At Jones, Raphael & Oulundsen, Inc., we offer a variety of insurance policies, but we also try to make sure that we are making an effort to reach the greatest number of customers. Local listings are one way to do that.
To put it simply, the days of the Yellow Pages are over and online listings such as Google Places or Yelp have become a valuable online strategy and resource for independent insurance agencies to raise awareness. Yet many have yet to acknowledge or notice the importance of local listings as a marketing strategy.
Here’s how local listings can help your agency:
Location:
What makes online listings great in the first place is that it streamlines the process of customers seeing your location. For instance, when a business or service is searched for in Google a map of the business location will show up so customers don’t have to do that step themselves.
Customer reviews:
Local listings also include customer reviews so people who are thinking of coming to your business will be able to see firsthand what other people’s experiences were like. Writing your own reviews is frowned upon and can lead to penalties, so make sure you simply ask customers to leave a review.
Word of mouth:
Local listings have become the new-age word of mouth for small businesses. Before, people used to have to ask around about different services or businesses they were looking for, now they can just go online and see what type of activity goes on on their local page.
Where to start:
Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Yelp are the four most popular sites for local listings, and the best part is they are all free to use. All you have to do is create an account and you’re good to go. If you utilize social media in addition to local, then your business is bound to see more customer traffic. At our CT insurance agency we have our own local listings pages and we recommend you do the same.
About the Author: Garret A. Ratcliffe is a principal at Jones, Raphael & Oulundsen, Inc. The agency has been servicing the insurance needs of Central Connecticut for more than 101 years. It is built on the principal of providing superior customer service and quality insurance solutions to customers.
