| TECHNOLOGY & YOUR AGENCY |
Spend money to make money
By Ryan Hanley , Agency Nation
Y ou ’ re going to have to spend money . There it is . There is no free version of success online . You are always going to pay . Everyone pays somehow . And there are four ways to do so . The first three are fairly obvious :
• Some will pay with their own time ,
• Others will pay by allocating resources ,
• Yet others will pay with capital .
The reality for most agencies will be a combination of these three .
missed opportunity The independent insurance industry has a long tradition of guarding our time , resources and capital . What do we do then , when faced with the decision of “ pay and grow ” versus “ business as usual ?”
We abstain . We wait . We kick the can . We bury our head in the sand and keep doing what we ’ ve always done .
The fourth way independent agencies pay for digital marketing is in the opportunity cost of not engaging . In many ways , the opportunity cost of inactive can be the most expensive way in which an agency pays for digital marketing .
Don ’ t believe me ? A few days ago I was chatting with Roger Sitkins and he shared an incredible statistic with me : Generally speaking , for every $ 125,000 in revenue an agency generates , they can expect an additional $ 1,000,000 at sale time .
Even a modest amount of focused work on digital marketing can generate $ 125,000 in revenue over 12-18 months . Are you willing to leave $ 1,000,000 on the table ?
how to optimize what you pay
It ’ s inevitable , we ’ re going to pay for success online . That doesn ’ t mean we spend without regard . Here are a few ways to optimize what you pay for digital marketing :
1 ) The office is expensive Your office space is a fixed and heavy cost to daily agency operations . Additionally , the millennial workforce has an increasing desire for workplace flexibility . Why keep costs high when much of the work your agency does ( i . e . service calls , outbound marketing and digital marketing ) can be done remotely at a lower cost ?
I know for many agencies this is a cultural step too far ( we ’ re dealing with these issues currently at TrustedChoice . com ). But for those principals looking at their agency as a business and not a lifestyle , providing low cost remote options is a boon opportunity .
2 ) Have a goal for every marketing dollar Digital advertising is not digital marketing . Digital advertising is a subset of digital marketing . This is an important distinction to understand . Buying display ads is not digital marketing , it ’ s digital advertising . There is nothing wrong with digital advertising . Nothing .
Digital marketing is a broad term to explain the work we do in creating content , social media and email marketing . Here is the traditional cost / benefit analysis of digital marketing versus digital advertising :
Digital marketing is lower cost ( than digital advertising ) in terms of dollars and creates long-tail results which can last years ( at almost no cost ). The downsides to digital marketing are a need for more upfront resources and more lag time to results .
Digital advertising can generate almost immediate results and comes with a high degree of targeting potential . The downsides of digital advertising are higher cost and no long-tail benefit .
What is a long-tail benefit ? You write a blog post and that post lives forever on your website attracting new potential insurance buyers as long as your website exists . Display ads on the other hand only produce results until the money runs out . Once you ’ re out of money the ads stop showing . This doesn ’ t mean that display ads don ’ t serve a purpose , they definitely do , just not the purpose most people assume .
4 KANSAS INSURANCE AGENT & BROKER | January-February 2016 |