What marketing efforts are generating business?

[Josh]

Our LinkedIn group has a lively discussion on this topic that's come to life again. (approaching 70 replies, the longer posts from Bill and Stan are really great).

The intro and prominence of new channels and technology over the past several years have changed a lot of things.

What marketing efforts are generating business growth for your agency? What's the fastest? What's most effective?

Respond here, or join the discussion on our LinkedIn.

[Pathwayinsurance]

Our LinkedIn group has a lively discussion on this topic that's come to life again. (approaching 70 replies, the longer posts from Bill and Stan are really great).

The intro and prominence of new channels and technology over the past several years have changed a lot of things.

What marketing efforts are generating business growth for your agency? What's the fastest? What's most effective?

Respond here, or join the discussion on our LinkedIn.

Online marketing by means of organic lead generation accounts for around 30% of all new business in our Agency for personal lines and commercial lines and its growing!

Makes sense if you think about it more and more people are shopping for products and services online than ever before.

[myagentethan]

I am in my 1st year in the P&C business and mainly using online leads. Have to sift through a of dirt to find a gold nugget.

But it is predictable after you figure out that you won't ever speak to most of the leads you get - and many are fake.

[d's insurance store]

Every agent keeps asking for and hoping there's a Holy Grail answer to this question. In fact, there isn't any one answer and techniques that work for an agency in one geographic area may not work in another.

Talk to everyone, pass out business cards, buy internet leads and work them immediately and follow up, ask for and follow up with referrals, ask for extra lines from existing clients, join networking groups, return calls immediately, do the service work, customize your web page, do SEO, hire kids and housewives to make cold calls....whew!, have I left anything out?

All of it works and all of it fails depending on your specific circumstances in regards to rates, products, marketing area and competition and your own skills at running an agency.

It's not the old days when a location, sign, yellow page ad and membership in a service organization and sponsoring the little league team was enough to make it succeed.

It could also be said that if an agency owner had a winning strategy, then why would they want to give it away to others?

And to the many who say they're buying leads but find many of them bad, fake or bogus, why in the world would you put up with this kind of crappy product? Give back the bad leads for credit and stop patronizing lead companies that don't deliver (that's most of them). Not wasting money is better than losing money any day of the week.

[Michmmosh]

Having been in the industry for 19 years, some as a captive agent, some as a corporate employee working with independent agencies and now as an independent agent with a franchise agency in Florida, I can without a doubt tell you that grass-roots marketing efforts work.

My business comes from three total sources. One of those is internet, our franchise houses a great website and does a lot of SEO work for us. The other two lines are personal relationships that I have built in the community and referrals from those relationships and current clients.

Without a doubt if you are not networking you will lose the new business battle. Three mornings a week I dedicate myself to networking my business, and I'm not the only game in town, but I'm the only one out "working" my business and it shows. I've been open in this location for 11 months. I didn't know a soul here when I opened my agency and I am making money. Not a ton, yet...but 11 months and in the black...I'm okay with that!

[EugeneM]

Commercial Insurance is highly renewal date based. If you are looking for timely revenue driving marketing, having a calling effort is the best way in my experience. Set appointments up to bid on policies, this will turn the laws of numbers in your favor... more proposals the more accounts converted. Unless you are writing simple policies that can be done over email or phone nothing beats a face to face with the owner in my experience.

[Pathwayinsurance]

Commercial Insurance is highly renewal date based. If you are looking for timely revenue driving marketing, having a calling effort is the best way in my experience. Set appointments up to bid on policies, this will turn the laws of numbers in your favor... more proposals the more accounts converted. Unless you are writing simple policies that can be done over email or phone nothing beats a face to face with the owner in my experience.

I agree Eugene cold calling is very effective but it's not used very much agencies today.

[Rainmaker]

If you line up a hundred people and ask this question - you will most certainly obtain a hundred different answers! It's a great question that cuts across many layers. After 28 years in the industry, comprised of production, leadership and consulting roles - I can assure there is no 'secret sauce' or 'magic elixir' that on a stand-alone basis can be applied anytime, anywhere, with anyone, and with supreme assurance generate guaranteed results.

There are many drivers to this issue, with countless permutations - such as: 1) market; 2) size of agency; 3) resources; 4) target market; 5) composition of production team by tenure; 6) composition of production team by practice specialty....and the attributes go on and on.....the core issue from my view is to clearly identify where a production team/agency resides with respect to the aforementioned attributes combined with many others, and, upon reaching that stage of the process identify what the 'next reasonable step' is to move forward...and, following that, provide the training, resources, inspiration, etc., etc., to help your producers successfully achieve that step. It could be as simple as more cold calls, more cold canvassing, more introductions and networking, using LinkedIn to identify high potential prospects, workshops, lunch and learns, center of influence development, pursuing strategic alliance partners with whom you can trade business, webinars, podcasts, other social media channels....the list goes on and there are many vendors wagging their tails wanting to help you with all of those irrespective of the composition of your production team and available resources of your agency - so be careful in applying 'magic elixir' and 'one size fits all' remedies to the eternal challenge of marketing and new business generation. Take careful stock in the current situation, the composition of your production team, and what remedy is the appropriate solution that has the best chance of moving everyone ahead one step.

I will say that from my vantage point, one area that appears to be under exploited by many veteran producers is the issuance of 'thought leadership' and content to the general public about managing insurance programs and specific applications and techniques of both product placements and captive arrangements. Whether that manifests with writing case studies, whitepapers, speaking events, or e-magazine editorials is immaterial. What is important, in my view, is expressing what is in between an insurance professional's ears through any given medium out to potential buyers - who can then more easily make an assignment of value to their expertise, credibility, and get a 'peek behind the curtain' so to speak as to their mastery of given topics of concern to them. Remember we are in the information age - and people learn from their internet searches, articles, publications, etc., etc., so a presence there by brokers and agencies on specific matters will go a long way to building brand, interest, and differentiation among other competitors who are only making oral declarations of their expertise.

Hope that helps....