Anybody Have a Website that ACTUALLY Drives Business?

[insurance1822]

We have a website I put together on my own when my agency opened, it's nothing special but it's just "something" there if people search us by name. We actually get a few calls per month w/ people looking for quotes (albeit it's not the business I want...) but some are actually good leads that we write.

I'm curious if I pay a web company to make a professional site and even do the most basic SEO functions to try and capture more organic traffic if it's worth it?

It's my understanding it would cost a substantial amount to legitimately generate "leads" and I'm not trying to do that.

Experiences w/ websites? I know some guys w/ tech backgrounds have developed a substantial flow of business for their agency. Taking out those guys who have the knowledge & know how...anybody having legit success w/ their website?

 

[todd02]

No unless like you said for SEO you'd have to spend an obscene amount of money to compete with the lead aggregators and the captive companies. I've found the best success comes from running gift card reward campaigns for Google reviews. The more positive reviews you have the higher you'll rank in Google anyways for certain searches. Other type of huge web based success I've seen is social media but I don't give a crap about facebook or other social media forums...

 

[1manshow]

Our experience... I spent the $$ and time a few years ago and ranked top 3 page 1 google for several targeted keyword phrases. The leads came in faster than my staff of 5 could handle them. Man hours invested versus closed sales was terrible. Retention was terrible. Pay history was equally as bad. Overall, I labelled it a failure and moved on to better marketing concepts.

The competition was so fierce for those spots it seemed as though our competitors for those spots just shifted into overdrive and eventually took the spots back. Their pockets are much deeper

 

[insurance1822]

1manshow...about how much did you spend?

 

[1manshow]

in the neighborhood of 15k

 

[SecureHealth1]

My entire agency runs online via organic rankings and pay per click. Took me many years to figure it, but there is not better way to market, non. Do not let people talk you out of exploring it, it can be costly, but it can be done in stages to per say..It has changed my life forever. You will not find anyone on this forum who has had success, only people complaining and saying it doesn't work. Why do you think its so competitive? Because people are making tons of money and they know their is no better marketing tool in the world. If you really want to learn, get the book "Ultimate Guide to Google Ad words" to start with, ranking for organic keywords is much more complex and harder to learn. Keywords are competitive to bid on, but their are holes in ever market. I have 6 agents and we do life and health, I will never go back to face-to-face or old school marketing again..

 

[1manshow]

There's a big difference between L&H and P&C...tire kickers and much lower profit margins per sale make a difference that didn't work for us

Glad you figured it out.

 

[todd02]

There's a big difference between L&H and P&C...tire kickers and much lower profit margins per sale make a difference that didn't work for us

Glad you figured it out.

This ^

I wish commissions were higher on P&c.

 

[briko3]

This ^

I wish commissions were higher on P&c.

The grass is always greener....

 

[shawnmwalker]

Ins1822,

I started a small website. (I think you went to it to do some homework once to slam me for my lackluster resume- Ha!) It was a nothing site, an experiment really. But in no time flat it was getting 200 hits a day from all over the nation. Captives where paying attention too.

I have another friend who wrote for Demystifying the Insurance Industry | The Truth About Insurance.com and he was getting, I think 1,200 hits a day and selling exclusive leads from that site to agents.

It is not hard to get the hits. Take a good topic from here, write something in your passionate voice to your clients, email them the first paragraph with the link to the rest of the article and bam you are on your way to 500 hits a day.

Hit up Safeco's Bricks and Clicks too. You have the carrier resources at your finger tips.