I want to get back to growing With Jack after a year of distraction by running lots of mini experiments and being more intentional with measuring results. But January has been weird. The start of the year is usually a time of good intentions, but for me it was the month my mum passed away.

When someone dies there's so much admin and planning and sorting to do. This is happening alongside grief—the most complex emotion a person can experience.

With that said, I have found comfort in structure and routine. We had lived with anticipatory grief for months. Even though this part is difficult, it's a different kind of suffering and in some ways it's easier to manage.

This is a blog about building and growing a business, but my parents have played a big part in my work. My dad passing away when I was a teenager and being the reason I'm working in insurance, and my mum being With Jack's biggest cheerleader.

Month one: Updating our scripts

Given where my head is at this month, I kicked off my year of mini experiments by doing something simple. Something that didn't require much brainpower or effort on my part (that's what the rest of the year is for!).

I updated our scripts. These are the scripts people receive when buying or renewing their insurance.

Previously we'd point them to useful third-party services. This is because insurance is a service you don't benefit from on a practical level until you have to make a claim. I wanted to bring immediate value, but why was I working hard to win business only to send them elsewhere?

Every customer is now presented with two call to actions. Arguably it should only be one, but time will tell if two is too many.

Call to action one - proof of insurance

Clients are more inclined to work with insured professionals. Freelancers who have insurance are more trusted by clients, so we encourage people to add a proof of insurance badge to their website. This will link back to With Jack with the goal that it improves traffic and rankings.

Call to action two - referrals

We highlight our referral scheme. This should encourage new sign-ups to invite their friends at a point they're feeling motivated. "I've just bought insurance. I feel like a proper business. I'm going to share this with a friend!"

January is a busy month for us with over 130 policies sold so it's the perfect time to update our scripts.

Although the proof of insurance badge is trickier to track and is more of a long-term investment, we can monitor referrals right away.

Proof of insurance badge

It's not an exact tool for measuring, but I used Ahrefs backlinks and referring domains feature and filtered by links picked up over the last 30 days. It appears 5 customers have added a badge to their website.

Sure, this is less than 5% of people who read the call to action but it's links we wouldn't otherwise have. Each month we'll continue to build on that. Adding 50+ backlinks by the end of the year sounds good.

The next step is refining the landing page to drive home why you want to show clients you're professionally insured. Maybe we'll add more colour options, too.

Referrals

Referrals have been disappointing. This could indicate that two call to actions is too many, or maybe the referral incentive isn't appealing?

We used to give customers an Amazon voucher, but this doesn't align with our values. We wanted to support another independent business and also provide value to customers, so we offer the choice of an ebook from either A Book Apart or The Do Book Co.

Only 3 people have filled out the referral form, one of which converted to a sign-up.

Referrals are a funny one in insurance. Given most insurers make it tricky to terminate contracts of insurance prematurely, you need to reach someone at the right time in their policy cycle. This is rare so it's all about getting on their radar for when the time is right.

If referrals don't improve I'll likely remove this call to action from the scripts and focus solely on the badge.

A look at February's mini experiment

Next month my goal is to dedicate an entire month to creating video content, both short-form optimised for Instagram and longer-form for YouTube.

In the past we've had good results when sharing content like this, but it's just not something I've committed to on a regular basis. Doing hair and make-up is a big effort! Watching my chubby cheeks back is torture! Editing on a buggy iMac is soul destroying!

However, as I said in my last blog post, I rode the coat-tails of previous years' efforts in 2024 and I know I can't afford to do that this year.