Guest Blogger Nibby Priest, GoVaughn.com Insurance: “High-Touch Relationships”
August 6, 2010 by admin · 4 Comments
For Aartrijk’s new series of guest bloggers from in and around the insurance industry, we welcome Nibby Priest of GoVaughn.com Insurance Agency, a full-service independent agency headquartered in Henderson, Kentucky, and serving Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois.
About Nibby: Nibby began his insurance career in August 1983 as a part-time employee in his father’s business, then joined the agency full-time in 1986 after graduating from Eastern Kentucky University. Nibby is known nationally for his insurance agency automation consulting work with the AGENA Corporation and National Users of AGENA Systems. He has also worked extensively with Henderson Community College as an instructor in various computer-related classes.
1. What has happened in the past year with your agency/firm now in the area of branding? What changes or initiatives have you been working on? What is the top challenge right now for companies like yours?
We are trying to brand more with our online name GoVaughn.com Insurance, instead of our old, long name Vaughn Insurance Agency Co.
We have dropped our Yellow Pages, TV, radio and newspaper advertisements. Our biggest challenge is making sense out of it all, even though we know that the time we are spending in social media and new media (online advertising) is really the right way to go.
Guest Blogger Pat Alexander, InsuranceEcoSystem.com Founder: ‘Brand and Message Are Inseparable’
July 26, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Pat Alexander, founder of InsuranceEcosystem.com
The Aartrijk team is pleased to welcome — for the first time — guest bloggers from in and around the insurance industry, starting this month.
To kick off this occasional series, we welcome Pat Alexander, founder of industry blog InsuranceEcosystem.com and a Brand Camp 2009 alumna.
About Pat: In 2009, she launched InsuranceEcosystem.com as a resource for the insurance industry and a way to spark more conversation about her areas of expertise in independent agencies, coaching and technology. She describes Insurance Ecosystem as a blog that “provide[s] you with communicators that don’t normally blog but have great views and information to share. Each of these individuals … [has] so much to contribute in their area of expertise.”
1. What has happened in the past year with your firm now in the area of branding? What changes or initiatives have you been working on?
After Aartrijk Brand Camp 2009, I developed a plan to redesign my primary Web site, PatAlexander.com, and give it a fresh look and to develop a blog where individuals of interest to insurance agents could blog regularly or at their whim. Developing this blog included developing a brand for it as well as an audience.
On Point with Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan, Episode 22: A Renewed Energy
June 28, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
“On Point, with Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan” is an audio conversation with insurance industry leaders who champion change and challenge all of us to think.
Peter and Rick discuss the renewed energy and engagement they are seeing across the industry. For example, at the recent ACORD conference they noticed many new vendors and lots of younger folks in attendance. The exhibit hall was filled with activity and a renewed energy that had not been in evidence for several years.
Clearly, there is a realization that in spite of value of social social networking — face-to-face networking is still a critically important component in a successful business strategy. Perhaps associations, user groups, and others who hold conferences can learn from this. More than education and keynote speakers, it is the networking opportunity that may drive the events of the future.
More than their experience at several recent events, Peter and Rick are seeing a resurgence in confidence and a commitment to the independent agency system by agents, brokers and carriers alike. Yes, part of that is technology based. The growing implementation of Real Time is helping agents do business in a more efficient and effective way and social networking is giving them a whole new set of tools to help them build and strengthen relationships and more effective way to communicate with their community.
The podcast was published Monday, June 21, 2010. Run time is 15 minutes 6 seconds.
On Point with Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan, Episode 21: The Definition of Retirement Has Changed
June 24, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
“On Point, with Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan” is an audio conversation with insurance industry leaders who champion change and challenge all of us to think.
This podcast is an interview with Sharon Emek, President and CEO of WAHVE.
Listen to Sharon as she shares here vision for this new company with Rick and Peter.
“The definition of retirement has changed. Consider two trends:
1) People who are “retired” from the insurance industry in the traditional sense (no longer going to an agency or a carrier to work in a management or professional position) still want to work, but under different working arrangements.
2) Those who are hiring in our industry now consider “retirees” as a prime market to fulfill their demand for a quality workforce for their businesses.
Matching up vintage workers (those people who have left the traditional workforce but want to work from their homes) with hiring managers is what this innovative new company is all about. The acronym “WAHVE” reflects the focus in placing “Work-At-Home Vintage Employees” with insurance organizations such as independent agencies.
As an insurance producer, I came to learn how vital agency staff people are to selling and servicing insurance clients. As an agency principal, I came to appreciate how precious quality performers are to running an insurance agency. Now, as the founder and CEO of WAHVE, I’m pleased that we can offer employees and principals the only remote domestic staffing option for insurance agents and brokers.” – Sharon Emek
The podcast was published Friday, June 4, 2010. Run time is 22 minutes 6 seconds.
What Agents Want
June 10, 2010 by Kevin Jenne · Leave a Comment
By Kevin Jenné
Movie lovers may remember Mel Gibson’s gaining the ability to read women’s minds in “What Women Want.” And we market researchers sometimes wish for this kind of direct insight. Living in the real world, when we want to know what people want, we turn to our research tools: surveys, interviews and focus groups.
And in a recent survey of 1,498 independent insurance agents, we validated what many industry leaders already know: among all the important factors that agents consider when choosing their “go-to” carriers for personal lines, claims service quality matters most. Not technology, not their own agency compensation – but the service their clients get from insurance carriers.
Aartrijk Brand Camp: A Look Back at 2009, and A Look Ahead to 2010
May 28, 2010 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
Aartrijk’s founder, president and CEO Peter van Aartrijk sat down recently (admittedly, in front of the Aartrijk logo at a trade show at an industry producers’ conference) and answered a few questions about Aartrijk Brand Camp.
He talked about what happened at Brand Camp 2009 — and how Aartrijk Brand Camp 2010 will be different.
This brief video (2 minutes, 23 seconds) describes who attends Brand Camp, what they can expect if they go, and how 2010 will be a regathering for many who formed the community at the 2009 event.
On Point with Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan, Episode 19: Having Fun Growing Business
May 11, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
“On Point, with Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan” is an audio conversation with insurance industry leaders who champion change and challenge all of us to think.
Linda Rey is a second-generation agent and owner of Rey Insurance in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Frank Rey founded the agency in 1978 to serve bilingual clients in the local community.
Linda discusses how she has incorporated the use of social media into the agency’s marketing strategy. For Linda, it was an “effective way to be present, visible, and increase awareness and exposure.”