Sweet 16!

What was the old saying?  “Sweet 16 and never been kissed”?  I have a different twist on 16 I’d like you to think about.  It has nothing to do with pretty teen aged girls…

According to comScore, an AC Nielsen company, 84 percent of insurance customers researched their purchase online. Of that 84 percent, 65 percent received one or more quotes online and 28 percent purchased policies via an online presence.

Those are very interesting numbers, or should be, if you’re an insurance agency owner.  Think it’ll ever be different?  Well, of course!  In the same year this survey was taken (2008), the number of auto insurance policies purchased online increased year over year by 7 percent! In other words, more people all the time are researching and buying insurance online.

So, what’s up with Sweet 16? That’s the percent of potential insurance customers who are available to do business with your agency if you’re not online! That’s depressing.

The bottom line here is that if you don’t have an agency website, if you don’t have an agency Facebook page, Twitter page and LinkedIn profile, you’re scrounging for leftovers. I’m NOT saying that if you do all insurance customers are available to you – clearly you have to actively market yourself online through these vehicles. What I am saying is that if you’re not online most people who buy insurance don’t know you exist and the percent of people who do know who you are is shrinking.

All you’ve got is the sweet 16 percent of people not yet buying and researching insurance online. AND you’re probably fighting over that 16 percent with a bunch of other Neanderthals who have refused to come into the 21^st century.

Is this disturbing or encouraging?  I hope it’s one or the other!  The truth is that if your agency isn’t actively marketing insurance online, five years from now it won’t exist. 

Sixteen, it turns out, isn’t sweet at all.