Tell us about your business process to get “share of pocketbook” from existing customers  

Do you have a clean customer-base list? How complete is the marketing information you need to “mine the gold” in your customer database? Can you identify your next sale from an individual customer---like home insurance to a single policy auto customer or life insurance to a personal lines account?  What is your projected new business UNITS and COMMISSION INCOME from existing customers this year? 

How are you marketing to existing customers?  What messages? What media? How many TOUCHES-per-customers during the year? What is your projected ROI for monies invested in marketing communications tactics? Who is in charge of producing new business from existing customers? 

Explain your business process for gaining NEW customers 

Do you have a Sales Prospect List?  Is it a targeted list; for example, do the home and auto prospects on the list match up with the characteristics of your A-customers, your best customers?  Does your Sales Prospect List include multiple ways to reach a prospect (mail address, e-mail permission address, phone permission)?  How many on the list are referrals from existing customers; have you set these names up as a special market segment list? What is your projected new business UNITS and COMMISSION INCOME from new customers this year? 

How are you marketing to Sales Prospects?  What messages? What media? How many TOUCHES-per-prospect over each year? What is your projected ROI for monies invested in marketing communications tactics? Who is in charge of producing new business from existing customers? 

Quality sales list is critical success factor 

The old cliché “Don’t expect a high response rate if you are mailing to the graveyard” is apt.  Gaining new business results begins with the quality of your contact lists. 

It is not easy to build a quality list and maintain it. It takes time and money and constant harrowing to keep it free from “weeds.” 

Constant contact and follow up is essential 

The accepted rule of thumb in marketing circles: it takes an average of seven contacts before a prospect for a product or service will make a buying decision. 

Is your agency prepared to make this type of commitment?  Do you have the manpower? Do you have the right manpower?  Do you have the time? 

It is unrealistic for agents to handle on-going new business processes by hand.  There simply is too much maintenance involved, too many media options, and no workable ways to segment markets and then match up messages to those markets. 

What about agency management systems? 

Mpst agency management system provide limited support for new business activity and for customer service contacts. 

Hello, CRM software and dedicated marketing support personnel 

Customer Relations Management (CRM) software is changing the ballgame for small businesses including independent insurance agents.  It is giving agents the firepower for new business growth and customer retention that the big boys have. 

One of the leading edge agents with whom we work has invested in a CRM system that is dramatically changing the way he markets and the new business results he is getting. “We really have a sales culture now,” he says, “and it is paying off big-time!” 

So is increasing awareness by agents that hiring a full-time or part-time person or an outside marketing contractor to implement and manage a CRM business process is a profitable decision. “To maintain clean lists, assure constant contact, and produce results and ROI reports requires single-minded focus, and a passion for selling.” says another client.    

One of our clients has gone the one-stop route hiring us to produce marketing communications programs and materials as well as manage his agency’s new business contact process. 

Find out more about CRM software 

Do an online search for Customer Relations Management or CRM systems.  There are several excellent firms offering CRM software solutions.   

Caveat: Look for providers of small business CRM software.  Two companies that we recommend you start your exploration with are: ACT! by Sage (www.act.com) and InfusionSoft (www.infusionsoft.com).  

WANT TO TAKE CUSTOMERS AWAY FROM DIRECT WRITERS?  IT’S ALL ABOUT SALES AND CREATING A REAL SALES CULTURE THAT PUTS YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD!  

Post a squeeze page on your Web site 

A squeeze page is a Web page that is specifically designed to encourage visitors to provide you with an opt-in, permission-based e-mail address.  It is a way of building a sales suspect list that you can work to convert into a qualified lead and a customer over time. 

Expert users claim that a well-developed squeeze page can produce a name and e-mail address from 50% of the people who visit it.  

Keys to success: Useful information or compelling offer  

Your squeeze page must offer compelling information or an offer that the visitor wants to receive.  When a visitor willingly provides a name and e-mail address you may add them to your mailing list. Some examples of insurance agent offers to prospects: quotes by e-mail, newsletters, white papers, special reports, direction to more information through an online article, home and business safety brochures et al. 

Your squeeze page requires a sign-up form, of course.  It is a good idea to also include an e-mail confirmation page---a “double opt-in” if you will. 

Sender beware 

Avoid spammy-type follow up e-mailings.  You will rapidly lose subscribers who opted to receive your information.  

Time your mailings discreetly.  Mailing too frequently will cause you to lose opt-ins. 

Make sure that you include an “unsubscribe” link with your ezines or newsletters or product and service e-mailings.  Also include a link to your privacy policy.  

Build an expressed-permission list 

We have talked to some agents who are using business cards they have received at business meetings or from customers or from suppliers as sources for adding e-mail addresses to their databases. 

Not a good idea. In fact, it could be risky.  The odds are high that the people you automatically add after collecting their business cards will report your e-mails as spam. 

Collecting customer e-mail addresses 

Produce literature or a card that explains the CUSTOMER benefits of providing permission for e-mail contacts. Make sure everyone you ask receives a copy. 

. Ask for permission from all new customers.  

. Ask permission to stay in touch from all prospects who receive proposals or quotes but do not buy initially. 

. Include an e-mail permission request insert or brief article in every issue of your agency newsletter. . Include an e-mail permission request insert in all renewal mailings. 

What about prospects who ask for an e-mail response? 

This is the best way to build a permission-based e-mail prospect list. Strategies to attract e-mails include: 

. Visitors to your Web site who forward a “contact me” note and provide e-mail address. Collect these addresses and add to your E-Mail Prospect List. 

. Repliers to print/electronic advertisements and direct mail who provide e-mail addresses. 

. Prospects who ask for quotes as the result of your purchasing online leads from a commercial resource.  We recommend that you have an agency business process to cultivate leads that do not turn into sales initially.   

. People whose permission you get when you receive their business card. IMPORTANT: Be sure to send a “thank you” e-mail note the next day or same day to confirm permission. 

Purchasing opt-in e-mail lists 

There are commercial suppliers of opt-in e-mail lists. They are relatively expensive (3 to 4 times the cost of standard mail lists).   

Be sure to verify insurance response experience and rates with the supplier. Our indication is that response rates and conversion rates for the insurance category tends to be low. 

Opt-out option 

Make sure your e-mail messages have opt-out links. And make sure these links are prominently displayed, not buried or in fly-point font size.   

Good idea: Follow up opt-out notices with an e-mail that indicates that you are deleting the address as requested.  Also, consider getting feedback about why the recipient wants to opt-out, i.e.”information not useful,” “frequency of e-mails too high,” “change in situation,” et al.    

Coming:  Creative ways to promote e-mail opt-in and contacts     

Do ads that are funny sell? 

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist.  In a recent Boston Globe column (UNCOMMON KNOWLEDGE), Lewis wrote, “A recent study suggests that humor may indeed have a subliminal effect.  In several experiments, researchers found that humor-advertised products were imbued with more positive subliminal associations, and more importantly, the positive association influenced people’s subsequent product choice.” 

Do you find this surprising?  Does humor work for some products but not insurance?  The answer to the latter question lies in the longevity and effectiveness of Aflac’s duck, GEICO’s gecko, and the Met's Snoopy. These companies have super- high brand recognition.  Of course, they are backed by massive budgets and the ingenuity of first-class advertising agencies. 

An opportunity for your agency 

Have you ever used humor in your ads and direct mail pieces?  Would this present an opportunity to differentiate your agency from the “me-too” competitors whose advertising looks all the same, sounds all the same, and IS all the same-ol, same-ol?  

Proceed with caution 

The use of humor in communications, be it a speech or an advertising campaign, is fraught with hurdles.  One person’s humor can be another’s idea of cornpone or outrageous. Send for our samples of effective use of humor Over the years, we have produced many advertising and postcard direct mail campaigns that use humor and deliver effective product and service selling messages.  

If you would like samples, send us an e-mail.   

Vast majority of renters are at risk 

The last time I look, surveys showed that about 70% of renters did not have protection against personal property losses or liability.  How come?  Because renters are poorer risks than homeowners?  Because low premiums mean low commissions?  Because it is unprofitable to mount a successful marketing campaign?  All of the above? Whatever the reasons, now is the time to aim at renters.  One, renters in Massachusetts can now qualify for car-rental insurance account discounts and credits. Two, the market is growing rapidly due to the down-turn in the economy and the tight mortgage market.  Three, the Internet offers a way to attract and sell renters at a low, low cost (it is one insurance product that is relatively easy to quote online), so do agent newsletters and postcard mailings.  

Four, and most important, renters NEED your products and services.  

They own substantial amounts of personal property when you add computers, I-Pods, Kindles, DVD and CD collections, art collections, HDTV sets, et cetera, et cetera to furniture, clothing, and kitchenware to the mix.  In many cases, personal property amounts to thousands of dollars. 

“Asking for the fries” 

The time-tested McDonald’s sales strategy is a natural for selling renters insurance.  “Not a homeowner? How about your personal property?  Is it covered?” 

Majority of renters think landlord covers them 

Now is a good time to mount an information and education program in your town.  Maybe a public service news release to the local paper or some small-space ads or a cable TV commercial that prompt renters to check out valuable information at your Web site. Maybe an insurance advisory correspondence stuffer. Or, all of the above.  

We can help We have produced a new Jumbo Postcard designed to create awareness and interest about renters insurance, a public service news release, and an insurance advisory to help jump-start your renters marketing program. We also offer strategies for targeting renters. 

At home, who pays attention to your mailing? Here are some startling facts from postal service research that can help you get more and retain more business. 

In an article in the May 2009 issue of Deliver magazine, Greg Whitman, manager for market research for the U.S. Postal Service, says that in the home one person is typically responsible for handling the mail.  He calls this person “the CEO of Mail.” 

Who pays the bills and does the shopping? 

Postal Service research reveals that the CEO of Mail is also the household bill payer and principal shopper in 85 percent of homes.  That is the person that most insurance marketers want to reach. Whitman claims “there is no similar connection between a computer user and the manager of home life…e-mail messages may get to the right home, but not the right person.”  By the right person he means the shopping influencer in the home. 

The CEO of the Mail is the prime influencer 

Whitman reports that women are the CEOs of the Mail in three-fourths of American households, and are overwhelmingly responsible for responding to marketing offers. Check these whopping figures: 95 percent of CEOs of the Mail determine which ad materials to keep; 93 percent clip coupons; and 86 percent write the checks.  

A few words to the family treasurer  

We just created a Jumbo Postcard for Massachusetts independent agents.  The front side photo featured a woman at the computer entering information from a paper (a mailer, maybe…and going to the sponsor’s Web site, maybe?) with her mate alongside.   

The headline:  A few words to the family treasurer….insure both your home and car with us. Cut your insurance budget 20% or more!”  

Timely given the economic squeeze these days?  Yes.  Targeted to the right influencer in the household?  You bet.   

Want a sampler?  E-mail me: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .