Is Your Agency’s Web Site Dangerously Obsolete?

Letting Your Site Atrophy is Online Suicide

With all of the high level hype regarding social media, it’s easy to imagine that your agency’s Web site is as obsolete in cyberspace as Sputnik is in outer space. Does this mean that you should trade in your site for a brand new shiny Facebook page? Of course not, the Internet is big enough for both, and a lot more. Well, it is if you actually pay some attention to your Web site.

Your agency’s site is a virtual expression of your brand. It represents how you want others to see you – and as such it is an essential insurance marketing tool. Envision it as your store window. And just like window displays in department stores, its look and content must be continuously modified to keep up with the times. It’s the nucleus of your marketing, the spot where everyone goes first when they want to learn more about you and what you offer. So, if it becomes outdated (or worse, you don’t have one at all), you look terribly behind the times, making your rivals’ sites look competitively fashionable. Below are 16 items to help you recognize if your site screams obsolescence.

Your Site is Ancient If It Has…

• An outdated template design.
• Addresses of long closed agency offices or post office boxes.
• The names of agents, CSRs, or others who left the agency years ago.
• Names or logos of associations to which you no longer belong.
• Outdated insurance company logos.
• The names of companies you no longer represent.
• Outdated cartoon-like images.
• Annoying animated graphics or sounds.
• Web page copyright dates that are more than a few years old.
• E-mail links back to your agency, instead of modern online web forms.
• A hit counter, instead of using statistics provided by your web host.
• Pages that display “This page was last updated on…”
• Static content that hasn’t changed in years.
• No link to your agency’s Facebook page.
• No link for people to follow your office on Twitter.
• No link to LinkedIn profiles for key agency personnel.

Complimentary Social Media

Even if your site is state-of-the-art, you still need Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to enhance your brand. You can feed your Facebook page with interesting updates, creative uses of its wall, apps and more. Plus, you can reach out to business professionals with LinkedIn and tweet instant messages, via Twitter, to anyone who follows you. But individually or combined, these social media networks cannot replace the stature and flexibility of a quality Web site. Facebook has a relatively fixed structure compared to sites, which are comparatively free form. Plus, LinkedIn and Twitter are networking and micro-blogging tools respectively, both unsuitable as Web site replacements.

Notably, some Facebook fans hate to leave the comfort of the community’s familiar environs, so use their hesitancy to your advantage. Attach popular content from your site on your wall, with links for further details that are only available on the site itself. Additionally post prominent links to your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts so site visitors can quickly learn more about your key personnel and what you deem important enough to communicate.

Conclusion

Your site, as the hub of your agency’s marketing, must be timely, attractive, interactive, and informative. Remember that it’s a dynamic store window that continuously changes its appearance and content to appeal to a variety of visitors. Integrate it and connect it to the top social media sites. Strive to present all of your Web-based information in a compelling and contemporary manner. Add quality prewritten content as well as your own. Example: Link your site to International Risk Management Institute’s (IRMI) free glossary of 3,000-plus insurance and risk management tools (www.agency ideas.com/freeideas). Never let your site atrophy or it becomes an image liability rather than an agency-enhancing asset. In today’s Internet-driven world, a weak online presence is tantamount to marketing suicide.

Topics Training Development