Agency Profile: All in the Family

Lawley

Buffalo, New York
Founded: 1955
Employees: 350

Lawley celebrated its 60th anniversary with a rebrand. After adding a Connecticut office to its eight locations in New York and New Jersey, leaders of the third-generation family agency felt it was time to position the business more consistently—as a niche specialist rather than a generalist.

With 60 producers, Lawley projects 2015 income at $61.1 million—an increase of nearly $6 million over 2013. That’s no surprise considering more than 20 specialists focus on construction insurance and bonds, the firm’s strongest niche. Other specialties include manufacturers, auto dealers, health care and small business. The agency has 21,000 personal lines and 7,500 commercial lines customers, and benefits comprise 25% of the mix.

CHARLIE RILEY, MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

We rebranded to eliminate confusion with our branch names and how we position ourselves in the market. An overarching content marketing strategy has helped tell the Lawley story in a way that warms up leads and engages prospects. By developing good content—news articles, press releases, presentations and case studies—that is search-engine optimized and shaped for social media, we are able to attract more visitors and help them to understand everything we can offer. Educating prospects during their exploratory phase helps shorten the sales cycle and warm up leads for when we engage in those face-to-face communications.

MIKE LAWLEY, PRINCIPAL

We encourage each producer to become involved with their expertise centers of influence. We tell their stories digitally though online biographies, content libraries and social media. Our producers use a mix of old-school tactics and new technologies and tools. Our sales and marketing support teams use analytical tools and technologies to drive prospects to our website. Then the teams evaluate prospect activities on the site—what articles or videos someone watches or how long they spend on a specific page discussing workers compensation. Armed with that knowledge, the producer can then pick up the phone and schedule a meeting.

REGGIE DEJEAN, SPECIALTY INSURANCE MANAGER

We have specialists in almost every industry. We deliver all the services a customer would expect from a big broker, but we are small enough to care and know our customers intimately. Customers work directly with the partners, so they get the best of both worlds. We leverage Epic by Applied Systems for property-casualty business, Salesforce customer relations management software for employee benefits and prospecting, iAutomate’s Erlon Surety for bond business and Pardot business-to-business marketing automation software. All our systems integrate, so regardless of what system we are in, we can see the client’s entire insurance picture.