After nearly two years of hard work…the new web-site is finally here!
When we first started ALLCHOICE, merely having a web-site seemed to be good. To that end, we had a great Marketing Company design our site. The look and feel of the site was good enough, the problem was that the web-site was merely a series of “pictures”. As we matured as business, we realized that, much like a business, if all you have are “fancy pictures” and “glitz” you will not last. We have always taken a great deal of pride in the care and service we provide to each and everyone of our customers. Why should we not offer the same type of quality with our web presence, since that typically is the most frequently viewed portion of any business.
When we first started looking to web-design firms, I personally looked at about twenty different firms. Each firm had its own set of specialities and strengths. The problem I had was that Insurance is just a different animal when it comes to marketing. We don’t offer things that can be found in stores! We offer and provide services! ALLCHOICE needed a firm that understood the complexities of the Insurance Industry. I feel very fortunate that I stumbled upon Venuecom Communications (Based right here in North Carolina)!
Venuecom had designed insurance related sites in the past, mostly for monoline agencies offering Blue Cross & Blue Shield of NC Insurance. After spending a little time with Zach Dotsey at Venuecom, I knew they were the firm for ALLCHOICE. If you need a GREAT Web-Design Firm, please check them out (www.venuecom.com).
The design of the site was fairly simple once they Venucom showed me some things they could do. The hard part was trying to define what I wanted the site to be! I think many small businesses do not take the time to define what they want to accomplish with their site. I searched for and looked at hundreds of Insurance Agency Web-Sites as well as Insurance Carrier Web-Sites. After looking in depth at all of these sites, I figured out that there were really two kind of Insurance Sites. The first is the “here is who we are & this is what we offer” site. Most Insurance Agencies and Insurance Carriers fall into this category. The second is what I call the “Insurance Quote Super-Stores”. These sites are just just focused on getting you to request a quote from their site. They then turn around and sell the lead to Insurance Agencies!
Neither one of these two site types were sufficient for me, or ALLCHOICE. Of course, I would hope that our site will eventually rank well within the search engines for the services that we provide, and ultimately attract new customers to ALLCHOICE. However, the main objective for allchoiceinsurance.com was to provide our customers and the average North Carolina Insurance Consumer a resource for Insurance. If you go through our site, you will see that a great deal of time was spent on defining coverages! Think about it, you have probably had insurance for quite some time now (health insurance, auto insurance, home insurance, life insurance, etc), but do you actually understand what it is that you are paying for? Most people have no idea! I am an insurance professional and I had a hard time finding online resources that discussed insurance coverage in a manner that the average person could understand. That just will not do!
Please check our site out! I know the site isn’t perfect, so if you have suggestions or questions, let me know.
Jack Wingate
President