He who does not travel, does not know the value of men. -Moorish Proverb
One thing many people might not know, be aware of, or even think about is how their health insurance stops once they leave the country. Once you are out of bounds, you are left to your own devices. Luckily for you, you don’t have to be a survival expert or a superhero to survive when abroad. Recently, we had a chance to sit down with Gregg Manning, the Vice President of Operations for International Insurance, who told us how he uses WordPress and Ninja Forms to run a business.
Ever looked for insurance while traveling abroad? Good luck… until now!
International Insurance is a company specifically built to help keep travelers and expats insured while they outside standard insurance coverage. International Insurance found its origins nearly 15 years ago when Gregg and the company’s founder, Joe Krono, were working for a separate entity, a student loan marketing company striving to help families and students find different sources of financial aid for college and studies abroad. Though this company’s primary focus was not providing insurance to these families, Joe and Gregg still acquired valuable knowledge and insight into the world of international travel.
After years of working in financial planning and the international market, Joe realized there weren’t many options available to people who need insurance while abroad for travel, business, or life. He decided to take that niche market and run with it, founding International Insurance and the blog International Citizens.
Shortly after founding these companies, Joe hired Gregg not just because he had worked with him before, but also because of his resilience. Gregg began his career as a marketer and became a self taught developer, learning HTML, JavaScript, PHP, etc. As he’s progressed, he has taken on bigger and bigger roles in the business. Today, International Insurance and International Citizens provide a need to Americans living abroad and others from more than 140 countries.
Dealing with Growing Pains
One of the obstacles Gregg learned early on is that they needed a website to reach their audience base but also met their companies needs. For a while they found using a help desk platform to take their leads worked, but eventually their success caught up with them. Gregg shared, “We probably added 400 new clients per month. Between travel plans and the Expat plans, the annual plans. The business was growing immensely and we need to move to a CRM.”
Gregg also shared that, originally, International Insurance and International Citizens were run on a heavier, more content centered platform with designs on having a forum and other hosting tools. With Joe, he decided to move to WordPress and to use Ninja Forms to help restructure and focus their online presence. Ninja Forms made it possible to connect multiple resources to one place, providing specific plugins that the they wanted to make their work more efficient, and helped focus the company’s team members.
Gregg stated, “Internally, we didn’t have to switch gears and mindsets when doing content on one site and content on another, or doing updates, or anything like that. It was kind of a simplification.”
Founding the digital future of expat and travelers’ insurance
Two of the unique things about International Insurance and International Citizens are how the vast majority of their business is done entirely online and how they control their online presence. Most of the insurance industry is still process paper applications (i.e. filling out PDF forms, faxing forms to the company, providing hard copies of various documents, etc.). In comparison, the majority of International Insurances is done through live chat or email. Meeting the users where they are, and streamlining their experience.
Gregg also knows that to operate online, you have to have an online presence. Therefore, in addition to providing a great service he is also very focus on the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of the sites. International Insurance is much more than just an insurance provider. It is a traveler’s dream blog. They are providing tips and secrets about how to survive and thrive through international travel. They have made a name for themselves beyond the service they provide.
Even if you don’t have any travel plans lined up in the near future you should still go and give Gregg’s handiwork a view at International Insurance and International Citizens. The blogs alone are highly informative, entertaining, and provide resources every traveler should know. Give them a view and make sure you also find them on twitter at @intinsurance and @intcitizens.
