Email marketing remains one of the most effective ways for insurance agencies to reach customers and grow their business. Yet many agencies struggle to create emails that truly engage policyholders and drive results.
In this article, we provide 11 email marketing tips to help insurance agencies 3x their business. Whether you’re looking to improve open rates, increase conversions, or build better relationships through email, these practical strategies will give your agency’s emails an overhaul.
Let’s dive in to level up your email marketing game.
Benefits of Using Email Marketing For Insurance Agencies
Email marketing delivers outsized returns for insurance agencies. Studies show that every $1 spent on email marketing generates $40 in return across industries.
For agencies, email enables more personalized and targeted communications with policyholders to improve retention. It also allows cost-effective promotion of new insurance products and services.
Importantly, email builds stronger relationships and loyalty, facilitating upsells, and cross-sells, and referrals. With email generating 3x more revenue than social media and 13x more than telemarketing, it must be part of every modern agency’s marketing strategy.
The high ROIs, revenue growth potential, improved customer connections, and operational efficiencies make email marketing worth the effort for agencies of any size.
1. Create Targeted, Personalized Emails
Crafting targeted, personalized emails may seem daunting, but it provides unmatched opportunities to connect with policyholders and drive results.
Start by leveraging all the customer data you have – information like demographics, policy types, claims history, channel preferences, and more. Use this data to divide your subscriber list into different segments that share common needs and interests.
For example, you may create groups based on policy type, location, age, claims frequency, channel preference, or a mix of attributes. Now you can speak directly to each group, highlighting products, services, content and offers matched to their unique profile.
Personalize it further by including the individual’s name in subject lines and content. Test different email variants with this group to see what messaging, designs, images, and calls-to-action resonate best.
The goal is to make every subscriber feel understood by serving up relevant, customized recommendations. Getting personal in this manner pays off tremendously in higher open rates, click-throughs, and conversions. It also strengthens relationships and loyalty over time.
2. Segment Your Email List
One of the most important things any insurance agency can do to improve email performance is to properly segment your subscriber list. Rather than taking a broad “one message fits all” approach, narrowly define different groups based on key attributes.
For instance, create customer segments based on policy type, demographics, claims history, channel preference, and more. Get even more granular with hybrid segments, such as “Millennial customers with renters insurance who prefer mobile chat”.
The beauty of list segmentation is it enables sending hyper-targeted communications matched to each group’s specific needs and interests. It allows personalization, boosts the relevance of messaging, and ultimately delivers far higher open, click, and conversion rates. Regularly assess data to refine your segments too.
Proper email list segmentation pays dividends for years through more meaningful subscriber connections. Almost every email marketing metric improves when sending narrowly targeted messages to similar subgroups.
3. Send Emails Regularly but Don’t Overdo Them
Establishing an effective email marketing cadence is crucial for insurance agencies. You want to message subscribers frequently enough to stay top of mind, without overwhelming inboxes leading to fatigue or unsubscribes.
As a general rule, aim to email customer segments at least twice a month. Monthly campaigns promote new products or special offers while bi-weekly relationship builders share relevant content or event updates.
- Avoid blasting customers with email overkill just because more volume may mean more revenue.
- Limit broadcasts to 3-4 times a month max, adjusting frequency based on open and conversion rates for each segment.
- Less responsive groups likely need some email content adjustments before increasing volume.
As you determine optimal cycles, ensure a healthy mix of promotional and relational content too. The key is striking the right balance for regular communications that nurture ongoing customer connections.
4. Optimize Subject Lines
Even the most brilliant email copy and irresistible offers won’t drive results if recipients don’t open your messages. That makes optimizing subject lines one of the highest ROI activities for insurance email programs.
Start with an attention-grabbing opening using emotional triggers like curiosity, exclusivity, or self-benefit. Front-load copies with keywords and power words that speak to each segment too.
Subject line testing is critical as subtle nuances impact open rates dramatically. Try different formats like questions, lists, one-liners, factoids, or quotes to see what pops. Always keep lines short, direct, and scannable as well. Personalize subject lines by including first names when possible.
This simple tweak can lift opens 25% or more. Don’t neglect post-send optimization either by analyzing subject performance and continually refining approaches. Remember – the subject line determines whether your brilliant email ever gets read.
5. Personalize Content With Merge Tags
Personalization should be a priority for every client communication, and merge tags make that achievable in email marketing. These small placeholders allow the automatic pulling of customer data to customize messages.
Insert merge tags to include things like first names, policy types, anniversary dates, locations, and recent interactions within the copy. This tailored content feels more relevant, keeping readers engaged.
Merge tag usage lifts open rates while building stronger connections through relevant recommendations.
Try tags like: |FNAME| |POLICYTYPE| |STATE| or |PREVIOUSEMAILDATE|.
Display dynamic information about special offers or incentives too using tags like |REWARDPOINTS| and |DISCOUNTPERCENT|.
Get creative tailoring messages with the power of merge tags. Just ensure proper data hygiene first, as incorrect personalization looks sloppy and destroys trust. Used right, these small personal touches make subscribers feel understood.
6. Make Emails Mobile Friendly
With growing email engagement happening on mobile devices, insurance agencies must optimize messages for small screens. Start by using responsive email templates that auto-resize based on a recipient’s device.
- Check renders across smartphone and tablet layouts to ensure content displays properly without awkward text/image alignment.
- Apply larger font sizes given smaller screens as well.
- Also carefully consider email content itself through a mobile lens.
- Keep paragraphs short since small screens mean more scrolling.
- Ensure any CTAs stand out prominently for easy taps. Confirm forms are filled in correctly on mobiles too.
- Swap elaborate images for simple infographics.
Always linking out to mobile-optimized landing pages. Apply these mobile-first email strategies and watch your insurance agency’s open and click-through rates soar. Remember, over half of your emails are opened on smartphones now. Give mobile subscribers a fantastic experience.
7. Use Calls-to-Action
Transforming email recipients into customers requires effective calls-to-action. Yet many insurance agency messages fail to include clickable links or buttons leading to desired actions, thus missing huge engagement opportunities.
Every email, regardless of purpose, should contain CTAs that advance subscribers along a journey based on campaign goals. Rather than leaving the next steps ambiguous, craft action-oriented language clearly guiding readers.
For instance, use CTAs like “Get a Quote Now”, “View Policy Options”, or “Register for April Webinar.”
Place links prominently near the beginning and end of the email copy for higher visibility. Now comes the important step of testing variants to determine which CTAs compel specific customer segments to take action.
Find out which types of offers, promotions, or content resources generate the highest click-through and conversion rates. Continually refine your approach, making the best-performing calls-to-action more visible in emails while eliminating underperforming options.
Remember, well-executed CTAs represent shortcuts to revenue hiding in plain sight. They streamline pathways transforming messages into money.
8. Track Analytics To Optimize
Making data-driven optimizations is crucial for continuously improving email performance. Yet many agencies just blast away without mining campaign analytics. Start assessing opens, unique clicks, and conversions from each broadcast.
Examine engagement metrics based on factors like subject lines, content sections, interactivity, day/time sent, and list segments.
Regular analytical insights empower smarter emails. Lean into better-performing areas while phasing out underwhelming elements. Most marketing automation and email service platforms offer robust reporting to pinpoint strengths and flaws.
Analyze subscriber behaviors as well. Use on-site analytics and listen to sales teams to identify customer stick points. Addressing friction areas and knowledge gaps through email nurtures and fuels conversions.
Don’t waste the goldmine hidden in email analytics. Consistent assessment and enhancements based on opens, clicks, and performance data will rapidly multiply insurance email ROI.
9. Leverage Email Automation
Automating repetitive email tasks revolutionizes agency marketing and efficiencies. Yet relying solely on generic email blasts leaves money on the table.
Intelligent workflows that trigger personalized messages based on behaviors and preferences create game-changing value.
- Welcome new policyholders automatically with relevant onboarding touchpoints.
- Set up post-purchase nurture streams sharing helpful coverage content.
- Reengage at-risk customers drifting towards cancellations with targeted incentives.
The possibilities abound for automated, hyper-personalized communications that build relationships, trust, and loyalty over time. Keep refining your approach too. Use behavioral data and session replays to understand customer sticking points. Set up A/B testing to determine optimal offers.
Automate notifications when high-value content goes live. Streamline renewals while growing lifetime values. Work smarter, not harder with automated email marketing tailored to each insurance customer’s needs.
10. Offer an Opt-In Incentive
Insurance agencies constantly battle low email list sign-up rates hindering communications.
Rather than begging customers, offer irresistible opt-in incentives instead. Provide instant policy discounts, entry into prize drawings, gift cards, or exclusive content access for subscriber sign-ups.
Make the value proposition too good to pass up right on opt-in forms. Sweeten offers if abandoning email submissions like “Wait- Continue below for a 10% discount code.”
Incentive creativity and testing are key to driving opt-ins. Find out which rewards your customer segments find most appealing through A/B testing various options. Redeemable policy discounts tend to work well but contests, lead magnets, and gated content have high ROI too.
Just ensure compelling enough value to motivate recipients to welcome your emails. An incentives-first strategy gets agencies the subscriber permissions essential for communicating regularly amidst fierce industry competition.
11. Stay Up-to-Date With the Latest Email Marketing Best Practices
Email marketing evolves quickly, making ongoing education essential for insurance agencies. Subscribe to industry publications and blogs to stay atop trends. Follow thought leaders sharing practical tips and growth strategies.
Allocate time weekly for increasing team knowledge through webinars, courses, and testing new approaches.
Prioritize continual skills development around personalization, segmentation, automation, and analytics-driven optimization. Audit past campaign performance to pinpoint capability gaps limiting performance. Dedicate a budget for new software, services, and staff training guiding maturity.
Keep probing the edge of what’s possible through innovation. Maintaining current email marketing acumen and capabilities prevents getting left behind, especially with fiercer competition. Ongoing learning fuels exponential subscriber engagement and revenue growth year after year.
Implementing even a few of these 11 email marketing tips will profoundly impact an insurance agency’s growth and bottom line.
Segmenting lists for targeted messaging, optimizing subject lines and content, making emails mobile-friendly, effective call-to-action use, automation, and continual optimization all combine to boost open rates, click-throughs, and conversions over time.
Delivering relevant value and nurturing customer relationships through regular email communications represent a hugely scalable and cost-efficient channel. For any agency looking to expand reach, drive more sales, and maximize lifetime policyholder value, focusing on mastering email marketing is a sure path to success.