For insurance agents looking to create a presence online, most of your business is going to come through your website. Even if you are active on social media, sending out newsletters, or marketing on Google Maps, at some point almost all prospective clients are going to view your website as a way to determine if they can trust you with their insurance needs.
Websites these days typically need to be more than one page and have details about your products and services. That means that you or an agency is going to need to develop content to put on that page. But how long should that content be?
We talk about this and many other topics on our recent Marketing 101 Up 2 Speed podcast with High Volt Digital, and we encourage you to listen to the podcast to learn more about not only website content, but also how – and why – to keep yourself active online. But the answer is that your content can, and sometimes should, be longer than you think.
Do People Read Long Content?
Most of us, especially in the insurance world, do not have the time or energy to read long pieces of content. Our instinct may then be to keep everything short and sweet, a couple of paragraphs or less, so that people can quickly read what they need to read and then call for their insurance needs.
But on the podcast, Micah of High Volt Digital argues that this is a mistake. He agrees that most people will not read a long page of content, but brings up several points that show that long content can still be quite valuable:
- Visually, short content looks cheap and sloppy. If you visit a web page and all it has are a few sentences, you are less likely to feel like you can trust the company with your financial needs.
- While most people will not read 1000 words of content, very few people will avoid calling a company because they saw a lot of content. The majority will skim for contact information and still call, so the long content did not hurt you as a business.
- On the other hand, there are a minority of individuals that *do* want to read long content, and you are likely to lose that business if the reader does not find the information they desire.
- Search engines prefer long content, so if your goal is to be found in Google Search, you will need long content in order to attract business.
The solution, according to Micah, is to put a reason to call you and a call to action within the first two paragraphs. That way, visitors that do not want to read a long piece of content already have a reason to call you and your contact information within the first 100 words, and then anyone else that wants to continue reading may do so only if they want to.
This method helps your website look more complete and trustworthy, helps with your search engine marketing, gives people that *do* want to read something they can read, and still will help you convert those that do not have time to read long pieces of content.
Want to learn more insurance marketing tips? Listen to our Insurance Marketing 101 episode of the Up 2 Speed LyteSpeed Learning Podcast via the link below, or wherever you listen to your podcasts: