"Putting Prices on Your Home Page Makes Sense (and Sales) on Your Web Site"
After selling insurance online successfully for over twelve years on the Internet, I have learned one thing: It is ESSENTIAL to talk DOLLARS with your viewers. And it must be done on the HOME PAGE!
One main reason it is very difficult for most brokers and agents to sell insurance on the Internet is that most insurance agent web sites are nothing more than glorified "calling cards" - with little or no pricing information. Price is such a "variable" you may think it would be difficult to provide this sort of information online. But the truth is, that there are many ways to provide pricing, even if you can't really give the price! Here is the bottom line: Websites I have designed that allude to price, give minimum policy costs, or give pricing examples, are FAR more successful than sites that don't.
When a viewer lands on your web site it is because they are looking to BUY insurance. To those BUYING insurance, the thing they want to know most of all is: "how much?" The price doesn't have to be exact - it just has to be a suggestion to whet the appetite.
I sell insurance to customers even when I KNOW that my price is higher than some of the competition simply because I tell them what it will cost on my website. They can't get that elsewhere, because most agents don't understand what I am telling you. If a viewer should contact them, they are too busy to give quotes, don't call their potential clients back, or don't know that giving a figure is vital. But I DO contact them immediately when they contact me. If your viewers can get a price indication fast, they will often buy.
Ways to Get Pricing On Your Web Site
So how do you give pricing on your website? Some coverages lend themselves better than others to this theory. For instance, special event policies are fairly stable in price - you may know that a wedding will cost $300 to insure, so you can list the price on the website. This will sell. Same goes with bonds, umbrella, and other such products. Life and health insurance is quite easy to compute and put on a simple table on the main page of your site. The ideas in doing this are limitless - but they WORK!
When designing your web site keep this in mind: If you get a viewer to your site, don't let them leave without a PRICE on your main page. One way to do this is to give pricing examples based on insurance you have sold previously. For example, if you know the Director's and Officer's liability minimum premium is $1,000, you can show this on your site as "D&O coverage starts at only $1,000 per year!". Doing this will get viewers to take the next step and apply for a quote.
Now, what about those lines of coverage you cannot estimate so readily? When you can't provide a price - try to do it anyway! You can accomplish this by showing something like this on your site: "Auto Insurance for a 28 year old male in San Francisco, with three tickets, needing an SR22 filing, and basic liability on a 1988 Ford Mustang, ONLY $88.00 per month! - CLICK HERE FOR YOUR QUOTE NOW." This "whets" the viewer's appetite, and even though their price will vary somewhat, at least they have some idea as to where they may stand. If you give a handful of pricing situations, you are bound to appeal to most visitors in some way. Remember though - after a visitor requests an actual quote using your form - you must get a response to them right away - no more than 24 hours. I have found that quotes that are more than a day old have a much lower sale ratio than new ones. In fact, if you can call the viewer the moment you get the quote, that is the best - and it is impressive!
Another alternative is providing a "chart" for your clients, where they can look at a territory (let's say San Francisco/Los Angeles), and their driving time, and their driving record, and have rates mapped out - of course letting your viewers know these are "indications" only - and to call or e-mail you for an exact price. These are time consuming to prepare, but they have worked well for our agency and sold many a policy. Take some time to brainstorm, and improve your sales online!
Showing "dollars" makes "cents" (sense!)
Gary Savelli
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