'So dawn goes down today, nothing gold can stay.'
Robert Frost
'There are no more power elites.'
Manuel Castels in The Information Age
The painfully obvious implication of these quotes can be seen in the business world: IBM pulls its PCs out of retail venues because it no longer considers them profitable. The Wall Street Journal reported that in 1998, there were $301 billion in sales via the Internet, while the manufacturing sector did $350 billion in overall business. It took the Internet roughly 36 months to reach this figure; manufacturing needed 150 years.

But, this article is about the fundamentals of marketing and communications for an insurance agency (or any consumer facing business's marketing). In my opinion, if you can stick to nurturing these fundamentals regularly, then all the advanced and future enhancements will come naturally. It doesn't matter whether the role you play in the agency is Principal, Producer, CSR, Admin or any customer facing role, in more ways than one, these fundamentals should apply to you.

Align your marketing program to the needs and desires of today’s online customers.
“Control the customer and you control the sale.” This advice served generations of successful salespeople who knew that they could make any sale once they could get face-to-face with a prospect.

Are you using video to connect with prospects, clients, referrals, and potential alliances? Did you know that a website...

The prediction is that business intelligence (BI), currently regarded as a specialist technology utilized primarily by experts who work in big companies and organizations, will soon become a valuable mass-market tool.

When I ask agency owners this question I get mixed responses that fall mainly into three categories:

“No, but we have not changed our website in years and need to ASAP and get more traffic

“No. We spent a lot of money and time on a recent redesign, but we are not getting the results we expected.”

“Well, we recently redesigned and we like the look of it, it’s cool, but it doesn’t seem to be working for us in terms of traffic.”

The common theme among all of them is this ROI – “We are not getting great results.”

To serve your clients more effectively, grow your business, and match your competitors, you need the most effective website. Whether you’re planning a new site, reviewing an existing one, or developing an Internet-based marketing strategy, I’d recommend these guidelines:

UNDERSTAND YOUR E-MAIL: XOBNI by Steve Anderson A new, free plug-in module for Outlook called Xobni (pronounced 'ZOB-nee,' which is inbox spelled backwards) adds some social-networking ...

Websites are like business cards: Everybody has one. So, how can you get customers to find yours among millions of others? Most recommendations about marketing a website focus on guess what? Online tools. Send e-mails. Send thousands of e-mails. Post to other websites. Register with search engines. Buy or exchange ad banners with other sites.
However, because most people spend most of their time offline, it makes sense to market your website offline, too. How many of these proven offline marketing tools are you using?

WEBSITE MARKETING: A BALANCING ACT by Richard Barry Although this article gets down to basics, it's not an introduction to website development or a 101 approach to interactive Internet c...