Despite the growth of social media, email remains an important marketing tool for independent insurance agents. To make the most of this tool, you need to know what works, what doesn’t and which resources will help you be organized and efficient.
Making It Personal
In How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie reminded readers that a person’s name is that person’s favorite word.
A little personalization goes a long way. If you personalize your email, including the subject line, people are less likely to dismiss it as junk. That said, personalized merge fields can also increase the odds of error. Make sure your entire database includes data for the field to be merged. If you send several emails a day, at a fast and furious pace, merge fields may not be a good idea.
Developing Strong Campaigns
An email marketing campaign consists of a series of emails. Each email should build on top of the last one, developing an increasingly persuasive pitch.
When creating your campaign, think about the tone that will strike the right chord with your audience. You could go for sincere and straight to the point. You could make it urgent. You could try humor. To get some ideas of what’s possible, take a look at the noteworthy email campaigns in this HubSpot list.
Knowing Where to Send Your Emails
Having a great email won’t do you any good if you have no one to receive it. For an email marketing campaign to work, you need to send your emails to the right people. There are many ways to add email addresses to your list, and you should use as many of them as possible.
For example, let people sign up for e-newsletters on your website. You can also require email addresses in exchange for free downloads, including client fliers and white papers.
Including a Call to Action
You’re sending emails for a reason. Make your purpose clear by including a strong Call to Action. For example, do you want the recipient to download something? Or do you want to set up a meeting? State this clearly at the end of the email, after you’ve developed your pitch and generated interest. Generally, you’ll get more clicks if you have at least one button and a couple of links.
Using the Right Resources
The right resources can help you be organized and efficient in your email marketing efforts. A professional email marketing software also helps manage subscriptions and optouts, which is essential for Can-Spam Act compliance. It will also provide all the stats you need to measure your results. Check out Constant Contact, Emma and MailChimp to learn more.
Analyzing What Works
You don’t want to waste time on strategies that don’t yield results. To determine if a strategy worked, check your stats. What was the open rate for different email subject lines? What was the click through rate for different Calls to Action? Although analysis will take some time, it will save you time in the long run by helping you hone in on the strategies that work.