Category Archives: marketing

how an agency can increase revenue effectively

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Easily Send Video Emails

Getting your message through to clients and prospects takes creativity. Anything you can do to make your message stand out in overloaded Outlook inboxes is a good thing. Eyejot is a Web-based service that allows you to quickly and easily send video e-mail (v-mail) to anyone. All you need is a Webcam and an Eyejot account. The best part is that the basic service is free (at least for now).

Once you have a Webcam and an Eyejot account, creating and sending a v-mail is as easy as clicking “record” and speaking to the camera. The actual video is stored on Eyejot servers and an e-mail is sent to the recipient. The recipient clicks on a link in the e-mail to play the video message. The sender is then alerted when his or her video message has been viewed.

Consider using Eyejot in your agency to communicate with clients. If you like it, the PRO Plus version is worth the $100 per year price. With the PRO version, messages can be five minutes in length, you can upload pre-recorded video, you get extended message storage time, the video won’t contain advertising, and you have the ability to attach and send documents. You can also brand several Eyejot notification elements with your agency logo and color scheme.

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Find Your Blue Oceans

One of my passions is helping insurance agencies be successful and profitable. As I mentioned in my editorial last month, the current economic conditions have some agency owners questioning their ability, at least over the short term, to be both profitable and successful. In today’s economy, it’s extremely important for you to distinguish yourself by selling your value.

Sometimes value is how an agency utilizes technology to improve internal operations and provide better customer service. Sometimes value is how an agency positions itself in the marketplace and how it competes with other agencies.

Recently, I came across another strategy for selling your value. A friend of mine (not in the insurance business) recently recommended that I read Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. The subtitle of the book is: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant.

Red vs. blue oceans
The authors use the oceans as a metaphor for the marketplace where all businesses compete. There are two types of oceans: red and blue. Red oceans represent all the industries in existence today. This is the known market space. Blue oceans denote all industries not in existence today. This is the unknown market space.

In red oceans, industries and competition are well defined and well accepted. Companies compete by trying to outperform their rivals so they can grab a greater share of the existing marketplace. The competition can get bloody (hence, a red ocean).

Blue oceans, on the other hand, represent new, untapped marketplaces where there is currently little or no competition. The authors argue that most new blue ocean opportunities are created from within red oceans by expanding existing industry boundaries. In blue oceans, competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game have been changed.

The authors use several well known companies as examples of how strategies were created that completely redefined the industry. One of these companies is Cirque du Soleil, created in 1984 by a group of street performers. If you have attended one of their productions, you can easily understand blue ocean strategies. Cirque du Soleil took the best of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (red ocean) and completely redefined the circus experience and made it into a new industry (blue ocean).

As I read the book I kept wondering how an insurance agency could take these concepts and apply them to their organizations. Can an insurance agency make the competition irrelevant by changing the rules of the game? Ringling Bros. Circus had been around for over 100 years. Cirque du Soleil created a new way to experience the joy and wonder of a circus and millions of people now come to see their performances.

Once the concept of blue oceans is established, the authors describe a systematic process that any organization can use as a blueprint to look for (or create) blue ocean opportunities within their existing marketplace.

The concept of making your competition irrelevant is very intriguing. Most agencies fight for clients in a red ocean. That competition can be brutal and very unprofitable. How would your agency completely redefine your marketplace and make competition irrelevant? As you complete your planning for 2009 this book may help you think about the possibility of redefining a new marketplace without competition.

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New Web Site Makes Individual Health Insurance Easy to Understand

Clients who have been confused or intimidated by the complexity of health insurance now have an easy way to take the first step towards getting the individual medical coverage they need. A new Web site, SimpleCoverage.org, provides information and guidance to help consumers quickly understand the basics of health insurance and how to find and select a health plan that’s right for them.

The site was developed by Consumers for Competitive Choice (C4CC) Education Fund Inc., a non-profit organization whose purpose is to provide consumers with information and tools to make informed choices in the marketplace. More than 44 million Americans do not have health insurance and another 25 million have less health insurance than they need.

SimpleCoverage.org explains in easy to understand language, the different types of coverage available and how to find insurance, evaluate plans, and what to expect during the application process. For example, the Web site gives consumers suggested questions to ask when choosing individual medical coverage. In addition to the online information, SimpleCoverage.org offers consumers a downloadable brochure: Health Coverage Made Simple. The site was developed and is maintained with a grant from Assurant Health Foundation.

Check the site out. You may want to include a link on your agency Web site to direct clients and prospects to this information resource.

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Thriving in Difficult Times

It’s hard to read the headlines without thinking about the future of your agency. Many agencies wonder what business will be like over the next 12 to 24 months. Due to the soft marketplace over the last couple of years, insurance agencies have already had to create plans to address lower premiums—and thus, lower revenues.

Premium reductions continue to average about 12%. As sales volumes are reduced and as businesses cut back on payroll, you can expect further reduction in premiums. I am not an investment wizard, nor can I predict the future. Still, it seems likely that agencies will continue to see reduced revenue over (at least) the next 12 to 18 months.

This may sound like doom and gloom, but it’s also an opportunity to face the situation head-on and create a plan to survive these difficult times.

Following are a few suggestions to get you thinking about how to create a strategic plan that will move your organization forward during the next 12 to 24 months.

Communicate with clients: Many of your clients have the same concerns as you about how current economic conditions are going to affect them. Now is the time for you to be proactive. Provide extra information and services that will help them manage their businesses better. Partner with a local CPA to provide a seminar on cash flow management. Seek companies that can help your clients with their marketing programs. Basically, do anything possible to let your clients know that you’re an advocate for them. This will go a long way to build loyalty with your clients.

Marketing: Acquiring new clients has always been an important part of running an insurance agency. Now, it’s even more so. Explore new target marketing niches. Explore new marketing tools that are available, such as using the Internet to attract prospects and look for new revenue sources. Agencies that continue to foster a sales-focused mindset seem to be able to grow regardless of current economic conditions.

Back office: Make sure that you are as effective and efficient in your back office operations as possible. Concentrate on getting any technology projects that are currently underway finished as soon as possible. Utilize all the tools available to streamline operations. Don’t allow staff’s resistance to change to derail projects.

Staff training: This is one of the least expensive options available. Make sure your staff is fully trained to use your existing hardware and software systems.

While times are certainly challenging, independent agents have shown again and again that they are resilient and can weather most storms. It won’t be easy. But continuing to maximize your technology investment will go a long way to help you weather the storm.

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Text Messaging Most Important for Cell Phone Buyers

Cell phones aren’t just used for talking anymore. In a survey conducted by Amplitude Research, buyers of new cell phones look at video capability (33%), music (34%), Internet access (61%), e-mail capabilities (63%), camera (67%), and text messaging (73%) as the most important features. For driving in the car, 62% said they would use Bluetooth, while 51% would use the hands-free microphones.

Forty-one percent said they send or check e-mails one to five times per day, while 28% said they do not use their cell phones for e-mail. Thirty percent said they use their cell phones for banking transactions. As these trends continue, agencies will want to learn how to communicate with their clients in multiple ways.