“We receive compliments regularly on our website and most exciting of all have been receiving orders from it as well.”

Building a website can be daunting. For most title agents and real estate attorneys, it’s just one more task on top of everything else required to run a successful business. It can be especially stressful when you’re dealing with things that may be outside your comfort zone.

While you’re trying to find the right time, you may be sitting on an old, stale website that – quite frankly – isn’t doing anything for you. It may even be hurting your online reputation.

Insight Title’s Story

This is exactly that happened to Insight Title out of St. Louis, Missouri, a full-service title insurance agency providing residential, commercial, and specialty title services. They’ve struggled for years with their online presence.

Barb Seerey, Executive Vice President, told us, “Prior to being a TitleTap customer, we were embarrassed by our old website. We never utilized online marketing as a means to build our reputation, branding, or even grow our business.”

For Insight Title, choosing a vendor partner that came from the title industry with niche expertise was important. It helped them achieve faster results.

After launching our TitleTap website, we saw results quickly,” said Seerey. “We receive compliments regularly on our website and most exciting of all have been receiving orders from it as well. We are very happy! Thank you!”

Time and Budget Constraints

Barb isn’t alone. Many title agents and real estate attorneys feel this pain. If taking on another project wasn’t enough, salt to the wound often comes in the form of finding the right vendor partner.

It can seem like no one, especially website designers and digital marketers, understands what title insurance is, who the market represents, and what goes into the functional side of the business.

Needless to say, the interview process is likely time consuming and overwhelming. It can create anxiety knowing how much time it is going to take to teach the vendor partner your business to make sure that what is reflected online is accurate.

Make sure you qualify your vendor partner to give yourself the highest probability of success with the least amount of frustration.

5 Questions to Ask a Website Vendor Partner Before You Hire

It is important you align yourself with a vendor partner that is not only reputable on the services they deliver, but that actually understands the title industry. That way, you aren’t starting from scratch teaching them about the business.

These five questions will give you a jump start in finding a good fit:

Explain what title insurance is in your own words.

Don’t expect them to know all the work you put in. But this question will give you an idea if they know anything about what you do.

Who is our customer? Who are we trying to attract business from?

How will the website attract new business if they don’t understand your customers and the dynamics of your business?

Do you offer anything to actually drive prospects to my website?

The fact of the matter is that having a website is often not enough to drive immediate new business. Things like search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing with a blog take time. It’s always a good idea seek out your prospects from the start.  

Some examples the marketing company might offer include Facebook or Google ads.

Will the website be easily navigable on mobile devices?

More people search the Internet from phones and tablets now than laptops and computers. Google even gives mobile-friendly websites priority. In today’s market, this functionality is needed to be both findable and useable. And a marketing company shouldn’t charge extra for this.

What security protocols would you recommend and why?

If they say there is no need for security on your website, then choose another vendor. With the increases in cyber fraud in the title insurance and legal industries, we always recommend SSL encryption at a minimum. However, industry best practices suggest your website should be hosted in an SSAE Soc 2 Type II data center as well.

Struggling to find a vendor partner aligned with the title industry to help you with your website and online marketing? Don’t have the time to start from scratch? Request a demo and consultation to learn how TitleTap helps title insurance agents and real estate law firms with their marketing.