Some slick salesman may tell you that you need to wrap this virtual business card in a pretty package with talking people and flash videos. Well, I fell for this pitch and it cost me $59K with no return. Fortunately, if you’re considering this approach, I’m about to save you a ton of money and help you get a significant return online.

Since making this costly mistake, I have worked with other agents, tested dozens of online techniques and have learned what is actually producing online profits. In this article, I’ll share a few of these strategies and give you a glimpse of how we are taking them to the next level.

First, recognize that your current agency website alone isn’t sufficient to do everything you need to succeed. By this I mean having one site that is built to both sell and service just isn’t an efficient model for today’s consumer.

Even if you have a top search engine ranking for a particular product such as life insurance, does your website’s home page make it incredibly easy to buy life insurance from you? Probably not. They will most likely have to click through multiple pages just to find out how they can get a life insurance quote from you.

To improve lead generation and conversion you want to drive prospects to web pages or even better, websites that are optimized for the niches you are marketing to. For example, if you’re targeting plumbers, you wouldn’t want to send them to a big generic ‘about me’ home page. You want them going to a content rich, optimized site that calls out and speaks directly to plumbers and gives them what they are looking for. Plus, compels them to proceed with an easy way to take action.

There are two approaches to online niche marketing.

1. Niche specific landing pages. These are simple 1 to 3 page mini-websites that are designed to get the visitor to take action. They are typically not optimized for search engines and traffic is driven to the site via direct mail, pay per click advertising, articles, e-newsletters, hard copy newsletters and other directly driven sources.

This is the fastest and least expensive way to target your niche and get them to visit your website. These pages are simple to build and can be online in a matter of a few hours, especially, if you have a system like Agency Command.

The key to getting visitors is you must drive traffic to the page. A consistent direct mail campaign with a compelling offer to visit the site works best. Then once on the site, you must be able to make them take action by including a video, bullet points and a strong call to action… all are critical.

2. Niche Specific Websites- This is the ultimate niche domination strategy because it can attract traffic organically through search engines and traffic can be driven to the site via the methods mentioned above.

This strategy requires more time and money to get organic search engine results. It takes time for the search engines to find the key words you’re targeting and it also requires a lot of key word rich content. The cost to build these more complex websites can be expensive. This is where you need help from a web designer, an SEO expert and a keyword researcher. For less competitive niches, this can be done with a simple word press site that you can do yourself. However, if you’re targeting “car insurance” for example, be prepared to pony up.

We are currently rebuilding our agency website and the primary purpose of this site is to provide better service to our clients (www.paramountinsurance.net). Of course, we also have ways to grab opt-ins and provide quotes. Additionally, we are building full-blown niche specific websites for auto, home, life, flood, boat, motorcycle, RV, antique cars, and annuities.  More commercial niche sites are on the drawing board. I’ll share our results as they come.

In the meantime, if you want to pump up your niche marketing efforts, start with the simple niche specific landing pages. Michael has several examples of the sites that are working for him. Once you begin to reap rewards from this strategy, consider going all in like I am and take your niche marketing efforts to the next level!

Much like in our marketing, we rig baits to entice our targets, present them with an offer they can’t refuse and close the sale by reeling them in.

Often times, I fish with just one or two other fisherman on the boat. Since we are limited in numbers, when we have multiple fish hooked up at one time, we find that the entire crew is busy reeling in fish leaving no one to drive the boat. When this occurs we depend on a tool that provides an additional person on the boat. It’s known as an ‘autopilot’. An autopilot system on a boat does what you tell it and it doesn’t talk back. All you have to do is turn it on, set your course and you’re free to focus on what’s most important.

Without this tool, a limited crew would scramble around trying to make everything happen when chaos hits. The boat would wander aimlessly with no one at the helm. Now that we have an autopilot system, we turn it on, set the course and focus on attracting and catching fish.

In my insurance agency, I have a similar tool to help me and my staff focus on reeling in sales. I’ve set the direction for our agency and all of our marketing is automated with multiple campaigns running simultaneously to various niches, cross selling to current clients and nurturing with birthday and holiday wishes. Of course I monitor everything from my “helm” to make sure all of my campaigns are producing. If one campaign is not producing, it’s pulled out of the water just like an unattractive bait. I’ll replace it with another with just a few keystrokes.

Before we automated our marketing, our agency had inconsistent months of new production. We would launch campaigns after weeks of development and then find ourselves so busy with producing the new business we would place our marketing on hold. Over a year’s time, a graph of our production report looked like a mountain range with peaks and valleys.

Today, it’s much more consistent and predictable. I can also control the flow when times get too crazy or when we are short staffed. I simply reduce the number of prospects in a particular campaign or pause some campaigns altogether. When a lull in production occurs, I turn them back on or resort to my tackle box full of other campaigns ready to deploy.

Conditions dictate the type of baits we use while fishing. Cloudy days require brighter colored lures to stand out. Darker colors produce better on sunny days. Conditions also effect what species is biting and different species require different bait.  Being prepared with various strategies to deploy as the conditions dictate can make the most out of the day fishing. The same rules apply to our marketing. As our targets react to our marketing whether good or bad, we must be able to adjust quickly by changing headlines, offers, and calls to action. We need to be able to easily increase the exposure of a campaign that is producing or pull it if it’s not.

The greatest benefit of automated marketing is it gives the ability to plan and prepare for growth. It takes “hoping you’ll grow” out of your future. You know you will grow and by how much. You’ll have much more control because you’re in command of your marketing direction.

My agency is now moving into a larger office space due to our expected growth. We are upgrading our technology with new workstations and VOIP telephones to handle the growth more efficiently. Making an investment like this would have been risky in the past and could have proven to be costly. Today, I have no doubt that it will pay off.

These are all based on some of the great questions and feedback, I received from my first post.

1. Where do your eyes go first? As we all know we only have a few seconds to make that first impression. Where do your eyes go when your site opens up? Make sure it’s to something important.
2. What is your site about? If someone visits your site can they really tell what it is about? Does your site look like a big business card; is it a corporate looking site? If someone can’t immediately tell what they are looking at, it’s time for a redesign.
3. Is the important info above the fold? You will hear Tom and I talk about this all the time. Being above the fold is an old newspaper term internet guys have stolen. It’s referencing the important front page article that displays in the top portion of a folded newspaper; the most valuable positioning available.
4. In the online world it’s when you have your video and opt in forms on the top portion of your page. If clients have to scroll down to get the good stuff or watch your video, chances are they will just click away.
5. Does the site look like a Jackson Pollock painting? (Yes Coach Russ has some culture in him). If the fonts, colors, graphics make this thing look like a piece of modern art, maybe you went too far. Distraction means lost visitors.
6. Do you have a clear call to action? I frequently have to explain why we use landing pages vs. agency websites during demos. If you are targeting a Florist niche, you don’t want them coming to your agency site, where they have to look around for the commercial quote button. You want them going to a targeted site with a clear call to action that gets them to do something; call your for a quote.

I have outlined five simple ways to test your pages. One key to remember when testing is to only change one thing at a time, this way you can monitor the improvement or decline in response and adjust quickly.

1.  Test Different Calls To Action: Try incorporating an imperative verb into your call to action:

    Buy now
    Order today
    Add to cart
    Get a quote

If you already have this, try mixing in some benefits with the imperative verb:

    Get a free download today
    Start a free trial today

Also, try varying headline length. A call to action can be as simple as “order today” or as elaborate as “get your free whitepaper download today”.

Test & experiment with all different types of headlines. “Get started with a free trial today” is a longer variation of “Start a free trial today”.

One key mistake I often see is that agents save the call to action for last. Aim to have call to actions above the fold where they can be seen and don’t be afraid to repeat it several times on your landing page.

Did you know that lead forms in the upper right hand side of the page convert better than on other places on the page?

2.  Test Different Headlines: It is amazing how changing one word can boost response. This is especially the case if landing page headlines are tied to key word searches. Here are some different ways to test headlines:

Try making your headline into a question.

Headline: Save money now.

Question headline: Who else wants to save 37% on their insurance?

Also, try testing numbers vs. words in headlines:

Get the top five tips on how to save big on your restaurant insurance.

Get the top 5 tips on how to save big on your restaurant insurance.

3.  Features & Benefits

Try testing the number of features and benefits you include on a page. What is the magic number? Is it 3, 4 or 5? The number of features and benefits do not need to be the same. Heavier on the benefit side is usually better.

If you don’t talk about all your features and benefits, try testing the ones you don’t use. There may be some good ones in there.

4.  Try Testing Long Landing Pages vs. Short Pages:  Here are some page modification suggestions.

One of the members in my personal mastermind that uses Agency Command was shocked at his test of long vs. short pages; hint the short page won.

    Adjust the length of the marketing copy on the landing page.
    Try testing a one-column page vs. a 2 or 3 column page.
    Eliminate distracting elements on a landing page (for example elements that don’t feed into your conversion goals). Keep your visitors focused.
    Try testing product options. Can they be reduced to one or two important ones?
    Try testing larger & clearer product images (if applicable).

5.  Test Graphics: Add bullets, circles, comics, pictures, handwritten fonts to your page.

The easiest way is to use copy doodles ( a tool many AC users love). It will help you spice up any site.

Use pictures to help you sell, sites like Dreamstime offer pictures you can purchase to use on your landing pages. It’s said pictures tell a thousand words and when you are trying to get a point across in the few seconds you have they can be invaluable.

So the big takeaway here is test, test, test. Figure out what works and try to improve on it.

RL

When I heard that (pardon my French) Lame ass excuse, for the fifth time, I couldn’t stop myself, I had to ladle out some hard advice and damn the consequences.

“ I said that his #1 job as the owner of the company, was MARKETING! Everything Else is a distant Second!

After all, it’s the marketing that’s driving sales and without sales there is no need for anyone else in the company. No need for customer service representatives, receptionists, producers, no one. This is also one of the only areas in your business that you should NEVER turn over to someone else. Virtually everything else can be done by someone else but not your marketing or at least not the management of your marketing. As Tom would say, “Hire an assistant to row the boat, but you keep hold of the rudder”.

Now I’ve probably just offended a bunch of people with this and while I truly do appreciate all of the people that work in your company and all that you do, you need to never forget this message: MARKETING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ANY ORGANIZATION, ESPECIALLY YOURS!

After I calmed down we had a good talk about what he should implement immediately to get more done and how to start delegating things that don’t make him money. Things like opening your mail, answering every email that comes in, doing your own accounting. If you can, delegate or outsource the tasks that don’t directly relate to growing your business.  Spend more time doing what you want to do and what makes you money.  Drop the excuses and fix the problem right now.

Even though he was starting to see the big picture, we still had a few humps to get over.  He was worried what the staff might think or clients if he didn’t answer every email within seconds of it arriving or rush in to save the world when staff have an issue. That’s when I passed on a few more words of wisdom from one of my mentors.

IF YOU ALLOW OTHERS TO RUN YOUR LIFE (and consume your time) THEY’LL DO IT!!

I could actually hear him nodding his head and he finally said “You are so right and it ends now,” and then he thanked me for pointing this out. He even suggested I write a blog post on it. When I called for my final follow up a few weeks later, everything we had spoken about had been accomplished and a few extra things as well. He is making more money and has a lot less stress than before.

Does this sound like it could be your life? your agency?  Then take some advice from Coach Russ, delegate what you can, outsource what you need to and master what you must, which is your Marketing.

RL

PS. A great book on this subject is the Four Hour Workweek  by Tim Ferris. It’s a must read.