Description:

Email marketing is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to get in front of thousands of leads. Here’s how to do it right.

The Basics Of Email Marketing For Insurance Agents

Let’s be honest: email isn’t going anywhere. Despite the lamenting of naysayers always claiming “email marketing is dead,” it only grows every year.

Gmail alone has over 1.5 billion monthly active users—anyone in the insurance industry who’s not taking advantage of email marketing is missing out. And if you’re not, your competitors certainly are.

So in this guide, we’ll give you the basics of email marketing for insurance agents. We’ll cover the who, what, where, how, and why of email marketing, then provide some tips to help get you started.

So What Is Email Marketing, Anyway?

In the simplest terms, email marketing is the practice of using emails to market your insurance business.

In practice, it’s much more complicated than that. But it all boils down to sending emails to current or potential customers to get them to purchase your particular insurance products.

Benefits

Done right, email marketing offers several advantages:

• Email is an ideal platform to inform, educate, and engage customers
• It’s an inexpensive way to reach large numbers of potential customers at once
• It’s highly trackable, so you can measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and make adjustments as needed
• It’s a great way to stay in touch with customers and develop relationships
• It provides a high return on investment (ROI)

Of course, you only get all these benefits if your campaigns are good. But don’t worry—you’ll learn about that next.

Best Practices for Email Marketing

Your main goal isn’t necessarily to get customers to buy your insurance products. Instead, it’s to get them to trust and engage with your branding, so they’ll eventually become committed customers.

With that in mind, here are some best practices to follow:

1. Keep It Casual

Nobody wants to read a stuffy corporate newsletter from a humorless agent. Keep your emails warm and conversational, like talking to a friend.

For example, rather than saying, “We’re offering great rates on auto insurance,” you could say, “Say goodbye to sky-high auto insurance payments.” If that sounds too cheesy, use humor or stories to engage your readers.

You could, for example, tie the message to a popular movie or meme. Something like, “We don’t want to be the Grinch stealing your cheer with outrageous insurance premiums.”

2. Keep It Brief

It’s tempting to write an entire essay about your company and all the great things it can do for your customers. But you should keep your emails short and to the point— try for about 150–200 words or less.

The point is to make sure your emails don’t look overwhelming. If customers feel like they must read through tons of text to find the point, they’ll delete it and move on.

To illustrate:

Subject Line: Need car insurance?

Hi [Name],

We’ve just launched a new car insurance plan for drivers like you. It’s affordable, comprehensive, and comes with excellent customer service.

Interested? Let’s chat.

Thanks,

[Your Name]

P.S. Give us a call, and we’ll give you a special offer

3. Avoid Looking Spammy

Follow the CAN-SPAM Act and avoid tactics like using all caps, inserting sensationalist titles and oversized graphics, and writing in the subject line.

You also want to stay away from sending emails too often. You don’t have to stick to a strict schedule, but don’t bombard people with emails daily.

Your goal is to make the email seem like a real person wrote it with genuine intent.

4. Use Email Marketing Software

Don’t try to manage your email campaigns manually (and Excel sheets aren’t much better). It’s way too time-consuming and tedious, and you’ll likely make mistakes.

Invest in good email marketing software instead. We recommend:

• ConvertKit
• Mailchimp
• Constant Contact
• MailerLite
• Sendinblue

Each of these has features tailored to help insurance agents create effective campaigns, including email templates, analytics, and customizable workflow tools.

5. Segment Your Lists

Split your contacts into different segments, such as current customers and prospects, so you can send custom emails to each group. This ensures you’re targeting the right audiences with the right messages.

For example, if you’re targeting prospects, you could send emails featuring an introductory offer and information about why they should switch to your services. Or, if you’re targeting customers, you could send a reminder about upcoming payment deadlines or a survey asking for their feedback.

Other examples of segmentations include:

• Demographics (age, gender, location, etc.)
• Customer lifecycle stage (new customer, renewing customer, etc.)
• Location
• Interests (automobile insurance, health insurance, etc.)
• Engagement (opening or clicking emails, etc.)

6. Use a Professional Email Address

A surefire way to make customers think twice about your business is to send emails from a Gmail, Yahoo, or Apple Mail account. Instead, use a custom domain with your business name—it adds a more professional touch.

For example, if your business is called John Doe Insurance, your email address should be something like [email protected].

Notice how the email features the sender’s first and last name (John Doe). This makes the email look more personal and less like a generic “no-reply” email.

7. Personalize Based on Client Data

You can use any data you have about your customers, such as their name, age, location, or insurance needs, to customize your emails. This helps build trust and engagement because it feels like you’re talking directly to them.

For example, if you’re targeting an older demographic, you could mention the importance of investing in long-term care insurance or a Medicare supplement plan. Or, if you’re targeting people in certain states, you could mention specific state insurance regulations.

You’ll inevitably run into some privacy regulations when collecting customer data, such as GDPR and CCPA. Ensure you’re following all laws, and contact your lawyer if you have any questions.

8. Use Proven Templates

You don’t have to start from scratch whenever you send an email. There are plenty of templates online that you can customize and send.

For example, Hunter.io offers dozens of insurance-specific email templates that you can use. They also have cold email outreach templates if you need help getting in touch with prospects.

It’s also prudent to look at how big companies create their emails. Pay attention to the content, design, and CTA at the end, and mirror them in your own emails.

9. Use Proven Templates

You don’t have to start from scratch whenever you send an email. There are plenty of templates online that you can customize and send

For example, Hunter.io offers dozens of insurance-specific email templates that you can use. They also have cold email outreach templates if you need help getting in touch with prospects.

10. Experiment with Sending Times

You may already have an idea of when you should send your emails, but you may be surprised by the results if you experiment with different times.

For example, people may be likelier to open emails on Monday morning than on Thursday night. But to know for sure what works for your firm, you’ll need to perform A/B testing.

This type of testing involves making slight changes to the same email, such as sending time, subject line, and content and then measuring the performance of each variant. You can then use the results to pinpoint the ideal sending time for your emails.

Just don’t send campaigns on weekends.

Studies show that emails sent on Saturdays and Sundays have a much lower open rate than those sent on weekdays. And it’s not hard to understand why—most customers don’t want to deal with emails on their days off.

11. End with a Call to Action (CTA)

You should always end your emails with a clear call to action (CTA). Otherwise, your readers may not know what to do next.

Your CTA should be specific and tell the customer exactly what you want them to do. For example, if you’re sending an email about a new policy update, you could end the email with something like, “Call us to learn more about our policy updates.”

You can also include a link to a page where customers can learn more about your services or contact you. This adds an extra layer of engagement and encourages customers to take action.

Some examples include:

• Can you jump on a call this week?
• What did you think of the XYZ that I sent?
• All you need to do is …
• Are you still interested in XYZ?
• Will this work for you?

12. Stay Compliant with Laws and Regulations

Finally, make sure your emails are compliant with specific laws and regulations. This includes the CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited P*rnography and Marketing Act) and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).

The CAN-SPAM Act dictates how commercial emails should be structured and requires businesses to include an opt-out link. This is so customers can easily unsubscribe if they no longer want to receive emails from the sender.

Meanwhile, the GDPR requires businesses to process the personal data of EU customers fairly and securely. This includes getting explicit consent from customers before sending promotional emails and providing them with access to their data.

Make sure to research any laws and regulations in your area, and consider consulting an attorney if you have any questions.

Types of Emails to Leverage for Insurance

Knowing the best practices for email marketing is only half the battle. You also need to decide which types of emails you’ll leverage to get the best results.

So next, you need to decide which emails you’ll leverage. Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Cold emails. A cold email is an introduction to a prospect, usually offering information about your services. They require more effort than other emails, as you’ll need to research your prospects in detail before you send them.
2. Welcome emails. Welcome emails are one of the most important emails you’ll ever send. They not only introduce your business to new customers, but they also allow customers to explore your products and services.
3. Warm emails. A warm email is an email sent to an existing customer. This type of email typically offers helpful advice or tips related to your products and services.
4. Follow-ups. Follow-ups urge recipients to respond to your message and/or take some particular action. It’s important to remember not to overdo it—you don’t want to annoy recipients by sending too many.
5. Newsletters. Newsletters provide customers with regular updates about your business, including news, product updates, and promotions.
6. Relationship-Builders. Relationship-builder emails are sent to strengthen your customer relationships. These could include customer surveys, polls, contests, and collaboration requests.
7. Transactional Emails. Transactional emails are emails sent after a customer has taken a particular action, such as signing up for an account or making a purchase.
8. Event emails. Event emails promote an event, such as a webinar or conference. They should include all the necessary information, such as date, time, and registration link.

Don’t Forget to Track Results

Finally, don’t forget to track the results of your emails. It’s crucial for two reasons:

• First, it will help you identify the types of emails performing best for your business
• Second, it empowers you to make improvements to your emails to ensure future success

You know those email marketing tools we mentioned above? Most of them come with reporting and analytics capabilities, so you can see exactly how your emails perform.

Sign Up for Insurance Bob

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways for insurance companies to reach customers, build relationships, and drive conversions. But it takes more than just writing good emails.

When it comes to email marketing, it’s all about getting the small details right, from using targeted language to knowing the best time to send emails to staying compliant with laws and regulations.

By following the best practices outlined in this guide, you’ll be well on your way to crafting effective, engaging emails that drive results. But if you’re serious about becoming the best agent you can be, there’s one more thing you can do:

Sign up for Insurance Bob.

It’s the ultimate tool for insurance agents. With Insurance Bob, you’ll learn everything you need to know about becoming a successful agent. Whether it’s finding new leads, mastering email marketing, or anything in between, we’ve got you covered.

Did we mention it’s free? Click here to sign up now.