Reading Time: 5 Minutes
The next time you’re out and about in a public place, look around you, and take a mental headcount of how many people are staring at their phones. Spoiler alert: There’s probably a lot of them.
From smartphones to iPads, mobile devices have drastically changed not only the way we connect in our personal lives in the past decade or so, but they have also changed how we do business. Currently there are more than 6 billion global smartphone users, and that number continues to grow year over year, while an estimated 63% of the world’s population is connected to the internet. This surge of mobile usage will very likely continue to climb – as will its impact on consumer behavior.
Right now, shoppers everywhere can find a local business from the driver’s seat of their car, and click a link to map the drive over. Once there, they can “check in” via social media, open an app to find a particular product on the shelves, check out with no waiting, and leave a review of their experience – all from their phone, and all before they’ve even left the parking lot.
That’s powerful stuff, and these evolving trends and technologies aren’t just affecting retail businesses, they’ve also had a significant impact on insurance businesses as well.
And those insurance agencies and brokerages that want to increase lead generation, sales, and customer retention rates must stay in step. Websites have become one of the most important marketing tools for insurance agents, bar none. An ill-designed, slow website just doesn’t cut it with today’s impatient consumers. If you want to grow your insurance business, you can’t just meet their expectations, you have to exceed them.
To do so, you need a mobile-friendly, or responsive, insurance agency website – here are three compelling reasons why:
1. You Gain a Competitive Edge
From a global to a hyper-local scale, consumers are using their smartphones and iPads to conduct personal and professional business. So when it comes to finding insurance, they naturally expect to have on-the-go access to easily find all the information they need to compare plans, choose one, and enroll.
A health insurance website with responsive design elements can give you the competitive edge you need to give prospects and clients what they’re looking for. A responsive site should include these key elements:
- A consistent look, feel, and user experience across any browser, on any device
- Design that doesn’t cut off margins, headlines, or images when viewed on a mobile device
- Concise, intuitive navigation, so content is easy to find
- Images that are optimized to load correctly on mobile as well as desktop
As you recognize the need to make your health insurance website more mobile-friendly, you may also be wondering if it’s worth the time, effort, and expense to make any changes that are necessary to bring your site up to code, so to speak.
Short answer: Yes. Studies consistently show that upwards of 81% of consumers research products and services online before making a buying decision. With that kind of potential in lead generation and sales at your fingertips, you simply can’t afford to leave it to chance.
2. Google Prefers Responsive
Eighty percent of internet users rely on search engines to find local businesses, so search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential marketing tool for insurance agents to help expand your brand footprint and create buzz about your products and services. Google’s switch to mobile-first indexing for all websites started about five years ago and is scheduled to finally wrap up this month. This monumental effort has already changed the way companies need to approach content and rankings.
Your insurance website’s mobile version is more critical than ever in aligning with Google’s new algorithms, If your responsive site has less content than your desktop version, or if Google bot don’t find your mobile site to be user-friendly, you may be negatively affecting how quickly and easily searchers find your business.
3. It's All About the User Experience
One of the reasons Google began leading the mobile-first charge in the first place was to help create more positive user experiences across the board. These changes also help create a more inviting online experience for your own customers.
And when it comes to a great user experience, the importance of speed and ease of use cannot be underestimated.
It takes mobile devices longer to load website pages if they aren’t responsive, and with today’s instant gratification mindset, that can be the kiss of death with consumers. If your site does not load within moments, your prospective customer will probably leave your site and you’ll lose the potential sale.
If users have to wait to pinch or suffer through an endless scroll horizontally in order to find the information they’re seeking, they’re likely to bounce off your site before you want them to. A responsive site will fit the device screen and ensure images and forms all load quickly and efficiently. Also remember, key information should be easy to spot and access, allowing users to easily navigate the site and find the information they need.
See How Quotit Enables Insurance Agencies
Your insurance website is already one of your most valuable and public-facing business assets. The combined changes to consumer behaviors and search engine rankings make it more important than ever to stay current with evolving technologies.
As a company that has led with technology for more than two decades now, Quotit has been ahead of the curve for quite some time. Though we continue to evolve, it’s still our core mission to help technically enable insurance businesses just like yours.
To see for yourself how we can help equip you to compete and thrive in the digital age, contact us today for a product demo.
