How to Start an Agency Blog

Man typing on laptop blogging image

If you want to create a blog for your agency but don’t know where to start, you’re in the “write” place (sorry, couldn’t help myself!).

Having a blog on your website can increase your website traffic and enhance your position in search engines – both of which translate to more potential clients being able find your agency online.

Additionally, a blog provides valuable information to existing clients and can help solidify their relationship with you. This makes it a win-win tool to both attract new clients and retain current accounts without spending a fortune on traditional advertising.
 

Let’s talk content

I recommend a mix of insurance and community-related articles, especially if you are trying to grow in a particular niche or geographical region. This also keeps the blog interesting to those outside the insurance industry.

Including information on community activities and events helps to position you as a local leader and resource. This can mean posting scores and highlights of local sporting events, sharing parade or festival dates, promoting local charity fundraising initiatives, etc.

You can also share pictures of staff members volunteering in the community along with a brief summary describing the event. Don’t forget to recommend or promote your clients’ businesses, as well as other local businesses and services. Be genuine and specific in your recommendations and avoid “compliment fishing” (complimenting their business with the intent that they compliment your agency in return).

When it comes to insurance topics, focus on solving problems and answering questions. If you have a particular area of expertise or niche, be sure to develop plenty of content around that. Try to use layman’s terms and stay away from technical insurance jargon.

Struggling to come up with topics? Try instead to capture conversations that you have with clients. Pick one question you answered today and write out the response you provided. If it could apply to another client, it’s worthy of becoming a blog post.
 

How to format blog articles

  • Do not aim for perfection, aim for completion.

  • Write out your blog article and let it sit overnight, then read it again with fresh eyes and make your adjustments.

  • Have another person review for typos and egregious grammatical errors before posting online.

  • Keep it conversational and relatively brief.

  • Break up large paragraphs, use headers, and incorporate bulleted lists and images into your article whenever possible.

  • Don’t try to copy someone else’s persona or be someone you’re not. If you’re serious, sarcastic, funny, etc. in real life, it’s okay to let that out in your blog posts.

  • Don’t “sell” in your articles. If your article is a thinly veiled sales pitch, readers will skip it and move on to a resource that provides real value.
     

Increase Your Reach

One piece of blog content can be shared in multiple ways to get more mileage out of your time invested to create it.

Use boosted (paid) posts on Facebook, include links to the blog in your email signature and on your website homepage, and mention the blog at every appropriate opportunity (“check out our blog for pictures of today’s event!”).

You can also use the blog content to create an email newsletter to stay in front of clients throughout the year. Be sure to use an email marketing service to ensure you’re in compliance with email spam laws.

Several companies offer low or no-cost subscriptions to their service, including MailChimp, Constant Contact, Vertical Response, Campaign Monitor, GetResponse and iContact. There are many more, but you should check with your agency management system provider first to find out if any integrate with your system.
 

What to expect

After posting your first blog article, you’ll be excited to see results and anxiously awaiting a spike in traffic to your website and social media accounts. Brace yourself, you’re probably not going to see a big jump in the beginning. Creating a digital presence is more of a marathon than a sprint, but each step you take will have a cumulative effect on your website traffic and social media reach.

Continue to post regularly, share your content across multiple platforms and track your results using a program like Google Analytics, and you will see results over time.
 

How OIA can help

OIA’s Facebook page contains many consumer-facing posts that you can use as idea-starters (give ‘em a like and share while you’re there). There are also articles on OIA’s website that focus on topics such as avoiding contractor fraud, what to know before car shopping, identity theft, renters insurance and more. You can use these articles in their entirety, just be sure to tweak them so they’re personalized to your agency.

Already started and want to make sure you’re on track? Send me your first blog article to review. I’ll give you tips to improve your content or a shiny gold star if you nailed it.

If you have questions about digital marketing best practices and how your agency can move forward in this area, I am always happy to help. Please feel free to call me at (800) 555-1742 or email me. Happy marketing!
 

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