Posted on Tue, May 15, 2012
Want your insurance sales letters to really perform?
First it's important to define insurance insurance sales letter success. There are a few industries where direct response sales letters really work. Fitness, vitamins and self improvement are good examples. Some consumers are willing to read 12-page letters about these topics, and then hand over their VISA numbers. In the insurance industry, this scenario doesn't happen very frequently. Why? It comes down to the difference between what people do when they "want to buy" versus what they do when they "need to buy." Insurance is something that most people don't want to buy. So, in most cases, they don't receive your sales letter and pull out their VISAs. They read your sales letter (if you're lucky) and then think on it for a while. When they receive another sales letter, they think a little more. And at some point in the future, they will finally buy.
The job of your sales letter is to make sure that when they're ready to buy, they think of you. With that goal in mind, here are a few insurance marketing ideas to make your sales letters more effective.
Make a personal connection. The beginning of the letter is the written equivalent of eye contact and a solid handshake.
Make sure to personalize your letter - I prefer to use the recipient's first name. Also, write something interesting in the Johnson Box which is the equivalent of an advertising headline. Tap into core emotions, communicate end benefits, and make your message about the reader - not about you.
Paint a picture.
Paint a relatable picture of the reader’s pain point or desired solution. You want your reader to be nodding her head in agreement as soon as she begins reading the letter. Use metaphors to bring your solutions to life. Many people can’t understand a solution that they’ve never experienced. Metaphors help them visualize.
Communicate an intriguing promise.
Now that you’ve engaged your reader, tell her how you're different. But don’t launch into a sales pitch – put your message into the reader’s terms – what’s in it for her? Always remember that buyers don’t want to be sold – they want to discover solutions.
Show some proof.
Now that you’ve made your promise, you’ve got to prove that you can really deliver. Offer proof in the form of client testimonials, statistics or short case studies. Make the reader believe that you’ve solved other clients’ problems and you can solve hers too. Weave proof throughout your letter. Add a sidebar or a pull-quote to highlight key elements.
Push for Response
Finally, your insurance sales letter needs to encourage the reader to take the next step. You’re not closing the sale – you’re closing the “next step.” There’s a huge difference. Very few people buy insurance when they receive a sales letter. They buy when they have a need and they think of you. They will think of you if they’ve interacted with your company in a variety of positive ways. The letter should convince the reader to respond to your offers. Once they respond, you have permission to communicate on an ongoing basis, which is the secret recipe for closing insurance sales.
Include a P.S.
Yes – The P.S. is still very important. Research shows that many people read the P.S. before they read anything else. So, write the P.S. as if your letter will never be read. Hint at the promise and sell the offer, making sure that you write in a “what’s in it for the reader” tone. And, keep it short and sweet – two sentences is ideal.
If you don't have time to write your own letters, check out our affordable Sales Letter Six Packs. You can easily personalize them and customize them to meet your unique needs. For other insurance marketing ideas, make sure to download our free report, "Ten Insurance Marketing Mistakes That Are Costing You Sales Right Now."
Posted on Wed, May 09, 2012
Whether you’re married or single, take a moment to imagine that you’re on date with someone you’ve known for only two weeks, but you'd like to know much better.
Should you…
1. Pop the BIG “Marry Me” question?
2. Engage in a slow, passionate kiss?
3. Ask your date to meet your parents later in the week?
In dating, everyone knows that coming on too strong too fast is a relationship killer. Savvy daters build up to the BIG questions by initiating a series of smaller questions – offers if you will. Yet, in insurance marketing, we often forget our courting prowess, and rush right into the big stuff – When is your x-date and how soon can you get me your loss runs?
Popping the big questions too early is bound to hurt a well-meaning agent's chances. Building up to the BIG questions with a series of smaller offers is a smarter insurance marketing approach.
Here are a few small offers that lead to an easy first YES in the insurance marketing process:
- A case study
- A buying guide
- An e-newsletter subscription
- A loss experience analysis
- A free white paper
- A webinar invitation
A small offer makes it easier for your prospect to say YES, and is more likely to move an account through the sales cycle. And, since the sales cycle is typically a year long in the commercial P&C business, small offers provide a means for staying in front of accounts year-round, without expensive in-person visits.
Many insurance marketers create a small offers but don’t bother to sell them. Your first goal isn't to make a sale, it's to get the first YES. So, make sure you’re selling your small offers with the same compelling benefits you use when you close a deal. It’s critical to get your prospect to the first YES.
Your small offer is the key to a successful start to the insurance marketing process, so sell your offer strategically. Make your audience feel like it can’t live without your newsletter, seminar or free report. Remember, you have to get to first base
Want to know the other 9 insurance marketing mistakes that are costing you sales right now? Download the free report now. Don't let silly mistakes kill your closing ratio!
Posted on Tue, May 08, 2012
If your insurance website doesn’t include automated lead nurturing functionality, sales are slipping through your fingers.
What is insurance lead nurturing?
It goes like this … You come to my insurance website and download my free report, “Effective Insurance Websites.” To obtain the download, you complete a form (this is called a conversion.) Three days later, my website automatically sends you a personalized email asking if you found the free report helpful, and offering another free report about Inbound Insurance Marketing. Ten days later, my insurance website sends you another personalized email with yet another related offer. It continues to do so every 10 to 20 days, nurturing you with helpful information to help you make an informed and educated buying decision. When you’re ready to buy, you will definitely think of me.
On the other hand, if you convert on my competitor’s insurance website, you will get your free report, and you may never hear from that company again. Why? It’s not that they don’t want to work with you … they simply don’t have automated lead nurturing functionality on their insurance website. You are a potential sale that has slipped through the cracks.
If you don’t think you need an automated lead nurturing system, read the stats below.
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50% of qualified leads are not ready to purchase immediately. (Source: Gleanster)
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The average sales cycle has increased 22% over the past 5 years due to more decision makers being involved in the buying process. (Source: Sirius Decisions)
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Nearly 2/3 of B2B marketers identified engaging key decision makers as their top challenge. (Source: Forrester Research)
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Businesses that use marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a 451% increase in qualified leads. (Source: The Annuitas Group)
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Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. (Source: The Annuitas Group)
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Companies that automate lead management see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months. (Source: Gartner Research)
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Personalized emails improve click-through rates by 14%, and conversion rates by 10%. (Source: Aberdeen Group)
Here’s the bottom line: Your insurance website is much more than an online brochure. If it’s set up correctly, it should serve as a lead generation and lead nurturing hub, making sure that no prospective customer falls by the wayside. Your insurance website should be your most efficient salesperson.
Want to learn more? Request our free report, “The Four Core Functions of Inbound Insurance Marketing.”
Posted on Thu, May 03, 2012
Did the Penguin Google Algorithm Change Impact Your Insurance Website?
When you were a kid, you probably heard the riddle, “What’s black and white and red all over?” At that time, the answer was “the newspaper,” but today the answer could be “Google.” Google is concerned with all things online that are black, white and read. So it’s no surprise that colors inspire the naming of their latest Google algorithm change “Google Penguin” that went into effect on April 24, 2012.
Like its predecessor Google Panda, Penguin is intended to reward white hat search engine optimization techniques – mainly packing your site with quality, original content. And, it is intended to penalize black hat techniques such as keyword stuffing, overuse of anchor text links and questionable linking schemes. In a May 3 press release, international search marketing firm, Zeno reports that companies saw traffic plummet overnight as a result of Google’s recent changes. Google is the largest search engine, accounting for more than 66 percent of search traffic, so Google’s changes are not easily ignored.
How about you? Have you checked your insurance website’s analytics to see how you fared?
Thankfully, my clients’ insurance websites have seen an increase in organic traffic following the April 24 changes. If your insurance website has been adversely affected, take these steps:
- Audit your insurance website content and remove anything that is not original and high quality.
- Make sure that content is well-written and not over-optimized. Shoot for no more than 2% keyword density for a single term. So for example, if you page contains 500 words, and you’re optimizing for the term “insurance website,” don’t use that term more than 10 times, or it’s going to start sounding like keyword stuffing.
- Audit incoming links and discontinue links that are irrelevant or spamy.
- Check on screen internal links and make sure that make sense. Don’t use an anchor text link that has nothing to do with the content of the web page.
- Blog, blog, blog. Every time you publish a blog article on your insurance website, you add a page of quality, original content. Blogging is one of the fastest ways to build your site’s value in Google’s eyes. But, only if you’re using quality well-written articles. Beware of the blog writers who will sell you an article for $12.
If you have no idea if your site has been impacted, it may be time for a new insurance website strategy. If you sell insurance to businesses, you must have a quality, effective website and you should be generating leads from that website every month. This isn’t just about image – it’s about creating an efficient lead generation model. To learn more about what makes insurance websites effective, download our free report, “Effective Insurance Websites – What You Need to Know Before Your Next Redesign.” TQ3VZ54ANHDT
Posted on Wed, May 02, 2012
Today, we welcome guest blogger Robert Seitzinger, with some insightful insurance marketing ideas.
It can be hard getting attention for your insurance agency. There are probably dozens of competing agencies in any given area, and standing out from the rest can be a real challenge. So what makes one agency stand out above the rest?
It goes beyond providing excellent customer service, which should be the bedrock of your agency. Read on for some tips that will provide a competitive advantage for your agency.
A Powerful Insurance Website
If you want to look professional, you must have an excellent insurance website. Clunky, frustrating sites will turn off potential customers and irritate existing customers. Modernizing your insurance website is one of the most cost-effective ways to bring your company into the 21st century and really connect with potential consumers. It is so easy that all of your competitors are doing it, which means you need to act fast to maintain your edge.
A great first impression is the best way to protect yourself against the risk of a customer taking their business elsewhere out of confusion. This means that a friendly, approachable website will benefit your agency, much like a friendly, approachable staff attracts new clients.
A Convenient Range of Services
If you are not going to be the absolute industry leader in one area, it is best to offer a full range of services. This allows the consumer to have a personal relationship with one agent who will provide them with everything they need to feel secure — from car insurance to renter’s insurance.
Make your first contact count. They will search for your agency by service more often than by the name of your agency, unless they are referred, so make sure your site is optimized for key search terms. Also, be sure that you are clear about your insurance offering on your insurance website. Avoid a confusing, jargon-heavy home page.
Personalized Customer Service
The most obvious competitive advantage for your agency is the oldest one, and it only bears mentioning because customer service has become a lost art. People do not want to interact with automated phone systems.
When something goes wrong and someone needs to file a claim, they want to speak with a real person — someone invested in them. If your company has excellent customer service, sometimes that is all the competitive edge your company will ever need.
Robert Seitzinger is a copywriter for Magestic Eagle Insurance, an insurance agency Portland residents can rely on.
Posted on Thu, Apr 19, 2012
If you’re looking for ideas to grow your insurance marketing results, first keep in mind that you will need to NURTURE to overcome human NATURE.
When we hear the term “nurture,” we typically think of babies. We all know that young-ones need feeding and care. But, here’s a thought … your prospects, customers and employees need feeding and care too! If you don’t nurture them, natural tendencies will take over.
Here’s what I mean …
When prospects begin to interact with your company, they are typically NOT sales ready. They are learning and assembling opinions. Their NATURE is to remain anonymous for as long as possible. They don’t want you to know that they’re checking you out. Unless they have a big pain point that’s creating urgency, their NATURE is also to proceed with caution and to procrastinate on decision making. A confused mind never takes action. That’s where nurturing comes in. Nurturing prospects helps them overcome their natural tendencies of anonymity and procrastination.
Here are several insurance marketing ideas to nurture them from being NOT SALES READY to INTRIGUED to READY TO BUY:
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Fill your insurance website with interesting offers like free reports, case studies and analyses. When prospects see these things, they get clues about what they should be researching to make an informed buying decision. They’ll want to know more so badly that they may decide to complete a form on your site to obtain the instant download.
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After a prospect downloads something from your website, send an email to offer something else that is related. If the prospect downloads a second item, you’ve moved them into the “intrigued” category.
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Create an automatic drip system to stay in front of prospects year-round. Use emails, letters, or both. You can inexpensively create your own custom quarterly magazine with the help of TailorMadeMag.com. Also, have you seen our Sales Letter Six-Packs?
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Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone. If you notice that someone has interacted with your website more than once, place a phone call. Ask if they have any questions about the info downloaded and if they’d like to learn more about your product or service. Sales are lost every day due to failure to pick up the phone.
While you’re thinking about insurance marketing ideas, think beyond prospects. Many of these same ideas work great for clients – particularly clients who don’t yet have all lines of business with your company.
A few more insurance marketing ideas for nurturing:
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If brokers are your clients, launch a nurturing campaign to educate them about selling your product. By putting helpful information in front of them at least once a month, you’ll keep your company top of mind and improve your results.
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If you want to boost employee performance, develop a nurturing campaign for employees to promote organizational values, key metrics or product info. This is an easy way to raise awareness and performance around important company objectives.
Whatever you do, remember that behaviors are not changed and sales are not made with one interaction. Repetition and consistency are key.
We use inbound marketing software to automate the nurturing process. Would like to learn more? Download our free report, “The Four Core Functions of Inbound Insurance Marketing.”
Posted on Wed, Apr 11, 2012
Last Monday, a beautiful red-breasted robin took up residence in our front yard.
He marked his arrival by knocking repeatedly on my front living room window at 5 a.m. The knocking was funny at first, but after three hours and 100 more knocks, I realized we had a psycho stalker-bird in our midst. He flew into our window over and over again, not to be dissuaded my family or my dog’s effort to scare him away. Finally, I shut the blinds. That slowed him down for a few minutes. Then he moved down to the next room and started hurling himself against my dining room windows.
Seven days have now passed and the blinds in both rooms are still closed. Every morning I open the blinds, hoping that the robin is gone. Every morning, he immediately starts hurling himself at my windows. In my dark house, I’m starting to have dark thoughts about this robin.
I’ve noticed a few other visitors in my front yard too. The honey bees are productively buzzing around the flowers and trees. I’m glad to see them because I know that their efforts will bring lots of blossoms and maybe even some pears in a few months.
What’s the point of this ramble? It occurred to me that there are two types of insurance marketing professionals – the crazy robins and the productive bumble bees. Which one are you?
- Bumblebees contact their prospects respectfully in the manner the prospects most prefer. Crazy robins contact prospects haphazardly – usually in the time and method most convenient for the robin. Robins never pay attention to business cycles and workflow considerations. They’re happy to interrupt prospects and invade pace during prospects’ busiest times.
- Crazy robins think only of their own needs. On the other hand, helpful bumblebees constantly think of ways to provide value and improve the prospects’ working environment with helpful tips, sales tools and ideas.
- Bumble bees are methodical and patient. They don’t expect instant gratification, but they know if they do their job well, they’ll eventually see results. They understand the value of nurturing their leads. Crazy robins want an immediate YES.
I could probably think of many more robin and bumblebee examples, but I’m sure you get the point. To be a successful insurance marketing professional, you have to start by putting your prospects’ needs ahead of your own. Go forth and pollinate!
Posted on Mon, Apr 09, 2012
Lots of information is published on external link building for your insurance website, but what about internal link building? Does it help with SEO? What about lead generation? In fact, it achieves both goals.
Internal link building is simply creating a link from one page to another page within your insurance website, by using “anchor text” in the copy of your pages. An anchor text is a keyword phrase with good search volume for which you hope to rank.
Here are eight tips for effective internal link building on your insurance website:
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Research keyword phrases before you begin. Pick relevant phrases that have decent search volume and moderate to low competition. For example, if you pick “auto insurance,” it will be difficult to rank even with good SEO and internal link building because you’ll be competing with the national carriers. Instead pick a phrase like “Portland auto insurance” or “auto insurance for teenage drivers.” These phrases are more realistic targets.
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Hyperlink the keyword phrase. Do not hyperlink extra words or directional phrases like “click here.” You’ll get no SEO credit from “click here.” This is important.
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Use relevant links to relevant pages, not keyword links to pages that don’t match
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Always underline your anchor text.
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Use a different color for your anchor text
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Bold your anchor text
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Put your anchor text in the main screen copy, not sidebar copy or images.
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Don’t use too many anchor texts on a page, as the more you have, the less potent each one becomes.
The great thing about internal link building is that you have total control. When mapping your internal link structure, make sure it facilitates a good flow throughout your insurance website. Search engines like internal links and so do users. Links provide helpful hints about where to go next. Think of your pages as streets leading users to more information. You don’t want any page to be a dead-end.
Good planning is a key to a productive insurance website. Put the time in up front and the rest will fall into place. One more tip: Great content overpowers all. You can have the best internal link building strategy in place, but if there isn’t good, relevant content to back it up, your internal link building is all for not! Content is king.
For other great insurance marketing ideas, download our “Effective Insurance Websites” free report.
Posted on Thu, Apr 05, 2012
Today, we welcome guest blogger Susan Wells.
New Study Suggests Affection Plays Large Part in Insurance Decisions
Marketing research, especially at insurance firms, is elaborate, impressive, and more expensive than can even be believed. Especially with the multichannel efforts that marketers make to reach customers, there is a huge amount of data to sort through, all with the aim of learning something about their customers and increasing their conversion rates.
A recent study from the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business, however, points to customer motivations that perhaps marketers would have missed, if only because they weren't looking for it to begin with.
The study, The Affection Effect in Insurance Decisions, according to the author, was designed to "further our understanding of the role of affective factors in decision making." However, the author also made a note that should be of no small significance to insurance marketers, saying, "a more specific aim [of the study] is to gain insight into the psychology of insurance decisions."
The basic finding of the study is that "people are more willing to purchase insurance for an object at stake, the more affection they have for the object," and also that "if the object is damaged, people are also more willing to go through the trouble of claiming a fixed amount of compensation, the more affection they have for the object.
In other words, what truly affects consumers' decisions to purchase insurance is the level of affection they hold for the object (or person) being covered by the insurance. This might seem like an obvious conclusion, but most marketing data will not report this because marketers aren't asking questions that would elicit responses that would lead them to it. In fact, as the study reports, "these effects are not predicted by standard decision theories." How can marketers be expected to know consumers would respond this way if the scientific community didn't even know?
Another important hypothesis the study explores is called the consolation hypothesis, which says that "one's decision to make an insurance claim for a lost object depends not only on the monetary value of the compensation, but also on the amount of pain one experiences due to the loss."
Insurance decisions (as they have been studied to date) are mostly believed to be purely monetary decisions. As such most insurance marketing campaigns are based on competitive pricing. The Chicago Booth study suggests, however, that "few consumers actually use such normative cost-benefit analyses to guide their insurance-related decisions. The present research identifies an important, yet previously overlooked, determinant of insurance behavior — the consumer's feelings toward the object."
Marketers would do well to take this new research into consideration when devising new strategies and campaigns — and can learn much more about the research by reading the study.
This is a guest post by Susan Wells. Susan is from Insurance Quotes, she writes on topics including health/car/life insurance, mortgage, real estate.
Posted on Mon, Apr 02, 2012
In the insurance and financial sectors, we’re all aware of the cost of lost opportunity.
- If you never finalize an estate plan, you put the state in charge of your legacy.
- If you fail to secure disability insurance, you have no financial security when you can’t perform your job due to illness or injury.
- If you neglect your retirement savings when you’re young, you’ll have to work into old age.
In the financial world, the cost of lost opportunity is BIG. For every action or inaction, there is a definite consequence.
With that in mind, here’s the question I’d like you to consider today:
Is procrastination as costly when it comes to marketing your insurance business?
When you think about it, marketing your insurance business is a lot like saving for retirement. Like long-term savings, insurance marketing results build like a snowball. When you first start, it’s a little painful and inconvenient. You may not see immediate results – particularly if you stop with one effort. But, if you persevere and keep investing, the snowball gathers more weight, speed and size. In six months, you’ll be amazed at the wealth of leads you’ve accumulated. And because leads generally require time to nurture and close, you’ll be thankful you started the lead generation process early.
Many young adults fail to take the long view and don’t invest in their retirement savings. Likewise, many insurance executives are so busy working IN their businesses that they have difficulty diverting time or budget to work ON their businesses.
In fact, I talk to business owners every day who intend to get around to marketing. My advice: Sacrifice the time and budget now. By investing just five hours a week into your insurance marketing, you can generate significant gains over time. And there’s never been a better time to invest. As we emerge from the downturned economy, those who have invested in marketing will lead the pack.
Will you be one of them?
Not sure how to begin? Start with your insurance website. Learn how to make it the hub of all lead generation and insurance marketing activities.
