Kristin Brewe absolutely hit a grand slam with her opening Keynote talk at PIMA MarkeTTech about Erin Esurance and leveraging the social Web. Suffice it to say that, with an advertising and marketing budget that is a fraction of its competitors, Esurance is in solid third place with brand recognition and online quotes. They’ve merged online and offline marketing events (and vice-versa), they’ve leveraged their hard-core fans to solve customer service problems, and they’re getting tremendous buzz in MySpace and YouTube. Check it out. IT WORKS!!!

So I took a moment between things to go a little deeper on a subject near and dear to my heart - conversions. Once you get someone’s attention, what are some of the keys to consummating the sale? Kristin had some interesting things to say. As expected, it all kind of works together.

Click here to listen to Kristin Brewe’s thoughts on conversions.

Professional Insurance Marketing Association (PIMA) MarkeTTech Symposium happened in Baltimore this week. The conference seemed to be well-received. In the middle of things, I sat with Sara Holoubek, a corporate strategy consultant to growth firms and investors. Sara moderated the panel discussion on the social Web, something very new for most of the conference attendees. Listen in at the link below for a few take-aways…

Click here to hear comments from Sara.

New LinkedIn stuff

Did you see the raft of cool new Applications released on Linkedin this week? I’ve already embedded my Blog posts into my Linkedin profile. I have also joined a private Huddle Workspace - seems like a Wiki. Also like the Travel tool and the Reading List tool sponsored by Amazon. Might be time to upgrade my account. Can’t recommend Linkedin highly enough.

AMA Webinar on Communities

According to Groundswell, Communities solve one of four marketing problems in today’s world - accessibility. If you have a hard time reaching your audience with your message, building a community for your audience seems effective according to a couple case studies in the book. So when I got an email blast from the American Marketing Association called, “10 Reasons to Build an Online Community in 2009″, it caught my attention. Here’s a link. Sounds helpful.

My Webinar w/AMBest

Working on a Webinar for A.M. Best about how insurers are using the Web. If you have any insights that might be considered especially innovative, I’d like to hear from you. If you get a chance, check out the first EFusion presentation (should be posted here shortly) - some REALLY good stuff.

Interesting article. LOVE the picture. The article makes a point: Due to economic turmoil… wrt the insurance company’s IT spend… “It’s not freezing IT projects, but it’s less tolerant of risk. ‘The bar goes a little higher,’ John says.” Read the article for the whole context. I’m GLAD they’re raising the bar and being less tolerant of risk. So before selecting the internal IT department for a high-stakes Web site, does it make sense to assess their credentials and recent track record? Is it less risky to do a Web front-end project using in-house Web developers versus outsourcing to a Web development company? I have my own opinions for sure, but curious on other opinions.

Next week: PIMA MarkeTTech - SOLD OUT in the midst of travel bans, etc. Very cool.

Today’s podcast with Danielle Knopf, Vice President, Social Media Consulting Services at Deep Focus might whet your appetite to hear more at MarkeTTech, perhaps even do some of the preparation work Danielle suggest in the podcast. Looking ahead to MarkeTTech, my hope is that PIMA members will pick up some golden nuggets from the Panel called “Demystifying Social Media”, a discussion on Social Networks featuring opening Keynote Kristin Brewe with Esurance, Aimee Higgins with MySpace, Danielle, and moderated by Sara Holoubek, social networking consultant.

Resources:

Mashable

Groundswell

Twitter

Come with questions and comments - this seems like one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

Click here to hear comments from Danielle.

Quick story: On Saturday morning, as a favor to a dear friend, I took pictures of a junior high soccer game up in Cleveland. The plan was to then meet my freshman-in-college daughter at the house and immediately head to southern Ohio to shoot/watch my sophomore-in-college playing soccer. I know, it’s a lot to bite off, but these days are short. As I drove in the drive way, my daughter excitedly waves a greeting, then goes to get her stuff out of the car. Her carefree smile turns to a look of frustration as she realizes she has locked the keys in the car - no windows open, no hope.

No problem. I keep an extra key to my cars on my dresser. Not there. Dang. Call AAA. For some reason, they are not showing my annual payment - sorry, gotta pay before you can play. But I paid it - got the history right here on my bill-pay history online. I’m sorry, sir…. I finally get that straightened out 45 minutes and several call-transfers-repeat-the-situation-to multiple-people-while-I’m-on-a-deadline-good-grief!!!

Then I notice outside there goes my daughter to the car with an old left-over piece of floor-board molding from the basement and my heavy-duty, L-shaped nail-puller. She proceeds to wedge open the top of the driver car door where it meets the roof and the rear-door, and stick the piece of wood through the opening down to the auto-lock. Minutes later we’re on our way, calling AAA to cancel the service call.

“How’d you know what to do?” I asked. “I googled ‘breaking into a locked car’. There were several YouTube video’s showing how to do it,” she answered with a big smile.

So what does this have to do with insurance technology? I think it reinforces the point that the Web is where it’s at. To reach younger generations with insurance messaging, perhaps the best place to find them is online. Perhaps Esurance/Geico/Progressive should sponsor a site that’s all about user-generated content about cars - locking your keys in there, wet spots on your garage floor, noises from the back tire, how to avoid common rip-off’s at the car-repair chains, simple stuff which Joe the Plumber and Jane the single-mom can use to save money, save time, save frustration. And oh, by the way, Get-A-Quote and save money on your insurance, too.

A story to stimulate some thought - and reinforce other thoughts. I’ve been saying it for a while now. If you’re and insurer and you don’t have an aggressive Web strategy, I can almost guarantee you will be one of the ones that are left standing when the music stops… Call me - happy to help.

If you would be so kind, please click here to participate in a survey my co-presenter is sponsoring for our A.M. Best E-Fusion Webinar titled, “Is the Web Out of Control?: Social networking, instant communications, blogging: They’re all important but huge threats to corporate security and consistent delivery of strategy. Managed poorly, these technologies can become strains on productivity. Hear how companies use communication technology to their advantage and reach customers they might never have otherwise.”

Feel free to Share this page as well.  The more the merrier.  Thanks a million.

Oh yeah.  Register for the Webinar, post comments, and ask questions as well.  Always interested in a good story.

I’m excited! PIMA MarkeTTech is only 4 weeks away. Can’t wait. So I took a few moments to catch up with our opening Keynote speaker, Kristin Brewe. Have you heard of Erin Esurance, the female action hero from the TV commercials? Quote-Buy-Print, solving crime and selling insurance! It’s a very cool and savvy campaign that has kicked Esurance up to the same category as Geico and Progressive - on a MUCH smaller budget. Couple interesting points… “Each impression has to count for 20 for us.” “We in the insurance business have to let go…” Check it out.

Looking ahead to MarkeTTech, my hope is that PIMA members will pick up some golden nuggets from Kristin’s talk, as well as the following panel discussion on Social Networks featuring Kristin, Aimee Higgins with MySpace, Danielle Knopf with Deep Focus, and moderated by Sara Holoubek, social networking consultant. Come with questions and comments - this seems like one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

Click here to hear comments from Kristin Brewe, Director - Brand & Public Relations, Esurance.

By the way, here’s the picture I mention in the podcast!

One more thing… One of my son’s ROTC buddies snapped this picture last week - a download from Facebook. Zach Wise is the one looking back at the camera. Love that shot! Proud of you, Zach! ;-)

News: An impact of the economic crisis - The AM Best EFusion Conference has been moved to a virtual platform, which means a series of Webinars. The plan is to use Wednesdays in October and November to handle the Finalist presentations (some really good stuff as usual) as well as the presentations by the speakers. I’m scheduled for Nov. 12 at 11 a.m. Eastern time for my piece on…

Is the Web Out of Control?: Social networking, instant communications, blogging:

They’re all important but huge threats to corporate security and consistent delivery of strategy. Managed poorly, these technologies can become strains on productivity.

Hear how companies use communication technology to their advantage and reach customers they might never have otherwise.

In association with Charles Wasilewski, The van Aartrijk Group

This will be good. I’d prefer the in-person format, but I’m a people-person, so that’s me! But in reality, more people will be able to participate this way, so that’s the main thing - education. Really encourage you to attend these events - cutting-edge stuff.

Next: Last month, had the pleasure of spending some time with Sara Holoubek, Consultant and Aspiring Luminary, in NYC for a cup of coffee at Taralucci’s off Union Square. Sara will be moderating the opening panel discussion at PIMA’s MarkeTTech Symposium on the how to engage with the social Web in an era of “Pull Marketing”. Can’t wait. In the picture below, notice the brown paper placemat under her coffee cup? By the end of the hour, it was covered with great wisdom. I grabbed it as an artifact for my office, autograph and all. If only I could make sense of it now?!?!

(Click on the picture to see more pics from my time in NYC, as well as Philly before that.)

Photo by Frits Abell, Progress Partners - Perfect shot!

Matrix White Paper: I finished the Matrix-driven Web site White Paper if anyone is interested in a deeper dive into the insurance technology underlying ftj.com. Thanks to Jaimie Polak, Mary Fisher, and Kendra McComb. Great stuff and perhaps the next generation of Affinity Sites. Working on another one right now and have three other potential projects in budget review.

Budgets: Tis the season, right? Here’s my plug for shifting dollars from traditional marketing to Web marketing. Here’s the thing: Everyone knows the economy stinks right now. Costs are high - gas, food, energy, travel. It’s like this tornado that’s spinning everything upward and out of control. And we also know that everyone is using the Web in some form or fashion. And we’re all starting to do more and more things on our own with the assistance (or not) of Web-based tools and information. So I might be out in left field on this, but doesn’t it make sense to do more stuff online? As an insurance company or marketer, DON’T RUN AROUND YOUR OFFICE WITH YOUR FINGERS IN YOUR EARS SHOUTING, “LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!!!! I can’t hear YOU!” Just get in the game. Start doing stuff. Do a Blog, a team Blog, start a community, start a wiki, do a series of Webinars - IF NOTHING ELSE, DO IT INTERNAL. The best way to understand something is to DO IT. Once again, I’ll push Groundswell - great primary on the immediate next steps you might consider for your Web presence. Of course, IdeaStar is not the be-all-end-all of this kind of insurance technology and Web marketing tools and techniques, but it’s probably a pretty good bet that we are miles ahead of IT departments and a much safer guide through the maze. Let me know if I can help.

Perhaps because I mention it a lot, several folks have asked me to comment on Linkedin. Why is it important? How do I use it? What’s all the fuss? First of all, here’s a link to my Linkedin profile. If you’re not familiar, perhaps click through and click around a bit, then come back.

I know I linked to the Linkedin Blog last week, but the current story is so perfect, I’m doing it again. (By the way, for those of you still on the sidelines of blogging (and I know who you are ;-)), you gotta appreciate what’s going on relative to blogging here as well. Notice my comment at the bottom of the story.)

Check it out.

How do I use it? First of all, when I started, my goal was to get to 100 connections. That was pretty easy the way Linkedin suggests connections based on your profile. Make sure you put as much detail in there as possible. It was tougher getting to 200. Getting to the mythical “500+” seems distant, but I’ll get there. Note that my philosophy is to have quality connections, not just anyone. Don’t want to be a “Linkedin S lut!”

The point is to have as wide a network as possible so that when I WANT to get connected to someone I DON’T know, I have as many possible 2nd-level connections as possible to use for introductions. If I have no 2nd-level’s, I will look at the third-level’s and pick up the phone. “Hey, I’m trying to find an introduction to so-and-so and I see in Linkedin that someone you are connected with is connected with them.” It’s tougher that way, but as my network expands… And, oh by the way, I get another touch point in my own network.

I also sometimes go straight to the person. The cool thing is that profiles are maintained by the person, so they are much more likely to be current. That means that when you send them a note, you can be fairly confident it will get to them. That’s exactly how I reached out to the keynote speaker at the upcoming PIMA MarkeTTech Symposium, Kristin Brewe with Esurance. And sure enough, she 1. got the email, and 2. responded to it as coming from a trusted, albeit unfamiliar source - a minor miracle in today’s business world, n’est ce pas?

I also really appreciate the Recommendations functionality. I think it’s really cool that people can look at what other people are saying about me right in my profile - and what I am saying about other people. I also change my picture on a regular basis because it notifies my network when I do - and thus perhaps keeps me top-of-mind just by changing a profile picture.

I’ve also had people ask me if I know anyone in such-and-such geography or this-and-that industry. It seemed to be helpful to those people. After all, we never know where solutions are going to happen.

Hope this helps.

Couple pictures:

My daughter, Kelle Wise, inadvertantly started a marketing campaign for my wife’s company.

College soccer is back underway.
Here’s my son, Zach Wise #19, at Houghton College.

One of my favorite conferences of the year, A.M. Best’s E-Fusion conference, is coming up in Philadelphia in October. If you are interested in insurance e-commerce/e-business, looking to network, share, and learn new stuff, this is the place to be. No kidding, this is the conference in the insurance biz where I get a raft of new ideas. Check it out. If you’re coming, let me know. Love to connect.

I’m trying my hand at a Webinar in a couple weeks. It’s on e-applications in the financial services industry. The host is The American Financial Services Association. I was referred to them by another PIMA member, Tammy Dixon and Stephanie D’Amico with SourceLink. Sorry - it’s invitation-only. Co-facilitating with Nigel Fisher.

Next week: LinkedIn - Why it’s important. Ideas on how to use it. Some of you are asking me for my opinions, so I’ll see if i can write something intelligent! Meantime, check out the LinkedIn Blog.

Shooting Promise Keepers Cleveland this weekend. Very excited…