Insurance Agency Marketing and PR
Small Business Marketing Tips- Goals, Objectives and Strategies
Jul 23, 2007
Small business marketing tips help any business promote their products and services. Identify an insurance agency’s marketing and public relations campaign objectives to stay on target. Some questions to ask:
- What will be gained by an insurance agency’s marketing campaign?
- Is the focus on finding new customers or customer retention? Or both?
- What messages should be sent to prospects, customers, business partners and insurance agency employees?
Completing an executive summary, a more complex SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats exercise) or compiling competitive intelligence helps small businesses identify their insurance agency’s marketing and public relations objectives and to get agreement on them.
Small Business Marketing Goals
Set concrete marketing and public relations campaign goals for an insurance agency or small business. Agencies may need to change goals later, but this sets checkpoints to review progress throughout the campaign. Here’s a sample marketing campaign goals and objectives statement:
Lisa Nichols' Insurance Agency has a great opportunity to find all-new customers in 2008. It is estimated that there are 10,000 potential, eligible agency customers in our community. The agency anticipates that 1,000 new customers will join the agency by the end of 2008, and that an additional 2,000 customers will be on board by June 2009.
Lisa Nichols' Insurance Agency needs to provide new customer data at checkpoints throughout the promotional campaign to show results. Setting down numbers for an insurance agency may seem intimidating, but it’s the best way to track and report on marketing and advertising results.
Identify Small Business PR Targets
Identify the target markets the insurance agency wants to highlight during the promotional and advertising campaign. Now that there are goals and objectives, think about who will be targeted with the small business marketing campaign. The primary market consists of customers, prospects, business partners and agency employees. The agency’s strategic marketing messages and tactics will change depending upon the audience.
Insurance Agency Strategic Marketing
Identify key promotional messages to deliver to customers, prospective customers, insurance agency employees and business partners. Key small business public relations tips include pinpointing marketing messages. Create marketing benefit statements that summarize how to drive customers’ perceptions of the insurance agency:
- Marketing Message #1 New Customer Prospects: “ABC Insurance Agency works with A+ or better rated carriers, finding the best policy for your home or business at the best rate, Web access and service with a personal touch.”
- Promotional Message #2 Existing Customers: “You already know that ABC Insurance Agency offers superior homeowners insurance coverage with the best service, but did you know that ABC Insurance Agency has the best rates on car insurance too?”
- Marketing Message #3 Business Partners: “Partnering with ABC Insurance Agency is a real benefit to your employees, at no cost- and no hassle- to you.”
- Promotional Message #4 Insurance Agency Employees: “ABC Agency has a full benefits package and unlimited opportunities to grow and to learn all aspects of the insurance industry.”
After drilling down to key marketing messages, use them in every aspect of the insurance agency’s advertising and promotional campaign. No matter what services and benefits are highlighted, make sure to let customers know about products, service standards and methods of communication again and again, to drive the strategic marketing messages home.
Small Business Public Relations Tips
Use the agency's marketing messages to drive targeted communications and public relations strategies and tactics for the insurance agency. Once the target group for the small business marketing messages has been identified, it's time to start creating a plan of attack for each customer group. The advertising and communications strategies will vary widely based upon the budget and campaign goals, but will probably use some combination of the following: e-mail campaigns, print ads, public relations, collateral materials, newsletters or the Web to market products and services to insurance agency customers.
Get more tips for an insurance agency's marketing plan including creating customer loyalty strategies, getting free help and tracking marketing campaign results.
