Regularly staying in front of your prospects and customers is one of the most effective ways to build your personal brand and close more sales. Whether you’re a captive insurance agent or an independent agent, an email newsletter can help you educate your audience and earn more referrals.

As you sign up new customers and meet new insurance prospects, you should always give contacts the opportunity to opt-in to your enews. If they begin getting your emails and weren’t notified, they may flag your messages as SPAM and your future emails may not make it to their inbox.

Not sure what email distribution program to use? We recommend MailChimp, Emma or Constant Contact. Read more about them here. The great thing about a web-based email marketing solution is that there’s no software to install and you can easily track opens, clicks, opt-outs, etc.

Not sure what to write about? Ask your clients! Perhaps you create a question of the week where you answer various questions on a regular basis. Your head is already full of insurance knowledge, so ask your customers/prospects what concerns them and write about it!

Starting your enews is as simple as investing in an email marketing program, taking some time to write quality content and creating an email insurance enews distribution plan so you get in the habit of creating and distributing it. You may not see an overnight ROI, but over time, we’re certain this will help you close more business and generate more referrals.

In this TEDTalk, Seth Godin shares why, in today’s marketplace, you can’t afford to be boring. With all the things competing for our attention, the insurance businesses that take time to engage with their potential insurance customers in a meaningful way will come out on top.

I really like what Chris Paradiso and his team over at Paradiso Insurance are doing with social media and video marketing. Check out this brief clip about why they believe social media is an important component of an insurance agency’s marketing plan:

On Thursday, March 17th at 2pm CST, join us for the first in a series of presentations about leveraging social media for your insurance business.

In this presentation, Krista Dial (who is the personality behind HometownQuotes’ PR and social media) will walk you through setting up a Facebook fan page, explain the differences between Facebook profiles and pages and share strategies for building a strong base of raving fans for your insurance business.

Make sure you stick around for our popular Q&A session after the webinar. Insurance industry veteran Hunter Ingram will be on hand to answer questions and offer insight as an insurance agent and former agency owner.

We hope you won’t miss this opportunity to learn how social media offers valuable tactics for prospecting and retaining insurance clients.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Best Regards,
The HometownQuotes Team

Keeping insurance clients happy is the way many of us stay in business…or even have business. What about those problem customers, though? We all have them…or have had them, at some point. Rohit Bhargava, one of my favorite marketing bloggers, offers insight on handling difficult customers.

1) Dig down to the real issue.
2) Focus on what you can fix.
3) Kindly and gently raise the issue.
4) Give him/her another chance. And maybe a second one…but the third strike is out.
5) Politely terminate the relationship and refer to another insurance service provider.
6) Start fresh with new prospects.

Rohit expands on each idea in his blog post. I think all insurance professionals can relate with this issue. While most customer relationships are wonderful, there are always a few that just aren’t profitable or fair. If a customer is a consistent drain on your business or your team’s productivity, it may be beneficial to both you and the customer to part ways. Follow Rohit’s tips to do this successfully.

Looking for ways to keep long-term insurance clients? Impeccable customer service is key! The folks over at PC360 have a few tips for you:

1) Focus on your insurance agency’s culture. If you don’t, your team members won’t.

2) Manage your brand. Take ownership of situations. Be patient and compassionate with your insurance customers and prospects.

3) Encourage and reward your team members. If your staff feels appreciated they’ll be at peak performance and take optimal care of your customers.

4) Implement technology that makes your customers’ lives easier. Just make sure you maintain your personal touch.

To read the full article, click here.

As an insurance agent you have many roles to fill – particularly if you’re an agency owner. You are your own secretary, HR person, janitor, trainer…and in the case of this post, you are also your own marketer.

We know some people just don’t have the time, talent, money or desire to personally do what it takes to succeed in marketing your insurance business online.

That’s why we’re here! We also know that we’re not the end all, be all. A successful insurance agent must implement a handful of marketing strategies to close more sales and make those goals skyrocket.

We’ve shared how blogging, social media tactics and email marketing should be a part of your insurance marketing plan. Whether you do it, or you pay someone to do it, it needs to be done. Your competition is putting these things in place.

Insurance agent Ryan Hanley recommends hiring a ghostwriter to ease the burden. There are also some great DIY marketing tips on Mashable.

As always, if there’s something we’re not doing, tell us! Our goal is to empower you and your insurance business. We always want to hear where we can improve or what we can add to our services to make your experience even better.

Have a great Friday!

Interesting insight from the folks at Accenture.

To build long-term relationships with insurance customers and/or prospects, you need to understand them. Communication is not “one size fits all”. All relationships vary. To ensure you’re communicating effectively, take time to learn more about your audiences.

Insurance Journal recently published an article titled “Young Agents: Why They Stand By Their Career Choice”. They interviewed approximately 630 insurance agents under the age of 40. According to the survey, 71 percent of young agents use Facebook and 53 percent say they use social networking tools for their business.

This article offers some great insight on what the young generation of insurance agents are doing to build their businesses. Click here to read the full article.

For those of you using the AgencyIQ lead management system, you’ll be happy to know they’ve recently added a new feature that alerts you when a prospect has opened the email you sent him or her. Not only can you receive email notifications, but they’ve also added an SMS text notification function…so whether you’re in front of your computer or between appointments, you’ll have the opportunity to be alerted and be top of mind with new insurance prospects.

To learn more about this feature, head over to the AgencyIQ blog, where they have a thorough explanation of how these new features can help you.