The way consumers find Medicare agents is changing, and we owe it to you to bring a fluid solution that evolves with change.
I’m sure I’m not the first person to tell you this, but the way consumers find Medicare agents is dramatically changing online.
For years, insurance agents could rely heavily on referrals, direct mail, networking, lead programs and traditional Google searches to connect with new prospects.
Yes, those things still matter.
But consumers continue to find new ways to search for someone they trust to help them with Medicare.
They use Google.
They search Google Maps.
They visit consumer websites.
They read reviews.
They ask friends and family.
And increasingly, they’re turning to AI and asking questions that sound a lot more like conversations:
“Who is a Medicare agent near me?”
“Can you help me find a local Medicare agent?”
“Who can help my parents understand their Medicare options?”
We believe this shift is important enough that simply telling our agents to “work on your online presence” isn’t good enough.
We owe you a thoughtful and evolving solution.
That’s why we’ve been working behind the scenes on something I’m extremely excited to finally introduce.
The SMA Premier Digital Presence Program
The SMA Premier Digital Presence Program brings together the websites, technology, verification tools and digital marketing experience we’ve been building for years into one program for participating SMA agents.
The idea is actually pretty simple.
Establish a stronger digital foundation for our agents, and then put a team behind growing the digital ecosystem that supports it.
Instead of asking you to become an SEO expert, figure out AI search, build multiple websites, manage profiles across the internet and constantly figure out what Google changed last week, we want you focused on what you do best:
Meeting prospects, helping clients and growing your business.
We’ll focus on building the digital infrastructure you can leverage.
But before I explain exactly how it works, I think it’s important to explain why we believe we can do it.
This Didn’t Start Yesterday
Members of our team have spent more than 20 years building and growing digital properties across insurance and financial services.
Our work and expertise have been featured in publications including Forbes, MarketWatch, Inc., Entrepreneur, Business Insider, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Here are a few of the digital properties worth highlighting:
- RothIRA.com
- Eligibility.com
- SuretyBonds.com
- RedbirdAgents.com
And more.
And, of course, MedicarePlanFinder.com, which you’re probably already familiar with.
I don’t share this to impress you.
I share it to impress upon the point that when we put our energy behind something like this, it’s not based on guesswork.
We’ve spent a long time and a lot of money learning what doesn’t work online and isolating what does.
We’ve watched search engines evolve.
We’ve built content.
We’ve generated leads.
We’ve watched consumer behavior change.
We’ve made tons of mistakes.
We’ve adapted to countless Google updates.
And we’ve learned how important it is to build digital assets that can withstand changes in algorithms, technology and consumer behavior.
Now we’re watching another major change happen as AI becomes part of how consumers research businesses, products and professionals.
That experience is a big reason we built and are launching the SMA Premier Digital Presence Program now.
Our “10 Year Overnight Success”
If you guessed that MedicarePlanFinder.com would be at the center of the program, you’re absolutely correct.
We launched MedicarePlanFinder about 10 years ago when I first started working with SMA back in 2016.
And if I had to describe the journey, I’d probably call it:
“A 10 year overnight success and the most fun I ever hated!”
There was nothing overnight about it.
This stuff takes time, patience and the ability to withstand the pressures of changing priorities inside a rapidly growing business.
But MedicarePlanFinder kept surviving.
And growing.
We’ve been heads down for years building, optimizing and improving the website into a lasting digital asset.
Literally making small improvements every day because the devil is in the details.
And I’m extremely proud of what it has become.
Over the last 12 months, MedicarePlanFinder.com has served more than 85,000 organic active users who generated more than 300,000 page views.
That’s important because we’re not starting the SMA Premier Digital Presence Program from zero.
We’re starting with an existing digital foundation that took us a decade to build.
And now we want to use that foundation to create something uniquely valuable for participating SMA agents.
MedicarePlanFinder isn’t our finish line.
It’s our baseline, and that baseline is already built on real results.
So, What Exactly Are We Building?
There are several important pieces to the SMA Premier Digital Presence Program, but they all work together toward one goal:
Make it easier to establish, manage, verify and expand your professional presence online.
Our approach is built around three core functions:
1. Manage Your Information
We don’t want agents maintaining completely separate information on every website that joins the network.
That’s why MedicareSalesAgents.com serves as the central management platform supporting the program.
Your starting information can be created once and maintained from a central location.
As additional digital opportunities become available, the goal is to make participation easier without asking you to start from scratch every time.
Multiple modernized profiles. Managed from one place.
2. Establish and Verify Your Professional Identity
The second component is verification.
We’ve partnered with AgentReview.net as a core verification partner because we believe professional identity and trust are becoming increasingly important online.
AgentReview can showcase more than just your Medicare business. It provides an opportunity to establish a broader professional profile around the products and services you offer.
More importantly for this program, AgentReview provides the verification layer that participating properties can use to recognize your verified professional identity.
Instead of completing an entirely new verification process every time you participate in another property, the goal is much simpler:
Verify once and extend that verified status across participating platforms.
3. Expand Your Digital Presence
This is where I think the program gets really exciting.
Once your professional information is established and verified, we can begin creating opportunities to extend that presence across participating digital properties.
We’re starting with MedicarePlanFinder.com.
But we’re not building this program around one website.
We’re building infrastructure that can support additional digital partners over time.
That could eventually include:
- Regional Medicare websites.
- Local consumer resources.
- Product specific websites.
- Industry and association websites.
- Senior focused organizations.
- Regional media properties.
And other consumer platforms where having a credible local Medicare professional could create value.
We won’t add websites simply so we can say the network is bigger.
We want participating properties to have a reason for being part of the network.
That could mean meaningful consumer reach, local visibility, niche authority, product relevance or another strategic benefit for participating agents.
And growing the network isn’t an afterthought.
MedicareSalesAgents has a team specifically focused on identifying and developing new digital distribution partnerships.
While you’re maintaining your information in one place, they’re working to create more places where that information can potentially work for you.
That’s an important part of the model.
You’re not joining a static directory. You’re participating in digital infrastructure we’re actively working to grow.
Why Verification and Consistency Matter
There is an important distinction I want to make here.
We are not saying that creating a profile or becoming verified guarantees that Google will rank you higher.
We are not saying an AI platform will automatically recommend you.
And we are not promising leads simply because your profile appears on a participating website.
That’s not how digital marketing works.
What we are saying is that the digital world increasingly relies on information to understand who you are, what you do, where you do business and whether you are who you say you are.
That makes accurate, consistent, structured and verifiable professional information important.
If information about an agent is incomplete, outdated or inconsistent across the internet, it can create confusion for consumers and digital platforms alike.
Our goal is to help participating SMA agents build a stronger foundation.
One professional identity. Accurate information. Verification. Multiple opportunities for that information to be discovered.
Then we keep working on growing the ecosystem around it.
How to Get Started
We’ve intentionally tried to make your side of this as simple as possible.
For eligible agents, we’ve already done some of the work for you by creating your starting profile.
From there, the process is:
Step 1: Claim Your Profile
Start the process and confirm that the profile belongs to you.
- Free
- Standard (Most popular)
- Featured (Most valuable)
Step 2: Verify Your Professional Identity
Follow the instructions to access the preferred AgentReview verification pricing we’ve negotiated for participating SMA agents.
Use this agent verification discount code: SMAgentReview
Step 3: Complete Your Information
Review your information, correct anything that’s outdated and complete any missing sections.
The quality of the information matters.
If we’re going to help establish your professional identity online, we want the information behind it to be as complete and accurate as possible.
Step 4: Choose Your Digital Opportunities
Participate in the platforms available to you and choose additional distribution opportunities as the network expands.
Then keep your information current.
We’ll keep working on the rest.
The SMA Bundle
One of our goals was to make participation valuable from the beginning.
Eligible agents receive access to the SMA Premier Featured Digital Presence Program and the opportunity to establish their starting profiles.
We’ve also worked with participating partners to negotiate preferred pricing and proprietary opportunities specifically for agents in our network.
That includes preferred AgentReview verification pricing and opportunities to participate in the digital properties connected to the program.
Over time, we intend to continue expanding those opportunities.
That could mean new consumer websites.
New digital partners.
New profile enhancements.
Additional tools designed to improve local visibility.
And new preferred pricing or proprietary opportunities we’ve negotiated specifically for participating agents.
We are committed to making the program more valuable as the network grows.
Bonus: Go Further With SMA Premier Featured
The complimentary program is designed to establish your digital foundation.
But some agents are going to want to do more.
For those agents, we’re building SMA Premier Featured around a simple idea:
Give our most engaged agents access to more of the digital marketing infrastructure our team is building behind the scenes.
This isn’t just about adding more information to your profile.
Featured agents gain access to additional content, authority building, publicity and local marketing opportunities designed to help them build a deeper digital presence over time.
Get Featured in Industry Roundup Content
Our team is continually creating content across our growing network of websites.
Featured agents can be considered for inclusion in relevant industry roundup articles, expert features and other editorial opportunities where their experience and perspective can add value.
That gives us another way to connect the agent’s professional identity with useful, relevant content across the network.
Participation and placement depend on the topic, editorial fit, compliance requirements and available opportunities.
Publishing Opportunities
Have something valuable to teach consumers or other insurance professionals?
Featured agents can submit articles for consideration on participating websites within our network.
This can include educational content, local Medicare topics, insurance insights and other subjects that fit the audience of the participating property.
We’ll maintain content volume limitations, editorial standards and compliance requirements to protect the quality of the websites.
The goal is to give qualified agents another way to demonstrate their knowledge and build a meaningful body of work online.
Where editorially appropriate, contributed content may also include author attribution and links to the agent’s professional website or profile, creating another way to connect their expertise with their broader digital presence.
Support for Physician Referral Partnerships
This may be one of the most unique Featured benefits we’re building.
Many successful Medicare agents have spent years developing referral relationships with physicians, medical groups and local healthcare organizations.
We want to help agents bring something valuable back to those relationships.
Qualified Featured agents with established physician relationships can receive access to our proprietary MedicarePlanFinder physician landing page program.
Here’s how it works.
Give the Doctor Their Own MedicarePlanFinder Profile
A participating physician or medical practice can have a dedicated profile on MedicarePlanFinder.com designed to help Medicare beneficiaries better understand their Medicare options in relation to that provider.
The profile can include information about the physician or practice and connect consumers with information about the local Medicare plans accepted by that provider.
Instead of a patient trying to figure out:
“Does my doctor accept this Medicare plan?”
We want to make that information easier to navigate from the doctor’s own MedicarePlanFinder profile.
Where supported and appropriate, patients can then continue into the Medicare plan shopping experience to review available plan information and enrollment options connected to the agent who maintains that relationship.
The calls to action, available shopping experience and phone number associated with the physician profile can be customized around the participating agent.
The agent isn’t simply referring the physician to MedicarePlanFinder. The digital experience is built around the agent who maintains that local relationship.
That’s a big difference.
Bring the Experience Into the Doctor’s Office With a QR Code
The opportunity doesn’t have to stop online.
Participating physician offices can receive a QR code connected directly to their MedicarePlanFinder physician profile.
That QR code could potentially be incorporated into approved materials in the office, including signage or other patient education materials.
A Medicare eligible patient could scan the code with their phone and go directly to that physician’s MedicarePlanFinder profile.
From there, they can access relevant Medicare plan information and continue into the available shopping experience.
Think about the potential value of that relationship.
The physician gets a resource designed to help patients navigate Medicare options associated with their practice.
The patient gets a simpler starting point for understanding available Medicare plan information while having access to a trusted local agent.
And the participating agent gets to bring a meaningful digital resource to one of their most important local professional relationships.
That’s the type of opportunity we want SMA Premier Featured to create.
Featured Is About Access, Not Just Features
There will be limitations, editorial standards and, of course, compliance requirements.
Some opportunities will only make sense for certain agents, markets or professional relationships.
And we aren’t going to compromise the quality of the network just to manufacture more “benefits.”
That’s intentional.
SMA Premier Featured gives participating agents access to capabilities that would be difficult to reproduce individually.
Content and industry features.
Publishing opportunities.
Local authority building.
Public relations opportunities.
Physician partnership tools.
And additional opportunities we develop as the network continues to grow.
The complimentary program establishes your digital foundation. Featured gives agents who want to go further access to more of the infrastructure we’re building.
Why Are We Doing This?
I’ve spent a significant part of my career working on online lead generation and experiencing firsthand how casting a wide net of valuable content can produce results over time.
I’ve personally experienced what happens when you get it right.
I’ve also experienced how difficult it can be to do everything required to compete online while simultaneously trying to run an insurance agency.
You shouldn’t have to do it alone.
SMA has resources.
We have websites.
We have technology.
We have people with experience building digital properties.
We have relationships throughout the insurance industry.
And we have thousands of agents who can potentially benefit from bringing those things together.
That’s what we’re trying to do.
And We’re Just Getting Started
This is probably the part I’m most excited about.
We’re not launching the SMA Premier Digital Presence Program and calling it finished.
Quite the opposite.
We’re committing to it.
MedicarePlanFinder gives us an incredible starting point.
Our technology gives us the ability to manage and distribute professional information more efficiently.
AgentReview gives us a verification layer.
MedicareSalesAgents gives us centralized profile management and a team focused on expanding the digital partner network.
Our team gives us the experience to keep working on the digital properties behind it.
And future partners give us the opportunity to make the network bigger and potentially more valuable over time.
That’s why I keep coming back to one simple idea:
You focus on your clients and your business.
We’ll keep working on the digital infrastructure behind you.
The better we’re able to build the network, the more valuable I believe participation can become for our agents.
And considering we’ve already spent 10 years building the starting point, I couldn’t be more excited about where we go from here.
Frequently Asked Questions About the SMA Premier Digital Presence Program
Is the SMA Premier Digital Presence Program Another Agent Directory?
Not at all.
Agent profiles and directories are components of the program, but the strategy is much broader.
We’re building infrastructure designed to let participating agents establish and maintain their professional information in one place, verify their professional identity and take advantage of digital distribution opportunities across a growing network of participating properties.
Where Will My Profile Appear?
MedicarePlanFinder.com is the initial consumer property at the center of the program.
As new qualified digital partners are added, participating agents can be notified about additional opportunities to expand their presence.
Why Did SMA Choose MedicarePlanFinder.com?
Because we spent years building the foundation so we could do this.
Over the last 12 months, MedicarePlanFinder.com served more than 85,000 active users who generated more than 300,000 page views.
That gives participating agents an established digital property as the starting point rather than asking everyone to wait while we build an audience from scratch.
What Is MedicareSalesAgents.com?
MedicareSalesAgents.com is the central profile management platform supporting the program.
Agents maintain their core professional information from one place instead of rebuilding and independently maintaining profiles for every participating property.
MedicareSalesAgents also has a team focused on developing additional digital partnerships that can expand the distribution opportunities available through the network.
What Is AgentReview.net?
AgentReview.net is the professional identity and verification layer used by the program.
It allows agents to establish a verified professional identity that can be recognized across participating properties while also giving agents an opportunity to showcase the broader products and services they offer.
Does Verification Guarantee That I’ll Rank Higher on Google?
No.
Neither SMA nor our participating partners can guarantee Google rankings.
What we can control is the quality, consistency and credibility of the information we’re putting into the digital ecosystem about you.
Accurate, consistent and verifiable professional information gives us a stronger foundation to work from as we continue building your digital presence.
Search rankings still depend on many different factors.
Will Becoming Verified Cause AI Platforms to Recommend Me?
There is no guarantee that an AI platform will recommend any particular agent.
What we can do is make it easier for digital platforms to find clear, consistent and verifiable information about who you are, what you do and where you do business.
As AI becomes another way consumers research professionals, we believe that’s an increasingly important investment.
Does Participating Guarantee Leads?
No.
We’re building digital infrastructure and distribution opportunities.
We cannot guarantee that any individual profile, website or verification will generate a specific number of leads.
Our team will continue working to grow the participating digital properties and the opportunities available through the program.
Like most marketing programs, what you get out of it can also depend on what you put into it.
Some agents will simply maintain their profiles.
Others will take advantage of publishing opportunities, new distribution partners, physician relationships and additional Featured benefits as they become available.
We’re building the infrastructure to support both.
Do I Have to Become an SEO Expert?
Absolutely not.
That’s kind of the point, you leverage the time and money we spend on SEO to capture the audience searching for your expertise.
Keep your professional information accurate and current.
We’ll keep working on the network of websites, search visibility, technology and digital partnerships behind the program.
Will Additional Websites Be Added?
Yes. That’s the plan.
We currently expect three additional sites to be live around the middle of Q1.
We’re also actively interested in digital partners that can provide meaningful consumer reach, local visibility, niche authority, product relevance or other strategic value for participating agents.
What Happens When Another Digital Partner Is Added?
MedicareSalesAgents has a team specifically dedicated to growing the digital partnership network.
Our goal is to notify participating agents when new opportunities become available and make it as easy as possible to extend their professional presence without starting the entire process over again.
Ready to Get Started?
We’ve already created the starting point.
Now we need you to make it yours.
- Claim your profile.
- Verify your professional identity.
- Make sure your information is accurate.
- Start leveraging your benefits.
Then let our team get back to work building what’s around it.
You focus on your clients. We’ll keep working on the digital infrastructure behind you.
