Keeping up Appearances: Why BGAs Should Consider A Website Redesign

As a Brokerage General Agency, the life insurance agents and advisors that use your website to book new business have the same expectations as any consumer online.  They want a seamless experience not only from your service model, but also from the tools they use to access your services.  Your website is so much more than a billboard.  It is a conversation, a toolbox, and an invitation to make the most out of what your BGA, IMO, or FMO is offering.  In this article, let’s discuss how keeping your website up-to-date can boost your bottom line.

Your investment in your website’s appearance should match your offering

Full disclosure here…I am biased.  Working for Apis Productions means I have played a role in the creation of countless website launches in the Life Insurance and Financial Advisory sectors.  Our BGA, IMO, FMO, and Financial Advisory clients have come to rely on Apis to help guide them through every step of the creative process when it comes to their digital footprint.  From creative design, brand messaging, technology integrations, and marketing assistance, we have built a business around our familiarity with and dedication to these industries.  However, it is this same level of expertise that we bring to bear when we tell our clients that keeping your website fresh is synonymous with keeping your firm competitive.

Nothing gold can stay: Keeping your website fresh is synonymous with keeping your firm competitive

Your website should always reflect your offering.  Brokerage General Agencies invest heavily into technologies, services, and processes that simplify the work for the agents and advisors that work with them.  These technologies are often the latest and greatest in the industry.  When it comes to tech, the industry is always reacting and adapting to the needs of its clients and consumers.  Your website should mirror these adaptations.  

Don’t wrap a rolex in a paper bag

The packaging of your services is often the first impression a client or potential client has to ascertain what it is like to work with you.  Your BGA might have a hundred years of collective experience, leading-edge technology to file and process cases, a library of resources to help agents and advisors grow their business, and other high-end amenities.  If these incredible investments in time and infrastructure are wrapped in outdated and outmoded architecture then you have already lost the interest of your prospects and dulled the drive of your existing clients. 

A BGA website should create a seamless user experience

The stark reality is this: Agents and advisors can use any Brokerage General Agency they feel best represents their needs.  They can belong to several at once.  They can run a quote at one and do business with another.  It is not a perfect system for BGAs.  This is why maintaining a modern look and feel for your website is key to keeping them coming back to you.  

Your website should magnetize your clients.  

Here’s how:

• Create user dashboards that are fun, intuitive, and efficient.  
• Maintain and add referential content and articles that are relevant, on-brand, and trending now. 
• Integrate the latest tools into your site
• Simplify and modernize your website’s navigation
• Create opportunities for your clients to reach your through your website
• Use imagery and design that inspires, delights, and engages your clients

Let’s do a little exercise!  Take a moment to look at your company’s website from the perspective of your client and ask yourself a few questions:

How does the landing page make you feel?

Are the tools available to you easy to find?

If you need to perform one task, how many clicks does it take to get it done?

The answers to these simple questions can tell you a lot about the freshness or staleness of your website.  Now go and look at some of your competitors.  Choose at least 5 and go to their websites.  I guarantee you, at least a few of them have upgraded their look, feel, and utility recently.  It’s important to stay up-to-date with your peers.  

The mid 2000’s called and they want their website back

Apis is constantly looking for ways to help our clients stay competitive.  Whether that’s with innovating and integrating new technologies and features for them to deploy or through helping craft messaging that reaches the full breadth of their market opportunities.  Apis speaks the language of the industry.  We understand what your target market looks like and what they are looking for in a BGA, IMO, FMO, or Financial Advisory firm.  We’ve seen everything, built everything, and redesigned everything since our inception.  

If, after reading this, you realize that your website is not keeping up with the times, reach out to us.  You’d be amazed at how far the digital footprint of the industry has come since you last refreshed your company website.  Let’s talk!