Build Your Brand with E-Mail Marketing
By: Steve Adams
Setting your business apart can be a difficult thing to do—especially if you are an independent agent or broker struggling in this economy. When it comes to marketing your small business against the larger commercial competitors, brand consistency is an important factor. Often, brand image is what sticks in people’s minds. For this reason, you want new, old and potential customers to recognize your brand immediately in every communication and message they receive from you.
E-mail marketing with consistent branding and targeted content can help your business stand out from competitors and keep you top of mind with your customers. E-mail marketing is one of the most cost effective and efficient ways to market your business. It also allows you, as a small business owner, to keep you brand consistent in your communications with customers. By using a tailored template, you can ensure that the logo and signature colors used in your e-mail campaigns replicate your Web site, ad placements and even the look of your physical location.
While a great looking e-mail template is important for establishing credibility and brand recognition, the old saying goes: “never judge a book by its cover.” This saying should always be applied to your e-mail campaigns. A visually appealing template means nothing if subscribers aren’t engaged and interested in what you have to say. The content of your e-mail or newsletter is vital to the success of your campaign. Whether creating awareness, generating sales or building customer loyalty, it’s important to remember what keeps customers coming back for more—your content.
The first thing a reader will do when opening an e-mail is ask, “What’s in it for me?” You have about seven seconds to answer this question. Layout and template play a big role here. At first glance, your brand should be clearly visible and the content should be easily accessible. However, you must remember, no matter how good your e-mail looks, the real magic for lasting beyond that seven-second mark lies in the content.
Content should always be two things: relevant and engaging. If either of these is lacking, your reader will hit delete. If this happens too often, your subscriber may go one step further and block future e-mails, or worse, report you as a spammer.
Here are some tips on how independent agents and brokers can get the most out of e-mail marketing.
1. Leverage your customer database. Using customer data (demographic, behavioral and transactional) to segment e-mail lists can greatly improve e-mail marketing campaigns.
2. Send targeted messages. Create relationships with customers by connecting with them one-on one. Use your customer database to send targeted messages offering insurance deals according to their age, interests, etc.
3. Automate your e-mail campaigns. Send follow-up messages automatically based on consumer behavior. Event and action-triggered e-mails enable agents and brokers to improve content targeting and personalization.
4. Give your e-mail a personality. Reflect your personality through your e-mail communications. Send e-mail and include a personal signature and a photo to build the relationship. Putting a face to a name is proven to help build the relationship between insurance agents and consumers.
Remember, the content and information you provide is the main reason your customers subscribed to your newsletter in the first place. Make it valuable! It is the key to executing successful campaigns, growing your customer base and keeping your customers happy. Continual improvement is the goal of mature organizations and it’s critical to the success of marketing your business.
Steve Adams is vice president of Campaigner Marketing.
Carrier Branding Connection: Motorists
Motorists’ branding strategy is simple: brand through independent agents.
With the exception of its affiliation with The Ohio State University football team, the Columbus, Ohio-based company does almost no direct advertising. Instead, it relies on its agents’ involvement in their communities and the Trusted Choice® brand to get the word out.
“Our branding strategy involves tying independent agents to their communities, because that’s where an original insurance company’s best interests are,” says Charles Stapleton, senior vice president of property-casualty marketing at Motorists and CEO of the affiliated Iowa Mutual Insurance Group. “That’s where we put all of our money and effort, because if we can help (agents) brand themselves in the community as insurance professionals, we will all benefit.”
Currently, Motorists assists its agents in designing their Web sites, provides them with co-op advertising opportunities and strongly supports the Trusted Choice® brand. According to Stapleton, the company is also using Trusted Choice® to strengthen the branding strategies of its affiliate companies who are too small to compete with larger direct writers.“
The beauty of the Trusted Choice® campaign is that it’s a seal of approval identifying the person you want to buy insurance from,” says Stapleton. “Ours is a drip marketing approach to continue to build on the professional image of the independent agent. They’re the professional insurance agents in their communities, just like the local dentists, doctors or lawyers.”
—Veronica DeVore
E-mail marketing with consistent branding and targeted content can help your business stand out from competitors and keep you top of mind with your customers. E-mail marketing is one of the most cost effective and efficient ways to market your business. It also allows you, as a small business owner, to keep you brand consistent in your communications with customers. By using a tailored template, you can ensure that the logo and signature colors used in your e-mail campaigns replicate your Web site, ad placements and even the look of your physical location.
While a great looking e-mail template is important for establishing credibility and brand recognition, the old saying goes: “never judge a book by its cover.” This saying should always be applied to your e-mail campaigns. A visually appealing template means nothing if subscribers aren’t engaged and interested in what you have to say. The content of your e-mail or newsletter is vital to the success of your campaign. Whether creating awareness, generating sales or building customer loyalty, it’s important to remember what keeps customers coming back for more—your content.
The first thing a reader will do when opening an e-mail is ask, “What’s in it for me?” You have about seven seconds to answer this question. Layout and template play a big role here. At first glance, your brand should be clearly visible and the content should be easily accessible. However, you must remember, no matter how good your e-mail looks, the real magic for lasting beyond that seven-second mark lies in the content.
Content should always be two things: relevant and engaging. If either of these is lacking, your reader will hit delete. If this happens too often, your subscriber may go one step further and block future e-mails, or worse, report you as a spammer.
Here are some tips on how independent agents and brokers can get the most out of e-mail marketing.
1. Leverage your customer database. Using customer data (demographic, behavioral and transactional) to segment e-mail lists can greatly improve e-mail marketing campaigns.
2. Send targeted messages. Create relationships with customers by connecting with them one-on one. Use your customer database to send targeted messages offering insurance deals according to their age, interests, etc.
3. Automate your e-mail campaigns. Send follow-up messages automatically based on consumer behavior. Event and action-triggered e-mails enable agents and brokers to improve content targeting and personalization.
4. Give your e-mail a personality. Reflect your personality through your e-mail communications. Send e-mail and include a personal signature and a photo to build the relationship. Putting a face to a name is proven to help build the relationship between insurance agents and consumers.
Remember, the content and information you provide is the main reason your customers subscribed to your newsletter in the first place. Make it valuable! It is the key to executing successful campaigns, growing your customer base and keeping your customers happy. Continual improvement is the goal of mature organizations and it’s critical to the success of marketing your business.
Steve Adams is vice president of Campaigner Marketing.
Carrier Branding Connection: Motorists
Motorists’ branding strategy is simple: brand through independent agents.
With the exception of its affiliation with The Ohio State University football team, the Columbus, Ohio-based company does almost no direct advertising. Instead, it relies on its agents’ involvement in their communities and the Trusted Choice® brand to get the word out.
“Our branding strategy involves tying independent agents to their communities, because that’s where an original insurance company’s best interests are,” says Charles Stapleton, senior vice president of property-casualty marketing at Motorists and CEO of the affiliated Iowa Mutual Insurance Group. “That’s where we put all of our money and effort, because if we can help (agents) brand themselves in the community as insurance professionals, we will all benefit.”
Currently, Motorists assists its agents in designing their Web sites, provides them with co-op advertising opportunities and strongly supports the Trusted Choice® brand. According to Stapleton, the company is also using Trusted Choice® to strengthen the branding strategies of its affiliate companies who are too small to compete with larger direct writers.“
The beauty of the Trusted Choice® campaign is that it’s a seal of approval identifying the person you want to buy insurance from,” says Stapleton. “Ours is a drip marketing approach to continue to build on the professional image of the independent agent. They’re the professional insurance agents in their communities, just like the local dentists, doctors or lawyers.”
—Veronica DeVore
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