Tips to Be An Insurance Agent Pt 2

Article by Alisha Broughton

8. Host a Window Etching Event – Window etching is a process of inscribing the VIN number of a vehicle into all the glass on a car. It is supposed to reduce auto theft. You can sometimes team up with the local police department or an organizaiton against insurance fraud like these guys. Gather free insurance leads from the vehicle owners. Remember to frame the sales conversation around any discounts they’re getting for the window etching.
9. Door Hangers – Sounds old school, but paying someone to go door to door hanging advertisements on doorknobs can be part of your insurance marketing strategy. Arm the person with talking points about your insurance agency just in case.
10. Good Old Telemarketing – The reason insurance agents still telemarket…it still works. Focus telemarketing in the evening, give your telemarketer lots of talkpaths to use and conduct role plays periodically to keep your telemarketer sharp. Don’t aim to quote and sell insurance policies right away. Respecting the prospects, making a positive impression, and gaining an x-date can be more valuable than providing an instant quote.
11. Keychain Tags – I mean the thin plastic tags that the grocery store, gym, and credit card companies give members. Include the insurance agency contact information. Customers will want it so they can call you if they have a claim. Now they will always have your contact information for when they refer your agency. Referrals are the best insurance marketing.
12. Get Your Own Website – In today’s marketplace, not having a website is like not having business cards. In addition to looking unprofessional, it also prohibits you from doing any legitimate online marketing.You can get a professional insurance website in three days for under $100 so why haven’t you done it already? And for the captive agents… if your “website” is a page about your agency on the carrier’s website then you don’t have a website. You have a webpage driving local traffic to your carrier’s domain to help them sell more insurance directly to your prospective and existing clients!
13. TV Advertising – If you get an opportunity for some cheap exposure it may be worthwhile. The best television marketing opportunities would be during programs specifically aimed at your target prospects while they are thinking about your services – like during a program about home improvement or cars. In my opinion, TV ads still do not offer the same ROI as other insurance marketing strategies.
14. Agency Mascot – You can buy a decent mascot costume on eBay or Amazon for a few hundred dollars. Throw an agency T-shirt on it and walk around at public places and community events. Don’t forget to get some video of all your character’s appearances and post them to your social media accounts. It’s a fun idea.
15. Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Advertising – These are sponsored results that show to the right when you search on Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. This can be an excellent insurance marketing opportunity because it drives traffic to your insurance agency website only from people actively interested in insurance. You choose who views your ads by location and demographics.
Google Adwords – MSN AdCenter (includes Yahoo.)
16. Local Networking Events –Chambers of commerce and many professional organizations host networking events so businesspeople can meet other businesspeople. Make as many contacts as possible and follow up with people that will assist your insurance marketing with referrals. These events are always loaded with salespeople, focus on how you can help everyone you meet and have fun. Help others be successful and the karma will come back to help your insurance agency marketing.

17. Host Seminars – It requires promotion, but you can host seminars about financial planning, understanding insurance, saving money on insurance etc. Invite people to your insurance agency office, use a meeting room at a local chamber, use space from a community center, or rent a location. Present a topic that is time sensitive and enticing. “Learning About Deferred Medical Savings Accounts” will not draw as many as: “Secrets to Stop Uncle Sam From Stealing Your Retirement.”

18. Give Free Coffee at Lowes – Ever see the parking lot of a hardware store at 7 am? All contractors. Among many other potential needs, contractors need commercial auto, general liability, worker’s comp, disability etc

19. Email Newsletters – Capture your clients’ email and develop an insurance marketing email newsletter. Online email marketing providers can help you produce professional looking newsletters and track who opened emails, what they clicked on, and how long they viewed the message. Make sure to send useful information. People receive too much spam and you don’t want to be that type of insurance email marketing sender. Sending sales emails can be illegal. CAN SPAM Act. For our insurance marketing ideas newsletter, we use a service called Aweber but we’ve also had good results from another provider named MailChimp.

20. Door-to-door Relationship Building– It’s not easy, but it might be the cheapest and most effective insurance marketing strategies. To be successful with face-to-face insurance marketing orient all conversation around how you can help the organization (with referrals and promotion, not just insurance). Have a non-sales conversation prepared, like a local community event you are organizing and recruiting help for. Be respectful and make an impression without interfering or coming across as a typical salesperson. Get x-dates and follow up with the decision makers before renewals. You will be surprised how many non-commercial insurance leads you get.

21. Online Yellow Pages For Leads. Superpages is a great way to find phone contacts for commercial insurance marketing. Focus on a particular market (carpenters, plumbers, lawyers etc) at a time so you can perfect your insurance sales strategy toward each different industry.

22. Sponsor a Car Show – This is a good marketing idea for any agent, but a fantastic one for any agent interested and knowledgable about cars. Like most of the advice on this page, building relationships is the key ingredient in your agency marketing strategy and this will be a fantastic way to do so.
23. Improve Your Google Ranking – According to their website, Google ranks local businesses based on three things: location, relevance, and prominence. Location means you’ll only show for searches near your physical location. Relevance means you’ll only show for search terms related to insurance (not locksmiths, hotels, hairdressers, etc.) and prominence means how often Google comes across your business name address and phone number when they surf the entire web. For a more detailed explanation, download the free ebook, 10 Actions to Boost Your Agency’s Google Rankings Today if you want to actually get any phone calls this year.

24. Press Releases – Have something interesting going on with your agency? Hire someone new? Open a new location? Get appointed with a new carrier? Change the air freshener in your bathroom? It doesn’t matter how important the news is, you can write up a little blurb about it and publish it online. Be sure to reach out to your local community newspaper but you can also use an online service like this one make sure to include a link back to your website and use lots of location terms like your city/village/town name to help you with search engine optimization.

Connect with Alisha Broughton at https://www.facebook.com/alishabroughton