Although the world is changing, the basic foundation of branding holds true. For a top-performing insurance producer, it means continuing education, sales professionalism and personal growth. Couple that with service activity within your community organizations and you begin to establish a personal brand.

Related: Read a previous column by Jack Burke “Watch Your Language.”

Agencies have it a little more difficult, as they often are defined by multiple brands: the agency itself, the carriers it represents and the associations to which it belongs. I may be decried as a heretic, but the Trusted Choice logo or the logo of a risk association should never be as prominent as your agency logo. Remember, the average prospect has no idea what the other logos mean, but he does know you and your agency. And, like the individual producer, it is beneficial when the agency is identified with a particular charity or cause.

Connell Insurance in Branson, Mo., has been certified as a green workplace and carries that message by supporting charitable organizations that are involved in environmental efforts. The side of one organization's mobile recycling truck is emblazoned with a sign that says, “Recycling Protects the Environment, Connell Insurance Protects You.”

The Brave New World

In the early years of the Internet, I encountered agency owners who refused to allow their staff to access the Web. They were concerned that employees would be playing rather than working. I suggested that even if they were playing on the Internet, they were learning a tool that would soon engulf our industry. And it has!

Even though today's Internet is our primary communication platform, many agencies are still slow to embrace it. Some agencies still advertise in the phone book. The Internet has eclipsed phone usage, newspapers and magazine reading, social interaction, entertainment and purchasing routines—which clearly says that our brand, agency and personal, must be delineated in the non-verbal world of the Internet.

Web Presence

Most agency websites are still not much more than the old brochure marketing of the past. These sites offer very little differentiation. Home pages have agency descriptives like “good service,” “professional personnel,” “representing multiple carriers,” etc.

I believe that prospects feel these descriptions mean nothing. They are “givens.” If you didn't offer those basics, you shouldn't be in the insurance business. Instead, talk to clients about why they do business with you. Frame that into statements of differentiation that will set you apart and make prospects curious.

Related: Read the article “What Animals Teach” by Jack Burke.

Make your site personal. Let people get to know your staff. You'd be surprised at how many people will do business with you because of a connection with a staff member. I gained a client because of a photo of a restored '67 Thunderbird on our site. He called asking if I knew where he could find wheel covers for his, we started talking and he hired us to develop some training videos.

Provide resources in articles, videos, podcasts and business tools that will position you as a valued partner in the success of their businesses. Remember, you have to be more than just an insurance peddler if you want to survive.

Consider creating two websites, or a website within a website. It is difficult to serve clients and market to prospects simultaneously. That's why some agencies offer either a login access to client information and portals, or a main website for marketing and a “my website” version for clients. Either one is worth looking at for the future.

For Producers

A producer needs his own unique brand within the brand of the agency. That's why some agencies provide unique webpages within their website for the producers to use and manage. More frequently, successful producers develop their own websites and link to the agency sites

These personal websites enable producers to expand on their expertise, their interests, their hobbies and their beliefs. They also provide the opportunity for producers to create their own blogs for clients and prospects and promote events and items of interest. Remember, people do business with people they know, like and trust—or at least that's the formula that has worked well for Warren Buffett up until now.

Getting Social

This arena applies to both agencies and producers. It is essential to become active within the social media scene. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and others are the interaction platforms of today and tomorrow—and you can coordinate all of them to your website.

For instance, I have had difficulty keeping our company website current in the events area. Now it happens automatically. On the home page, the events section immediately reposts anything that I post to my Facebook account. The same can be done with LinkedIn and Twitter. You also can create settings or use apps that repost anything from any of them to all the others as well. Think how easy it is: If you write a blog entry, it can immediately be sent to all your other feeds.

Related: Read another column by Jack Burke “Chicken and the Egg.”

Ensure that all of your sites and social media pages maintain continuity in appearance—that's all part of your brand. To raise the recognition factor, fonts, colors and logos should all be consistent. If that seems beyond your techno-capabilities, there are companies and individuals that can do that for you at nominal cost.

Wrap-Ups

Your job as an insurance agency or producer is to bring value to your prospects and clients. That value will reinforce their desire to do business with you. However, today's world is so cluttered that it has become very difficult to send the message of value that you represent.

Identify the value resources and learn to translate them into the language of your prospects as we discussed in last month's article. Then use the digital world to send that message and create the brand that will serve you into the future.