Smart's Insurance Marketing Tips Blog

I’ve written several posts about news releases, but not about writing the news release itself and what goes into a proper news release. Although the SEO news release does not always maintain the objective, reportorial tone taken by a traditional news release, where opinion and superlatives about the subject of the news release are confined Read full article

I wrap up the series on getting the most from your insurance client newsletters with the final five — including the most important tip of all, number 12.  Believe it or not, some of the most successful insurance agencies in the nation have been clients of ours for twenty years and more. Read about the Read full article

It’s surprising how many agents don’t have a prospecting strategy that leverages the value of their client newsletters. Today’s insurance client newsletter tips are focused on marketing to prospects. 5.  Use your newsletter to build your brand with prospects.  The canned sales letters and postcards you use in your drip marketing campaigns may capture attention, but Read full article

Sales start before your salesman calls.  That’s the headline of a famous magazine ad.  A grumpy businessman sits with his hands folded in his lap, squinting at the reader with a defiant expression.  The ad copy reads: I don’t know who you are. I don’t know your company. I don’t know your company’s product. I Read full article

In my last post, I tried to clarify the differences between the traditional news release and what you might refer to as the SEO insurance agency news release.  If you take the SEO route, you are foregoing the traditional Tier-1 distribution that reaches journalists. Journalists are not going to be surfing the web for your Read full article

One of the most underutilized but important insurance agency marketing tools is the insurance agency news release. Although the SEO news release is now the latest craze, it doesn’t replace the traditional news release.  In fact, it effectively bypasses the intent of the traditional news release, as I’ll explain. The SEO news release includes keywords Read full article

Many agents are beginning to understand the importance of insurance social media for creating and nurturing relationships, as well as for creating a long-term defensive strategy against the disintermediation threat posed by insurers, which I discussed in my post last week. Having an insurance social media presence is one thing; researching and writing about things Read full article

The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud has just published its annual Insurance Fraud Hall of Shame.  The dishonorable mentions in this list often make good material for news stories. This a great way for the Coalition, founded in 1993 by a diverse group that includes insurers, consumer advocates and government agencies, to attract the attention of Read full article

Agents have been aware for quite a while now that their business model is being threatened. And there has been no more threatening battleground for the past ten years than the Internet. Traditionally, people have bought insurance from agents who live and work in their community, whether they are direct writers or independent agents. As Read full article

A couple of months ago, in an article I called “Surprised by Insurance,” I advocated using the concept of surprise as a distinguishing feature of your brand.   While you might expect surprise to be a distinguishing branding feature in sexier industries like fashion, food or entertainment, it’s a fairly unusual phenomenon to find in the Read full article