella carrier to go online for quotes, orders and policy maintenance. They’ve been blogging at InsuranceJournal.com since 2015.
Interview Highlights
On starting your blog
First, set your blogging goals, then align your topics to those goals. Do you hope to get new customers? Connect with insureds to answer individual questions? Gain followers on social media? Be conservative and set something you can measure, dive in and try it.
On creating great content
I find inspiration in current events, insurance industry sources that offer statistics on things like accidents and lawsuits. Listen to your audience. For us, questions from producers really help us create relevant content. We also take a look at our competitors to see if we can fill in any gaps between their content and ours. We’re unique in that we have one line, but if you have multiple lines, invite someone from another line to contribute topic ideas.
You could also enlist experts to help you. Our advertising agency has been valuable in creating and analyzing our approach to content marketing.
On the time commitment needed
A great post doesn’t have to take forever, but it should always be well thought-out and edited. To make your process faster, search online for a blog post template. My team also has a living, breathing repository for ideas from which we can draw. Define your blogging goals and commit to blogging for an entire year.
On listicles
I think they’re here to stay. With our limited attention spans these days, this type of content is so digestible, it becomes irresistible. It doesn’t mean that bloggers should cheat and throw a quick list of “stuff” together though. Listicles should still have quality ideas and valuable content.
On stumbling and succeeding
If the blog doesn’t quite work out for you, think about repurposing the content you’ve created into something new, like an email campaign or brochure. And remember there’s a learning curve: You hereby have permission to stumble and also to succeed.
Listen to the entire interview on IJTV.
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