Email Marketing Tips for Independent Insurance Agents

Marketing is essential for any independent insurance agent. Coming up with a solid outreach plan is vital if you want to attract new customers, upsell current customers and establish yourself as an expert in your field.  Marketing plans can be challenging and expensive to execute. Luckily, email marketing provides an effective, efficient and affordable way to reach more people.  Below are some top email marketing tips for independent insurance agents. 

Build a Solid List 

If you want your email marketing efforts to be successful, you’re going to first need to build a solid list of people who you’re going to send your messages to. Intuit Mailchimp says that the industry has an open rate that averages just 21.36%. In addition, a little more than 2% of the people who receive your emails will click on a link that you include in the message.  What this means is that you’re going to need a large list of people who you can email if you want to get a good response. A large part of email marketing, after all, is a numbers game.  To this point, you should create multiple ways that you can add people to your email marketing list. Any time that you interact with a current customer or a prospect, you should be collecting their email.  You can also add a contact form to your website that requires people to enter their email to get more information from you.  Another great idea is to offer exclusive content to people who give you their email address. For example, you can create a short ebook where you discuss the top things people should consider before they buy auto insurance. Then, require visitors to your website to enter their email address so they can get the downloadable ebook as a PDF file. 

Separate Your List 

While you certainly need to build a hefty email list for email campaigns, you shouldn’t just spam the same message to everyone on your list. Instead, you need to create multiple email lists from your one master list so that you can send targeted email campaigns.   For instance, one of your lists could be current customers. To this list, you can send information about how they can save by bundling coverage, new ways that they can connect with you, and other tips and tricks on how they can get the most out of your insurance coverage.  Another list can be prospects who have specifically requested information about a particular type of insurance product, such as auto or home. Then, you can send targeted emails to this list that provide information about these two products that you offer.  By segmenting your email list and sending targeted campaigns, you’ll be increasing the chances that the recipients will open your email and interact with you. 

Use Email Marketing Software 

The great part about email marketing today is there are a lot of great software options that help you create, send and track the progress of email marketing campaigns. Many of these options offer free versions at first, with a fee that you’ll pay based off the number of subscribers, number of emails sent or other factors.  Mailchimp, Constant Contact and ConvertKit are among the most popular choices, though there are certainly plenty more. Using email marketing software will allow you to easily create in-depth marketing campaigns that look professional.  Most importantly, the software makes it easy to manage your email lists and track the success of your individual campaigns. By tracking the main statistics of the campaign, you’ll be able to make tweaks to your approach, design and layout, and/or messaging to increase your effectiveness. 

Add Value 

Perhaps the most important aspect of your email marketing campaigns is the content itself. Make sure that your email marketing doesn’t sound too salesy or focus only on closing new clients.  The best way to engage with your audience is to educate them. You should view yourself as the teacher and the people on your email lists as your students.  While nearly everyone purchases insurance of some kind, it’s still a mystery to many. Your role is to provide clear and basic explanations as to how the insurance products you offer work, what people should consider and how they can benefit from different aspects.  Some of the most effective insurance-based content you can provide are basic explanations, such as “Auto Insurance 101,” or tips and tricks. If you approach your email marketing content from a “news you can use” standpoint, you’ll likely have more success reaching your audience and getting them to interact with you. 

Discover the Good Life

At Good Life Insurance Associates, our experienced insurance sales associates are here to provide support and training for both new and experienced agents. To learn more about us, remember to explore our business support services. Or, to speak with a member of our team about your journey to becoming an independent agent, contact us today!