Specific actions required 

Your communications tactics are the SPECIFIC actions that are needed to put your communications STRATEGIES  to work. Be sure to make clear when the actions will take place.  Here are examples of well-stated tactics. 

“Prepare advertising for the local Jonesboro homeowner market and place a one-quarter page ad in the Community Bugle newspaper every week during the April 1 – June 30 period.  The ad will emphasize our home-auto account discount; the headline and illustration will feature the possibility of saving 20% or more with this program.” 

“Prepare a full-color Jumbo Postcard mailer that features our home-auto account discount; the headline and illustration will point out the possibility of saving 20% or more with this program;  send the same postcard in April, May and June to 2000 Jonesboro homeowners with home assessed valuations of $300,000 or more.”   

NEXT ELEMENT:  Your Communications Measurement 

Strategies---messages and positioning 

Your communications strategies are the keys to HOW you will meet your communications objectives.  They define the MESSAGE theme of your communications programs and the agency POSITIONING (image) you want in your market area.  Here are examples of how they might be expressed in your marcom plan: 

“Advertise ways customers benefit by buying both their home and auto insurance from our agency.” 

“Improve our business processes for rounding out single policy customers---auto to home, and home to auto.”  

NEXT ELEMENT:  Your Communications Tactics 

Objectives---what you want to happen 

This is where your marketing communication plan begins—the fountainhead.  Make sure you state what you want your communications to accomplish in a specific time period. Remember, they are not sales objectives. They must be related to what communications can do to SUPPORT your agency’s sales objectives. 

Make sure each communication objective is specific,quantifiable and measurable.  For example: 

“Increase customer awareness that our agency sells life insurance from 10% to 40% in 12 months beginning January 1, 20XX.” 

“Obtain a minimum of 100 referral leads from existing customers in a three month period beginning  April 1, 20XX.”  

NEXT ELEMENT:  Your Communications Strategies 

Your agency plan should have 5 key elements 

At MullaneyCookson, we encourage clients to develop business processes.  A key process involves making sure that your agency is a true sales organization.  Successful insurance agency sales organizations support their producers and CSRs with well thought-out and well-executed marketing communications programs. The planning process involves five key elements. 

(1) Objectives (what you want to happen) 

(2) Strategies (message and positioning) 

(3) Tactics (specific actions) 

(4) Measurement (how you determine success) 

(5) Budget (your direct costs, ROI) 

Our next five Independents’ Mall items are devoted to exploring these elements. 

Continuous agency improvement is a worthy practice 

Quality expert Joseph M. Juran passed away earlier this year.  The March 8-9 issue of the Wall Street Journal contained an extensive obit.  It pointed to a slogan that Juran liked, “There is always a better way: it should be found.”  As the WSJ article illuminated,

Juran argued that although producing higher-quality goods might seem costly, it could often pay for itself through fewer repairs and a better reputation in the marketplace. Juran put forth his “80-20” rule for businesses:  80% of complaints about quality result from 20% of causes. He urged managers to concentrate on the “vital few” rather than the “trivial many.”  He called it his “Pareto principle.” 

Along with the lessons offered us by W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran’s theory of quality-control management, which has become known as the Juran Trilogy----planning, control and improvement---is worth practicing by insurance agencies.  

The whole idea is to foster an agency culture of continuous improvement.   

Wheel your name around town 

Here’s an advertising idea that is not new.  But seldom practiced by insurance agents.  Wrap an agency vehicle with your name, positioning line, address, and auto insurance promotion copy.  

Your agency car becomes a mobile billboard! 

Everywhere it goes, you go.  Everywhere you park, passerbys will see your name and message. Go online and find a firm that specializes in designing and applying car wraps.  You’ll stand out from the thundering herd of agencies in your market area and gain new customers too.