Brightfire Review

What is Brightfire?

Brightfire bills its services as complete digital marketing solutions for independent insurance agencies. It launched in 2000, making it one of the first digital marketing agencies to serve the insurance industry.

Since the beginning, Brightfire has helped thousands of insurance companies with websites and online marketing campaigns. Its mission has always been "connecting independent insurance agencies with insurance buyers."

What features does Brightfire include?

Brightfire has three core competencies: website creation, digital marketing, and reputation management.

Website creation

Customized websites are built from professional templates, with ongoing management and security monitoring. Websites come with integrated sales tools, online payment processing, prewritten webpages, and blog content.

Digital marketing

Brightfire also offers several packages under the umbrella of online marketing. These include local listing management (to improve local SEO), social media management, and traditional pay-per-click advertising.

Reputation management

Under their Review and Reputation Management package, Brightfire helps you generate more reviews from your customers across several platforms, including Google, Facebook, and Yelp. They also monitor those reviews to protect your brand's online reputation.

How much does Brightfire cost?

On a spectrum of website and digital marketing tools, Brightfire sits at the more affordable end of the scale. It keeps costs low by working from templates, using prewritten copy, and launching formulaic marketing campaigns.

Who is Brightfire best suited for?

Brightfire sells itself explicitly to insurance agents and agencies. It's a budget solution for those new to marketing their business online. It offers a bundle that includes several of its marketing services plus website creation, but it also offers a-la-carte services for a more ad-hoc approach.

However, today's online world is highly competitive, especially for insurance agencies. Your potential customers are only one click away from checking out your competitor's site, so you need an edge. Brightfire's websites, while professional and functional, don't offer this competitive edge.

Many of the example sites displayed in their portfolio look remarkably alike. What's more problematic is how generic the content and blogs are. While prewritten content and duplicate blogs can save a ton of time in the lead-up to launch, it doesn't help build your brand identity. Nor does it work well for SEO purposes.

There are now more than 1.2 million insurance agents in the US alone. You need something more to stand out. That means more creative designs, personalized content, and seamless client engagement.

B12 can help. We have created an AI-driven tool for professional service providers, including insurance firms. Our all-in-one website builder automatically delivers an industry-specific website draft, which we then transform to suit your agency and tone of voice with the help of a team of experts.

Combined with a suite of powerful client engagement tools like online scheduling, payments, and digital contracts, we ensure you not only attract and win new insurance clients, but can serve them with an exemplary online experience.

What are the pros and cons of using Brightfire?

Does Brightfire support copywriting or design, or offer technical support?

As a budget website builder, Brightfire does not provide any custom copywriting services. That means all of their websites apply generalized prewritten copy, including in the blogs.

As mentioned above, this isn't great for showcasing your brand's unique offerings and personality. It also may limit your ability to rank on search engines like Google.

Google, and other major search engines know that searchers want fresh, unique, and timely content. So, the algorithm awards the pages which provide it. Prewritten, formulaic content doesn’t get the same SEO returns.

In terms of design support, Brightfire’s designers use two 30-minute information-gathering interviews to understand your vision. Beyond the initial creation, there is limited support for changes or further design work.

The ongoing monthly fee doesn't cover design updates or changes, and no ad hoc prices are listed for website design. This could mean your website launch exceeds budget and lead to other hidden costs down the line.

When it comes to Brightfire's customer support, it seems very limited. The support center is buried in the fine print on their website, and there does not seem to be any live chat or technical support number available. What happens if you run into issues or your website crashes? How long will it take to reach a human being?

What are some Brightfire alternatives for an insurance agency?

If Brightfire isn't lighting your fire, there are, of course, many other alternatives available. First, there are ultra-low-end DIY models, like Wix and WordPress. These require a lot of heavy lifting on your part and don't come with insurance-specific client management tools.

On the other hand, you'll find premium custom designs created by agencies. These typically cost thousands of dollars (or more). The design process can also take months, requiring significant investment in your time and employee resources.

But what if there was a middle ground — a solution that doesn't place the design burden on you but doesn’t break the bank or force you to sacrifice quality?

B12 bridges the gap between DIY website builders and custom design services. AI drives our website builder to save time, and we bring your unique website to life with our expert designers and SEO specialists.

More importantly, our integrated tools help insurance brokers better nurture prospects and serve their clients, including online scheduling, eSignatures, email marketing, and intake forms.

Brightfire review summary

Is Brightfire the best solution for your insurance website? While their websites and services are budget-friendly and functional, they are generally lackluster.

Across the board, their designs and copy fail to portray any personality — even on their own website. In a world with millions of insurance agents, personality and image count. What differentiates you from all that competition?

At B12, we have created an all-in-one platform that pulls all the essential ingredients together. We help you establish credibility, generate leads, streamline client interactions, and — most importantly — stand out.

We build a polished, professional, high-performance website for you that attracts prospects and wins new business. We understand that your website, like your agency, should help consumers find the necessary insurance solutions.