Trudy Grove Insurance Agency
The Background
I met Trudy through the Southern Lancaster Chamber! Similar to me, she owns 2 businesses- Trudy Grove Insurance Agency and Armstrong Notary and TAG Services. Both are located at her office in Willow Street.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Trudy several times over the years, for marketing services and photography! She’s been in the insurance industry for over 30 years and spent the last several working with a specific carrier. That carrier provided a simple listing on their website. When she became an independent agent, she needed to make a few updates!
TLDR
After leaving a carrier and becoming an independent insurance agent, Trudy was ready for a new email address and brand new website! I’ve worked with Trudy for photography, social media marketing, website creation, and more.
Step 1: New Email
Trudy was ready to have her own agency email domain- TGroveAgency.com! I handled purchasing that domain through Microsoft and assisted in setting up her own email (Trudy@TGroveAgency.com), in addition to one for her employee.
Step 2: New Website
As I mentioned, Trudy’s previous carrier did provide a simple listing on their website, so once she became an independent agent, she was starting from scratch.
For her other business, Armstrong Notary and TAG Services, I created her website on Squarespace, so I opted to do the same for the insurance agency. She didn’t need anything fancy- just a homebase to have her contact info, services, and about section. This was the perfect opportunity to make a simple, one-page site!
Website Breakdown
Above the Fold
If you know me and/or have read a few of these project breakdowns, you’ll remember that I’m very passionate about keeping all the most important, most basic information “above the fold” on a website.
What does “above the fold” mean on a website? It’s what you see without scrolling! I cannot take credit for this concept- I first heard of it through Ashlyn Carter, a copywriter. You want to have business name, location (if applicable), and services right at the top! Think of it like a condensed elevator pitch- what’s the business, where is it located, and what does the business do?
If this were a retail store, I would also highly recommend including hours right at the top! Any sort of online profile (social media, website, etc.) for an organization should keep its basic info and action steps easy to find. You want to create a seamless experience for users. Don’t make them hunt for your contact info, address, etc.!
Layout
Going off the previous blurb, I’m a huge fan of keeping websites as simple as possible, when it comes to each page and the entire site layout.
Don’t add a million navigation tabs if you can avoid it. If you do need a lot of pages, create “sub tabs”/drop down tabs as you can. I’m also a huge fan of anchors, which is what I used for Trudy’s site!
Just because this is a one-page site, doesn’t mean we can’t have tabs to make it as easy as possible for users to navigate! An anchor is a hidden “bookmark” on a site. It’s the same concept recipe sites use when you click “jump to recipe”- clicking that button takes you right to the recipe. The recipe’s still on the same page, but you can skip all the unimportant info, like the cook’s life story lol.
All of that to say, I kept this simple- services, about, and contact, which you’ll see below.
Services
There are so many insurance companies out there and they all operate differently and offer different services. Some are tied to a specific carrier, some are not. Some insurance agencies focus on life insurance and investing. Others offer everything. I wanted to make it clear what Trudy can help with.
She has a wide variety of insurance policies that she can write, so I wanted to keep it organized when listing them out on the website, hence the category names & headings you’ll see below!
About
What you choose to share about yourself as a business is completely up to you. I’m a huge supporter of having a personal brand, but it really depends on the business type and business owner. Trudy wanted to share that she’s very active in her community, so I listed her affiliations on her website.
Above the fold, in her little “bio,” I shared the most important info- she has 30+ years of experience and is an independent agent.
Domain Set Up
Once we were ready to publish the site, it was time to connect Trudy’s domain we purchased through Microsoft- TGroveAgency.com! I handled all the settings on the backend between SquareSpace and Microsoft.
Step 3: Misc. Updates
Now that Trudy’s website was updated, I walked her through updating her business Facebook page name (removing the old carrier name) and adding in the website link.
I’m already a manager for her Google Business Profile listing, so I updated the website there as well!