Smart's Insurance Marketing Tips Blog

Target marketing has been a popular marketing strategy for insurance producers who want to expand their business and work efficiently for a long time now.  In fact, I was writing about insurance target or niche marketing more than twenty years ago when I started my first insurance agent marketing newsletter, Insurance MarketShare. Producers should prefer Read full article

Almost forty years ago, a couple of advertising guys, Al Ries and Jack Trout, published a book that revolutionized how firms market and sell themselves to the public.  The book, Positioning:  The Battle For Your Mind — still in print and regularly updated — promotes the concept that to succeed, a product or service must Read full article

A great way to build your email prospect list is to offer your website visitors a free newsletter. These visitors to your website may even turn into customers in the long run. But what if you’re looking for prospects that are ready to buy? You could include a quote request form on your website. But Read full article

While the open rate of an email newsletter is unlikely to be as good as the open rate of a paper newsletter, one important advantage you get from email newsletters are the analytics that let you track what happens to your message. First, there’s the delivery rate, or total sent less bounces. You want this Read full article

Are you thinking of trying an insurance client newsletter? If so, maybe you’ve imagined a scenario like this: CUSTOMER: “Hi, Jack, I got your newsletter today and it’s chock full of good ideas to help me understand my insurance better. Thanks a lot.” AGENT: “Sure, Marty. Is there anything else I can help you with Read full article

Do you own an Apple Computer shirt from 1977? Or a Dell mouse pad from 1983? If so, your booty may be worth something as a collector’s item. I’m not saying that Main Street Benefit Specialists’ water bottles or ABC Insurance Brokers’ calendars will end up on eBay someday.  But there’s no denying that the permanence Read full article

Advertising specialties — products that contain your company’s logo and message — are a valuable part of any insurance marketing strategy.  And they have been for more than 150 years.  It’s said that the first recorded use of an advertising specialty was in 1845, when an insurance agent in New York came up with the Read full article

Opt-in email newsletter distribution is the most cost-effective distribution method available, assuming the metric you’re using is messages sent — or even messages delivered, which eliminates bounces (hard, soft, bad domains and user not found).   For example, a printed four-color fully customized insurance newsletter with professional content can be mailed first class to 91 recipients Read full article

As I mentioned in my last post, you might want to mine your correspondence for testimonial nuggets.  Or you can prompt a discussion about testimonials any time you’ve got a satisfied customer on the phone with a statement like this, to paraphrase an opening used by marketing consultant Ed Taylor: “Bill, I’m glad you’re happy Read full article

Everyone knows third-party testimonials work better at promoting your business than almost anything you might say about it.  The exception might be when the praise seems vague or lukewarm, such as “Great service” or “I was very satisfied with ABC Insurance.”  You could make the argument that even a vague testimonial is better than nothing.  Read full article