Today I confess and confront my BIG, FAT publishing hypocrisy.

It’s Q&A time again.

Q.  If print insurance newsletters work so well, Jim, why do you fulfill prospect sample requests with PDFs instead of actual print newsletters?

A.  My bad.

I used to answer this question by saying our newsletters are formatted the same way in PDFs as they are in print.

The flaw in that response is that a PDF does not have the tactile, intellectual or emotional impact of print insurance newsletters.  Getting a PRINT newsletter in the mail is an entirely different experience than getting a PDF attachment to an email!

Which is kinda the whole point….

That I was missing.

The point of a PRINT newsletter isn’t about how it’s displayed on a computer. It’s about how you react when you get it in your hands.

How it arrives in the mail.

How you open the envelope that contains it.

How you take it out.

How you engage with it as a tangible thing.

How you browse it. Skim the headlines. Or maybe even read it (it happens 🙂 ).

How you at least read the nameplate and recognize the name of the insurance agency that sent it to you.

Even after quickly looking at it, what do you do with it?

Do you put it aside to read more later?

Do you underline something in it before you save it? Maybe you’ve been meaning to call the agency and their phone number is in the masthead, so you circle it as a reminder.

Do you pass it along to someone else?

Do you throw it away?  How?

Do you put it in the trash? Or the recycling?

It’s a completely different experience than clicking on a PDF icon attached to your email.  You open the PDF with a click and there it is just like any other kind of digital content on a computer or mobile device. 

A print newsletter is not constrained by its visual dimension though. It’s three dimensional. It has to be physically delivered to you, which impacts you, the reader more vividly.

Q. Aren’t you being a little hard on yourself to make a point? It’s the same content regardless of how it’s delivered.

A. Yes, the same content. But you’re missing the point. The medium is the message. Remember that canard? Well, it’s true.

PDF or PRINT, it’s the same content. But it’s not perceived the same way, is what I’m trying to say. People react differently to PRINT than digital content. And when I say digital I mean not just PDFs but email, too.

This is not just quantifiable. Like the HUGE difference in open rates between email and PRINT, which is 5X more for PRINT.

It’s about the emotional engagement you get with PRINT.

Q. So content doesn’t matter, you’re saying?

A. Of course it matters. Though to be honest, content is not as important a factor with PRINT as it is with digital.

What if someone who gets your PRINT newsletter never reads it?  They just open the envelope, see your agency name and branding and throw it away.

Theoretically, your newsletter content could be pure garbage, nothing but spaghetti and meatball recipes and knock-knock jokes.  That person has only seen your branding.  What they briefly held in their hands had the physical characteristics of an insurance newsletter.  And for that particular reader, it was sufficient.  At least they know you make the effort to reach out to them and you do it consistently.  That inspires a certain level of trust.

If you were sending that same person an email newsletter, they probably wouldn’t even know it. Because if they haven’t already marked anything they get from you as junk or unsubscribed from it, they’re clicking delete as soon as they see the subject line. Zip impact.

Of course, I’m not saying your newsletter should be crap.  Obviously it’s got to be relevant, interesting and well-written.  Many people will read it.  In fact, many more people will read it simply because you made it so easy for them to do so by providing it to them in PRINT.

Q. Okay, so what are you going to do to make up for being so clueless?

A. So, we’ve made some changes.

If you go to the Smarts Publishing website now and request samples, your full address will be requested because you will now get the print insurance newsletters samples of your choice MAILED to you. PLUS, if you provide you logo, we’ll create a nameplate for you and include that in your sample newsletter, so you can see what your actual PRINT newsletter will look like when you place your order.

Q. Anything else?

A. Yes, we are no longer offering email as a standalone newsletter solution. We just feel we’re doing potential clients a disservice to offer them a product that will not get best results.

Email marketing is a great tool that insurance agents should be using, but newsletters are not the best way to optimize its impact. PRINT is the best way to optimize newsletters.

Even though you must purchase a print newsletter now to get it, we do offer a FREE email version of your newsletter if you want it, when you order at least 100 print newsletters. All customers get a word file of their newsletter for posting to social media and elsewhere.

Q. Where do I get my FREE samples?

A. I thought you’d never ask.

You can request sample print insurance newsletters and an order form when you: Click here.

Sometimes people ask me why we don’t print recipes or puzzles in our insurance client newsletters. People don’t want to read about insurance all the time, they say, so why not give them something entertaining as an alternative? Insurance is too boring, so, just tell your customers, “Oh and when you place your employee benefits coverage with me I’ll send you a newsletter with puzzles every month. I just have to put some insurance stuff in there, too, but ignore that. The puzzles are really good. And I throw in one of my grandmother’s spaghetti recipes from the old country now and then, too.”

Is this the level of professionalism you’re trying to project? Insurance may be boring to some people, but it’s sort of like taxes, building codes and OSHA regulations: if you want to have a successful business, you need to take these things seriously—insurance included. If your clients need a breather from your insurance newsletter, they can pick up a copy of People or open a puzzle app on their iPhone.

Okay, you might say, puzzles and recipes are probably out when it comes to business customers, but what about your individual clients? You’re a fun person, right? Even if you’re not exactly Tina Fey or Adam Sandler, you try to lighten things up a little sometimes. So, why not put recipes, puzzles and a few jokes in your life and health newsletter?

Even if the idea of putting jokes in a life and health newsletter doesn’t strike you as a wee bit inappropriate, pause to consider how some clients might get the impression you’re trivializing some rather serious subjects. Okay, so leave out the jokes. But here’s the other thing: If you want people to respect your insurance knowledge and place their trust and full faith in you, don’t you think you should take what you do seriously too?

Think of it this way: What if you get two newsletters: one from an agent who puts only well-written, relevant and engaging articles about life and health insurance in her newsletter; the other from an agent who has a few interesting life and health articles in her newsletter, but it also includes meatball recipes, crossword puzzles and jokes. Which agent do you think will be more fun to meet with? Probably the one who sends out the second insurance newsletter. But which one are you going to assume is more knowledgeable and ready to take you and your business seriously?

When you buy a client newsletter from SmartsPro Marketing, you can be sure we take your business—and the intelligence of your clients—as seriously as you do.

Obviously that’s no way to buy a screwdriver. And it’s no way to buy an insurance client newsletter either. But sometimes insurance agents get sold a solution or system that may include everything from agency management, customer portals, carrier interfaces, CRM, social media, websites, newsletters and more. Some parts of it may work great, but typically not everything does.

One of the complaints producers often have with these systems is that the client newsletter content provided is not timely. Instead, the system typically provides evergreen content, in order to optimize its usefulness. “You can put it in your drip series, include it in your e-newsletter this month and again in six months, if response is good.” And so on. That’s the mentality. But producers who understand the importance of delivering current, relevant, action-oriented content that is truly meaningful and engaging will notice the difference. A newsletter publisher that respects its clients — and its clients’ clients — does not take this lazy approach.

Sometimes we hear back from former clients who have bought one of these systems. They had decided to drop our newsletter service in order to cost-justify the expense and because the vendor claimed their content would be comparable. Often they return to us.

I won’t say that we never provide evergreen content, but we work hard to make every edition of our insurance agent newsletters include articles that are relevant and address current developments that may affect an insured’s situation.

We believe that if you want to earn respect for your brand because you provide excellent client communications, it’s important to provide insurance client newsletters with meaningful content — not simply content that’s basically only filler for a sales message. If that’s a tool that would be helpful to your agency, we can provide it. And you won’t have to buy CRM services, a website, a calendar and all the other products and services we sell to get it.

If you think the information in this article is useful, please consider sharing it. Or if you have a different opinion or think I’ve missed something important, let me know in comments! Thanks for visiting us!