​Your domain name plays a huge role in the online marketing success of your agency.

Let me explain…

If it’s too complicated clients won’t share it with their friends. If it’s too long no one will ever visit it. If it’s easily mis-spelled people will think you went out of business and your emails will be sent to the wrong address. If your domain name is cheesy, customers and prospects won’t take you seriously!

And if your domain name is easily forgotten, so is your agency.

Changing your domain name in the future is possible, but it’s a pain in the butt technologically, can damage your search rankings for years, and can force you to reprint thousands of dollars worth of business cards and other stationary.

I want insurance agents like you to avoid domain name mistakes I’ve seen other agents make, so here’s a crash course on choosing the right domain name.

​Buying insurance leads is expensive.

I hear that from agents every single day and I agree 100%.

But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t play an important role in your marketing.

Where else could you spend money right now and be on the phone with an active insurance shopper within minutes?

​The biggest mistake I see agents making is that they hear a few random tips about a specific part of local SEO and think they “get it”.

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 Discussions

This app is from the guys at Insurance-forums.net and it’s not bad.  Insurance-forums.net is the most active online insurance agent forum and this app does a pretty good job of allowing you to participate like you would on the website.  I’m not a big forum junkie and I don’t personally use this app so if you use it please leave some insights in the comments and I’ll update this section.

​Getting your contact information into a client’s cell phone is a huge marketing opportunity for insurance agents.

Clients with your contact info in their phone:

1. Refer you more since they always have your contact info handy.
2. Have a better customer experience since they’ll call you before a small problem becomes a big problem.
3. Buy more lines of insurance because they’ll call you about another coverage before it slips their mind.
4. Have smoother claims because they’ll be able to reach you throughout the claim process if there’s a concern. (especially right after it happens)
5. And they renew more because they feel a closer bond with your agency