People watching has always been a favorite pastime of mine. People are never boring. They’ll always surprise you.

I often feel a little shame when I do it, though. Sitting at the coffee shop window watching passersby, one feels like bit of a voyeur.

Of course, there is a line that separates human curiosity from voyeurism. (Unlike Jimmy Stewart, I don’t use a telescope.)

Anyway, it was inspiring to read a post on Marketing Profs by Lewis Green about watching people in order to become a more effective marketer and salesperson. Lewis wrote about his experience observing people at the airport. (Perhaps the best people-watching venues in the world are airports.)

It bears repeating that the best salespeople are keen observers of human behavior. They’re aware. They pick up physical cues. They look for clues in a person’s posture, dress, and tone. They know when a smile is real or fake. They know when their pitch is working and when it’s not.

Less effective salespeople are more detached. Less interested in others, they’re more concerned about themselves and closing the sale. They have a spiel and façade that don’t change. That spiel may be compelling and the façade impressive, but they’re static. Less effective salespeople don’t read each situation and adjust accordingly. A lot of the time this approach works. Except when it crashes and burns.

The point is that the world—the airport, the grocery store line, the coffee shop—is the saleperson and marketer’s laboratory. If you’re not observing, you’re not improving.

Posted by Jeb Foster at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

You're about to embark on part two of The Anatomy of Successful Web Sites: Building Trust to Earn Business, as published in the March issue of the TAAR Report. To read part one, just click here.

Critical moments are those at which your visitors get stuck. And when visitors get stuck on your site, they bail and move on to the next site. Maybe to your competitor’s.

Common critical moments include:

• Trying to figure out your web site menu
• Filling out a quote, registration, or contact form
• Wondering whether it’s safe to provide personal information
• Finding information or an answer to their question
• Trying to contact a human

According to Hot Text, “If users fail in these tasks, your site fails.” By assessing the critical moments of your site, you can better anticipate a visitor’s needs as they navigate through it.

Continue reading "The Anatomy of Successful Insurance Sites: Part Two" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

The New York Times has a cool calculator that lets you compare costs between buying and renting. I imagine this could also come in handy if you're thinking of renting or buying space for your agency.

At any rate, check it out here. (Registration is free.)

[Hat tip]: The Consumerist

Posted by Megan Mahan at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Part two in a two-part series. Read the first entry here.

Last week I wrote about some of InsureMe’s forays into social media marketing—notably our blogs and videos. I promised to return with an exploration of the pros and cons of social media marketing and some resources for small businesses who want to get into SMM.

So here goes...

Continue reading "Should You Get into Social Media Marketing?" »

Posted by Jeb Foster at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
 

You're about to embark on a recap of The Anatomy of Successful Web Sites: Building Trust to Earn Business, as published in the March issue of the TAAR Report. This is part of a series of posts recapping my "TAarticles."

In case TIME Magazine’s person of the year (“You”!) didn’t tip you off, we’re at the crux of a customer revolution. And the World Wide Web is almost solely responsible for it. From communication to commodities, the internet helps today’s consumer get what they need with a few clicks of a button.

The ease and accessibility of the internet has led to growing use in the financial services industry—recent Forrester Research figures showed a rise in online insurance shopping, with 72% of auto insurance shoppers using the web to find a policy. While that figure may not seem particularly noteworthy, what is surprising is that 64% of those shoppers said that a site’s ease of use was “extremely” or “very important” in their selection of an auto policy.

Successful agencies are paying close attention to that 64%, designing sites that exceed visitor expectations. Because when that happens, trust is earned. And while the web may have changed the way we find and buy goods and services, one significant sales tenet has remained constant:

Trust = Relationship = New Business.

Yep. Even on the web.

Continue reading "The Anatomy of Successful Insurance Sites: Part One" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 02:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
 

Boy, there were lots of juicy morsels waiting for me in my feed reader this morning. But in the end, it was a tidbit from MarketingVox that stood out from all the others.

The headline: Companies Ignore Half of Customer Emails

A recent customer service study by Hornstein Associates, a Connecticut-based marketing firm, found that only half of the companies studied bothered to respond to customer emails at all—which is down from the 86 percent high from five years ago. Furthermore, only 33 percent of top firms responded to customer emails within a 24-hour period. This is down from a whopping 63 percent in 2002.

The survey studied the email response rate of 49 top firms, including Microsoft, Toyota, Apple, Starbucks and Wal-Mart, which were selected from Fortune's list of most admired companies.

Well, you might be thinking, these are enormous companies. Of course they can't respond to every customer email.

Can't they? Scott Hornstein of Hornstein Associates disagrees:

Continue reading "Do You Ignore Customer Emails?" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Part one in a two-part series.

First, some definitions are in order.

Let’s start with the term social media. Social media are web sites that, among other things…

• Promote sharing. Examples: YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and social bookmarking sites like Digg, del.icio.us, and Reddit
• Build communities. Examples: MySpace, Facebook, MeetUp, LinkedIn
• Advance conversations. Examples: blogs, wikis and pretty much any site that has a comments section

The most widely known social media site is probably MySpace. If you don’t already have a MySpace page, the chances are good that your son, daughter, boyfriend, girlfriend, college roommate, spouse, or pet has one.

Continue reading "Should You Get into Social Media Marketing?" »

Posted by Jeb Foster at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
 

As a person who writes for the web, dabbles in web site usability, and has an overall love for pleasing aesthetics, I always chalked up my dislike for crazy fonts to personal preference, much like my love of green olives on pizza.

But I'm not alone, according to a recent analysis conducted by the Wichita State University. In fact, the usability study found that intricate fonts are unprofessional and therefore deemed untrustworthy by the reader of your email, web site or blog.

While some of us find this analysis fairly obvious, it's quite clear that some folks don't. I've received a plethora of emails from industry professionals with borderline hideous email fonts and signatures. We're talking flowery, near-illegible fonts that strain the eyes and hurt the head.

Your best bet?

Can the crazy fonts and stick with a simple Arial or Times New Roman 9 to 11-point font when it comes to electronic communications. Both of those fonts are easy to read in various screen resolutions and web browsers.

For more font analysis, check out the full Wichita State University report.

Posted by Megan Mahan at 01:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
 

How do people read your site’s images?

Are they fresh in an approachable, homemade sense or are they stale in an amateur, point-and-shoot sense? Are they clean and professional or cold and corporate?

Most people agree that web site images are important, but they believe their importance stems merely from the fact that people don’t like to read text.

In reality, images serve a more important function than providing a respite from copy.

While people are indeed reluctant to read the written word, they voraciously ‘read’ photographs. They interpret them within a fraction of a second and make judgments on the worth of the entire site—and business—based on those interpretations.

When it comes to web site imagery, looks can kill. They can kill conversion, that is. So it’s important to make sure the quality and content of your site’s photography helps your cause.

Continue reading "Is Hack Photography Killing Your Web Site?" »

Posted by Jeb Foster at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Television advertising. In the financial services sector, it brings to mind two things:

1. Big, expensive ad campaigns
2. The kind of low-budge ads running on public access channels at 3 AM

If you haven’t gotten into television advertising, the abovementioned is probably why. You don’t have the funds to launch a campaign of Geico-sized proportions, and you refuse to settle for those nerdy—and still costly—late night ads.

Spotzer is just one up-and-coming company who’s working to make TV advertising affordable for everyone. How does Spotzer cut costs? By creating quasi-pre-packaged air spots that buyers purchase, and then adapt with various images and voiceovers to fit their specific needs.

According to Springwise, Spotzer also keeps costs down by employing the following innovations:

• Using excess spaces at large production studios and creating a batch of commercials at one time—using the same resources (like actors) traditionally required for as single commercial shoot.
• Purchasing unused footage from ad agencies and film schools.
• Accessing the BBC’s image and video archive. (Hello, cool retro images!)
• Creating an online platform to allow freelances and amateurs to contribute footage.

Keep your eye on Spotzer. This is a pretty exciting and inventive space, from which smaller businesses could well profit.

Posted by Megan Mahan at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
 

The modern era witnessed the rise of bureaucracies— bureaucracies in government, corporations, schools, hospitals and even churches.

In many cases, these complex administrative systems brought welcome efficiency and consistency. Paradoxically, though, they also brought incredible waste and cold monotony.

When it comes to customer service, bureaucratic processes can be assets or liabilities. The key for anyone in a service role is to know when such processes are helping and when they’re hurting both your cause and the customer’s.

Here are a couple of examples of when to skip the process:

1. When your customer/client has a question or request that can be taken care of quickly and painlessly.
2. When you’ve got a pathologically disturbed, obscenity-shouting customer and you just want to get off the phone.

Here’s an audio example, courtesy of Wired, of what happens when a customer service rep ignores both of these examples. Wired describes the exchange as “a battle royale between the rank idiocy of an angry man who can't figure out how to press a power button, versus the institutional incompetence of a support system that can't tell him how to do exactly that without climbing a pointless mountain of customer verification bureacracy.”

Disclaimer: this recording is not for the faint of heart. It is full of obscenities.

Posted by Jeb Foster at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
 

A new report from Forrester Marketing came out last week, assuring the marketing community that email marketing is still an effective means of reaching consumers.

While email click-through rates haven't changed since 2003 (they're still hovering around five percent), Forrester says email recipients and are web retailers' best customers—they found that consumers who bought products advertised via email spend 138% more than "typical non-readers."

Email advertising is enticing to most marketers for a couple reasons:

1. As Forrester points out, email provides near-universal penetration: 97 percent of consumers and 94 percent of marketers use it.
2. Email is a fairly simple way to contact past and present customers about your offerings.

Nonetheless, if you're thinking about putting together an email campaign, there are some tips to keep in mind:

Continue reading "7 Tips for Email Marketing Campaigns" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 02:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Recently, Jeb posted a couple reminders on good customer service—which includes keeping your customers informed of changes and owning up to mistakes when they happen. (Check them out here and here.)

The recent Menu Foods debacle is a great example of how not to handle a screw-up. I myself was a little shocked at how difficult it was to find information about the recall—including what brands I should avoid—on their web site.

Marketing Profs posted a great article on the subject today. Contributor Jeanne Bliss points to the Menu Foods saga as a missed opportunity for a number of reasons. Here's the redux:

Continue reading "Menu Foods: Where's the Human Factor?" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

As you know, InsureMe was at the annual AMSUG conference in Orlando last week. Having been back for a couple days now, I've been able to reflect on our experiences there—pinpointing what worked, what failed miserably, and how we can do better at the next trade show.

So for all you insurance folks who are going to be manning the exhibit hall at future events, this post is for you.

7 Considerations for Trade Show Success:

1. Make sure your team is on the same page. I'm all about personal accountability, but it's a good idea to get your conference team together beforehand to make sure everyone's clear on exhibit hours and guidelines, hotel check-in/check-out times, etc. I realize this seems to be a no-brainer, but I assure you it is a necessary step.

2. Get some extraordinary swag. If you're heading to a big industry function such as AMSUG, you can bet at least one of your competitors will be on hand. Accordingly, your goal is probably to divert attention from their booth to yours. And let's face it: people love their free stuff. If you can give attendees something fun and different, you'll stand out. We learned that with the InsureMe stress balls; they've been a hit at every convention we've taken them to.

Tip: Look for promotional items that are action-oriented. They'll catch the eye. And don't forget to print your company's web site and phone number on the goods. We totally dropped the [stress] ball there. Doh.

Continue reading "Lessons from AMS: How to Ensure Trade Show Success" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Last Friday I posted about the importance of not leaving your clients hanging. The reason—beyond that it’s just a nice thing to do—is that it generates goodwill and often inspires more patience on the part of your customer.

The image to the right depicts a perfect example of exactly what you should be doing for your clients. (Sorry for the poor image quality—it was taken with a cell phone camera.)

Recently, the owner of the building that houses the Agent Blog world headquarters decided to do some remodeling.

For the past week or so, teams of construction workers have been tearing down drywall, ripping up carpet, and in general creating lot of dust and noise. Even through my enormous headphones, which engulf my entire head, I can occasionally hear the sounds of demolition.

Each morning I walk into the lobby of the building to see a new message posted on a dry erase board (the one pictured). The message describes what day will bring—loud demolition, quiet construction, dust, ceaseless banging, etc.

It’s a small courtesy, but it’s one that goes a long way toward building goodwill.

Posted by Jeb Foster at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
 

We're back from AMS!

I apologize for my lack of posting last week; I couldn't find a strong wireless connection to save my life! But we had a great time in Orlando—talked with plethora of great agents and industry gurus, improved our hand-eye coordination with the awesomely awesome InsureMe stress balls, and became well-acquainted with other vendors and exhibitors. Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by to say hello!

I hope to post a recap later this week, but for now, enjoy this fun tidbit from Landing the Deal, entitled, "Honking in the Tunnel."

Because if you can get your prospects to have fun, you will enjoy great sales success. And that's a fact. We've got a quite extensive prospecting list from AMS to back it up. :)

Until next time, how do you get your clientele honking?

Posted by Megan Mahan at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Tip of the day: If a client is waiting—on the phone, in the waiting room, for documents to arrive in the mail—it helps to check in and update him or her on the progress of things. They’ll appreciate it and will likely wait longer (and with more patience) than they would otherwise.

If your reaction to this tip is "Duh! Who doesn't do that?" then good for you. Keep doing what you're doing. However, if my experience as a consumer is any guide, many of you probably need to be reminded.

Posted by Jeb Foster at 03:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

1. Be gruff and authoritarian. You’re trying to sell a policy here, not make a friend.
2. Use high-pressure sales tactics. Be aggressive and don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.
3. Make sure your prospect knows how busy you are—and that he/she has already taken up a lot of your time.
4. Don’t actually listen to your customer. Pretend to listen by throwing in an occasional “m'kay.” And if you can get some other work done while they drone on, go for it.
5. Interrupt. Often. Finishing his/her sentences is also encouraged.
6. Tell the customer—whether it’s true or not—that they won’t find a better price anywhere else and that they should stop shopping around and just buy from you already.
7. In order to get things rolling, repeatedly ask for his/her bank information.
8. Question a male client’s masculinity when he doesn’t want to commit to buying from you.*
9. Assume that a reluctant prospect wants you to “take charge” and tell him/her what to do.
10. Act put-upon when your prospect doesn’t want to decide right away. Make sure they know how much time and effort it took you to generate a quote.

* This actually happened to an InsureMe.com visitor recently.

Posted by Jeb Foster at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

You're about to embark on part two of Revamping Your Web Site: Dog Food, Welcome Mats, and More, as published in the January issue of the TAAR Report. To read part one, just click here.

Improving Your Web Site: Three Areas to Consider

Improvement #1: Content

Content is quickly becoming the staple of a reputable insurance site, and for good reason. Well-written, topic-focused content allows insurance shoppers to answer their questions quickly and independently, while simultaneously positioning you as an insurance expert.

High-quality, relevant content is important to search engines like Google, too. When Jane Consumer enters a search term like “health quotes,” search engines like Google scour those 8 billion web pages in search of content that is relevant to Jane’s search request.

Adding great content to your site is one way to gain recognition from search engines and position your site in front of prospects that are looking for what you have to offer. And with more than three out of five people using the web to find information, this is one area in which you don’t want to be lacking.

Continue reading "Revamping Your Web Site: Part Two" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

One of the great things about uber-successful blogger Seth Godin is his ability to draw marketing lessons from the unlikeliest of sources.

His latest insight comes from listening to Neil Young’s Live at Massey Hall album. Godin observes (1) that the crowd cheers the loudest when Neil sings the oldies and (2) that Neil strains more and sings louder to make the crowd like his newer tunes—but to no avail.

No surprise, the crowd likes the old ‘crowd-pleasers’ more than the new stuff, which hasn’t been vetted by the test of time. No amount of extra stage effort, Godin says, will make the crowd instantly come around to the new songs. That’s true. But the lesson Godin derives from this fact is counter-intuitive, and I’m not sure I agree with it: “It's what you say, most of the time, not how you say it.”

Continue reading "Is It What You Say or How You Say It?" »

Posted by Jeb Foster at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Standing in the inert line at Kinko's, the woman in front of me started making what I thought was idle conversation, finally saying, "You have great skin. What do you use on it?"

What a compliment! So I spilled my daily skin regimen—product names, everything.

Then, as she was pouring over my pores, she said:

Continue reading "Always Be Prospecting" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
 

Now for some old news that bears repeating: the internet has empowered consumers. Big time.

No one better represents this new empowered consumer than disgruntled Jet Blue passenger-cum-blogger Genevieve McCaw.

McCaw and her boyfriend were among the unfortunate people held “hostage” in a grounded Jet Blue plane for 11 hours last month.

While most angry consumers complain in a low-profile way, McCaw took her beef with Jet Blue online. She created a blog called JetBlueHostage.com. In short order (it took only a few weeks), the blog became a popular clearing house for people who got snared in Jet Blue’s Valentine’s Day disaster.

Continue reading "More on the Jet Blue Saga" »

Posted by Jeb Foster at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
 

There's a thought-provoking post over at Wisdump entitled "Web 2.0 Quote." However, I think it's good fodder for those in the insurance industry where policies and companies appear to be a dime a dozen:

When all you do is copy others, you copy their mistakes, too.

It's easy to look at another sales professional, or on a larger scale, another insurance company, and adapt similar features and strategies. It's part of making good business decisions.

The caveat: Saying, "Okay. But will that work for us?

Continue reading "Copying Your Competitors" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 09:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
 

Interesting spot by Springwise today about PairUp—an online networking service matches business travelers with others traveling to any destination.

How it works:

1. You upload your contacts from Outlook (or any similar program)
2. When planning a trip, input your travel details into the program (the event, location, when you're arriving, etc.)
3. Select the contacts you'd like to track or meet up with—at the event itself, on your flight, or anyone hanging out at your particular destination

Here's a great example from Springwise:

For example, if a member is flying out to Houston, PairUp will display people that he or she might want to meet face-to-face. Either existing contacts that will be in the city at the same time, or people who work in the same industry or are attending the same event. PairUp also makes it easy to share travel plans with colleagues and coordinate meetings with new contacts. A memory-jogging trip history feature keeps tabs on past business trips, meetings and contacts made at trade shows, conferences, etc.

Like any social networking site, it's going to take a little time to build up members. But I could see PairUp enjoying similar success as MeetUp.com, which helps people with similar interests get together in the same town.

Maybe we should give it a go to connect with agents heading to the AMS conference later this month. I'll give it a shot and let you know what I think. And stay tuned for more details concerning InsureMe at AMS!

Happy networking!

Posted by Megan Mahan at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

You're about to embark on a recap of Revamping Your Web Site: Dog Food, Welcome Mats, and More, as published in the January issue of the TAAR Report. This is part a series of posts recapping my TAAR articles. (Or, as Jeb likes to call them—and me too— the "TAarticles.")

The good news: you have a web site for your agency or business. The bad news: it hasn’t been updated since Dolly the sheep was cloned.

It’s not uncommon knowledge that the insurance industry as a whole has room for online improvement. The latest Internet Standards Assessment Report (ISAR) found insurance web sites to consistently “underperform.”

But aside from the industry’s “conservative nature” and “lack of innovation” (cited in the ISAR), it seems as if many site owners treat their web sites like a novel or film—ignoring the fact that a revenue-earning web site has no definitive end and should be in a near-constant state of evolution.

But your web site matters. Here's five reasons why.

Continue reading "Revamping Your Web Site: Part One" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 

Last week, Aaron asked us about any other insurance-related blogs that we agent bloggers frequently visit. Since I know the three of us have a love affair with our [RSS] feed readers on a daily basis, I thought it would be beneficial if we compiled a list of our current favorite insurance/sales/marketing-related blogs for your perusing pleasure. (Presented in no particular order.)

Megan's Top 5:

1. Creating Passionate Users [Fodder for the present-day intricacies of customer-first sales and marketing]
2. Seth's Blog [Purple Cow Seth Godin on business, life and everything in between]
3. Copyblogger [Tips for online marketing success]
4. Marketing Profs Daily Fix [Marketing tips, commentary and news]
5. Springwise [New business ideas from around the globe]

Next up, Jeb's Top 5!

Continue reading "You Ask, We Answer: Our Favorite Business Blogs" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 01:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
 

For better or worse, we live in an age of passwords.

And with the increasing sophistication of just about everything (banking, renting movies, buying corduroys, etc.) these passwords must protect ever more important information.

Insurance agents, you have more than your own personal information to worry about—you’ve got clients who depend on you to protect their vital data.

Passwords are important, needless to say. But despite their importance, there are still hordes of people out there who punch in their name followed by ‘123’ to access their computer or e-mail account or Amazon.com profile.

Savvy, alert people, on the other hand, create passwords that include a hacker-safe assortment of capital and lowercase letters, numbers, odd word combinations and crafty neologisms. More importantly, though, they change these regularly.

So how does a smart-password-creating insurance agent keep track of his or her many rapidly changing and convoluted alpha-numeric passwords?

Should you write them down?

Continue reading "It’s a Password World" »

Posted by Jeb Foster at 02:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
 

How do you make it up to your customers when making a boo-boo?

Yesterday morning at Caribou Coffee, the happy, highly-caffeinated employees gave my drink to the wrong person. Ultimately, I ended up waiting for 10-plus minutes (in a quite empty coffee house) and was late for work.

"We're so sorry," one of the employees said. "Please come in tomorrow and drink coffee on us."

Sure, I thought as I walked out. They're not even going to remember who I am if I come in tomorrow.

But then I realized this could be good fodder for a blog post, so I went back in this morning. To say they remembered me was an understatement.

Continue reading "Caffeine & Customer Service" »

Posted by Megan Mahan at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
 

The maxim ‘dress for success,’ is about as common as ‘the early bird gets the worm.’ (And I would argue both equally relevant in the insurance industry.) But while many take the latter to heart, rising before the sun to get a head start on their daily to-dos, they let their appearance fall to the wayside.

Although it sounds shallow, people respond to well-groomed, attractive individuals. By no means am I suggesting a shopping spree or an extreme makeover, just that each of us pay a little more attention to our appearance, because you can bet everyone else is.

So you need to increase your style IQ? Don’t be too hard on yourself. Some of us have math skills, others excel in culinary pursuits and a few have a sense of style.

Some notes for the fashion-challenged readers.

Continue reading "The Age-Old Question of What to Wear" »

Posted by maribeth neelis at 05:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
 

How many times have you sat through a colleague’s PowerPoint presentation and thought: “Pretty good presentation. It could’ve been a bit drier, though.”

How many times have you met someone and thought: “Seems like a nice enough person, but she should really use more jargon when she talks.”

I think I can speak for all of humanity here: We hate boring presentations—be it a PowerPoint slide show, a personal introduction, a sales pitch or a wooden phone script. We hate stiff, bland, formal language.

Continue reading "Why We're Boring Even Though We Hate to Be Bored" »

Posted by Jeb Foster at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)