America's Benefit Specialist March 2023

WEBSITES GONE WRONG

2. YOU SERVE THE SAME FARE EVERY TIME. You would never serve your dinner guests the same meal each time they visit, and your website shouldn’t either. With the flexibility and accessibility of content-management sys tems such as WordPress, there’s no excuse for no updates. At the very minimum, you need to have a blog and you should strive to publish an original, new article every week. Among other things, blogging keeps your content fresh, shows that your company is a thought leader, builds SEO and attracts more traffic to your website. In fact, according Hubspot, com panies that blog have 55% more website visitors than those who don’t. If you add blog roll widget to your home page, your home page will continuously be updated with your latest posts. Beyond blogging, I recommend that you change your content download offers occasionally so repeat visitors can discover something new. 3. YOU GIVE NO GUIDANCE. When you entertain guests, you let them know the sched ule, where to place their coats and when the meal is served. You need to do the same thing on your website. Guide them through it and tell them how to get information. One way to give guidance is by using calls to action. Calls to action are callout boxes or even copy links that lead readers to a landing page where they can request more information. In other words, CTAs are the gateways to your offers. Your on-screen web copy provides introductory information. Your CTA and offers tell readers how to learn even more. Remember, you’ll never generate leads if you don’t ask for them. 4. YOU FAIL TO MOVE THE RELATIONSHIP FORWARD. When you personally entertain, you make plans for the future. As your guests leave, you make suggestions to get together again. You also need to offer ways to move online relationships forward. Give your audience a reason to take a next step. Offer a newsletter, a white paper, a case study, a free analysis or a discount. Just remember that buyers make decisions in baby steps. Your offers should deliver maximum value with minimum risk for the reader. Most visitors don’t want to talk to a person yet, and that’s exactly why the most common offer in the insurance industry “get a free consulta tion” is pretty ineffective. Insurance prospects prefer instant downloads, and they’re usually willing complete a landing page form to get the information they desire. 5. YOU DON’T PROVIDE ENOUGH OPTIONS FOR FUTURE INTERACTION. When you invite your guest to interact further, there may be a conflict. He may not be interested in the activity you’re suggesting. For example, you may offer a workers’ compen sation case study to someone who doesn’t have employees. So, on your website, you need several suggestions to move

the relationship forward with a variety of calls to action and coordinating landing pages. Offer something for everyone. A landing page is simply a website page that includes a form for the visitor to complete. There is a direct correlation between the number of landing pages on a website and the number of leads generated. At a minimum, you should have five landing pages. But don’t stop there. Plan to add more landing pages at a rate of one per month. Landing pages are short, concise and serve one purpose—to sell the offer. The reader should know why she cannot survive without this valuable piece of information that you’re giving away, and why she MUST take the next step and complete your form. Don’t let her leave empty-handed. 6. CONVERSATION IS WEAK. WHEN ENTERTAINING, THE HOST NEEDS TO KEEP THE CONVERSATION MOVING, AND THE SAME IS TRUE ONLINE. The most compelling web pages provide chunks of easy to-digest information. An effective web page starts with an interesting and keyword-focused headline. It’s surprising how many insurance web pages are completely missing the most important part – the headline! The body copy should be broken into short sections divided by subheads for easy scanning. The sidebar is an important piece of online real estate not to be neglected. It’s the perfect place for your calls to action. Finally, don’t forget to build in links throughout the copy so that readers don’t dead-end. You want to guide them through your website. It’s important to make your content meaty. Exceptional insurance websites incorporate testimonials, case studies, examples and value-added information to download. This added element of credibility often compels visitors to be come customers. 7. GUESTS ARE CONFUSED. IF YOU SERVE DESSERT BEFORE THE MAIN COURSE, YOUR GUESTS ARE LIKELY TO BE CONFUSED. The same is true online: Guests expect an intuitive experi ence. When it comes to navigation, nothing beats simplicity. Avoid building more than three levels of pages. 8. NO ONE CAN FIND YOU. If you invite someone to your office, you probably provide an address. But what happens if there is no address? Do you have a large, illuminated sign by the main road? Is your building clearly marked? You need to take similar steps online because many of your guests won’t have your address, AKA your domain name. They will stumble upon you if you’ve made it easy. However, if your website is not search engine-optimized, stumbling upon you is far from easy. You’ll never appear in the search results when someone types in a phrase such as “professional liability for architects.” It’s important to remem-

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