Yes, yes, we all know how important the Internet is (and will be) to the insurance business, both on the back end (between carriers and agents, for example) and on the front end (as a customer touchpoint). The key is to make smart use of your Internet facilities and sites. There are many books out there purporting to help you do just that. And many of them can put you to sleep. At least four, thoughdiscussed belowaddress some important industry questions and provide researched, creative, and sometimes unexpected answers.
The Questions
What are the elements and design of a usable Web homepage? (Its not magic and its not by accidentbut it does matter.)
What patterns does the Internet exhib it, and what implications do they have for creating a successful Internet strategy? (Activity on the Web is the result of uncoordinated actions of millions of people but the results follow strict laws.)
How can the Internet be used forsuccessful marketing? (Traditional mass marketing approaches havent worked because the Internet calls for a different approach.)
Is going paperless possibleor even desirable? (Many campaigns to eliminate paper fail because they dont understand where paper is critically important.)
The Answers
HOMEPAGE USABILITY
Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed
BY JAKOB NIELSEN & MARIE TAHIR(2002, NEW RIDERS PUBLISHING)
Every carrier and agency site must have a home page. Generally its the first thing a visitor sees. If the home page doesnt appear immediately relevant and accessible, visitors will click the Back button, never to return. So the home page has a special role to play and its critical to the success of the site.
Nielsen and Tahir devote the first 50 pages of their book to an overview of the principles of homepage design. The discussion is so clear, well organized, and convincing that you want to immediately check your own homepage, something Nielsen anticipates and helps you do. The results of a self-evaluation can be discouraging but certainly provide specifics to focus your improvement efforts.
The balance of the book examines 50 homepages, mostly by well-known organizations, such as Amazon, Citigroup, and ESPN. Each homepage is reproduced in living color and the accompanying text offers in-context concreteness the earlier general principles section lacks. The book itself is attractive and accessible, and it lends itself to browsing as well as reading through. Highly recommended for everyone with a strategic or practical interest in a Web site.
WEB LAWS
The Laws of the Web: Patterns in the Ecology of Information
BY BERNARDO A. HUBERMAN
(2001,THE MIT PRESS)
Huberman argues, convincingly I think, that even though the Web has been created byand continues to evolve throughbillions of separate, uncoordinated human actions, the result exhibits law-like behavior that one would expect only from a deliberate, planned effort. To ignore the laws hes discovered and reported on is to relegate your efforts to almost certain failure.
Whats perhaps most important about his insights is that distribution patterns on the Web dont follow a bell curve, a model with which were all familiar, but a power curvea (more or less) straight line that exhibits the same proportions no matter which section of the curve you sample. (Those of you familiar with chaos theory or fractals might find this sounding familiar.) Thats significant because given data on any part of the curve you can predict what some other part of the curve will look like.
It suggests that no matter what anyone does, a few sites will receive a great number of visits and most sites very few. That could have significance for carriers who think they can sell through the Web, sharing sales with 10 or 20 other sellers. It isnt likely to happen. A very few sites will win the lions share of attention, with interest falling off rapidly for the rest. Its a winner-take-all pattern.
The worry that the Web will lead to competition strictly on price appears unfounded. In fact, relevant information and the recognition of a good fit between needs and offering is stronger on the Web than traditional sales channels. That suggests hosting really useful content on Web sites and making great efforts to tell people aboutand encourage them to visitthe site. (People dont search randomly, but try to pick up pointers from other sites, friends, publications, and so on. Social-based searching may be more important than search engine use).
Hubermans book is not the easiest of reads, but it provides crucial information Internet strategists need to know.
INTERNET MARKETING
Gonzo Marketing: Winning Through Worst Practices
BY CHRISTOPHER LOCKE(2001, PERSEUS PUBLISHING)
Locke established a reputation as co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual, in 2000. In Gonzo Marketing, Lockes central claim is that the Internet is not another mass marketing channel. The pattern of smaller marketsnichesseen over the last 20 years finally finds its pure expression in the Internet.
Locke claims, with some rationale, that traditional marketing methods have failed miserably on the Web and in fact cause more ill will than marketing support. What works, in part, is effective personalization, simplicity, and quality (Amazon), and the creation of communities of interest (eBay).
According to Locke, you cant go after people on the Web directly. Theyll back off. The harder you try to sell them, the more theyll look elsewhere. Obviously, thats a bit of a problem for ad agencies, public relations firms, marketing departments, and other members of the black-art-of-marketing club. Maybe they never really had any magic. They certainly dont when it comes to the Web; from that point of view, its been a bust.
So whats Lockes prescription? Find existing, genuine Internet communities of interestwith no specific ties to your product or serviceand underwrite them. Help them thrive. In return, you get recognition and links to your site. And perhaps most importantly, you create goodwill, brand recognition, and a population of potential customers and referrers.
Lockes book is likely to make you angry (thats his intention) but its well researched in explaining why traditional approaches wont work. One downside: Although he provides suggestions for what can work, more details would have been useful.
THE PAPERLESS OFFICE
The Myth of the Paperless Office
BY ABIGAIL J. SELLEN & RICHARD H. R. HARPER
(2002, THE MIT PRESS)
Do you remember Paper Free in 83? It was a Reliance initiative, I think, that was both bold and premature. Have we gotten there yet? No? Whats the problemor better, whats the point? Thus we have Sellen and Harpers book.
Youve probably heard that were using more paper than evera linear increase of about three percent per year. One study showed that introducing e-mail into an organization increased paper consumption by 40 percent. It appears that the more interconnectivity we enjoy, the more paper we print. And while the number of copy machines is increasing slowly, the number of computer printers is growing rapidly. Where we once copied, then distributed reports and the like, we now distribute them electronically and print them locally. (Some carriers are trying to do the same thing with policies via PDF files. It would be interesting to know whether agents/insureds print them out or leave them in electronic form.)
The more technology we have, the more paper we consume. But thats counter-intuitive. Whats happening? Are we all reprobates? Probably not. The ideal of being paperless simply isnt possible today and may never be possible. Thats because paper has affordances that technology-based alternatives simply cant provide. Its not that were backward. Its that technology isnt up to the task and it isnt obvious how it could be redesigned to become so.
Affordance, a term coined by Donald Norman, means characteristics that make something useful for a human purpose. Paper is lightweight (at least in small quantities), easy to read, can accept editing marks and comments, can be hung or arranged on a desk, and so on. Technology, even the new tablet PCs to be introduced this year, simply dont have the flexibility, convenience, and manipulability of paper. On the other hand, technology makes writing easier, information storage more compact, and search and accessibility instantaneous. Paper will continue as a working medium to be discarded when the project it supports is completed. Digital media will serve for transmission and storage/retrieval.
Although the Sellen/Harper book isnt focused on the insurance industry, its not too hard to extend their insights into our space. And although they sometimes need formal studies to discover or confirm common sense, objective research does improve credibility. The book gets into great detail about the different affordances of paper and technology and how they suit the needs of the workplace. Overall, their key point is that its a grave mistake to try to make an office paperless only to conform to some ungrounded ideal. Paper is important and its here to stay. The most productive offices, they claim, are those with full wastebasketsnot with no wastebaskets.
John Ashenhursts company, Sound Internet Strategy, provides consulting, Web site evaluation, and seminar services to carriers and their trading partners. He can be reached at johnashenhurst@soundingline .com or (978) 318-1944.
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