Prospect for New Clients With Your Own Insurance Blog

Share Your Knowledge and Professional Advice

One of the newest ways to network for qualified prospects is by publishing your own insurance blog on your Facebook and LinkedIn pages. It's not only fast and easy, but it's also free - and it's been proven to work.

Because people really do read the posts you put up on your Facebook and LinkedIn sites.

What's more, they pass them along to all the people in their own network for you.

How to Write Your Own Insurance Blog

Most agents think that writing a blog takes a lot of time and requires good writing skills - but it really doesn't... IF you simply write about what you know in an honest conversational manner. To begin with, your weekly blog needs to be no more than 200 or 300 words. And it can take as little as ten to twenty minutes to write and publish - just once a week.

When writing a blog, write just as you speak. Let if flow on paper as if you were talking with someone in person - face to face. Don't worry about grammar - just write.

Once you do it, you'll be surprised at how easy that really is.

And don't explain various types of coverage in your insurance blog, or use insurance jargon. Don't even use insurance terms or technical references. Write as if you are talking to a friend on the phone, or sitting across a table over a cup of coffee.

Think of your insurance blog as "sharing a thought" with your clients and prospects. And always conclude your blog with some sort of "call to action".

Examples of Insurance Blog Topics:

* Biggest Mistake People Make With Their Homeowner's Insurance
* How Health Care Reform Will Affect You
* What Alternative Do You Have to Low Interest Rates on Bank CD's
* Why You Need to Insure Your Monthly Income
* When it Makes Sense to Compare Rates on Term Life Insurance

Examples of Opening Line Ideas to Get You Started

* I was talking with a new client yesterday... (and discovered that she was paying more for her _____ than she should be)
* I recently helped one of my clients process a claim... (and here's what happened)
* I read an article last week on how the average person is investing for their retirement... (and was surprised to learn _________ )
* Got a call from an old client of mine a few days ago, asking for a quote on his __________ coverage... (and was able to save him $xxx)
* One of my business clients recently referred me to another small business owner who wasn't happy with her company's employee benefits package... (and wasn't getting much attention from her current agent/broker/advisor)

Examples of Insurance Blog "Calls to Action":

* Call Me for a Quote on Term Life Insurance
* Click Here for a report titled "Protecting Your Retirement Income - Guaranteed"
* Find Out if You Qualify for a Good Driver Discount
* Get an Assessment of the Gaps in Your Health Coverage
* Click Here to Watch a Short Five Minute Video
* Email Me with any Questions You Have Regarding Your Insurance (or Retirement)

Set Up Your Insurance Blog

You have many choices (most free) of blogging platforms to choose from. The top 5 I recommend are:

* Blogger - a Google owned blog platform that is very quick and easy to setup
* Tumblr - more of a "micro-blog", which is a cross between a blog and Twitter
* WordPress - most popular and well established blog platform. Has tons of features and plugins...
* SquareSpace - commercial blogging platform starting at $8/month
* Posterous - easy to use "email-to-blog" system. Create new posts by sending emails...

Most, if not all of these options, allows you to easily post your blogs to your Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

By Dan Vinal