The Latest News From Melon Local
Stay in the know with the latest news in digital marketing, best practices and updates from Melon Local.
4 Questions to Ask Before Granting GBP Access
Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is one of the most valuable digital assets your business owns. It’s often the first thing potential customers see when they search for your business, making it a key driver of organic calls, website visits and foot traffic. In fact, a fully optimized GBP gets

Why You Shouldn’t Google Your Own Business
In the insurance marketing world, your Google ranking often plays a crucial role in prospective customers choosing between you and your competitors. The top organic result is 10 times more likely to garner clicks versus a page in the number 10 spot, and even a single step up the search ladder may increase your click-through rate by about 2.8 percent. So, for insurance agents pondering if they should Google their

Interview with an Agent: Josh Ellis
When insurance agent Josh Ellis opened his Knoxville office in 2009, internet leads were still fairly new in the marketing world. Recognizing the potential in lead generation, Josh integrated them into his business strategy. Despite going through a multitude of different marketing companies, he found little to no success in getting the results he needed — let alone anything that was trackable. Between being an agent and overseeing his own

Insurance Marketing Trends for 2024
From Mother Nature doing her thing to the rise of insurtech companies, 2023 proved to be a unique and challenging year for the insurance industry. So, what can we expect for 2024? As we step into the new year, let’s look into the trends that Melon Local predicts will influence not just insurance agents but also their customers. Consumers Will Be More Price Conscious With a steady climb in insurance

5 Benefits of Choosing Melon Local for Social Media
It’s one thing to be on social media, but are you getting the most out of all your platforms? Investing in your social media is just as essential to any other component of your digital marketing strategy. To put things in perspective, ad spending on social media is expected to grow at an annual rate of 4.31 percent, resulting in a projected market volume of over $255 billion by 2028.

5 Things I Love About Melon Local: Feat. Mansour Hasan
Knoxville, TN insurance agent Mansour Hasan has served his community for over 18 years and currently provides coverage for over 5,000 households. As digital marketing and internet leads became more integral to building his business, Mansour realized he needed some pros in his corner who could not only understand his advertising needs but also deliver results. Enter Melon Local! Here are five reasons Mansour loves our fruitful partnership! 1. A

Your 2024 Insurance Agency Checklist
The end of the year is always a great time to assess our achievements, identify areas of improvement and, of course, set ourselves up for a prosperous new year. As an insurance agent, though, this may be the last thing on your mind as you’re still wrapping up things with the current year. Not sure where to start? Check out these 10 items to add to your 2024 checklist so

What Does it Mean to be a Melon?
Melon Local isn’t your typical digital marketing agency — so what makes us so special? No, it’s not just because we’re in the top three percent of our industry as a Google Premier Partner, and it’s more than us being able to deliver an average 30 percent conversion rate in our paid search campaigns. It’s safe to say we wouldn’t be who we are without the 1,800 plus One-in-a-Melon agents

Interview with an Agent: Steve Basler
Colorado insurance agent Steve Basler originally began his insurance career in Tennessee over 20 years ago. However, he eventually found his way to Colorado in 2007, and the following year, he opened his current insurance office in Wheat Ridge — a small city located in the busy Denver–Aurora–Lakewood metro area. In addition to his insurance office, Steve also runs and owns his own financial consulting company, Basler Academy. We caught

7 Strategies for Improving Customer Retention as an Insurance Agent
Acquiring new customers is one thing, but the other half of the battle is maintaining their relationship with your insurance office. The average customer retention rate for an insurance agent is around 84 percent, while top-performing agents can see an average close to 93-94 percent. While the insurance industry may have a higher retention rate compared to others, it never hurts to strive for better. Let’s take a look at
Latest Blog Posts

Melon Spotlight: Liz Anguiano
Since joining our team as a Social Media Content Creator, Liz has brought fresh ideas, creativity and a true team spirit to everything she does. Her passion for crafting scroll-stopping content, hopping on calls to ensure our clients’ social presence is always on point and helping agents shine online as local legends made her an essential part of the Melon Patch. We caught up with Liz to talk about her

Soaring Eagle Agent Study Group Coming Back Stronger in 2026
The Soaring Eagle agent study group isn’t just back for 2026 — it’s bigger than ever. More than 400 agents and team members from across the U.S. are already set to attend from January 28–30 at the Soaring Eagle Resort & Casino in Mt. Pleasant, MI, making this the largest gathering the study group has hosted yet. Founder and insurance agent David Arce says even as the room expands, Soaring

Melon Local Wins Best Service Award at BizX North America 2025
At this year’s BizX North America conference sponsored by ActionCOACH, more than 400 entrepreneurs and business coaches gathered from Oct. 26–28 in Houston, TX to talk about leadership and what it really means to grow. And in the middle of it all, Melon Local proved once again that it’s possible to build a digital marketing agency around quality hospitality over hype. In a full-circle moment, we’re proud to announce that
Melon Spotlight: Ernie Ron
From guiding clients as a CSM to now leading a full team as Director of Client Success, Ernie’s journey at Melon has been inspiring, to say the least. Over the past four years, he’s helped shape how we connect with clients, drive leads and deliver results that truly matter.Whether he’s coaching his team, educating our clients on Melon Max or stepping into the spotlight during live demo videos, it’s safe to

What Our Team Loves About Melon Local: 5 Perspectives
At Melon Local, we believe our greatest strengths come from our people and the forward-thinking strategies we develop together because that’s what keeps our clients ahead of the game. Every relationship is an opportunity to embrace fresh ideas, adopt new technologies and build momentum in a digital space that’s constantly evolving. But beyond the tools, it’s the community that we’ve built — the support, collaboration and encouragement — that makes

Black Hat SEO Tricks That Can Come Back to Haunt You
Black hat SEO might look like a treat at first — a quick fix promising fast rankings, sudden traffic boosts and easy wins. But just like a haunted house, those misleading shortcuts are filled with hidden traps that can spook your business for years to come. At Melon Local, we’ve seen firsthand how these rule-breaking tactics may give businesses a temporary boost but almost always ends in penalties, lost visibility

Meet Melon Local’s Marketing Team
At Melon Local, our marketing team’s first priority is telling Melon’s story — making sure our brand, content, and resources stay fresh, consistent, and impactful. Every ad we create, every Melon University webinar we host, every blog we write and every piece of branded content we design has a purpose: to showcase what makes us different and to keep clients connected with the latest best practices in digital marketing. While

How to Connect with Gen Z Social Media Users
Gen Z — generally defined as those born between 1997 and 2012 — is the first generation to grow up entirely online with social media at their fingertips. From catchy TikTok dances to viral memes, this is how they connect. They value authenticity, speed and connection — they’ll “highkey” scroll past content that doesn’t resonate. And if your content doesn’t pass the “vibe check” in the first few seconds, it’s

Beyond Keywords: How ChatGPT-5 Redefines Search
OpenAI’s recent launch of ChatGPT-5 marks a significant shift in online search behavior. Even this blog’s feature image was created using ChatGPT-5 — a fitting example of how AI is no longer just a tool we talk about, but one we actively use to create and communicate. Originally kicking off the AI revolution with its previous large language model (LLM) ChatGPT-4 in 2023, OpenAI will likely continue to shape how
