Web Design Can Make or Break Your Business

In today’s highly connected digital society, websites often serve as the first connection between a business and its customers. People research the businesses around them by turning to the web; and your website’s design can have profound effects on the visitor experience. Insurance web design is a critical component of business success. By mastering the design of your agency’s website, you can improve the user experience while setting the stage for continued success and growth.

What is Insurance Web Design?

In any industry, websites often serve as direct communication links between companies and their existing or future customers. Insurance web design is the framework of the site itself, including:

• How it looks from a visual standpoint.
• Its navigational structure.
• Its layout and organization of information.
• Its branding elements.
• Its ability to be accessed from multiple computing devices, including mobile devices.
• Available tools for interacting with the site.

This framework influences how the web site is perceived by a visitor. If a visitor can get the information they are looking for, such as details on your insurance products and services, they are likely to take the next step in the purchasing journey. Make the site framework difficult to use or visually unappealing and they are likely to click away to one of your competitors.

Improving Insurance Web Design: Key Considerations

As a digital marketing tool, insurance agencies rely on company websites to make initial connections with customers. Whether you are getting site traffic from existing clients or are seeking to attract new customers, how your website looks and works can make or break your business. There are several key considerations when designing your agency’s website to have the maximum impact on visitor engagement and user satisfaction.

First, the site must be visually appealing. Insurance agencies often cut corners when it comes to designing the site with pre-configured templates. Some of these templates may be visually interesting, but they rarely offer complete and granular control over design elements. As your website is an extension of your agency and your brand, you want to ensure the site fits the overall look of your other materials, such as by using common logos and branding elements. The use of images is always a good practice to improve visual interest. In all, you want your site to look professional and clean, inviting visitors to stay awhile to learn more about your business and your products or services.

Next, two interrelated considerations must be addressed. The first is page loading speed. A website that is slow to load is often rejected in favor of a competitor’s site that loads quickly. Visitors do not like to wait around for the site and will navigate away before you have a chance to make a positive impression. The same applies to the site’s mobile friendliness. As many potential customers may try to access your agency’s website with a smartphone, a site that does not render properly on mobile computing devices is a dealbreaker. During the insurance web design development phase, the site should be checked against both desktop and mobile environments to ensure it loads and displays correctly.

Navigation of the site is critical. Imagine if you were a customer to your agency’s site: can you find the information you are looking for? Is it easy and intuitive to move from page to page? If you are unsure of the answers to these questions, your insurance web design could use refinement. Navigation is related to site organization; these two components work together to allow site visitors to locate the details they need to make purchasing decisions. Make those details hard to find or organizing your site in an illogical way and those visitors are likely to take their business elsewhere.

Nailing Your Insurance Web Design

To achieve a great first impression and a positive user experience, think about the information you wish to share, then put it at your visitors’ fingertips. In most cases, less is more; too often, company websites contain too much information, and the important aspects get buried. To get the most out of your website, these tips can help:

• Streamline your information, providing only the details a visitor needs to make a purchasing decision. If they have to read page after page to get to the information they want, they may not stick around long enough to become a customer.
• Streamline visual elements by stripping away extraneous decoration, slow-loading images, and visual elements that clutter the site’s pages.
• Provide repeated links to contact pages. One of the best techniques is to use a header and footer on each page containing your agency’s contact addresses and phone numbers.
• Organize the site into categories, such as products, services, blog, news, and links to more resources.

The goal of any insurance web design initiative is to develop a site visitors will want to explore. Give them a visually appealing and logically arranged site and they are far more likely to become your customers. Your site’s design is crucial for generating business growth. Take the time to consider the design elements and you will be well on your way to success for years to come.

About Agency Tsunami

Agency Tsunami is the digital marketing division of Neilson Marketing Services, who has provided the insurance distribution sector with innovative marketing and communication solutions for over twenty-five years. With our Agency Tsunami program, we have implemented an integrated marketing strategy that includes optimized, professional websites supported by high-quality SEO and Social Media for hundreds of insurance retailers and wholesalers. Our goal is to help your insurance business perform and generate new opportunities. Give us a call at (800) 736-9741 to learn more about how we can do that for you.