the ultimate guide to email marketing for insurance agents

the ultimate guide to email marketing for insurance agents

what s in here? Email marketing & content marketing...3-4 Email marketing best practices...5 Email campaigns for insurance agents...6 AgencyBloc for email campaigns...7-11 Mass vs. Automated Emails [7] AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns feature [7-11] See it for yourself...12 AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns Feature Page 2

email marketing & content marketing. Before you can jump into setting up email campaigns, you must first understand email marketing. Businesses have been using email marketing since email became widely used. Emails are an extremely cheap and effective marketing tool, so it s bound to be around for awhile. Email marketing is a tool businesses use to relay messages or promote their products/services to an audience. It can be used to send one message to a large number of people, or companies can set up ongoing email campaigns that send based on the behavior of the reader. That behavior can be on your website or within other emails you ve sent to them previously. marketers use email marketing. They also reported that 70% of those businesses are creating more or significantly more content than they were a year ago. Content marketing and email marketing go hand-inhand. Gone are the days of push marketing pushing out mass emails that only promote your product or service (asking something of the reader) without offering value in return (giving something to the reader). You must get in the game of creating content that your prospects and clients will care about, and begin sending that content to them via channels like social media and email marketing. If you re already doing this, kudos to you! We ve seen a few great examples of insurance agents/agencies getting into the content marketing game: The great thing about email marketing is that you can segment your list. There s really no excuse not to. Consumers will only open & read messages that they find relevant, so taking the time to create unique campaigns for specific segments of your prospects and clients is well worth the time. Emails are also an easy way to talk to your customers or prospects on their time without being pushy. They re a way to remain top-of-mind for prospecting and a way to maintain positive client relationships. How significant is email marketing? Content Marketing Institute reports that 83% of B2B New York Life s Tweet on 6/25/15 AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns Feature Page 3

email marketing & content marketing. And another example from Aflac: Not sure how this content would fit into an email? An email with New York Life s content within it might say: Hi Mike, Did you know: New York Life found that 70% of American workers expect to continue working once they ve retired. Have you thought about whether you ll continue to work and how this might affect your retirement plans? Email or call me, and I can answer any questions you might have. See the whole infographic here: [link]. Aflac s Tweet on 6/29/15 Yes, New York Life & Aflac are large players in the game, but small agencies can learn a lot from them. The point is that these two companies see the value of offering content that their readers, clients & prospects will find valuable. These two tweets link to their blog, but this content could also be used within emails. See, once you decide to put in the effort to create this content, you can use it multiple places. And, this shows the importance of segmenting your list. Each piece of content is created with a certain audience in mind. You may have three groups you ve segmented, or ten. However many you have, think of what kind of content each audience would be interested in. Also, take into consideration how often that specific group wants to hear from you. Not sure how often? Read this. Thanks! Adam What s the point? The point of content marketing and email marketing is to show your clients and prospects that you care about more than selling policies to them. Because they can see the work you ve put into creating and sending them relevant content they care about, you re showing them that they ll receive the kind of service expected from someone who puts this much effort in upfront. And, sharing others content within your emails (like this New York Life example) shows your clients and prospects that you stay up-to-date on the industry s latest. However, with expectations come responsibilities on your part. So, let s take a look at some best practices for email marketing. AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns Feature Page 4

email marketing best practices. So, how should insurance agents and agencies use email marketing to create and maintain successful relationships with their prospects and clients? Tips & Tricks There are 3 tips we always give when talking about using email marketing in general: Put people in buckets. Your prospects have vastly different reasons for setting up a meeting with you to discuss insurance options. Take the time to learn about your list of prospects and put those people into separate lists as best you can. That way, you ll be able to send targeted messages that make the maximum impact. Be personal. Once you have your list segmented, really think about how you can address the unfulfilled needs of these groups. Be personal in your approach, and: Provide value. This is the most important. Think about what your prospects are going to get out of reading each of your emails. Provide a specific value for each segment of your prospect list in each email, always providing them with a clear call-toaction (CTA) so they re never confused about what to do next. Examples of CTAs for insurance agent emails: A link to your contact page on your website A link to a blog post you wrote that relates to the content in the email Links to carrier websites to learn more information related to the content in the email To maintain a positive relationship with your clients, be sure you re contacting them with meaningful information. Whether it s an update on your service or it s an interesting article you found and are sharing, always double-check that they ll find value in it. Meaningful communication touchpoints will arise; you just need to identify them. Once you ve decided which triggers are meaningful, set up the communication approach you want to take and let it run. Of course, this still needs to be maintained, and you will want to always make sure what you re sending continues to be relevant. Clients want to hear from you when anything you see as being valuable for their service arises. They want to know about the best rates, they want personal attention and they want to know all of their choices. This means you should be providing your customers with ongoing attention, not waiting to hear from them. Maintaining this constant communication will provide value and build trust the two things an insurance customer wants. AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns Feature Page 5

email campaigns for insurance agents. Insurance agents and agencies are always looking for ways to increase their productivity, right? And how about ways to maintain communication with clients without having to put in extra time? Not to mention automating those pesky housekeeping tasks. Well, email campaigns can definitely help you with all of that. Increase Productivity & Streamline Activities Do you have a lot of agents to keep track of? How nice would it be to automatically send them reminders 90, 60, and then 30 days from their license renewal date? I bet you re already thinking of a hundred other automatic reminders you d like to be sent out on your behalf. These can all be taken care of with an automated email campaign. Engage with New Leads Used in conjunction with our Lead Forms feature, you can set up email campaigns to send out to prospects when they fill out a form on your website. These could be whole email campaigns that send them content based on the form they filled out, or they could be as simple as I ll be in touch soon emails that automatically send when they fill it out. Onboarding Clients & Employees Just like setting up an email campaign for new leads, you can set one up for onboarding. You may have specific information that goes out to each new employee or agent, so an email campaign could send that for you automatically. You could do the same with new clients: once their status goes from a prospect to a client, a campaign could be automatically triggered that will send them the necessary information over a series of emails. You could send product information specific to the policy type, or you could send general information about your agency. Better yet, set up a campaign that sends both over a series of emails. Automate Housekeeping Tasks We touched on this one, but it s important enough to point out again. Think of all of the times you assign something to an agent or employee. What if all of those could be automated? By setting up campaigns that trigger based on behaviors, you can. For example, when a form is filled out, you could automatically assign an agent to that person and create an activity for that agent to follow-up. You could have an email automatically send to the agent with the new lead s information. Another example would be birthday emails. Seems like the smallest thing in the world, but clients genuinely appreciate when an agency goes above and beyond. They consider it a great gesture on your part to reach out and wish them a happy birthday, yet it only took you a few minutes to set up the campaign to do that. As you automate more and more daily tasks, your days suddenly free up to tackle the bigger projects. You ll simply be more productive. Let s check out how AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns feature does these things... AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns Feature Page 6

AgencyBloc for email campaigns. Within AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns feature, you can set up both mass and automated email campaigns. Let s take a look at the difference between the two: Mass Email Mass emails are one-time emails sent to, usually, a large group of people. These emails are best when you have one message to send that applies to many people. A good example of a mass email is a newsletter. If your agency already sends out a weekly or monthly newsletter to your clients or prospects, a mass email campaign is for you. Automated Email Automated email campaigns are an easy way to stay in contact with your clients and agents without a lot of time or resources on your part. An automated email campaign is intended to send communications to your intended recipients when a specific trigger is met. Mass emails are useful for: Newsletters Internal announcements among staff Large announcements to clients Triggers can be several things. The most common ones are dates: Birthdates, policy renewal dates, license expiration dates. Another type of trigger that most people overlook are situational triggers, like when an individual goes from a prospect to a client or when a policy goes from enrollment to issued. Imagine being able to go into your CRM and change an individual status from a prospect to a client and having the system automatically send a Thank You for Your Business email to that client. AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns Feature Page 7

AgencyBloc for email campaigns. Automated emails are also useful for: Birthday greetings Clients turning 65 License renewal reminders New prospect or client Welcome email New policy or updated policy status email Policy renewal date reminder So, you can see the ways in which email campaigns can certainly help your marketing efforts, but also increase productivity and automate tasks for you. However, you have to be using the right technology in order for this to work. It s the best situation when your CRM where you re maintaining your data and your email marketing tool are within the same system. It s impossible to point out everything our Email Campaigns feature can do in this ebook, but we want to show you the major things it can do on a high level. Here are the features that make it work for you: 1. Complete, Integrated Communications When you have your CRM and your Marketing Automation tool all in one, you win. Not only will it make your email marketing efforts more streamlined, but it will also make you smarter about your own data. Creating a campaign is easy by picking and choosing filters and triggers that align with the data already in your CRM. And with a quick glance, you can see which individuals have received which communications all from their Individual screen in AgencyBloc. Now let s take a peek inside AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns feature... AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns Feature Page 8

AgencyBloc for email campaigns. 2. Industry-Specific Filters Use the fields in your AgencyBloc account to target the right audience. The step-by-step email setup makes it easy to pinpoint the specific audience you d like to receive the email. Use triggers to automate email sends and make your life easier. Fields such as renewal date, birth date, term date, coverage type, and more can all be used to build the perfect list. Send targeted emails to the right people at the right time. 3. Easy-to-Build Lead Forms Create a lead form within AgencyBloc, and set up campaigns to begin automatically with each form submission. When a form is filled out, the fields specified on the form will automatically create a contact or individual within AgencyBloc. You can even assign agents an activity when a form is submitted. Forms are easy to create and integrate onto your website or wherever your online presence is. AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns Feature Page 9

AgencyBloc for email campaigns. 4. Simple, Easy-to-Use Email Style Templates Create a robust email newsletter or a simple notification email with our easy-to-use email style templates. You begin choosing whether you want your email to be branded with your company name or just plain text. Then, you can choose from a variety of email layouts to make styling your email a breeze. 5. Convenient Personalization Tags Just because you re making your life easier by automating emails doesn t mean they can t be personal. Use AgencyBloc s personalization tags in your emails to make use of the information you have on the recipients of your emails. For example, beginning your emails with Hi [IndividualFirst], will automatically insert your contacts first names into your emails. Personalization tags include (but aren t limited to): Individual First Name, Individual Last Name, Servicing Agent s First Name, Servicing Agent s Last Name, Servicing Agent s Email, Servicing Agent s Phone Number, City and State/ Province. AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns Feature Page 10

AgencyBloc for email campaigns. 6. User-Friendly Stats & Graphs Visually appealing graphs make it easy to see trends in each of your email campaigns as well as your email marketing effort as a whole. Drill down to understand how every email that you ve ever sent has performed. See who received your emails, who opened them (and who didn t), and which links they were most interested in. But most importantly... 7. Truly Helpful People AgencyBloc is a great tool and the support is outstanding. They walk you through every step of the way and make sure you understand all aspects of it. If we have a question, need a change made, etc., they take care of it within minutes. Stephanie, Constant Coverage AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns Feature Page 11

See it for yourself. The best way to see the email campaigns feature in action is to see a live demo of AgencyBloc. You ll have a personalized, 1-on- 1 demo. No strings attached. Still not convinced? Check out the Email Campaigns feature in our demo video amongst the other features we have to offer. Contact us with any questions or concerns you have. We re here to help! Sign up for a demo Watch Video AgencyBloc s Email Campaigns Feature Page 12