​According to a recent survey by J.D. Power & Associates over 92% of internet users have used reviews to make a purchase sometime in the last 12 month. That’s pretty much everyone.

Reviews matter.

Kelly Blue Book

​There’s probably a lot of ways to use this app on the job, but one instance where it really comes in handy is when you’re trying to help a client decide whether to purchase collision and comprehensive coverage.  Faster than you could do on kbb.com, this app will give you a value for any car super fast. Bonus tip: take a screenshot of your client’s car value in this app by clicking the home and power buttons at the same time.  Then go to your photos and you can email it to them directly.

Life Foundation

This life insurance needs calculator from the Life Foundation is a great resource for helping a client determine how much they really need to keep their family afloat. There’s nothing here you haven’t seen before, but it’s a good tool from a great organization.  Bonus Tip: Recommend this app to a prospective client before meeting with them – it might put them in the right mindset going into the meeting and you don’t have to worry about them being pitched another company’s policy from the app.

Insurance Journal

Not too many bells and whistles with this app, but as one of the largest and most long-standing news publishers in the insurance industry, Insurance Journal is a great resource.  I personally use RSS feeds and Twitter to get information from Insurance Journal and I don’t use this app, but it seems to be pretty simple. It’s basically just news feeds, but I like the way they break down information into regions – since there’s already so much information on IJ it’s helpful to narrow it down in this way.

Starting an insurance blog is easy.

It’s also quick (which I’ll prove below).

Five minutes from right now you could be the proud owner of your own website with:

• Your domain name (www.yourname.com?)
• The easiest web publishing system.
• And exposure to every insurance buyer on earth.

For under 10 bucks a month.

​I see a lot of insurance agency websites.

Hundreds…

And one thing I pay attention to every time is my first-impression.

Studies show your website has under 3 seconds to form a first impression with visitors.

​Insurance agents always ask me for the one most important way to improve their website marketing.

My response is always the same…

“Before you do anything else, install Google Analytics.”

​Is your agency optimized for Yelp?

Yelp is a website and mobile phone app used by hundreds of millions of people to review, compare and find local businesses like yours.

If you ignore Yelp, sometime soon a disgruntled customer will write a damning review about your agency and you won’t even know!

The average American spends 50.2 minutes commuting back and forth to work every day. (Source: U.S. Census)

If your commute is typical you’ll waste:

• 4 hours, 11 minutes next week.
• 18 hours, 8 minutes next month. 
• 9 full days, 1 hour, 32 minutes next year!

There’s many things to do while driving (I see them all here in Miami).