Have a Written Marketing Plan. Monitor it Weekly, Update it regularly.
Your marketing plan can be part of your overall business plan, but it can stand alone too. A marketing plan outlines the specific actions you intend to carry out to interest potential clients in your agency’s offerings of your insurance product lines. As you know, agencies don’t fail because they plan to fail; they fail because they don’t plan!!! A good marketing plan always includes a who, what, when, and why for each action item. It also includes a measurable goal with a tool to monitor progress. Contingency plans for each action item should be included.
There are many business planning software programs available for sale on-line. One of the best sellers for small businesses is Business Plan Pro. Their website is www.businessplanpro.com.
Advertising Dollars are Tight, Spend Wisely
With the cost of a stamp being incredibly high, not to mention the cost to actually getting the mail out the door, gone are the days of your basic form letter for prospecting new business. Today, you really need to have a prospecting program that is “hard to ignore.” If you are an established agency, you must put most of your marketing efforts on your existing client base. Hopefully, you have already invested in a good Client Management System (CMS) that allows you to create cross sell target market lists within your agency. If you don’t, even if you’re a new multi-line agent just getting started, you need to get one! If you’re in the market for a CMS, you should carefully compare features, benefits, ease of use, and the total costs before you buy. Applied, AMS, QQ Evolution, Hawksoft and Agency Pro are several worth considering.
So what does “Hard to Ignore” prospecting look like? Here is one that works:
Cross Sell “Call Me” Postcards. These should have a simple message mailed to your existing clients, beginning with the mono-line clients you want to cross sell to. These post cards should simply ask your existing client to call you in regard to their current policy (ies). Post your business hours and your phone number with agency logo, and that’s it!! Most will call because they want to know what’s wrong with their policy. Those that don’t you call them. When they do call you, tell them that you want to do a quick review of their coverage’s to make sure they’re prepared for (fill in the blank) hurricane season, wild fire season, tornado season, flood season….you get the picture. Most people actual appreciate your concern. After answering their questions, ask them about their other insurance policies they DON’T have with you. Ask them if their other agent or direct writer is also keeping up with them to make sure their coverage’s are what they expect. Listen to what they’ve got to say and then explain to them the value of having “one” agency handling all their insurance policies.
When selling outside of your existing book of business, the “hard to ignore” philosophy still holds true. Here are some tried and true examples:
Outdoor signs displayed in local high traffic areas. This is arguably the most expensive, but definitely hard to ignore especially when they’re at stop lights and illuminated. If you have a website, make sure it’s on your outdoor ad! Also, keep your ad as simple as possible. White on black lettering is the most visible! Have you noticed the Geico billboards lately?
Not-for- Profit Radio Stations. Unlike the high priced commercial radio stations with lots of listeners, these stations do not clump their radio spots altogether, therefore your ads are almost always heard. The problem with commercial radio is that their faithful listeners have been prompted and trained to quickly switch away when the ads start and also know when to switch back when they’re over! This equals big bucks to them and virtually no results for you!!
Agency Branded gifts with utility. Examples are letter slitters, pens, plastic computer keyboard calendar strips, and magnetic jar openers. Again, these items get used and noticed. Hand these items out from your office, but also leave them around take out restaurants, dry cleaners, convenience stores, doctor offices, Realtors and other high traffic businesses. Another good way to distribute these items is as door hangers in communities and businesses you want to target.
Maximize Your Web Presence and Make Sure Your Site is More than a Billboard.
- Make sure your web site is capable of at least receiving quote requests for each core line of insurance. Preferably, it should do more. Specifically, most of the major multi-rater vendors now have the capability of being inserted into your web site for direct consumer interaction on your behalf. Most are limited however to personal lines. Essentially, this keeps your office open for quoting 24/7/365.
- Use key word domain names when branding your web site. A real world example is brevardhomeinsurers.com. This site belongs to The Moulton Agency Inc. in Brevard county Florida.
- Notice the domain name ties closely into how people actually search for insurance, i.e. many people search geographically, and more often than not, they search by line of insurance.
- Keep your site fresh and full of relevant useful information that is appropriate to your site. Robotic web crawlers love good content especially when it comes to ranking and indexing your site.
- Get some in bound links to your web site. Agency directory listings are good, but only if they’re reasonably priced and are totally optimized to be found for the free organic searches. I don’t recommend the paid per click stuff. A new and promising directory for car insurance is InsuranceRivals.com. It’s definitely worth checking out. Other link back options are social networking sites and real estate sites.
In summary, if you successfully implement the three “must dos” of having a written marketing plan, wisely spending your ad dollars on quantifiable “hard to ignore” prospecting, and maximizing your web presence, you should see real progress in your efforts of growing your agency!
