How to Grow with Email Marketing
For Insurance Agents

In this tell-all guide to email marketing for insurance agents, we explore some of the best tools, tips, and techniques that are proven to work as effective lead generation, lead nurturing and lead referrals for insurance sales agents.

We answer some of the most frequently asked questions about insurance email marketing and provide a summary of some of the best insurance sales email tactics.

Quick Links

• Introduction
• Insurance Email Tips
• Drip Marketing
• Email Marketing For Leads
• Email Marketing For Referrals
• Email Tools For Sales
• Summary

 

Email Marketing for Insurance Sales

Can you really grow your insurance sales through email marketing in 2019?

Despite the age of email marketing as a marketing tool for insurance sales, it is still a proven technique for lead generation for insurance agents. Aside from this, it can be a low-cost marketing solution that keeps you in touch with your prospects and clients, and it can really help you immensely with insurance sales referrals too.

The vast majority of consumers still have a preference to receive insurance marketing emails when compared with other insurance marketing tools such as direct mail and calls.

If email marketing isn’t a central part of your insurance sales marketing strategy, then you could be missing out on a relatively low-cost way to generate leads and get referrals for your insurance business.

According to statistics, businesses enjoy an average of a $38 return for every $1 invested in email marketing. It is the number one channel for delivering a consistent return on investment compared with many other top marketing strategies.

Insurance Email Marketing Tips

Whether you choose to purchase an email marketing solution or simply create insurance email marketing templates to use yourself, you will find some useful insurance email marketing tips in this section to help you refine your messaging and convert more prospects to clients and gain more referrals for your insurance agency.

#1 Personal Over Generic

While it may seem tempting to blast out a single email to your huge base of prospects and clients, this is one of the easiest ways to turn people off and get little or no return on investment from any email marketing activities for your insurance agency.

TIP: Categorize your insurance email marketing database. Sure, it will take time, but it can really pay dividends when you want to send out a specific message to a select group of prospects with an update or an offer.

People are savvy, and even if you manage to include their name at the start of the message, if it doesn’t appeal or apply to them personally, the chances are they aren’t going to give your
message any attention.

Keep your messages personal, targeted, and relevant.

#2 Stay in Touch

One of the easiest ways to lose valuable business is by not keeping in touch with your insurance email marketing base.

We’re not talking about daily or even weekly updates, as this can sometimes have the opposite effect; but a regular bi-weekly or monthly message can help you stay firmly in their minds.

It will also serve as a great reminder to them that you are their insurance agent of choice when something comes up they might need your help with.

You can share information with them about industry updates, such as Medicare updates that could potentially affect them, you can share news of any new products or services that you offer, promotions, new recruits or company changes, press releases, blogs, and more.

TIP: Vary the types of insurance email marketing messages that you send out. Try to avoid the hard sell and refrain from simply sending out promotions.

People are going to be more inclined to want to deal with you if you approach this from a more helpful and informative email
marketing channel, than opposed to a sell, sell, sell approach.

#3 Know your Audience

This applies to all forms of marketing; it always has and it always will. In the technology-driven era we now live in, data collection is immense.

The key to successful insurance email marketing campaigns is to ensure you are getting key insights that tell you who your target customers are, and provide you with the data you need to be able to fully grasp who your audience is.

Some typical examples of key information you need to know about your target customers are:

• Occupation
• Gender
• Age
• Home Ownership Status
• Lifestyle Interests
• Dependents
• Estimated Income

#4 Keep Your Lists Updated

Believe it or not, people change their email addresses on average once every 3 years.

You might even have clients or prospects that you are in contact with, but you do not have their email address on file.

Don’t worry; this doesn’t have to be a manual process; you can easily use an e-mail append service to help you quickly get these missing email addresses added to your insurance email marketing database.

Another benefit of using an email append service is the verification and validation procedure they will take prospects and clients through.

This helps to ensure that your insurance email marketing templates are delivered to as many people as possible.

#5 Segmentation

While this might seem like an added task, the importance of segmenting your insurance email marketing list must never be underestimated.

Look at it as an investment as it will pay you dividends in the future.

In a similar theme to knowing your audience, you need to collect information that you can use in the future to dissect your database and send out targeted insurance email campaigns and to help you drive referrals from your email marketing activities.

EXAMPLE: If you know that your prospect lives in a specific area, they have a family, they have an existing policy that is due to expire on a certain date, or they have expressed an interest in a particular product in the past, find a way to add this data into your customer records.

You can then quickly and easily filter out these prospects at a later date in order to send a more personal and relevant communication.

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Drip Marketing for Insurance

Marketing automation for insurance doesn’t just save time, it can help to create a better perception of the company, it can help to build trust, and it helps to keep you fresh in the minds of your prospects and clients alike.

Consumers expect to be presented with products and services that are relevant to their needs, and not made to feel like they are just another number.

By harnessing the power of data analytics, you can utilize drip marketing for insurance as an effective way to reach more prospects and clients in a more targeted and more personalized way; setting yourself apart from other insurance email marketing campaigns and agencies.

Almost all insurance sales agents want more leads; we can all accept that this is a given.

After all, if you want more sales, then you need more leads, right?

Not necessarily.

Using drip marketing for insurance can help you to increase sales conversion rates for your existing leads by as much as 50%.

• • If someone expressed an interest in buying insurance, but they weren’t ready to buy at that point, marketing automation for insurance can help.
  • If you want to generate more referrals for your insurance business, drop marketing is an ideal way to do that with only a minimal investment of your time being required.
  • If you want to keep in regular contact with your prospects and clients, marketing automation can take care of that too.

What exactly are automated drip marketing campaigns for insurance?

Essentially, this is a series of pre-written emails that are sent out to either prospects or clients inline with a pre-determined schedule.

Once a person opts-in to receive emails from you, the clock will start ticking, and your insurance email marketing software will handle all of the outbound emails for you.

According to insurance sales statistics, marketing automation can boost sales revenues by as much as 34% and elevate conversions rates as well.

Time-specific triggered emails also achieve higher open and click-through rates when compared with standard blast insurance email marketing communications.

Drip marketing and marketing automation help you to make contact with your prospects more quickly and more effectively.

You can incorporate this type of email marketing technique into almost all areas of your insurance sales process; starting with the welcome email all the way through to the sale and with after-sales related activities.

How to Use Email Marketing for Insurance Lead Generation

There are so many ways to generate insurance leads, most of which come at a cost.

Email marketing is still considered to be one of the best ways to generate sales leads for insurance, and it is so cost-effective.

Despite the growing popularity of using social media to generate leads, email marketing allows you to generate leads with only a very low level of investment required upfront.

Here are a few tips to help you get started with knowing what to write and how to use email marketing for insurance lead generation:

1. Take time to consider an attention-grabbing title. This will usually determine whether or not the email gets opened. It should be genuine, relevant, and interesting.
2. Always give them the most important information first; don’t make them work for it. If you don’t get to the point quickly enough, the email could be easily dismissed.
3. Keep it simple, avoid using heavy imagery or video content where possible as this might not always appear and if it takes too long to load, you might lose their interest.
4. If you want a professional looking insurance email marketing template, there are lots of free tools online that will give you what you need quickly, with almost no effort required on your part whatsoever.
5. Always remember the objective of the communication and include relevant Call to Action’s in at least two places on the email.
6. Try to use large fonts and an easy to read font style. This will allow your readers to be able to read and digest your content quickly.
7. Combine your insurance email marketing with your blogs. Writing informative, useful blogs to help educate people as to the different matters that may concern them is a great way to boost your leads and drive traffic to your site.
8. Always track your email campaign success, use your analytics, and if something isn’t working, review it, then try a different approach.

There is no secret formula for writing insurance email marketing lead generation campaigns, and there are lots of different ways to achieve success.

Plan it, Do it, Review it, Make Changes, Do It Again, Review it Again…

Email Marketing for Insurance Referral Leads

There is a myriad of ways that email marketing can be used to help insurance agents generate more referrals for their insurance sales.

If you have ever considered how can you generate more insurance leads, this is one clear way in which to that, at a very low cost.

It’s no secret that in any kind of sales role, the easiest leads to close are those who come from word-of-mouth recommendations and insurance lead referrals.

In sharp contrast to the cost of finding a new customer, either through direct marketing, promotional events or other marketing channels, insurance referral deals are low-cost, high-converting leads that everyone in insurance sales can generate with ease.

1. Set up a referral incentive

One of the best ways to get more insurance sales from referrals is to harness your existing network of customers.

They trusted you to provide them with their insurance and the chances are, given a little nudge, they will most likely provide you with some referrals/recommendations.

Running a referral content is a great way to reward your clients for any referrals they send to you. This could be done on a reward per lead, per sale, or simply by offering entry into a draw for a larger prize for each referral sent over.

2. Social Media

We all know about the power of social media and the ease in which data, competitions, and messages are exchanged in an instant.

Email marketing can be leveraged to encourage clients to like your social media pages and to refer or share your page details within their own networks.

The more shares, the more followers, the larger your network becomes, the greater your chance of getting referral leads.

3. Timing is Key

Email marketing for insurance referrals gives you the opportunity to get the timing exactly right.

The best time to ask for referrals is immediately after you have helped a client resolve an issue or set them up with a policy of their own.

If you are working alone or as part of a team, then you will have a range of tasks to perform and a busy client-base to tend to; this is where marketing automation can really help.

You can set up a template or a trigger in a marketing message to be sent out from your software, asking for a referral, a mention on social media, or a recommendation.

The Benefits of Email Marketing Tools for Insurance Sales

As we have already alluded to in this post, there are a host of benefits of email marketing for the insurance sector.

When compared to other marketing methods, such as SEO, Social Media, PPC, Direct Mail, and other media advertising; email marketing is a low-cost way to stay engaged with both new and existing clients.

1. Improved Communication

If you harness technology correctly, even a mass email blast can appeal to the individuals on the email marketing list. With this form of communication, it can be tailored with ease and means that you can stay in touch with more of your base, more easily.

2. Personalization

It can be really easy to turn insurance prospects and customers off by sending them blanket emails that are generic and addressed to a group audience rather than being targeted to their circumstances or needs. Personalized emails that are sent to a segmented insurance email marketing list can grab their attention and resonate far better with their needs.

3. Measurability

With insurance email marketing tools, you can keep track of specific metrics such as the open-rate of emails, the response rate, and the click-through rates. Having this data can help you to shape what you write when you send your emails, and ultimately help give you feedback as to the best types of insurance email marketing campaigns.

4. Speed

Insurance email marketing can be compiled and sent out quickly. Responses can be instant, and in some cases, it can help you to capitalize on the news or industry changes far quicker than other forms of insurance sales marketing.

Email marketing for insurance agents is a cost-effective and efficient tool to help you increase your insurance sales leads, and it helps you to ensure that your business is kept in the forefront of your prospects and clients minds.

#4 Building Trust

In order to get your prospects to listen to you, let you in, and eventually allow you to talk to them in detail about what it is you are presenting, you need to build trust.

Even if they let you through the door, they will still need to feel like they can trust what you’re saying and that the information you are providing them credible.

This is one advantage that door to door sales has above direct mail and other mass marketing campaigns. Building trust with strangers isn’t easy, but there are a few things you can do that will help.

1. Position yourself as someone who knows the local area
2. Try to break the ice and don’t go straight into a pitch
3. Use yours and their first name
4. Always be honest
5. Do not stand too close, leave a little distance between yourself and the door
6. Be confident but not too pushy
7. Try to be warm and friendly
8. Stand sideways not head-on
9. Listen to what they are saying
10. Show your prospects that you understand them and their needs

#5 Getting Past the Doorstep

Now you understand the metrics; you will appreciate that getting across the doorstep isn’t going to happen all too often.

However, when it does, you can safely say that you did enough to build their trust in order for them to have let you in – great job!

You need to be very clear with your prospect about who you are, where you are from, and what you are doing (what you want from them). We make this point earlier, in order to build trust, you must be honest.

Once you have that trust, you don’t want to lose it. When someone trusts you and sees you as a friendly person, they are more likely to be susceptible to being influenced by you.

Your mission at this point is to simply try to get to know them and understand them. In doing this, you can tailor your pitch accordingly and start to appeal to their needs. Once you know their story, you can start to more easily connect the dots.

#6 Closing Door to Door Insurance Sales

Across a range of insurance products, the sales cycle and timeframe for closing will differ greatly. You also might be dealing with referrals, leads, or even have had an appointment set for you.

Aside from this, the prospect might not be completely sales-ready. In order to close a door-to-door insurance sale, you need to establish exactly what point in the buying cycle the prospect is at and have a good idea of when they are going to be in a position to buy. Never be afraid to ask for the business, and never shy away from dealing with the objections they present.

Door to Door Insurance Sales Process Sample

Here is a typical example of a door to door insurance sales process for you to use as a guide.

1. Get them to open the door – knock, don’t bang or ring the bell.

When they open the door, get them to smile. Break the ice, establish your credibility and let them know gracefully that you have some important information to give them.

Example: Hi, my name is Phil with ABC Medical, and I work with Medicare. I have some important information about your enrollment with Medicare; do you have a little time today for me to share that with you now?

2. Warming your prospect

You need to start to build trust and establish quickly that there is no scam and that you are a genuine person. If you have already been invited into the house, this is the point where you want to use the information and the objects that are present to try and further break the ice. If you notice family pictures on the wall, you might want to ask about the family; if they have a mountain bike in the hallway, you might want to talk about biking, etc.

Small talk helps to warm your prospect and puts them at ease, especially when you are able to connect and find common ground. FORM is a well-known acronym used in direct selling and cold canvassing if you ever get a little stuck, always revert back to this to help you know what to talk about.

FAMILY – OCCUPATION – RECREATION – MONEY

If you can master the warm-up, the rest of the door-to-door insurance sales process will become a lot easier.

If you aren’t naturally adept at small talk, don’t worry, with practice, you will get better over time. A good warm-up should last between 20-30 minutes, and what’s is just as important as making the prospect feel at ease is that you LISTEN to the information they give you.

3. Move onto a Need Assessment Questionnaire

A quick and easy way to transition from point 2 to point 3 is to simply state that you do not want to take up too much of their time and that you want to give them some important information that will help them, you just need to check a few points with them first. A quick needs assessment will help you easily identify the prospect’s needs from the start.

4. Presentation

This is where you use the information they have told you to uncover their needs and match the benefits of what you offer accordingly.

5. Pricing

When you offer a price, you should try to offer a choice of at least 2 and no more than 3. Never just give a single option. As with all products in all sectors, you will now usually see three tiers of pricing; a high, a middle, and a lower cost. According to statistics, regardless of the cost, prospects will almost always opt for the middle choice.

6. Knowing when to speak

The best thing to do after a price is presented is to pause. While it might feel a little uncomfortable at first, it is the right thing to do; the prospect will feel like they have an obligation to respond.

Always wait for the client to speak first. Always ask for the business. Objections are not a No. They are a buying signal and what the prospect tells you can help you to sell your policy to them more effectively.

The most important part of objection handling is listening. Listen to what they are telling you, and always acknowledge what they are saying. While your main agenda is to sell, you must always listen to what your prospect is telling you.

Use that information and overcome the objection accordingly.
Reverting back to the same point we made in an earlier point about building trust; you should avoid being too pushy. A term that we like to use for door-to-door insurance sales training is being ‘gracefully direct.’ If someone wants to buy insurance, then it is down to you to make it happen. It does require tact, it requires careful and considerate questioning, and it requires finesse.

Ask your questions out of curiosity, and not because you want to force an issue or a specific response.

If you don’t believe they are ready to buy insurance right away, consider asking them if they may consider making the decision with the month? This will hopefully direct you as to when the customer might be ready to buy; it can also indicate if they are simply brushing you off or if they are serious about their requirement.

What prevents an insurance sales agent from closing a sale?

There are a number of reasons why insurance sales are not closed when canvassing.

1. You didn’t handle their objections sufficiently
2. You didn’t ask for the business
3. You did not listen to their needs and match the features of the product accordingly
4. Lack of confidence
5. Lack of trust

All these issues are able to be addressed; the important thing to know is which one you are dealing with.

In Summary

There are no magic lines that work every time, just as there is no secret formula for knowing which prospects are going to buy and which are not. The door-to-door insurance selling sector is significant, and it is this way because there is still a significant opportunity for insurance sales.

Whether you are new to direct selling or canvassing, there is always room for improvement. We hope you have found some of the points and tips for door to door insurance selling useful, and if you have any feedback or comments, we would love to hear them!