Happy New Year Tague Members!

Hope everyone had a great holiday season and we are looking forward to a great 2018.  I came across this article from Agency Nation, and the author offers some great tips to make sure that your “digital business card” or what people see when they are searching for you (you are your own brand) is solid.  Implement the ideas to ensure you are building your digital business card a.k.a. your individual brand in 2018.

Cheers,

Tony V

 

 

Do Your Insurance Agents Have Great Google Business Cards?

December 21, 2017 by Joey Giangola

Did you just hand out your last business card and decide maybe it’s time for something new?

Great, change can be refreshing, possibly even rejuvenating.

Now, you just need a super fantastic creative idea that will be sure to mesmerize anyone who touches it.

Before you kill too many brain cells trying to conceive this idea, think about this first.

Why are you so concerned with a tiny piece of almost cardboard that you hand out maybe once a day and only helps people you already know find you again?

Sure, a business card should exist somewhere on the scale of things you need to do for your agency. However the disproportionate attention it receives over a much more visible and effective business card is a little silly.

That business card is the search results people get when they try to find you. Either your agency or you personally, the agent.

Because even if they are lucky enough to hold on to that overweight piece of paper for more than five minutes, they’re still just going to type your name into Google.

It’s more likely that they lose the card within that five minute time period and barely remember your name, making it even more important they can find you with fuzzy information.

What Should Be On Your Google Business Card?

The great thing about this business card is that it can be very avant garde and frequent the local hipster coffee shop.

At its core, your Google Business Card is a collection of things people want (see need) to see before deciding to do business with you.

Whatever you think is important to that process should be considered.

The problem is, sometimes it feels like you’re hiding on purpose.

I find myself looking up a handful agents every week, occupational hazard, and normally what I find is… Nothing.

Because it’s search engine silence.

Here’s my list of what should be considered for your Google Business Card.

• Agency’s website?
• A highly complimentary bio you’ve written about yourself on that same website.
• A blog article where you teach me about the type of insurance you sell
• A video. (I’m even going to be picky here)
• More than one active social profile
• Another place on the internet where you’ve shared ideas or been asked to say something important?
• Possibly a third or fourth place where you’ve been spotted online.
• Someone else telling me what it’s like to do business with you (see testimonial)

If you’ve been keeping score at home, that’s eight different things I’m hoping to find every time I look up an agent.

There are 10 results shared on the first page of Google.

Would you like to take a guess, on average, how many of those eight I find?

One.

If I’m lucky.

If you’re not telling me who you are, you’re not telling the people trying to do business with you either.

How to Fix Your Google Business Card

The scary part about this problem is that you have one if you want it or not.

As long as you’re in business people are going to try and find you (hopefully, I mean that’s the goal anyway). Google is definitely going to keep giving people answers (results) when they do.

Now the best part about this problem is it’s one of the easiest things to fix. The only reason it’s awful now is because of neglect.

Let’s start by breaking down my Google business card list one-by-one.

1 Agency Website

All you simply have to do is have one and it should be the first thing that shows up.

Please have an “about us” page that lists everyone at the agency with a picture and with at least three highly complementary sentences you make them write about themselves.

Bonus points for video.

2 A highly complimentary bio you’ve written about yourself

People want to get to know you without actually knowing you. I know, sounds creepy, but you do it too.

Think about it like this, not having this information on your website is like inviting someone over to your house and not speaking to them.

Pretty weird right? You could cut the awkwardness with a knife.

3. An Educational Blog Article

What better way to get someone to call you back then to already tell them what they want to know.

Make it easy for people to see how awesome and smart you are.

Yeah, it doesn’t matter the guy down the street would probably tell them a slightly different version of the same thing. You’re just giving them the option to not wear pants and still hear it.

4 A video

Just take all the benefits of number three and multiply it by 1,000.

5 More than one active social profile

It’s perfectly fine to be a real human being. Most people trying to do business with you won’t hate you for it.

In fact, for reasons they aren’t quite sure, they’re infatuated with it.

Dogs, kids, perspectives are all welcome to help flesh out the story of “you” that people want to hear.

6 Another place on the internet you share ideas or say important things?

The fancy word for this is social proof.

If someone else isn’t concerned for their safety around you then that lessen the chance the person trying to do business with you won’t be either.

Letting people know other people think you’re cool, smart and maybe even a little funny helps take the edge off.

7 Possibly a third or fourth place where you’ve been spotted online.

Honestly, you can never have enough of this stuff. The more validated places you show up the more attracted your prospect becomes.

Do you ever get tired of seeing Robert Downey Jr. show up on different talk shows?

I know that’s a sizably exaggerated example, but you can be the off brand insurance version of that if you want.

8 Testimonial

Let’s save the best for last.

Having someone tell someone else what it’s like doing business with you is about as good as it gets.

It’s even more powerful when you have the other seven items on this list to support it.

The Bottom Line

Someone wanting to do business with you shouldn’t feel like they’re in an episode of Homeland trying to find an Al-Qaeda terrorist.

They should get tired of learning about you because there’s so much available.

You need to knock your traditional business card down the list on how effective it actually is in today’s environment.

Wasting time and effort to improve it over any one of these items is probably not the most effective use of resources.

Your Google business card should be your most interesting man (or woman) in the world moment.

Instead, the only thing interesting is if they can find anything at all.