Technology

Social media is a form of branding and PR used to promote the goodwill and personality of your company, while also engaging potential, existing and former clients. To many companies, social media can feel like a labyrinth of decisions. A strong strategy is a must for turning your social media efforts into profitable results. Here are some tips on how …

For the agents, advisors, wholesalers, distributors, broker-dealers and carriers involved in the fixed and fixed indexed annuity and life insurance independent channel, FMO (Field Marketing Organization), IMO (Independent Marketing Organization), and NMO (National Marketing Organization) are common and recognizable terms. For those of you not familiar with these acronyms, they are fairly interchangeable terms for groups that market, sell and …

Video marketing can be a vital part of any multimedia marketing strategy. It can give your service or product a name and a face, while also giving your company a true personality using a medium that has become incredibly favored in the U.S. In 2012, statistics from comScore, a company that measures digital information, showed that a whopping 37 billion videos were …

Whether your business was an early adopter of social media or your social media marketing campaign hasn’t yet made it to the computer screen, it never hurts to take a refresher course in social media. Just like television networks have no shortage of news to report, social media is a fast-moving animal that requires constant attention because this multimedia marketing …

The social network, LinkedIn, recently introduced a new feature called “Endorsements,” which allows users to endorse members of their professional network.  This new feature is essentially another form of offering a reference on a LinkedIn profile, and gives more credibility to the skills and expertise listed on a profile in comparison to what might be listed on a paper resume. …

One in three financial advisors owns an iPad. The problem? They’re all using them the same way. Advisors and agents are constantly looking for new ways to engage people and differentiate their services. The iPad is arguably the greatest engagement device available today. So, what are three simple ways that you can use an iPad to engage more people and …

As an insurance professional, you know that the internet is an ideal way to prospect for new business.  The local and global reach of online marketing campaigns provides opportunities unheard of just a few short years ago. However, direct mail is still an option, and some agents may be steadfastly holding on to this form of prospecting, perhaps due to …

Healthcare reform continues to offer a few sobering facts for brokers. The 80 percent minimum medical loss ratio– for individual and small group insurers–will continue to squeeze commissions, and advances now are a thing of the past, while the workload is as high as it’s ever been. New sales distribution channels, including private exchanges and federally-mandated state exchanges, provide consumers …

In the last issue of Agent eNews, we learned that concerns about online privacy and security significantly impact consumer behavior on the internet. We discussed the fundamentals of turning those concerns into a competitive advantage, by stressing transparency in the design and content of your website. This month, we’ll focus on another strategy that can dramatically improve consumer perception of …

Do you have a business web site or plan to get one in the near future? If you do, I urge you to seriously consider the issues I discuss in this article. Numerous studies conducted by business, academic, and government researchers have given us reliable insight into the behavior and psychology of internet consumers that directly affects your web site’s …