how to drive sales through search and social media - annual di conf, boston 2010

How to use the Internet and Social Networking sites to increase your DI sales

DI: Exploring a New DimensionBoston - October 12, 2010

Stephanie Simmons

About Me

About Me• 14 years in marketing communications & branding

Fortune 250 to small privately held companies Freelance designer and brand strategy Ads in Broker World, IA, Insurance Journal, Life Insurance Selling, HIU,

Agent Sales Journal Guest columnist & blogger for Producers Web, HIU.com, Latin

Agents.com Management & hands-on “One-man-band”

• Previous: VP, Sales & Marketing for TWG Capital Financial solutions company for independent insurance

agents

• Current: VP of Marketing for My Health Care Manager Older Adult Care Benefit or “Eldercare” provider In health care plans, EAP’s and as an employee benefit

provided by employers. Distributed by brokers and directly by our company

I Branding

About Me

My Goals

1. Down-to-earth understanding of social media and internet marketing

2. Five easy and simple tools you can use as soon as you leave this room

and 3…

I will be your Reuben

baby llama steps

Social Media Marketing

?

QUIZ #1

what is the best type of lead?

Social Media Marketing

Marketing Arenas

• Blogs/Forums• Social networking• Image/video sharing• Targeted search advertising• Virtual Product Placement

“Fads” of the past…

Beyond a fad

2,151,880,018

monthly visits

In 2009, more people were on social networking Communities than were using email

more on social sitesthan email.

QUIZ #2

what is the largest

population on Facebook today?

social networking use ages 50-64 88% growthfrom 25% to 47%.

ages 65+100% growthfrom 13% to 26%

DI Agent/Broker Target Audience

• Between age 30 and age 55• Both males and females• White-collar professional

Source: “Craig” –Intl DI Member & DI Broker in San Diego, Auerbach & Gussin Insurance and Financial Services, Inc. & LifeInsuranceSelling.comSource Collection Resource: Stephanie Simmons’ very non-scientific test analysis and fact-finding initiative.

Social media vs. social networking

vs.

Social media vs. social networking

Social media

– Youtube (video sharing)– Flickr (photo sharing)– Picassa

Social networking– Facebook– Linked In– Twitter

What are DI agents/brokers top three challenges?”

1. Finding and getting in front of a good prospect

2. How to get the attention of Gen X and Y3. The cost of a DI policyCraig of San Diego

www.auerbachandgussin.com

“”-

Focus on

You create content, current events, info, articles, new DI products, video (you post on )

DISTRIBUTED THROUGH

Content is King.

^good

Useful. Relevent. Current. Engaging.

+

Links to your web site.

+

Keywords.

^good

Anatomy of a tweet or a post

• Helps you connect with your audience• Inject your personality• What would they want to know on a regular

basis• Providing:

-resources on web-tips?

SMART TIP #1 Feeds can be plugged into your web site onto the home page. Also lets you make your web site look more dynamic and active.

SMART TIP #2 DO AS MANY YOU TUBE VIDEOS AS YOU CAN!

Tips to Optimize Social Content

• Optimize social media profiles– Social profiles will be in indexed in search results– Describe your company using brand keywords– Use your brand name for your account name

whenever possible

• Optimize social media communications-Optimize tweets, status, updates, blog posts, etc. with keywords

Linked in

Linked in

Twitter

+ tag

#hashtags & other tweetin’ tips

• Tracks a conversation• Conferences, contests, etc..• Write it like: #topic• No more than1 per tweet•Check out hashtag.org

And more twitter tips…• Shorten urls at:http://bit.ly http://tinyurl.com • use119 characters instead of 140 so you can be “retweet!”•Connect to with @username

Facebook

WordPress Blog

STOP & THINK

MVT #1 of blogging…

blog what you know

MVT #2 of blogging…

include your keywords

The beauty of social networking

• If you have limited content and limited time, because of sharing nature of social media, the content you do develop, it will be shared across the sites

• If you are effectively developing social media, you will end up with brand advocates so they will end up publishing SEO friendly content on behalf of you

• Pushes your competition to bottom of page. You will be perceived as owner, plus with the social media activity, may have heard things through peers, so improves your reputation = improves your traffic

ROI vs. ROYT

ROYT measurement

• More presence• More search engine-friendly content (SEO)• More inbound links• Better reputation as DI industry leader• More leads• More introductions• More referrals• More relationship-building• More traffic to your web site (& better quality)• Additional forum to converse with prospect/clients• More closed deals

Negatives

• If you can’t execute well, or it’s not updated regularly or looks poor, it could devalue your business

• Could provide a public forum to complain

Your DI site & mobile devices

The average mobile user has their mobile device within arms reach for up to 22 hours a day

Over 80% of US mobile subscribers use text messaging, with over 50% texting daily

94% of text messages are read within 4 minutes versus 48 hours for e-mail.!

Mobile Marketing

• Enables you to communicate & engage with your audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.

Welcome to Canon Mobile!About Canon

Booth Location

New Product Images

ImageRUNNER Video

Tell us for a chance to win

Request Follow Up

Locate StoreForward to a friend’s mobile

Canon U.S.A., Inc., non U.S.A., Inc., headquartered in Lake Success, headquartered in Lake Success, New York, is a leader in New York, is a leader in professional business, consumer professional business, consumer and industrial imaging and industrial imaging equipment.equipment.Our extensive product line and Our extensive product line and digital solutions enable digital solutions enable businessesbusinesses and and consumers consumers worldwide to capture, store, and worldwide to capture, store, and distribute information. distribute information.

More More about products.about products.Watch Watch video from CEO.video from CEO.

Answer the following questions for a chance to win a $25 itune gift card.

Welcome to Canon Mobile!About Canon

Booth Location

New Product Images

ImageRUNNER Video

Tell us for a chance to win

Request Follow Up

Locate StoreForward to a friend’s mobile

Mobile marketing ideas

• Create a mobile site – text campaigns for a free DI evaluation

• In your direct mail, add “text XYZ for more info”, they fill out form. This generates an automatic email that includes their appt time, name and info.

• Make your web site mobile – 30% of all web traffic is done on mobile devices

Final tip…

Search Engine Optimization

• Definitions:– The process of improving the volume or quality

of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic“) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion...

– Editing a web site's content and code in order to improve visibility within one or more search engines.

Search Engine Optimization

Effectiveness of Search & Social

Internet & SN to Increase DI Sales

• Social Networking/Media sites– Facebook– Linked in– Twitter– WordPress– You Tube• Mobile Marketing• Search Engine Optimization

Questions?

ResourcesFree Social Monitoring Tools: SocialMention, Twitter Search, facebook Insights, Google Alerts & Real Time Search

Help to easily manage/dashboard for your sites:Personal portal – myyahoo or igoogle

Companies with SEO or Mobile services:Marketing SherpaCompendium Salesgenie.comConnect Venture (mobile media) – David Miller

Google alerts:Log in – free trial

Thank you.

Stephanie SimmonsPh 800.499.8020em stephanie1simmons@yahoo.comurl www.myhealthcaremanager.com

Presentation will be posted on Slide Sharehttp://www.slideshare.net/stephgirl1/newsfeed

Interested in selling Eldercare?

If you are interested in adding My Health Care Manager’s Eldercare to your benefit portfolio, drop your card off to me.

Features:•Robust, value-add benefit, answering a much needed demand for the “sandwich generation”.  •May be embedded into a plan or EAP or sold directly to employer groups.  •This unique benefit manages upwards, starting with the employed adult caregiver and moving up to senior loved ones.

www.myhealthcaremanager.com/benefit

800-499-8020