Last August we started a series about email marketing for your insurance business and we covered 5 key questions to help you put together an email marketing plan.

Now that you (hopefully!) have your email marketing plan in place, it’s important that you keep your email contact list clean. What do we mean by “clean”? A clean email list is one that has been scrubbed of bad or inactive email addresses and is also clear of email addresses from anyone who has requested to unsubscribe from your email list. Here is a list of best practices to ensure your insurance agency’s email marketing list is clean (and therefore, more successful and profitable):

- Delete inactive email addresses: Take time to look through your most recent email campaign reports and note the open rates compared to the overall frequency of email you’ve sent. Some contacts may not be opening your emails regularly. We recommend adding these contacts to a special list to create email marketing messages with the purpose of re-building those relationships.

- Remove role addresses or group distribution email addresses: As you’re cleaning your email list, look for email addresses that begin with “all”, “sales”, “info”, “help” or something similar. These are typically email distribution groups, meaning, when you send an email to this address, the message will be delivered to a group of people…which increases the possibility for your email to be marked as spam. Remove these and avoid adding these types of email addresses in the future.

- Perform list maintenance regularly: A week after every email distribution, review your email reports and delete any bounced email addresses. Remove unsubscribe requests immediately or designate a few minutes every week to remove them.

Always remember that a scrubbed email list will perform leaps and bounds better than a poorly maintained email list. Follow these tips and watch your email marketing become much more profitable!

As you reflect back on 2010, what significant contributions did you and your insurance business make in your local community? Did you sponsor any events? Did you volunteer with a local non-profit? How about offering an educational seminar about choosing the best insurance coverage?

Giving back to your local community is a great way to build trust, get the word out about what you do, genuinely connect with more people and, most importantly, make a difference in the lives of those around you.

Here are some things to keep in mind when you or your insurance agency staff are representing your insurance business in community:

- Participate with an organization you are passionate about. If you don’t have a true interest in the volunteer work you do, it will show. When you’re passionate about a cause, your positivity and excitement will engage those around you.

- Don’t be afraid to build your network. It’s likely other volunteers will be local business owners or area leaders, so get to know them in genuine, meaningful ways. You never know where a referral could come from.

- DO NOT wear your sales hat. When you’re volunteering, the focus is on the volunteer work, not your insurance business. It’s okay to share what you do, but don’t open every conversation with a sales pitch.

Community involvement is important regardless of your industry. It’s a great way to meet others, have fellowship with your agency staff and contribute to a larger cause. How are you making a difference?

We recently received an invitation to preview the brand new Insurance Journal website. Thanks to the IJ team for choosing us to be one of the very first to preview it!

Although their current site is well-organized and professional, the new site is much more intuitive, interactive and sleek.

Improvements include:

- Online database of past articles from the print edition so you can bookmark and/or share with others.

- Topic centers allow you to focus on one specific topic like top news, agent/broker info, pricing, etc.

- Forums where you can discuss industry news, issues and insight with fellow insurance pros.

- Twitter feeds pulled from insurance agencies, insurance companies, insurance associations and more. (This is my favorite feature!)

- Comment areas so you can comment on your favorite (or not-so-favorite) article.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. They have several other improvements, but you’ll just have to wait. They haven’t given the launch date, so bookmark their site (if you haven’t already) and stay tuned here for more insurance news and insurance business-building tips!

Not only are consumers increasingly using the Internet for their insurance needs, but they’re also leveraging new mobile applications to interact with insurance companies, insurance agents and report claims.

Back in September, we shared a blog post about the growing trend of mobile applications and we showed the example of the iPhone app Treutel Insurance (an insurance agency in Mississippi) created for their customers. This app allows customers to contact the agency with the click of a button to report a claim, request insurance quotes and quickly contact the agency.

Mobile apps continue to grow in popularity. In fact, several other agencies have developed mobile applications. Very soon, a new service called SehMobile will be launching and will allow agency owners to create mobile applications. To learn more, head over to Duke Thinking Online.

Then don’t miss our next educational webinar on January 12 at 2pm CST!

Insurance professionals across the country are participating in our online presentation and taking away valuable, time-tested principles for closing more leads and growing a book of business.

Don’t just take our word for it! Here’s what insurance agents are saying:

“I really appreciate you sharing the follow-up form Hunter shared in the webinar. I enjoyed the presentation! Although I wasn’t in front of my computer to follow along online,  I learned a few things I hadn’t really thought about before today. For example, talking about coverages! I forget that the consumer has no idea what I am talking about most of the time. That might explain why there is usually a pause in the conversation when I ask them how much liability they need.  That was a great tip. Anyway, thanks again for the information and I am sure we will be doing business in the near future.” – Steve P., Alabama insurance agent

“Thank you for this webinar. You shared some very good information and it has changed the way I plan to run my business.” – Jeff P., Texas insurance agent

Follow this link to register for next week’s webinar.

One of our favorite insurance industry publications is Agent’s Sales Journal. Their magazine is chock full of up-to-date news and insider tips for today’s insurance professional.

In an article from their November 2010 issue titled “Social Life: How Social Media Can Boost Your Business”, editor Christina Pellett covers 7 of the most popular social networks and how insurance professionals can leverage these tools from a business perspective.

According to a recent study, Pellett shared that 57 percent of insurance agents use at least one social media tool to engage with other insurance industry professionals and 59 percent use social media to connect with prospects and customers.

The great thing about social media (those listed here, anyway) is that it’s free. Yes, for some it can be time-consuming to learn and to integrate into your daily insurance practice. As the world continues to get smaller and more connected, however, the insurance pros who are not creating an online presence will be missing the boat.

Click here to read Pellett’s insurance agency social media tips.

Also, don’t miss their social media boot camp: 20 days to social media success.

The new year is just a few days away, so it’s time to roll out your 2011 goals and initiatives!

Before you begin your goal-setting, however, we recommend revisiting your vision and mission statements. These two elements are KEY to proper goal setting.

We recently talked about why the goals for your insurance business should be SMART. Today we’re going to share the types of goals you should consider setting for your business.

• Growth – Expansion-related goals, pertaining to adding new team members, additional office space, etc.
• Community – Initiatives regarding your local community (volunteering, donating, etc.)
• Service – Goals focused on increasing customer service and or customer satisfaction
• Profits – Goals geared toward increasing the bottom-line by a certain percentage

By examining these four areas and naming several goals for each, you’ll have a well-rounded set of goals to present to your agency staff for 2011.

I ran across a new insurance agent blogger today and wanted to share a few pieces from his most recent blog post – Planning, goals and inspiration from daily insights. I hope you’re inspired!

Accountability: “There is no such thing as can’t, only won’t.  If you’re qualified, all it takes is a burning desire to accomplish, to make a change.  Go forward, go backward.  Whatever it takes!  But you can’t blame other people or society in general.  It all comes from your mind.  When we do the impossible we realize we are special people.” - Jan Ashford

Determination: “Fall seven times and stand up eight.” – Proverb (origin Japanese)

Fear: “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.” – John D Rockefeller

With a 3.3% increase in holiday spending this year, this is a prime time to be touching base with customers, purchasing Internet leads and staying on top of follow-ups!

High-dollar items like iPads and jewelry were among this year’s most-given gifts, which means increasing insurance coverage is an important conversation to have with your leads as we move into the New Year.

Although insurance may not be at the top of mind for many folks during the holiday season, this is an ideal opportunity to connect with customers and prospects on a more personal level and make sure these new possessions are adequately covered.

As 2010 comes to a close, it’s time to be solidifying your insurance business goals for 2011. It’s extremely important that your goals have been well-defined and include milestones for short-term, medium and long-term goals. These goals should also be SMART:

Remember that crystal-clear goals are vital to keeping you focused on your vision and mission. With these goals in place, you’ll be able to measure your progress and your team’s progress to ensure everyone stays on track.

Not sure where to start with those SMART goals for your insurance agency? Watch this brief video clip to learn more: