Keep Up Your Marketing through Email
Marketing has taken some interesting turns in the last several weeks. It feels out-of-touch to run self-promotional television or radio ads when people are anxious about illness. Billboards and bus-bench ads don’t have quite the same reach when most of us are sheltering in place. Networking get-togethers are on pause, and you can’t meet with clients to cross-sell or upsell.
Luckily, there is one marketing tool that is still readily available—email. Utilizing it thoughtfully can be a great way to stay in touch and keep your marketing efforts on track. And email offers two benefits that are not always true of other forms of marketing:
1) Affordability
One of the nicest things about email marketing is how cheap it can be for those starting out. To do it right, you’ll want to invest some time creating a marketing calendar and brainstorming ideas for upcoming email content. But you likely already have the ability to send and receive emails, and sending one more isn’t going to cost you anything extra.
That said, eventually you’ll want to up your game, adding things like graphics, the ability to track open rates (who actually opened your email) and even customizing messages based on things like when a customer’s policy will renew. Check out services like Constant Contact, HubSpot’s Marketing Hub and Campaigner for more of these types of bells and whistles.
Another possible cost to consider is hiring a content writer and/or editor. While it’s a good thing for your agency to have a “voice,” it should be thoughtfully cultivated, not just the owner firing off emails in their own unique style. In addition, grammar and spelling should always be on point, otherwise you risk coming off as sloppy or careless—not a good message to send in the insurance business.
2) Customer Control
Some people don’t mind marketing outreach. Others dislike it. The problem is, you don’t necessarily know which of your clients falls into which camp. Whether you send an email on your own or through a software app, it’s imperative that you include an option for those who want to unsubscribe. This gives your clients a feeling of control and keeps you from being labeled a spammer.
In addition, this gives your clients the power to decide when they will read your message. Keep this in mind when you think about your content; if you have a time-sensitive topic, include that in the subject line. Otherwise you should assume that your message may not be read for a couple days or even weeks.
Types of Emails to Send
You’ll have fewer people unsubscribing if you regularly switch up how and what you contact your clients about and focus on what will be most useful to them. In other words, think less about what you want to tell them and more about what they want to hear.
These are a few broad categories you might want to incorporate into your content calendar:
- Tips and Tricks (There’s a freeze coming—don’t forget to disconnect your hose and drain your sprinklers!)
- Rate Information (We’re seeing rising rates due to an increase in the number of auto accidents this year. Did you know you might be able to save by installing a driving tracker for a short time?)
- Savings (Here’s a brief explanation of how bundling works and the type of savings you might realize.)
- Education/Explanations (This is how flood insurance works. Here are a few reasons you might consider raising/lowering your deductible. This is why insurance rates change every year.)
- About Your Agency (Our community matters to us; here is a photo from a recent day where we all volunteered with Habitat for Humanity.)
Keeping this type of variety and focus on the customer shifts the feel away from straight sales and instead creates a feeling of partnership and advocacy between you and your clients.
Next week we’ll dive a little deeper and talk specifically about drip email campaigns—what they are and how and when you can make use of them. Until then, please take a look around this website to read more helpful posts from Hometown Quotes and give us a call at 800.820.8921 if we can help you with some fresh leads delivered straight to your inbox.
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