Friday, April 22, 2016

Tague Alliance Insurance Agents - Do You Use Video With Social Media?

Person Browsing on iPad in Front of Computer
The landscape of social media is highly nebulous, and the only constant is change - really rapid, pull-the-rug-out-from-under-you change. One of the areas that has seen the greatest amount of transformation is the way video is discovered and shared on nearly all major social platforms. Today, we are taking stock of where we stand in 2016, complete with a demographic breakdown of the audiences on each platform, to summarize the state of social video.

Facebook

In what is now clearly a self-fulfilling prophecy, Mark Zuckerberg declared back in 2014 that the majority of the content on Facebook would be video. Facebook is exploding in terms of popularity as a video destination, with more than 8 billion daily video views on its platform.
This is largely thanks to major upgrades recently made to the Facebook viewing experience, with an emphasis on enticing viewers to keep watching, as well as heavy investments in the technology powering it. These investments have also increasingly made Facebook the place for interactive video, such as 360 degree video and virtual reality. With the introduction of new metrics for businesses, tools for creating videos suited specifically to Facebook, and even hardware, Facebook’s position as a leader in video discovery and technology is being cemented before our very eyes.
Another important factor is that Facebook has sustained an incredibly large and engaged user base for several years now. Research from the Pew Institute reveals that72% of American adults are on Facebook, with a majority logging in every day or several times a day. The demographics skew slightly young, with nearly 30% falling in the 25 - 34 years old range, and almost evenly split between men and women.
To position your videos for success on Facebook, consider uploading them natively, create subtitles to allow your message to get across if it’s played in silence, and target a specific niche with your content. To help encourage sharing, use emotional hooks to engage your viewers, and try to get a strong reaction. Also, test paid promotions of your videos to see if it gives you the boost you need.

Pinterest, Instagram, Linkedin and Twitter

Compared to Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Linkedin and Twitter have much smaller user bases in the US, and around the world, although growth rates have accelerated on nearly all platforms since 2012. The rate of adoption is similar; it ranges from about 24% to 30% of all American adults on each of these platforms.
It’s important to note that while adoption rates are similar across these platforms, the audience and content strategy vary quite a bit. Here’s a breakdown of how to approach each of these platforms.
Pinterest
Sharing videos as pins does happen on Pinterest, but most people’s feeds and boards remain dominated by still images. One look at how video appears on Pinterest tells you why that’s the case - it appears that little has been done to encourage viewers who start watching videos to keep doing so. Yes, related videos are displayed along with related images below the video, but there isn’t an easy way to advance to another video, and the mix of content types detracts from the viewing experience in a way that’s not true for still images.
That isn’t to say it won’t work - there are anecdotes of Pinterest driving lots of video views out there. Position your content around highly informative how-tos, lifehacks, fashion trends, recipes, workouts, or anything to do with babies or pets, and you might just see some success.
It will be worth keeping an eye on how Pinterest changes the way video is discovered and shared on its platform, especially as they explore video ad opportunities. For now, it’s not a top choice for video marketing.
Demographics: Pinterest skews heavily female, with 42% of women who are online using the platform, compared to only 13% of men. It is also more popular amongst younger demographics, with 34% of adults ages 18-29, 28% of adults 30-49, 27% of adults 50-64, and 17% of adults 65 and over using Pinterest.
Instagram
After Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, you shouldn’t be surprised that video is also taking off on this platform. Although its user base isn’t as substantial as Facebook’s, Instagram has a lot to offer video marketers, especially those looking to drive organic engagement with video. Since Instagram hasn’t been optimized to drive people to paid or most popular content to the same extent as Facebook, you can reach a lot of people with an entertaining, informative, or emotional message just using hashtags.
Instagram has a particularly visual focus, and it’s important to share only great-looking content if you choose to leverage this platform for your business. Recently, Instagram rolled out one minute videos to everyone on their platform, taking a big step forward into longer form content, and creating new opportunities for more involved storytelling.
If you’re willing to pay for a video ad on Instagram, you have up to two minutes to get your message across. The longer time isn’t the only benefit: ads are the only way to include an outbound link in your post. If your goal is to drive traffic with your Instagram video, instead of just brand awareness, promoted video posts are the way to go on Instagram.
Demographics: More than 300 million users, and counting, are sharing up to 60 million posts a day on Instagram. The platform is nearly evenly split between male and female users, with slightly more women than men. Instagram is notably more popular amongst younger demographics, with 53% of 18-29 year olds, 25% of 30-49 year olds, 11% of 50-64 year olds, and only 6% of those 65+ on the platform.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is similar to Pinterest in the sense that it has a lot of potential to be really great for video marketing, but still has a long way to go before that will come to fruition. To their credit, they have made some big strides recently, such as introducing autoplaying video in the timeline. They also completely refreshed their mobile app, and introduced a more modern, streamlined user interface, which will only encourage more video viewing for users on phones.
Importantly, LinkedIn doesn’t support native video, meaning you can’t use their app to record a video, or upload a video directly to their platform. Since you can only share links to your videos, you need to ensure the page containing your video is properly setup with the correct metadata so that LinkedIn will pull the correct information about the video when generating your post.
Demographics: Their recent updates to video in the newsfeed, along with their mature and relatively affluent user base, make them an excellent choice for many video marketers, especially for B2B companies. Evenly split between men and women, LinkedIn’s 347 million-strong user base is also more evenly distributed by age. Roughly 30% of people ages 30-64 use the platform, while 23% of those 18-29 and 21% of adults over 65 use LinkedIn.
Twitter
Twitter is a great home for video, with easy support for native video, autoplaying videos in the timeline, great promotional options, and decent organic reach through hashtags. It’s really just a crying shame about that stagnant user growth.
It’s hard to say whether some of the changes they are making to how tweets are displayed will work in your favor in the long run. For instance, the While You Were Away feature, which surfaces tweets similar to those you’ve engaged with in the past, seems like it could be a good thing. However, all the tinkering that’s happening could alienate their core users, and without any meaningful new user growth, that could make Twitter less attractive down the road.
If you include Twitter in your marketing mix, share your video two or three times throughout the day using different copy and hashtags to see what might resonate with your audience. Buffer, a subject-matter expert, seems to think this is a good idea. Consider uploading your video natively since there is evidence to suggest that, like Facebook, native video drives more engagement on Twitter than links to external pages containing video. Currently, native video is limited to 30 seconds, so be sure to make the most of it!
Demographics: Unlike the other platforms, Twitter counts more male users than female, with 24% of men who are online using Twitter, compared to 21% of women. Their user base tends to be on the younger side, with 37% of people ages 18-39, 25% of those 30-49, 12% of 50-64 year olds, and 10% of those over 65 using Twitter.

Are any of these platforms working particularly well, or maybe not so well, for your campaigns? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Note: We purposefully did not include messaging apps in this analysis, since they have specific nuances that deserve their own analysis. Look for that in a future post!
All demographic information is from Pew Research Institute’s Report on Mobile Messaging and Social Media 2015.
WRITTEN BY COURTNEY PURCHON
Courtney is the Head of Marketing at SproutVideo. Follow her on Twitter.
POSTED APRIL 13, 2016

Thursday, April 14, 2016

30 Day Glove Box Challenge! Tague Alliance is taking the challenge

JOIN US IN THE 30 DAY GLOVE BOX CHALLENGE!

Join the 30 Day Glovebox Challenge!

It’s NOT Worth Your Life  #itsnotworthyourlife

Distracted driving is a dangerous epidemic on America’s roadways. Hundreds of thousands of lives are lost in distracted driving crashes.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is leading the effort to stop texting and cell phone use behind the wheel. We want to do our part and are launching a 30 Day Glovebox Challenge to raise public awareness about the issue and inspire us all to make a change.

Join us in The Glovebox Challenge! Here’s how it works:
  1. Make a short video of yourself – Getting into your car, putting your phone in the glovebox and starting the ignition. (30 sconds or less)
  2. Post it on Social Media (FB, Twitter) and tag a friend to join the challenge.
  3. Register to win a free T-Shirt or Cap at  www.distracteddriversbusted.com


- Source: www.DistractedDriversBusted.com

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

SIAA Celebrates 20 Years of Helping Independent Agencies Grow Nation’s Largest Alliance

For Immediate Release Media Contact: Gary Kimball Kimball Communications 610‐559‐7585 gkimball@kimballpr.com


 SIAA Celebrates 20 Years of Helping Independent Agencies Grow Nation’s largest alliance has written nearly $6 billion in premium and signed more than 5,500 member agencies

Oct. 21, 2015 – Hampton, N.H. – SIAA (Strategic Insurance Agency Alliance) today celebrates its 20th anniversary, having grown to be the nation’s largest agency alliance. With 48 master agencies, SIAA has signed more than 5,500 member agencies and generated nearly $6 billion in revenue since it was formed in 1995.

 SIAA celebrates the milestone with a champagne gala in Boston this evening, with more than 425 attendees expected, including CEOs and senior officers of SIAA’s strategic (carrier) partners, principals and staff of SIAA’s master agencies, publishers and editors of insurance industry media and other business associates and friends.

 “When we began to build a national network of agencies two decades ago, we focused on a mission to support the growth and continuing success of the independent agency distribution system,” said SIAA CEO Jim Masiello. “Today we celebrate the success of our integrated model with multi‐level partnering, which continues to be a proven solution to help agencies grow both premium and profitability.”

 The idea for SIAA grew out of the success of the Satellite Agency Network (SAN), a “master agency” comprised of independent agencies, which Masiello formed in New Hampshire in 1983 to overcome the biggest challenges facing independent agencies – growth and access to markets. Today, SIAA estimates that 13 percent of all independent agencies in the United States are or have been signed members of SIAA master agencies.

 SIAA has continued to add value to members through professional development and education, access to program and specialty markets, lead generation and more:
 • SIAA Business Insurance Advantage is a program that gives member agencies the ability to start or grow a profitable book of small commercial lines business.
• SIAA Agency Foundation is a program designed to assist new member start‐up agencies write quality business sooner than might otherwise be possible.
• SIAA Training & Learning Center had more than 1,000 member agencies register in 2014 with a dramatic increase in the use of content, such as a series of proprietary ACORD form lessons, Business Owner Policy training and CE credits.
• SIAA MarketFinder is used by member agencies to place difficult‐to‐write excess and surplus lines and specialty market business.
• Insurancedeals4u (ID4U) is a consumer‐facing web portal SIAA rolled out in 2004 to provide consumer access to all SIAA member agencies. It had more than 25,000 site visits providing 4,500 consumer leads to member agencies in 2014.

About SIAA SIAA is a national insurance agency alliance dedicated to the creation, retention, growth and continued success of the independent insurance agency distribution system. SIAA has signed more than 5,500 member agencies through 48 master agencies across the country since its inception in 1995. Of that member number, SIAA and its Master Agencies have created 3,100 new start‐up agencies coming predominantly from former captive agents. An estimated 13 percent of all independent agencies in the U.S. are or have been signed members of SIAA. SIAA brings profitable premium growth and quality relationship integration between its member agencies and strategic partner companies, and provides a wide range of resources to help agencies increase sales, retention, revenue and value. For more information on SIAA visit www.siaa.net.

Monday, August 31, 2015

How to Know What Insurance Customers Want

Great article on important things our Tague Alliance member clients and prospects want from us....


How to Know What Insurance Customers Want

By Andrew G. Simpson | August 25, 2015
customers
What do today’s customers want from insurance providers?
They want understanding, interaction, even a relationship. But they vary in when and how they wish to learn, interact and build a relationship.
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Insurance providers have to understand not only when but also how to best help customers with their needs, Lynn Kesterson-Townes, worldwide commerce marketing leader for IBM,told the Insurance Marketing and Communications Association (IMCA) Annual Conference in Nashville.
Firms that figure out how to serve millennials will be able to capture other customers more easily and keep them, the e-commerce expert said.
According to Kesterson-Townes and research she shared from IBM, the insurance marketing and communication strategies of the past no longer work because insurance customers have changed.
“Obviously, they’re the same people, but the way they want to interact with their insurers is very different these days,” she said.
One way customers have changed is that they are less loyal than customers used to be.
In the past two years, 37 percent of customers of insurers contracted with IBM report that they switched their insurers. This churn rate is rising, it’s up 13 percent over the last few years.
“That’s because we believe that in today’s customer‑activated environment, marketing and communications strategies that used to work are no longer working to sustain retention or to significantly grow the business,” she said.
What Customers Want: IBM’s Kesterson-Townes at IMCA
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Bob and Ann
Kesterson-Townes shared two examples. One was a man, Bob, who had a car windshield claim. He also had a $50 discount coupon that would have helped pay his deductible.
“Except for reasons that no one can understand, the insurer didn’t let the auto glass place accept the coupon. No one’s actually to this day figured out why not. Bob’s still baffled why his insurer wouldn’t let his coupon be used. The auto glass place didn’t understand it. Bob had to pay the full deductible. Guess what else? The auto glass place didn’t lose a customer, but Bob switched insurers,” she said.
The other story was about Ann, whose husband just died in a fatal car accident. She received a condolence letter from her insurance carrier. Unfortunately, in the same envelope Ann also received a letter from the same insurance company informing her that her coverage was being cancelled.
“Unbelievable, right? Unbelievable. How did the marketing and communications department get to this point? Sorry your husband died and oh yeah, we’re canceling your policy! Did they not want to use another stamp? You wonder what was going through the heads of people, right?” said Kesterson-Townes.
According to the IBM consultant, these insurers were not thinking about their insureds at these critical times of interaction.
“That’s what customers are looking for today. They’re looking for an understanding of their personal situation when they’re having an event, when they’ve actually had a change in their own situation, and they’re looking for people to help them cope with it. They’re looking for that from their retailers, from their airlines, and from their insurers,” she said.
Interaction Points
She said today’s customers also expect all of the people they have relationships with to be able to respond in the same way. “Therefore, marketing and communications functions in insurers need to be more nimble, more innovative, and better able to engage with their customers and help their entire ecosystem along as well,” she said.
“They don’t want channels. They want interaction points, and we’ve changed that language on purpose because channels infer a one‑way communication. From me to you, from the insurer… ‘Let me push this product to you.'”
As examples of interaction points Kesterson-Townes cited emails from brokers, face-to-face-meetings, talking to a customer service representative over the phone, and click-throughs on a website, even a comparison website.
“As digitally enabling technologies empower and connect customers more easily with businesses and with each other, a one‑size‑fits‑all marketing and communications strategy no longer works. In fact it’s competitively disadvantageous because what we used to have is an organization‑centered economy and now we have an individual‑centered economy,” the IBM executive told the communications professionals.
Today’s customers are using a variety of web‑based interactions to talk to insurers, she said. In the beginning information and quoting stages, they are using a variety of interaction points and they don’t necessarily purchase where they’re searching, IBM’s research shows. In fact, it shows an 18 percent shift away from personal interaction and toward digital interaction at the beginning.
Personal Touch
But that doesn’t mean personal interaction is dead.
“[A]t the point of purchase, we are still seeing a lot of interaction, whether it’s on the phone or in person with a broker. What does this mean for insurers? Customers are obtaining their information and they’re quoting digitally. Then they’re purchasing a lot of times physically, we would call it,” she said.
She said this means that insurers need to be proficient at omni-channel marketing, at merging the digital and the physical experience so that for the customer it feels like the relationship is “building all along instead of restarting with every new interaction point.”
Due to the ubiquitous connectivity, insurance customers are looking for these “customer‑centric” interactions.
To meet this expectation, insurers need data. “You need to know where your customer is in the decision process. You need to know what’s going on in their lives to be causing this decision to be made,” she said.
Lead with Millennials
She stressed the value in being a leader rather than follower in understanding customers. The best place to lead is with millennials, the most empowered generation, people who are under the age of 30.
“You need to embrace your digital millennials because you can learn a lot from them. Once you get successful working with them you can use those lessons in other areas,” she advised.
She said two‑thirds of millennials are demanding customer digital and physical experiences that are harmonized.
“They want increased transparency. They want to really interact and have a relationship with you. They want an understanding of their personal needs. They want fast responses. They still want advice. But if their needs are not met, they’re even more likely to switch insurers than the rest of us. But they’re looking for value. Notice, I said ‘value’ not price,” Kesterson-Townes told the audience.
“We believe that if you can market and communicate to millennials effectively, you will actually be able to capture all of your customer segments,” she said.
That’s because, like millennials, all insurance customers today want four things.
“They want advice, simplicity, convenience, and value from their insurers, which brings us to trust. After all, insurance essentially started as a social network among like-minded people to share risk. How come most customers don’t trust their insurers?”
She said IBM surveys show that more than half (56 percent) of customers do not trust their insurer and that people with low trust in their insurers are almost 20 percent more likely to switch their providers. “That’s why this is important to you,” Kesterson-Townes told the IMCA audience.
According to IBM, it’s not useful to simply look at demographics or ages to segment today’s customers. Demographics actually offer limited insight into predicting the interaction point preferences, she said.
“How do you know if this customer would prefer to talk to an agent online, would prefer to see an agent in person, or would prefer to interact via email? Will demographics give you that answer? We would say, ‘No. In fact, they don’t.'”
Sometimes, demographics even appear counter-intuitive. For example, the youngest age bracket, those under 24 years of age, are not the most likely to purchase insurance via the Internet, she said. Nor is it the next oldest age group, those 24 to 34. It’s actually people 34 to 44 that are most likely to purchase insurance over the Internet.
“That’s a little counter-intuitive to some people. Some people would think the younger, the more likely.”
Psychographics
If not demographics, then what should insurance marketers rely on to understand customers? IBM thinks psychographics, or segmentation based on customer attitudes, is the answer.
“It’s based on behaviors. It’s based on their needs,” she said. “That is much more indicative of how someone wants tot be interacted with, not just how old they happen to be. ”
She said IBM has found that psychographic segmentation is four times more likely to point to the right interaction point than pure demographic segmentation analysis.
IBM identifies six customer segments, to which it assigns names including Loyal Quality Seeker and the Price-Oriented Minimalist.
Kesterson-Townes profiled three examples of growing customer segments.
Demanding Support Seeker
Susan, 33, is unmarried, an energy consultant, and moving from Seattle to Boston. So she needs car insurance, and also needs insurance for her new house in Boston. And she wants life insurance because she’s going to be adopting a child in Boston.
From a psychographic standpoint, Susan is a “Demanding Support Seeker” in IBM’s segmentation, or as Kesterson-Townes described her, “she’s high maintenance.”
“She acts like a traditional insurance customer. She needs a lot of hand‑holding. She really looks to insurers for advice. She trusts them, but she’s also every bit a person of this age, so she’s a modern empowered consumer,” she said.
This customer is very connected and social media savvy but prefers that all of her interactions be personal, from information gathering all the way through purchase and servicing after purchase.
“Demanding Support Seekers, or these high maintenance ones, have the lowest technology affinity in interaction. They want advice. They want full coverage. They want a one‑stop shop. They want someone on the other end of the phone,” Kesterson-Townes said.
Support Seeking Skeptics
John and Ann Cooke of Los Angeles epitomize the second segment Kesterson-Townes described. John is a 28‑year‑old manager at a large retail store. Ann is a 25‑year‑old nurse at a local hospital. This couple is extremely active on several social media sites, especially Facebook (which Kesterson-Townes says is actually for older people these days).
John and Ann are discussing buying a new car. They’ve done a lot of research on their own. Now they’ve turned to Facebook to seek advice from their friends and family on their experience with three models they are considering.
John and Ann are “Support Seeking Skeptics,” in IBM’s psychographic parlance. Support Seeking Skeptics have a medium technology affinity, but when it comes to social media, they’re “off the charts.”
They don’t feel well‑informed about insurance. They are young and haven’t had a whole lot of experience with it. They don’t trust insurers. They’re looking for advice about insurance at the same time they’re looking for advice about which car to buy.
How they prefer to interact with insurers depends on where they are in the process, according to Kesterson-Townes. For example, when searching for insurance, they want to hear from their peers about their experiences. They don’t want to interact with insurers. But when it comes to purchasing, they will flip to a personal interaction such as telephone or face‑to‑face.
“If you’re trying to sell this kind of group car insurance, for example, make sure you’re Facebook friends with John and Ann’s friends and network in,” the IBM expert advised.
Informed Optimizer
The third fast-growing segment is represented by Dan, a 27 year- old single and very successful video game designer who’s purchasing his first rental property. Dan is an “Informed Optimizer” in IBM-speak. “These guys optimize everything. They want to have the right insurance from the right insurer at the right time,” Kesterson-Townes said.
These customers have a very high technology affinity, they’re highly self‑sufficient, they’re informed, and they’re willing to experiment.
“They seek an optimal priced‑value ratio. Price is important, but they will shop around for exactly what they want,” she said.
They prefer to interact digitally throughout the process if possible, even through purchase and servicing. “They’re comfortable in that world, but because they want the tailored product they demand, they’ll get on the phone if they have to, to get exactly what they need,” she added.
As he researches landlord policies, Dan would be really impressed if an insurer reached out to him while he’s online with an appropriate product offer. If a company actually includes an app that Dan can use to communicate with the insurer throughout the relationship, Dan would be thrilled.
Merging Digital and Physical
While these three segments differ in their needs and preferences, they are all engaging in omni‑channel behaviors. Kesterson-Townes said IBM research shows that 80 percent of insurance customers are already using two or more interaction points for information gathering and quoting process. Twenty percent are already using four interaction points or more. Consumers say they expect to be using four interaction points or more in the near future as they look at insurance.
“Again, now’s a good time to start thinking about merging those digital and physical spaces,” said Kesterson-Townes.
She stressed that personal interaction will remain important. In fact, the highest sales conversion rate is in transactions through personal contact, with about 80 percent, versus 30 to 40 percent conversion on websites.
Seamless Experience
Customers want a seamless experience, involving  every contact that they have with the insurer, so they don’t have to start over providing their information at every interaction. That turns them off, the IBM executive told IMCA.
“Therefore, when they do talk to, let’s say, your call center rep, marketing is no longer about the call center rep getting out the right script and starting to pitch whatever product is the product of the day,” she said. “It really is about understanding what that customer’s talking to you about and being able to take them to the next level. ”
Marketing is about personalizing the experience for thousands, or even millions, of customers.
“Whether you’re responding to a customer in real time or anticipating a need that they didn’t even know they had, today’s insurance marketing and communications functions must exceed expectations to give their companies a competitive edge. It’s not just about speed. It’s about the experience. Every interaction is a moment of truth and moments matter. It’s about delivering relevant experiences at the right time and the right place,” she said.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Tague Alliance - Insurance Agents Valued By Small Business Owners According To New PIA Study But They Want Insurance Agents With Good Web Capabilities

Commercial lines customers – particularly small business owners – still prefer working with independent insurance agents in the Internet age, new industry research has found.
At the same time, agents can’t rest on their laurels and must show their value online as well as person-to-person, according to the results. In other words, the person-to-person interaction still matters, but agents must also embrace doing business through the Internet to keep pace with their customers.
“Our results affirm that while small business owners continue to greatly value the professional advice and personal service of an independent agent, there is an expectation that their agent will be more capable of online interaction concerning their accounts and that the agency will have a fully credible online presence,” PIA National Executive Vice President and CEO Mike Becker said in prepared remarks.
The findings come from a survey conducted by the agency-company council of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) and other groups, as part of the PIA Partnership. Data comes, in part from a random national sampling of 1,000 small business owners whose companies employ 50 or fewer people.
Becker said the results are both an “affirmation” that insurance agents still matter and “wake-up call” for them to boost their efficiency through use of the Internet and other high-tech tools.
The PIA Partnership encompasses insurance companies that work with PIA’s national division to pursue research and develop tools that help independent agents do their job better. P/C members of the group include Progressive Insurance, State Auto Group, The Hanover Insurance Group, The Hartford and The Motorists Insurance Group.
Research findings determined that agents offered great value to small business clients, who sought relationships with those who understood their business, offered quick service responses, personal attention, and could reassure them that they were making the right insurance decisions.
Other results indicated that even when small business clients started their insurance process online, they wanted to interact with an agent to make sure of their decisions but also ask questions.
PIA Partnership Chairman John Petrucci said the results show that agents – even though their personal interaction is valued, should make use of the Internet part of their daily jobs.
“The Internet is here to stay,” Petrucci said in prepared remarks. “It is not the opponent of agents. But while it can be a source for competition, it can also provide an opportunity for agents when they use it to their own advantage … but the one thing that is not an option for independent agents is inaction.”
Source: National Association of Professional Insurance Agents