There is no doubt that the web has taken over our daily lives!
Moreover, the mobile web has taken over our daily lives!!!!
To that end, ALLCHOICE is pleased to announce we have launched the mobile version of www.allchoiceinsurance.com!
I ask each of you to take a look and give us your feedback, we could use your feedback.
To understand “why” we need your feedback, take a look at the various iterations of allchoiceinsurance.com.
ALLCHOICEINSURANCE.COM – 1st ITERATION
When ALLCHOICE Insurance was first founded, we invested some money in a website. At the time, we had a client who owned a “marketing” firm. They did a great job, and we unleashed allchoiceinsurance.com. At that point in ALLCHOICE’s history (and the history of business as well), your goal was just to have a web presence.
The first iteration of allchoiceinsurance.com was just that, a web presence. The website looked professionally done. If someone actually took the time to type in “allchoiceinsurance.com” they would at least see that we had a website (which at that point was a big deal for an insurance agency). The year…2004.
Skip forward just 3 years to 2007, and our business was forced to face the music. We could continue to have our “pretty picture” that we knew as our website, or we could get serious about unleashing the power of the web on our business. As a new/young business we were at a point financially where taking our online presence to the next level was viewed as a BIG EXPENSE! The problem was that we needed a change in mindset! To this point, our website couldn’t be “monetized”. I am sure that for those we directed to the site, ALLCHOICE gained some measure of credibility by just having our pretty picture, but there was no way to place a dollar figure on its value…thus any money thrown at our online strategy was viewed as an EXPENSE.
ALLCHOICEINSURANCE.COM – 2nd ITERATION
ALLCHOICE decided to take the plunge and have our site redesigned. We relaunched allchoiceinsurance.com in 2007! The new website was built to perform better in search. However, after long hours researching search engine optimization (SEO), I discovered that the old adage “built it and they will come” was not applicable to the web. To that end, we incorporated this Blog (allnews.allchoiceinsurance.com) to make sure we could keep our content fresh! The Blog leads itself to venture out to social media platforms (Facebook & Twitter).
The next thing you know, we are cruising along. The website has been transformed from a business EXPENSE to a business & marketing tool! ALLCHOICE is now the proud owner of well designed, well-optimized, online insurance office. The website allows visitors to learn about coverages, learn about policies, and even obtain quotes. For current ALLCHOICE clients, you are able to files claims, request certificates, and make payments!
The web is good!
ALLCHOICEINSURANCE.COM – 3rd ITERATION
2010 & 2011 saw the “smartphone” and “tablet” both come into existence and take over the world! I read a statistic somewhere that in the short timeframe, 20-25% of all mobile phones were smartphones (approx 91 million smartphones in the US alone). Personally, I know that I use my smartphone to do just about everything. I check Facebook, watch videos, check email, and surf the web. When you add the tablet dynamic to the equation, projections are that more people will access the internet via their smartphone and tablet than with a PC (or Mac) by 2014.
With this data in mind, about a month ago, I took a close look at allchoiceinsurance.com from both my smartphone & my tablet. The website loaded fine. The navigation worked. However, I found that I had to really concentrate and manipulate the zoom in & zoom out function(s) on the devices. I then went and looked at some of my “competitors” using the same devices. The good news was that our site looked better and was more functional. The bad news, it just didn’t live up to my expectations.
When living in the mobile world, a website should be “simple”. The user should be able to move around the site with his/her thumb. Even better, the user should be able to access the information he/she is looking for in a matter of seconds!
With a thought in mind, I ventured out to make allchoiceinsurance.com “mobile-friendly”. Through countless hours of design and testing, ALLCHOICE Insurance is pleased to unveil our mobile site! Just use your smartphone or tablet and enter our normal website (www.allchoiceinsurance.com), our server will automatically detect you are using a mobile device and redirect you to our mobile site. Of course, you always have the option to view the site in its “classic” view by clicking the link toward the bottom of the page’s window.