Getting Social via Email

No matter what you may have heard, email is not dead. In fact, those who use it effectively can create a personal channel to deliver their brand right to their client’s inbox. Your brand includes your social networking pages too, and those can be delivered very easily via the mighty email.

1. Get social on your newsletter sign up page.  Make it easy for subscribers to join you online by adding social media links to your newsletter subscription page. They’re already interested in what you have to say and social media is an easy add-on to giving you their email address.

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How to Use Email Marketing to Boost SEO

Investing money into digital marketing can be a no brainer. You know you need a website for your agency and you know you need to optimize your website to increase visibility. But, if you’re not actively telling people about your website, and solely relying on the search engines to do that for you, then you’re not getting the most out of your digital marketing.  Read More...

Using Images in Email: Are You Doing it Wrong?

Images inside of your email marketing and monthly newsletters definitely have a place. They look sharp, can make your email look professionally designed and can add some much needed pizzazz to insurance information. One simple rule to remember about images “Less is More.” One well placed, relevant, image can make a huge impact. Multiple images can make your message crowded and distract from the point of your email. 

By following the basic steps listed below and remembering that less is more, your emails will make the impact you desire.

The 25% Rule: No more than 25% of your email should be image-based. The majority of your email should be readable without viewing the images. 

Image viewing in email clients is turned off by default. Normally what your readers will see is a blank space that says “right-click to download images”; some of your readers will, most won’t. By leaving most of the text readable and not crowding your message with images (that have now become a blank space) you’re less likely to be deleted and therefore making a better impression on your clients and prospects.

Don’t Trap Important Information in an Image: All important information, such as price, value proposition, expiration dates, or policy information should always be in text form. If a prospect can’t see what you’re selling, why would they buy it?

Use Tables and Colors instead of Images: If 25% is just not enough image real estate for you, you can always implement tables and background colors to add the visual content you’re looking for. You will still need to keep in mind that less is more – in this case that would mean stay away from neon colors or making an entire email bright pink. Use colors that make your text stand out and keep all tables easy for all viewers to read. 

The Double Edged Sword – Embedded Images: Embedding images is tricky. By embedding images, you’re sure that the image will get to your reader – even if it’s just an attachment, they’ve seen the image.  On the other hand, embedding images can land you in a spam folder since spammers are now including inappropriate content in images to avoid it being read as text by spam filters. It’s a double edged sword that hasn’t quite been perfected. 

Whether you embed images or not, keep in mind that mobile users most likely will never see any images you include in email. 20% of mobile emailers use text only apps to read their mail. This is another reason to not use too many images or trap important information in an image.

Images in email present a challenge to most email marketers namely because you have little to no control how your email will look when a recipient views it. By keeping your images small and putting very few in your mailings, you’ll have greater success with using images in your mailings.
Got a question about using images in your emails? Submit it below in the comments area.

The ABCs of Sales: Always Be Closing

The most basic and fundamental principle of any successful sales person is Always Be Closing.

Always be closing are the most cliché 3 words in the sales profession for good reason. At any time in the process from branding your agency to quote follow-ups, a policy may convert to sold.

Some agents have policies that write themselves before they even become prospects. A client comes to them so ready to buy a policy that they’re practically hitting them over the head with their checkbook. I’ve been that customer – haven’t we all. We just want the sales staff to skip their pitch and actually get through the buying part. 

If Always Be Closing is rule number one, then it must extend to email as well if your agency is using email as a sales and marketing tool. 

How do you apply Always Be Closing to email?
The greatest opportunity is to have obvious calls to action in your email so that if someone is ready to buy, you don’t stand in the way.  Mark calls to actions clearly and make sure they are linked properly before sending your email to any prospective client. 

You should also look at your marketing emails as a succession of small closes; closing a sale means getting someone to say yes, plain and simple, right?

• Your readers say yes by choosing to subscribe to your newsletters and mailings in the first place.
• Mail clients say yes by successfully delivering your message because your email is solid information. Your contact list also includes good data and is up to date.
• Recipients say yes by opening your marketing email because they either recognize you as a trusted agent or the subject line intrigues them enough to open it.
• Your prospects say yes by reading your email because the content is worthwhile and the value of continuing to read is obvious.
• Your future client says yes by clicking on the clearly marked quote button placed in the email because they are comfortable with your expertise, convinced to learn more or they may even choose to buy now.
• Your clients say yes by choosing to have you quote additional policies after reading your cross-sell information.

At every one of these steps, there is an opportunity for your prospects to say no. The challenge you face with email marketing is that unlike a phone call or face to face meeting where you may overcome objections in real time, you do not get the same level of interaction through an email. If someone says no at any given step listed above, they may not advance any further, which means diagnosing where the no’s are happening is crucial to successful email campaigns. 

By testing your metrics to determine where people are saying no the most, you can change how you plan out the next campaign. Send a few email campaigns and track each of the metrics - compare open rates, click-through rates, as well as conversions. Look for significant changes upwards or downwards, and you’ll have a much better idea of who is saying yes or no at each stage. Then, you’ll know exactly what to fix.

Remember Always Be Closing at every opportunity possible in your email campaigns. Start your prospecting momentum with your small email successes and you may find your conversion rates growing thanks to your new outlook on closing sales with email. 

Now it’s your turn: tell us your success stories with email.

Timing is Everything -- When Should I Send My Marketing Emails?

I’ve been asked repeatedly when helping an agency start an email marketing campaign, “Is timing really THAT important? Can’t I just send these whenever?” If creating a successful email campaign was as easy as writing a sales pitch, using a few graphics to catch someone’s eye, formulating the perfect subject line, and sending your message there would be no use for this blog. Unfortunately, like most things, it’s never that easy. The day and time you choose to send your email is as important as your subject line, spelling your client’s name correctly or making sure your agency name is mentioned in your email. 

So, yes, timing really is that important. And, no, you can’t send your emails whenever you want if you expect to get a positive result. 

Dilemma of the Day -- I will let you know that a percentage of your readers will open your email no matter what day you send it on or what time. It is, however, not true for the majority of your readership and you should keep in mind the habits of most internet users during the day when calculating the right timing for your message.

Most people will hit social networking sites in the morning as opposed to checking their inbox because Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn require less of a time commitment than checking their email. If your readers do check their inbox in the morning, they are usually working, and are checking their inbox for the first time that day. While on the job and in an attempt to de-clutter their inbox, you readers may delete your message labeling it unimportant at the time. 

Just as some people read their email as soon as they get them, there are a vast majority of your readers who will not see or open your email for several days once it’s been sent. At one time there was a commonly accepted statistic that a newsletter or marketing email had an open tail of three days. In recent years, this metric has changed though and most email marketers will allow up to five days after sending a mailing for stragglers to receive and open their mailings. You should keep this in mind while testing your open rates as well as the day and time you send it on.  This is also important if you’re sending a mailing that relates to a specific event or offer. At a minimum, try to send your email three days before your target event date. If you have the lead time, increase that to five days just to be sure all of your contacts are able to see your mailing prior to an event or offer expiration. 

Below are some guidelines that I’ve created based on my experience in email marketing. These are just a few fast and easy generalized tips to help you choose the best day to send mailings.  By sharing these tips with you, it does not mean you should stop testing your mailings to find out if these rules hold true for your agency. 

• Internet activity in general reduces on weekends. This means Friday, Saturday and Sunday may not be as successful as other days to send your mailings. On Friday, people tend to check out before the end of the work day and will put your email off until next week, which really means, it’s been forgotten as soon as it’s come through their inbox. On Saturday and Sunday, it could be that folks spend more time with their family, have things to do around the yard, or they are burnt out from working on a computer all week. Almost every online metric category goes south on the weekend, and that includes email open rates.
   
•  Now that the weekend is over and we’re all back to work, you may think everyone if refreshed and ready to check out your email. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Never send a marketing email on Monday. The fact is your readers spend most of their inbox time at work. When you come into work on Monday, if you’re like me, you start deleting anything that appears to be junk or non-essential so your inbox isn’t as overwhelming. Unless, through your testing, you’ve noticed that your readers exhibit a different pattern, avoid sends on Monday.
• When you take out Monday, and the weekend, it boils down to sending emails on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday to yield the best results.

Morning, Noon, or Night? -- Early morning email sends have the lowest open rates. This makes sense when we look back at the patterns of most internet users who begin clearing out emails they deem unnecessary or unimportant as soon as they open their inbox. 

While metrics are different for different groups, as a general rule, the best open rates tend to come with emails sent around lunch time (noon or 1:00pm). People tend to relax a bit over lunch and are on the downhill of the day when they return from their break. In turn, emails sent in the afternoon do not have the same overwhelming feeling they may have in the morning.

If you’re going to send your mailings in the evening, when your readers have settled in from work, be sure they are optimized for mobile devices. Studies show that most people check email and social networking on their phone or tablet during commercials as opposed to firing up their laptop while watching TV. 

The only way to know for sure which day and time works for your audience is to run various tests and then select the best day and time based on your readerships response. Following the midweek – midday rule of thumb will yield a good result, but through your testing you may find a time and day that yields a greater response.

The Email Marketing Process

Since the dawn of email marketing, folks have been trying to figure out the science behind it. So far this is what we know; it's a touch of creativity, a dash of pizzazz, a hint of using the right buzz words at the right time, and a whole bunch of trial and error.

Knowing that many insurance agents and agency owners have limited time for trial and error, we've searched for an easy reference for you to check out while formulating your next email marketing campaign.

(Special thanks to Kirsten Thornton of our Insurance Website Builder and SEO team for finding this awesome infographic)

The Consumer Decision Journey

Written by Jim Clark, Agency Marketing Coordinator for ITC - Insurance Technologies Corporation

The simple, most important goal of marketing to your insurance customers is to reach them at the moments that most influence their buying decisions. Insurance customers shop much differently today than they did ten years, five years, even two years ago. In fact the consumer decision journey is an ever-changing process. It has morphed into a multidimensional process where the customer receives information from multiple sources. Are you using the power of email to reach customers and prospects at the times the customer is making a buying decision? The Internet opens up a whole new avenue of communication to you, and the power of email is almost limitless.

The process of buying insurance that the consumer goes through is no longer the “funnel technique”, where many agencies send information and offers of quotes to customers and then let them “funnel” out the agencies they want to work with. The process has evolved into an inbound process where the customer is researching agencies online, reading marketing material sent to them by insurance agents via email, listening to recommendations of friends and family, reading customer reviews on websites, forums, and social media pages, etc. Once the customer has started their research they need to be able to find you, at the exact moment they are shopping. Your agency, now more than ever, needs to have top of mind or top of search engine presence.   

This is not to say that the tried and true traditional marketing techniques no longer work, they do. Now it is also very important to integrate your traditional marketing techniques with Internet and email marketing. These marketing techniques will help you build your online presence. They are what will drive customers to your website to learn about your agency, get an online quote, and fill out forms allowing you to capture their contact information.

It can be difficult to give all the time necessary to develop and implement an effective Internet marketing campaign. Internet marketing is a sales tool that can work for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. There is a technique to Internet marketing, from email campaigns to websites and search engine optimization. Learning and mastering this technique will help you grow your business and build ongoing, meaningful relationships with your clients. The happier your clients are the more likely they are to refer other prospects to your agency. These prospects can be turned into customers easily if you market it to them at the right times through email and personal attention. Don’t miss the email and Internet marketing revolution. Start learning the techniques now or contact an expert who will be more than happy to show you the ropes, or perhaps manage it all for you.