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After you've found the insurance companies you wish to compare, check to see if they have a website that will allow you to insert your information to obtain a preliminary quote. Be alert, however, that it might be better to talk to an agent directly because you will be sending sensitive information over the internet and you don't want it to fall into the wrong hands.
Before you provide the information to the various insurance companies, make sure you know what they are receiving; in other words, no surprises. If you give the insurers permission to view your losses for the past 5 years (even though you might not have remembered several of the claims), make sure a copy is sent to you.
Arizona insurance companies have access to a database of loss information through companies like Choice Point, Inc.
This is a great tool for the insurance company, but sometimes the information contained in these reports have errors. You want a copy of the loss runs to verify that you are not being inadvertently charged for losses that are not yours.
Be aware of your driving record. Check to see if the speeding ticket you thought you received 7 years ago, only to find out it was only 3 years ago and is still affecting your premiums.
Thirdly, be aware of what's on your credit report because insurance companies now view your credit and use that in compiling their rate.
Once you've cleaned up these behind the scene underwriting information, you're ready to go. The rest is easy. Armed with this and the vehicle information you're ready to approach several insurance companies to see which will give you the best insurance rate.
This doesn't mean you'll make a profit overnight. It doesn't cost much money…but it does cost time, consistency and patience.
You can start by setting up with several “free” tools, but you need to devote a consistent amount of time to continue tweaking, testing and changing online elements to find what works. Oh yeah, and you need the patience because it can take weeks, months or even a year or two to really see your efforts pay off…but it will be well worth it!
Following is a list of tips to help you “jump start” your online marketing campaign even if your marketing budget has been cut.
Tip # 1) Use copy that sells. Learn to write copy that sells. (there are many free resources online to help) Many small business owners are realizing the importance of selling web copy. You can put all of your efforts into driving web traffic or sending promotional emails, but if you don't send your prospects to landing pages or other web pages that make them take action…your web traffic efforts fail.
Tip # 2) Post useful content for your prospects. Keeping fresh and useful content on your website, or in your email marketing pieces is a great way to keep prospects interested in returning to see what you are offering them. Remember…prospects only care about “what's in it for them.” You can write articles or borrow relevant articles from free directories that syndicate articles for free.
Tip # 3) Start a blog. Starting a blog is easy, free and is a great way to start conversations that can drive traffic to your website. You can go to wordpress.com or blogger.com to sign-up for a free blog. Link the blog to your website. It is important to keep the blog updated in order to drive traffic.
Tip # 4) Use keywords in your web pages. Make sure that each page on your website has “relevant” keywords for that web page. DON'T use the same keywords from page to page. Look at each page of your website as though it is a mini-site and use keywords that are relevant to the page topic. Use keywords in the HTML tags, image file names, alt tags, other page file names and your page content.
Tip # 5) Create pages for your business on social media sites. Create a page for your business, product or service with free social media tools such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and/or LinkedIn. Many business owners are starting to realize how valuable this can be for little or no cost. These sites have millions of visitors and you can potentially pull them to your business site through these social media resources.
These are just some of the ways to drive traffic. Other ways include posting ads on Craigslist, distributing press releases about your product or service online, writing and giving away free reports or e-books…and the list goes on.
If you put even just a couple of these tips into practice, you can boost your website traffic. Remember, the secret is to devote a consistent amount of time and effort to get results.