Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I choose SmartsPro Marketing?

We provide excellent value, with many well-designed, professional website designs to choose from. In addition, unlike most other website providers, we supply you with quality content as well. This includes a full library of coverage descriptions written by our editors and a monthly newsletter to keep your website up to date. Our websites were created especially for insurance agents by professionals who know web design, Internet marketing and the retail insurance business. Several of us have worked as insurance agents, and SmartsPro Marketing has been providing marketing services to insurance agents since 1988.

What will a SmartsPro website cost?

The one-time set-up cost is $499. The monthly service fee for hosting and monthly insurance newsletter updates is $98.

Who provides the content for my website?

SmartsPro Marketing provides most content, with our coverage descriptions and monthly newsletters. But you also provide agency-specific content that positions your agency uniquely among your competitors. Our editors will help you make your content reader-friendly, professional and engaging.

Can I use quote engines on my website?

Of course. We will create links to the quote engines of your choice. We do caution you that using quote engines tends to commoditize your services and the clients you acquire with quote engines may tend to have lower persistency. We suggest that agents use quote forms to collect a minimum amount of contact information, and then contact the prospect directly for additional information and engage them with a full discussion of their insurance options. This helps build relationships and positively impacts persistency.

Do I need to use the images you provide?

Not at all. In fact, if you have photos of your agency staff, local color and other subjects that you would like us to use for your website, please send us your images in png, jpg or gif formats.

Can I have a blog?

We can set up a blog for you when we create your website at no extra charge. It’s simple to post to your blog; we’ll show you how. We are great believers in blogging to build your insurance business. If you’d like to read more about starting and running an insurance blog, see the Insurance Blogs category in the sidebar on our Blog page.

Can I make changes to my website myself?

SmartsPro Marketing uses the WordPress content management system, which makes it easy to edit your pages and posts yourself. It just takes learning some basics, which we will show you. If you have a technical person on staff who has taken some classes in WordPress, you could handle all changes yourself. We can also make any small changes you need, usually for only $35 – $140. For more extensive website building and changes, we charge $140 per hour, billed in quarter-hour increments. If you tell us what you need, we’ll provide a quote before we do anything.

Do you offer search engine optimization (SEO)?

SEO is built into our platform. We’ve written several helpful blog posts on SEO especially for insurance agents on our Blog page. See the SEO category in the sidebar on our Blog page. We also have a professional SEO expert on staff who can offer personal consultation if you want. Just give us call and will give you all the details.

Can I add Google Analytics to my website?

Absolutely. We recommend you do so to track your website’s effectiveness and use that information for changing and improving it.

Are discounts available?

Currently the only discounts we offer are for clients of our custom newsletters. A newsletter customer with a SmartsPro website will receive a $39 discount on each newsletter we invoice.

What’s the best name for my insurance website?

If you want to optimize your website for search engines, there are several factors to consider, including the name of your firm, the products and services you sell, the markets you serve and your location. You may decide to just use your firm name for your website and create landing pages with different domain names that are search engine optimized. For more information on naming your website, see the SEO category in the Blog Posts sidebar on our Blog page.

I already have a domain name for my website. Can I use it for the website you build for us?

Yes, you can transfer your current domain name to your new site. We’ll need to know who currently hosts your website and with what registrar your domain is registered. If your email addresses include your domain name, you will need to let us know how your current email service is set up.

If I am already using my domain in my email address, what will happen to my email accounts when I switch to my SmartsPro website?

It depends on your current email server. If your web host provides your email service, we will be able to set up a similar service with new email accounts for everyone. If you have your own email servers, we will need to know your settings so we can correctly route your email to your mail server.