July 1, 2009

7 Web Mistakes That Are Telling Prospects You Don’t Want Them

Posted by Rey Villar

You’ve invested in an online marketing campaign, and the result has been decent traffic to your website. There’s only one problem: your visitors aren’t converting into prospects!

You’re not alone. Many agents and brokers have run into this same problem. They set up a website and start an online marketing campaign that drives lots of visitors to their site — but have few or no clients to show for it.
If this sounds familiar, chances are your website is committing one (or more) of the seven most common mistakes agents make on their website. Unless you take the time to fix these seven common mistakes, your website will continue telling visitors they should go elsewhere.

1. No Sales Priorities
Agents who sell several different lines fall into this trap. They try to give equal space on their home page for all their products.

The problem is that your products aren’t all the same. Some products will always outsell the rest because they offer the best value or are just more popular.

It’s time you take a page out of the retail industry’s handbook. More than one hundred years of retailing experience has taught successful storeowners that they need to devote their prime retail space to their top-selling products.
That’s why you don’t usually see generic brands at the eye-level or end-of-aisle shelves that draw the most attention. That’s where retailers put their top-selling items or special offers.

Similarly, your website should have clear priorities. Your top-selling products should have top billing, especially on your homepage.
Here’s another trick used by retailers. They place complementary products next to their best sellers. Just as you’ll find chocolate syrup and whipped cream next to the ice cream freezers, you may also want to include complementary products next to your top-selling plans.

The problem is that your products aren’t all the same. Some products will always outsell the rest because they offer the best value or are just more popular.
It’s time you take a page out of the retail industry’s handbook. More than one hundred years of retailing experience has taught successful storeowners that they need to devote their prime retail space to their top-selling products.
That’s why you don’t usually see generic brands at the eye-level or end-of-aisle shelves that draw the most attention. That’s where retailers put their top-selling items or special offers.
Similarly, your website should have clear priorities. Your top-selling products should have top billing, especially on your homepage.
Here’s another trick used by retailers. They place complementary products next to their best sellers. Just as you’ll find chocolate syrup and whipped cream next to the ice cream freezers, you may also want to include complementary products next to your top-selling plans.

2. Dead Ends
By providing good, informative content, you’ll have a better chance of converting more website visitors into submitted applications — as well as ranking higher on search engines.
But all that good content will go to waste if your page is a dead end. Those dead-end pages are an invitation to your prospects to jump away to some other agent’s website.
A dead end is when a page doesn’t tell visitors what to do next. Yes, they may be able to figure it out. But why take a chance?
Every page should lead the prospect to another page…preferably a page that leads them to a buying decision. For example, take a look at most agents’ About Us pages. They talk about the agent or the agency, but that’s usually it.
What’s next for your visitors? They have to backtrack out of that dead-end page to find where to go next.
Make it easy for your prospects by always suggesting the next steps. Invite them to review additional information on specific programs or complete a quote request form — and become your lead.
3. No Trust Building
Most first-time, and even some repeat, visitors to your site know absolutely nothing about you.
If they’ve had any type of bad experience with an insurance provider or ecommerce site in the past, they probably also won’t trust you. Unless you deal with this trust issue, there’s a good chance you’ll lose a lot of business without ever knowing it.
Having the right elements on your website can help you build trust the moment a visitor sees your website. Here are five easy fixes you can put to use immediately:

To make sure you’re not losing any prospects, your website should always offer visitors multiple contact options:
• Email
• Local phone number
• Toll-free phone number
• Online form
• Office address
Some websites now also offer a chat option, allowing prospects to chat directly with a sales agent through the website.
5. Insufficient Call To Action
Always Be Closing. The ABCs of sales also apply to your website.
In many ways, your website is your virtual sales assistant. With the right design, features and content, your website can engage and guide your visitors. It can also convert them into genuine exclusive leads and submitted applications.
But first you have to ask for the sale!
Yes, some prospects will take the bull by the horn and complete an application on your website — without ever talking to you. But many want to be asked. Most of the rest need to be asked.
This is why every page in your website must have a strong, clear and obvious call to action. This call should invite the visitor to take the next step. Whether it’s to call you right away or use your online self-service quote engine, your call to action should be big and bright.
6. Links to More Information
Studies have shown that most Americans today will first use the Internet to research any major purchase.
But if you visit most agent websites, you’ll see that educational material is in very short supply…or, at least, very hard to find.
Yes, your website is a marketing tool. But many online shoppers first want to be educated before they spend their hard-earned cash. Invest the time in creating detailed and easy-to-read pages that will help prospects better understand what they need and want:

• Glossary. Create a glossary of insurance terms. You may know the difference between a co-pay and a deductible, but your prospect may not.
• FAQ. Build a page for Frequently Asked Questions with clear answers.
• Program recommendations. Consider common life situations and suggest plans that would best serve a prospect’s budget and needs.
• Insurance-buying process. Consumers buying individual insurance or shopping online for the first time may be unsure of what’s involved from the time they fill out an application to when they finally get an approval.
There’s an added bonus to providing good content. In addition to guiding prospects to a buying decision, it can also help you rank higher on search engines.
7. Typos and Grammatical Errors
Finally, take the time to spell-check and proofread your work before you post it online. Better yet, have a second, fresher set of eyes proofread your work as well.
Your writing will influence how people see you. A missing comma or period may not be so bad. But if your website visitors see a pattern of misspellings and grammatical errors, they may start to wonder how attentive you are to the details.
Many agents and brokers believe that typos and grammatical errors are small things. Yes, that may be true.
But all the tips provided here are small things. Taken together, they can have a huge impact on your website’s conversion rates — and your agency’s bottom line.