Insurance Agents: How to Deliver More Personalized Marketing Messages – at Scale

These days, delivering personalized messages in your marketing materials is more than an advantage – it’s a customer expectation. In fact, more than three-quarters of customers feel frustrated when marketing materials aren’t personalized. 

Personalized marketing messages can help insurance agents build and strengthen customer relationships. But scaling personalization is hard. Here, we’ll look at why it’s important to personalize your marketing messages, as well as the tech and strategy you need to do it. 

How Personalization Drives Revenue

Customers may expect personalized communications, but businesses aren’t always delivering them. 

Salesforce research shows that 66 percent of customers expect companies to be aware of their specific needs, but only 34 percent of companies individualize their customer interactions. 

Similarly, 68 percent of customers expect companies to empathize with their circumstances, but only 37 percent of companies are actually empathetic in their customers’ eyes. 

This gap is likely costing businesses money as personalization is a key revenue driver. When businesses personalize communications, McKinsey research shows that customers are:

• 76 percent more likely to purchase
• 78 percent more likely to purchase again
• 78 percent more likely to recommend that company to others

At scale, personalized communications can have a major bottom-line impact. For insurance agents, it’s in your best interest to make personalization the cornerstone of your marketing efforts. 

What might personalization look like in practice? We often see effective execution in retail settings, where businesses send a friendly welcome email immediately after a purchase. Some companies, like Amazon, recommend relevant products based on what a customer has already bought. Others offer customized product discounts based on purchase habits. 

So what’s the best way for insurance agencies to tap into the power of personalization? To do it right, you’ll need two things: the right technology and a solid strategy.

The Technology behind Personalization: CRM Software

Customer relationship management (CRM) software helps companies centrally manage customer contact information and automate communications. These automation capabilities can power and scale personalization. 

For example, if your platform stores customer birthdays, you can automate “Happy birthday!” emails. 

If a customer isn’t opening important emails about their policy, your system can notify an agent that they need to make a phone call to ensure the customer gets the information they need.

These are examples of personalization that show you care. 

When looking at CRM software, make sure it provides:

• Task automation. Automated email delivery, follow-ups, and quote workflows make it possible to deliver essential information in a timely manner without staffing up a largemarketing department.
• Intelligent insights. Artificial intelligence (AI) can analyze customer data and behavior to recommend next steps.
• Cloud-based storage. You should be able to access customer data from anywhere with an internet connection. 

With a robust CRM system operating in the background, you can turn your focus toward strengthening customer relationships and generating revenue for your agency.

Develop a Solid Strategy to Optimize Your Personalization

The right technology gives agents the tools to personalize at scale. But to effectively use those tools, you need a solid strategy. There’s a saying in marketing: “Right message, right customer, right time, right channel.” Your strategy should tackle all four of these elements.

First, focus on a personalized message. Your first step toward scaled personalization is to tweak your language based on the customer data available.

For example, provide valuable information based on what you know. If a customer has been eyeing homeowners insurance, email them flood insurance resources as well.

Next, you need to make sure the right information reaches the right customer. If your CRM software identifies a customer as a renter, don’t point them toward homeowners insurance resources.

As for timing, make sure you send that flood insurance information before a major hurricane is blowing in – and ideally, well ahead of hurricane season so the customer can get a policy in place before they actually need it.

The “right” channel depends on what your customers prefer. If someone never opens email, you shouldn’t send important updates through that channel. Be sure you have ways of communicating via text, email, phone, and paper mail to deliver the experience your customers want.

When you’re delivering the right message to the right customer at the right time in the right channel, you’ll be well on your way to personalizing at scale. 

We Insure Can Power Your Marketing Journey

Personalization can be a difficult undertaking for small agencies, but you don’t have to go it alone. We Insure provides the back-end support its franchisees need to reach customers with personalized messages at scale. That, combined with the other tech and services offered and the more than  multiple carrier options We Insure franchises have access to, your customers will have plenty of reasons to stick around. 

Interested in joining the We Insure team? Talk to us today.

The information contained in this page is provided for general informational purposes only and may not be applicable to all situations. We Insure makes no guarantees of results from the use of this information.