News for January 2009

The Four Most Dangerous Insurance Agency Marketing Mistakes Today.

Nothing is more critical to becoming a successful insurance agency than marketing.

Absolutely Nothing.

If you are remarkable at advertising you may keep the doors open, but if you cannot promote your business you will absolutely fail. During several years in the industry, I saw many marketing mistakes. Save yourself by learning about the most common four.

The first advertising error is not working with a plan.

I am incessantly astonished at the percentage of insurance agents who fail to plan their advertising plan at the beginning of the year. Some agents just allocate a percentage of revenue and try to distribute it evenly through the year. Responding to sales representatives that meet you is not productive. You must take time to produce a strategy for how to spend your money. Isolate your ideal client and allocate your moneybased on the available mediums that you think will reach those individuals. If your targets are retired customers you may use a more traditional approach. If looking for young families, you will want to invest a majority of your money on web advertising.

The second error is not keeping track of the effectiveness of various marketing methods.

Advertising is always changing, and what worked last month might not be efficient today. You really need to perpetually try other techniques and if you never track the results you will not know what to modify. Record how each new customer of yours contacted your business and put more money toward the processes that work, and stop investing in the ones that are unsuccessful.

The third marketing error is utilyzing former strategies.

It is obvious, the former mentalities of branding your agency are a thing of the past. Agentsof the past thought that if they purchased advertisements throughout the community, customers will recall their billboard when they shop for insurance and contact the agency. It doesn’t work like that anymore. Today, a potential customer could see your picture on a shopping cart for fifteen years still go to the internet for insurance. The focus now needs to be the first second or third agency they call when they are searching for insurance. The place to advertise is online.

The fourth agent mistake is neglecting your current book of business

Some people don’t go on the web for insurance, they consult their friends. That is why it is essential that you encourage a referral program where you reward clients for referring their friends. Be sure each client knows about it and that they always carry your phone number. Do this by insisting them to put your phone number into their cell phone in case they have an emergency.

In order to be good at marketing, you must be willing to change. Properly dividing your budget from the beginning, going after new strategies like using the internet, working with your current clients, and recording your results will help you obviate all these slips and help you make much more money.

Edited: January 26th, 2009