Blogging for Insurance Agencies

Blogging 101 for insurance agencies.

There’s a lot to keep in mind when starting and running a blog, which is why it’s so often underused on websites. Here we’ll break down some of the key factors to remember when starting your blog to help you make it an effective tool for your agency. From the basics of content and formatting to more complex topics like posting timelines and content calendars, we’ve got you covered.

Content.

Figuring out what to write can be the hardest part, but you’re lucky because you already have your niche and audience figured out. You’re an insurance agency, so you’ll be most likely writing posts about insurance and your agency targeted at current and prospective clients. Knowing your niche means you know what kind of content to write. Your posts should relate in some way to either insurance or your agency. You don’t want to post blogs about random topics that are unrelated to what you do because you won’t be driving the right kind of traffic to your site.

Personality is also key. You want to let that shine through in your writing, which is where the more conversational style of blog posts comes in handy. That’s why blogs are a good way to make your agency seem more personable and approachable. This is also a great space to show off what makes your agency unique, perhaps through an article that features your agency’s culture. A catchy title that’s also optimized for SEO using topic and location keywords is important as well. Not only can it help your post and site rank better, but it can also draw readers to your blog and keep them on your website for longer periods of time. All of which only serves to help your SEO even more.

Now that you have an understanding of your niche and audience, it’s up to you to come up with ideas for blog posts. These could be how-to articles that relate to home insurance or announcements for a local event your agency will be attending. Here are some sample ideas to get you thinking:

• Ten reasons why you need home insurance in Bethlehem, PA.
• Catch F3 Agency at the Bethlehem, PA, Spring Festival.
• F3 Agency raises $5,000 at ABC Charity Run.
• Do you have the right life insurance coverage in Bethlehem, PA?

Formatting.

Formatting your content correctly is almost as important as the content itself because you want your content to be easily readable and eye-catching. Subheadings help with the readability part. No one likes to read big blocks of text—it’s daunting. Breaking your post up into smaller chunks with relevant subheadings can not only make the post easier to read but can also help readers find the specific section of information they’re looking for. As an added bonus, subheadings are also great for accessibility since it’s easier for screen readers to comprehend, and they’re also great for SEO if optimized with keywords.

Let’s talk about images. Having a featured image for your post as well as images throughout the content helps to break it up and make your post more eye-catching and engaging to readers. There are two important things to keep in mind when it comes to images. First, you want to make sure you can legally use the photos, so either use stock images you’ve purchased or ones that you’ve taken personally. Second, make sure they’re relevant to your content and formatted properly. If you need help adding an image to your posts and your site is on the ActiveAgency website platform, you can contact our Client Experience Team for assistance. Infographics and other similar types of graphics are also a creative way to spice up your posts. You can create them for free on sites like Canva or outsource the creation to designers on sites like Fiverr.

The nuts and bolts.

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of writing a blog post. We’ll start with the ideal post length. Simply put, the lengthier the better, but be sure to break it up with subheadings. Search engines like Google prefer posts and articles with 500 words or more when ranking your blog because it makes user clicks “worth it.” The greater detail you can go into on a subject, the better. Also, keep in mind reader attention spans. If there are huge blocks of text that seem to scroll on forever, they might not stick around too long. Now, there are exceptions to every rule, so don’t let that stop you from posting shorter blogs when the time calls for it. It’s all about finding that happy medium.

The same goes for paragraph length. Ideally, you’ll want to avoid using large paragraphs and huge blocks of text. When you preview your blog, if you see a section with a particularly long paragraph, consider finding ways to shorten it or break it up. On the other hand, you don’t want to make your paragraphs just a sentence or two long since you won’t be able to include the detail you may need on a topic. As with post length, you want to find that happy medium for your paragraphs.

Before you publish your post, be sure to proofread. Nothing hurts your credibility more than a blog post filled with grammatical errors. If you aren’t confident in your ability to use correct grammar and spelling, consider running your post through a grammar-checking program like Grammarly. A clean and polished blog post will keep readers on your site for longer than a messy one that’s hard to read.

Linking.

You might think linking to other pages within your blog post would be detrimental to your website’s traffic and SEO, but the topic is more nuanced than you’d think. In fact, linking can be beneficial for both if done the right way. When writing your blog post, try to incorporate content that you can link to other sections of your website—whether that’s another blog post, a coverage page, your contact page, or something else. By linking to another page on your site, you increase the likelihood that people will stay on your website longer, thus boosting your chances at a lead.

You can also link to relevant pages and posts that aren’t on your site. For instance, if you’re writing a post about car insurance, you could add a link to a local mechanic’s blog about auto repair tips everyone should know. If the topics are relevant and related, this could help boost your SEO rankings. However, you should link to outside sites sparingly because it would mean readers are leaving your website, thus reducing your traffic.

Categorization.

To make life easier on your readers and make your blog more organized, be sure to assign your post to a relevant category or categories and separate content topics as appropriate. For example, your home insurance clients might not care about business insurance posts. Blog categories could include personal insurance, business insurance, community involvement, and events. So, if you were to create a post talking about your most recent day volunteering, you would categorize that under community involvement. Not only does this make your blog more organized, but it’s also helpful for SEO since it gives search engines the ability to sort your content and apply it to relevant searches.

Posting frequency.

When it comes to deciding how often you’ll be posting blogs, it’s important to keep a few things in mind. First, consider the size of your agency and your blog.  Make sure you aren’t posting so often that you’re running out of quality ideas. Remember, quality is better than quantity.

However, size isn’t the only consideration when it comes to your posting frequency. In fact, depending on your goals, posting daily could actually hinder you. There are two main goals when it comes to blogging—building traffic and building brand awareness. If your goal is to build traffic, then you’ll want to post more frequently with as much SEO-optimized content as possible. But if your goal is to build brand awareness, diversity in your content is more important than frequency. These blogs should focus on important information about your agency and your niche.

Guest authors.

If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by the prospect of having to write blog posts, there’s some good news for you. You don’t have to write them all yourself! You can have guest authors occasionally write posts for your blog. Much like the other parts of blogging, when it comes to seeking out guest authors, it’s important that they be relevant to your insurance agency. For example, guest authors could include local business partners, industry experts, or even current clients. Not only does featuring guest authors show you have a good relationship with others in your community and industry, but it also lets you talk about things you might not be an expert in. For example, if you partner with a local roofing company, they could write a post on signs your roof needs replacing and tie that into homeowners insurance.

That’s not the only benefit of featuring guest authors on your blog—there’s also a potential SEO benefit. Continuing with the roofing company example, let’s say you work out an agreement to write a guest post about homeowners insurance and roofs for their blog with a link back to your site. Or perhaps you work out an agreement to have your blog featured on their site with a link back to your website. Either way, you’ve just established what’s called a backlink. Backlinks are great for SEO because they show search engines that your site is trustworthy, knowledgeable, and credible.

Adding blogs to your site.

If you have a blog post you’d like to add to your site, you can get in touch with our Client Experience Team and they’ll be happy to help. We can also add the posts for you as long as you provide all of the information and content we need.

So, what’s the best way to get started?

The best way to get started is to just dive on in! Blogging can seem overwhelming at first, but it doesn’t have to be. Just keep in mind that you don’t have to go from zero to sixty overnight. You can take some time to create your strategy and posting schedule, develop topics, and gather your resources. Quality information is better than a large number of posts, and there’s no reason to rush it. The more familiar and comfortable you get with the process, the simpler blogging for your insurance agency will become!