I have been the executor of the estates of several of my family members who passed away over the last several years. One of the difficulties in settling the estates was tracking down all the information needed.

The Life Insurance Policy Locator Service from the NAIC enables beneficiaries, executors, or legal representatives of a deceased person to locate life insurance policies and annuity contracts of their late family members, clients, or friends.

I recently received a press release from the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance highlighting the benefit to consumers of the service. As of May 31, 2020, Tennesseans submitted a total of 1,102 requests to the NAIC for help this year, and more than half of those requests (678) were matched to life insurance benefits. In 2019 over $27 million was located for Tennesseans through this tool.

I was first introduced to programming as a freshman in college when I took a course on COBOL. Those are the days when I had to use punch cards to create our program. In the late 90s, I used a program called Clipper to develop applications using Ashton-Tate’s dBASE III. Both experiences made me realize I wasn’t that good at programming, nor did I like it very much.

Yet, being able to create computer programs to solve particular problems can be a helpful skill.

Today, it’s easier than ever to have an idea and be able to create a customized programmatic solution.

Amazon Web Services recently announced a new platform called Amazon Honeycode that is democratizing programming. Honeycode is a fully managed service that allows anyone with an account to quickly build powerful mobile and web applications – with no programming required.

I wrote an article way back in 2013 with the title Are You Using Ugly Urls? The reasons for using easy to read URLs that I talked about in that article are still valid today.

Another way to make web links easier to read is to use a URL shortening service. This is especially relevant for the information you’re posting on social platforms.

Why Should You Shorten URLs?

Using tiny URL links is an easy and more aesthetically pleasing way to share a link to an article than the long website address. They are an excellent tool for marketers and for emails to customers since clients are more likely to click on a short URL that conveys the information that can be found on the site. Short links are easier to paste into chats or emails and fit onto social media posts that limit the number of characters.

Your organization sends out hundreds – if not thousands – of emails every week to clients and prospects. Every one of these emails is a branding and sales opportunity.

But it would help if you were intentional about using this communication channel.

While email newsletters are a great way to engage with your clients, the regular emails you send out could provide a gentle reminder of all of the other products and services you have available.

Creating standard email signatures is nothing new. Outlook has the capability of creating multiple standard email signatures and allowing individuals to choose which signature they want to use on a particular email. The problem? There is no way to centrally manage the messages that are included in the email signature for all employees.

That is where an email signature service could be a valuable marketing tool.