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

5 Things I Love about Melon Local: Feat. Kirk Baker
Santa Clarita insurance agent Kirk Baker has been an industry pro since 1989. Having obtained Lifetime Million Dollar Round Table and President’s Club statuses, as well as helping 10 of his former team members open their own agencies, Kirk knows what it takes to run a successful agency. In 2019, he even co-founded Team by the Minute — a phone-answering service that provides customer support for other businesses with a

6 Ways To Set Your Agency Apart from Insurtechs
Insurtech companies are startups or established insurance companies that use technology to provide innovative and efficient insurance solutions. Typically, these companies target younger, tech-savvy customers. These companies often use data analytics, AI and other new technologies to streamline their insurance processes and provide customers with personalized and cost-effective insurance products. Similar to traditional property & casualty providers, insurtech companies offer a wide range of services, including digital insurance underwriting, policy

Interview with an Agent: Tim Maudsley
Las Vegas agent Tim Maudsley has always had a heart for helping businesses with their commercial insurance needs. He originally started his career 25 years ago in Southern California and was one of the first agents to offer liability coverage for tattoo parlors. He eventually left sunny California for Alaska and worked with oil and gas clients before relocating and opening his agency in Las Vegas in 2020. Despite his

Meet Melon Local’s Director of Quality Assurance
Say hello to our Director of Quality Assurance and one of our original Melons, Brenda Hernandez! Based on her experience working as a Client Success Manager and Director of Client Success, Brenda felt inspired to develop her role to further streamline processes for our agents and offer the best customer service possible. As the director of our quality assurance department, Brenda is dedicated to ensuring our digital insurance marketing services

How ChatGPT Will Impact the Insurance World
With the insurance and tech world often going hand in hand, it’s important to stay on top of the latest industry-disrupting tools and methods. Perhaps one of the biggest technological disruptions as of recently has been the introduction of ChatGPT. Originally launched in November 2022, ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI that can answer questions, summarize and simplify documents and even write blogs that are easy to

Your Guide for Writing Agent Bios
Considering how competitive the insurance world is, having a well-written agent bio can make a difference in how your current and future customers may view your agency. Let’s take a look at some of the best practices you should keep in mind when it comes to writing your insurance agent bio! Prioritize What’s Most Important Imagine you’re a potential customer who happens to find your website. Do you think they’re

Interview with an Agent: Greg Bratcher
Originally born and raised in New Mexico, Greg Bratcher eventually made his way out to Texas and began his insurance career working in claims in 1987. Honing his passion for customer service and helping people realize their dreams and goals, Greg opened his own insurance agency in San Angelo, TX in 2006. Since opening his agency, he’s qualified for the prestigious Million Dollar Round Table and has enjoyed being able

How to Create the Perfect Insurance Marketing Plan
As an insurance agent, it’s essential for you to create a detailed marketing plan every year to help you keep your business on track and realize your goals. A detailed insurance marketing plan can make a difference in your annual ROI and may lead to new opportunities you never considered. Although no two agencies are the same, we’ve come up with five useful strategies for developing a new marketing plan!

Make People Fall in Love With Your Insurance Agency
As an insurance agent, part of your job is to win the hearts of your customers. Sure, offering low insurance premiums may impact customer retention, but there’s more to winning people over than helping them save on their policies. Satisfied customers are 80 percent more likely to renew their policies, so it’s essential to consistently keep the individuals, families and businesses you serve top-of-mind. Let’s go over some insurance marketing
Latest Blog Posts

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
