Agency Management System Best Practices, Agency Operations, Marketing
Independent Agents Share Their Insurance Marketing Strategies
People like to talk about “growth” but growing is rarely easy. Especially growing an independent insurance agency. Retaining or expanding existing client relationships and developing new client relationships are all necessary for growth. If those goals are not pursued each day with purpose they won’t happen. At SIS we’re part of a culture that thinks about and executes on those goals daily. Some days we do it better than others but each day we remain committed to growing our business because it’s good for our clients, good for our associates and good for our community. It has purpose.
Over the next several weeks, we’ll share insurance marketing strategies — ideas and approaches that can be used to help build marketing assets including an effective database of clients and prospects. We’ll also share ideas for communication strategies to help you remain top of mind for existing clients and expand your presence in your local market.
In the meantime we’d like to share some insight given to us by several successful independent insurance agents.
NASPA board member Steven Kramer who uses Partner XE in his Langhorne PA insurance office, recently provided us with some information about how he uses agency management system to help him in his marketing efforts. His interview offers tips on how to cross sell, win back lost accounts, renew and retain and get new business. Read the Full Article.
Kevin O’Brien, another agency owner who has been using Partner XE to help streamline his business, also provided us with some good insight into effectively marketing an independent insurance agency. Like Kramer, O’Brien talked about using Partner XE to cross-sell, upsell and attract new business. He also talked about using Facebook and other social networking sites to get referrals and connect with clients and their friends.
Another SIS client, Jeff Sargeant, shared his tips for grass roots marketing – being as personal as possible and communicating with a few specific groups at a time. For him this includes personal letters, targeted mailers and “drip” marketing campaigns.
Partner XE by SIS is the leading web based agency management system designed to give you all the capabilities required to run your agency today and well into the future at a price point you’ll appreciate. That’s why over 500 agencies have chosen Partner XE and SIS to help them grow their business. If you are interested in learning more about SIS or our Partner XE agency management system please give us a call at 800-747-9273 or fill out a short contact form and one of our representatives will be in touch soon.
Marketing, Technology Trends
Insurance Marketing Trends
Survey results show agencies need to better coordinate and measure marketing efforts
Last fall, Jason Hoeppner, an independent agency consultant with B.H. Burke & Co., conducted a survey of agencies, carriers and vendors on insurance marketing trends to get a picture of their social media usage, their overall marketing efforts and how they measure ROI. The results of this survey were given to us by Jeff Yates of ACT.
The following are the three points Hoeppner says he found the most eye opening.
- More than 60% of those who responded are not measuring the return on investment of current marketing efforts.
- Close to half of respondents who are not using social media will start to do so within a year.
- Of those who responded, a bit more than 60% do not have a coordinated marketing plan of any kind.
The social media finding corresponded with exactly what we’ve been hearing here at SIS. It is a tool a lot of agencies would like to be using.
Those of you interested in ideas of how to expand your reach with Social Media might be interested in reading one of the following two posts: Creating Brand Awareness Through Facebook and Insurers Put Social Media to Work.
Another finding that matched our research exactly is that a website is the most commonly used marketing tool across both traditional and non-traditional platforms.
While we would agree that the lack of coordinated marketing plans among the independent insurance agencies who responded to the survey is distressing, it is somewhat understandable given the pace of the business. For an agency to grow, however, implementing defined and measured processes (around all areas of the business) should be a priority. For more information, read our recent post Improving Business Processes.
The one thing we did find surprising, however, is how few agencies surveyed are using their agency management system to track and measure results of their marketing efforts. Our Partner XE agency management system has many features that will help you measure and track your marketing efforts. Give us a call at 800-747-9273 to find out how.
Partner XE is an easy to use agency management system designed to streamline workflow and increase productivity for independent insurance agencies of all sizes. Call 800-747-9273 or contact us to schedule a free agency management system assessment and consultation
Community, Marketing
Agency to Agency…
An interview with NASPA Board Member Steve Kramer,
Kramer Insurance Agency, Langhorne, PA.
Length of time on Partner XE: 1 year
Question: How do you use Partner XE to market your business?
CROSS-SELL
You want multiple policies per client because the higher your ratio is per household the higher your retention rate becomes. The Search features within Partner can be used to identify where you are missing out on client business so you can actively cross-sell to them. For example, you can run a sort of clients with auto, but not home coverage and then actively begin pursing their home policies as well. It works the same with commercial lines too. Do they have a business policy, but not commercial auto? Market accordingly.
WIN BACK LOST ACCOUNTS
The other thing we do is when a client becomes inactive… if they left us for one reason or another we do a “win back” campaign. We can run a search in Partner XE to identify these folks, we already have their basic information in the system, so we will go back and call them and say “hey, how can we win back your business.”
RENEW & RETAIN
We use the Partner XE Scheduling tools to set reminders… to keep what we need to do and on what day. Client renewals for example, if a renewal is coming up on the third of February we are calling him on the third of January so we are ahead of the game, not behind.
We also do quarterly contacts with our clients. We schedule in Partner when to call them or when it’s time to reconnect – the system keeps us on a schedule.
The NOTES feature really helps us with customer service. When a client calls in the first thing we are getting into the habit of doing is opening the notes to the last conversation. It helps you from a marketing standpoint. If you have that history in front of you and know that client better when you are talking to them it gives you a more professional position working with the client.
GET NEW BUSINESS
We do a lot of email marketing. We send out an average of 30,000 targeted emails per month. One specific campaign we do is to used car auto dealer. We have six or seven different solutions for them, from liability insurance to odometer insurance. We design the emails and the advertising on a one year campaign, hitting them hard in the beginning then spreading it out over time so that the client isn’t getting hammered with an email every day and getting annoyed. We find that it takes three to four sometimes even six months until we get a bite. We are chumming the waters and waiting for the fish to bite.
We probably get six auto dealers a month calling and out of those six we will close four of them.
We cannot do bulk emails directly out of the Partner XE system (yet… that’s one thing I’d love to see happen!) but we can export our prospect lists out of XE and then import them into our emailing system. Once they come back as leads it is all tracked in Partner XE.
Agency Management System Best Practices, Marketing
Using Your Partner XE Agency Management System to Market Effectively
In a perfect world, clients would never leave for greener pastures. Instead, they would continuously refer your independent insurance agency to friends and neighbors who would be on the phone, signing with you immediately. In a perfect world you would never have to spend, time, effort or money on marketing your business.
Realistically, this is rarely the case.
In April we talked about targeting prospects who match the profiles of your best customer and about creating educational marketing content and messaging relevant to that market. Just as important is consistency. It has oft been reported that a prospect needs to see or hear your message up to seven times before they decide to take action.
Because of that it is important to not only stay on top of your sales and marketing efforts, but to do so in a strategic fashion.
Your Partner XE agency management system is a great tool to help you execute your marketing strategy.
One of the best marketing features within your Partner XE agency management system is the ability to track conversations and set reminders. If, for example, you want to run a targeted drip marketing campaign you can use the system to create your list, send the mailings, set up reminders so that you stay on track and your mailings go out at set intervals and set reminders for follow up calls.
In addition, with the release of version 1.6 you now have direct access to our direct mail partner, Allegiant Marketing Group. AMG offers pre-formatted insurance marketing campaigns at a special rate for Partner XE customers. It is our hope that easy access to this reputable and proven direct mail resource will assist you in streamlining your marketing efforts.
Click Here for insight on executing an affordable, effective marketing campaign.
If you need assistance in maximizing the marketing potential of your Partner XE agency management system, just give us a call at 800.747.7005, Option 2.
Agency Management System Best Practices, Marketing
Use the tools in your Partner XE agency management system (system search list, advanced search list, and query builder) to strategically target the right message to the right customer.
Consumer insurance costs are rising, the economy is shaky and the competition among agencies to acquire new clients is fierce. Targeted marketing (to both current customers and prospects) is more important than ever.
As insurance industry expert Steve Anderson wrote in, “A Balanced Approach to Agency Marketing,”
“Most agencies focus their time and resources on obtaining new business… (but) a balanced approach is the key to creating a profitable book of business.”
He goes on to say that agencies should focus on:
- Keeping existing clients
- Upgrading existing clients
- Rounding out the portfolios of each client
- Getting more new clients
Keep, Upgrade, Round Out
To address the first three bullet points, consistent communication with your customers is critical.
Studies have shown that insurance customers expect effective communication from their carriers. To keep your customers you cannot write a policy and then forget it until renewal time rolls around.
You need to be proactive and systematic in your marketing. Use the tools in your Partner XE agency management system (system search list, advanced search list, and query builder) to strategically target the right message to the right customer.
Get More
Targeting your prospect lists isn’t quite as simple as simply running a query of customers with auto insurance but not homeowners and vice versa.
Start by looking at your existing book of business. Identify the traits your best customers have in common (age, marital status, geographic location, etc.) then go after individuals with similar profiles. Discover common attributes, find others with those same attributes and then whittle it down to the best of the best of the best.
Eric Weisgarber, principal at Allegiant Marketing and SIS’ west coast branch manager, has developed a proven six-step marketing system that drives results. Over the next several weeks, we will share some of his secrets.
If you need assistance in maximizing the marketing potential of your Partner XE agency management system, just give us a call at 800.747.7005, Option 2.
