Everyone should be interested in educating their customers. Having your customers educated on what you need/expect from them makes your day easier. 

An example of this is Subway. To order a sandwich you start at one end of the counter and move down until you pay. Now I bet the first time you went in a subway you did not know this special way of ordering and had to follow the crowd or just walk up to the counter and had a nice employee show you through your sandwich making process. 

With insurance it is harder to get the important points across. Half of the public barely knows how insurance works just that if something bad happens they have been paying money to you to make sure it is fixed without leaving them broke. How can we educate insurance customers?

Here are a few ideas;

One idea that has sparked my imagination is video. Video is becoming more widely used in other fields and can make a complex idea seem simple. I think it can be used very effectively to describe the complex system of insurance. One company I feel is doing a great job at this is RSA. 

Check out this video and more on their web site and tell me how you would like to use this tool to spread your message.

Well here we are in the New Year. You have been askingAlternative Insurance Marketing Solutions to help you maintain your Agency Revolution (AR) and Fire Fly (FF) engine. Well we listened. 

We now offer you a low cost solution to the constant upkeep of your AR or FF engine. Alternative Insurance Marketing Solutions will help you delegate tasks to our staff to help you with weekly contact updates, keep contacts orderly with up to date information, uploading new list for niches, keep you up to date with all new versions of campaigns, and help you keep your messages fresh with new copy and giveaways.

Don’t worry we will continue to help you with any campaigning you decide to do as well. If you are part of our Maintenance Plan you can request help with new campaign creation. There is a small additional fee associated with new campaigns, but you get a substantial discount for already using our services.  Not only is this deal a way to save you money and your valuable time it will help you get the most out of your AR or FF engine. 

So if you are tired of having to constantly mess with your AR or FF engine call Cheri at 401-400-2467 today!

Using video in your marketing is an effective way to build your brand and increase your online presence. We all enjoy watching a short video clip. I mean Americas Funniest Videos has been on the air for 21 years and all they do is show short video clips. Look at YouTube and Tosh.0 these are purely devoted to video. Now I am not telling you to go get yourself on video doing something…well…painful or funny. I am saying using video can be powerful and there is no reason why you should not be using it to your advantage. 

Now unlike the examples above you can use video for educational or promotional purposes. Here is what you do. Set up your lap top or computer camera. Pick a subject. Pick 2 or 3 points or examples and start talking. Try and keep the video less than one minute. Videos do not need to be perfect. The truth is that when you act like yourself and make a few bobbles here and there you become more human and charming to your audience. 

Keep your videos simple. You do not need a studio and fancy cameras and lights to make a video. Record with your kids flip camera, your cell phone, your lap top whatever works. Don’t worry about your background; use your office, back yard, living room. So here are a few ideas that you can implement the use of video:

Testimonials – What is better than a written testimonial? A testimonial captured on Video! A great way to get some of your best customers on camera singing your praise is to ask for it. Hold a contest, have the customer give one next time they are in your office for a policy review, ask for them at your next event. Then once you have the testimonials use them. Put them on Facebook, or your website. 

Video Content – Use video to showcase your best content. If you don’t want to be in front of the camera that is ok, use a slideshow and record your comments. 

Public Speaking – Always be sure to film your presentation when you are speaking at an event. It is great content where your audience can see you in action. You might even get a few more invitations to speak if people can see your work in real life. 

Videos in Surprising Places – Think outside of the hamster wheel and take video beyond the typical content or sales video. Put video on your thank you pages, on your website, in your emails or even FAQ page. Having you talk directly to your customer or prospect is way more powerful than any letter they get in the mail. 

Now you have a few ideas to get started with using video. Video is the most effective way to become real in the eyes of your prospects. Make your videos fun. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to use video in your business.

With Lady Gaga and Mayor Bloomberg pushing the button for the ball drop at Times Square in New York this year it made me think.

What is she wearing?

But, in all seriousness I had not made one resolution. I had a lot of ideas for the New Year but I had not taken the steps to really make them goals. 

My favorite way to set my goals is to write them down. Sit down with a piece of paper and write it in pen! I know old school, but typing it up on the computer is just not the same. After I write everything I can think of with no special order I separate all of my goals into groups. Some examples are personal or life goals, business goals, workout goals, or cooking goals. Then I put the shortest goals that I know I can do in a month or two on my 90 day planner or in my calendar. The bigger goals and the more long term goals I do as follows. I will say it one more time because it is important WRITE YOUR GOALS DOWN! 

For long term goals they can seem daunting. Lose 15 pounds. Great goal! How the hell do I get there? You can’t lose all that weight in one day so why would your goal read that way. Sometimes rewording the goal makes it easier to accomplish. I will add one more hour to my weekly workout sessions or I will work out for 45min every time I work out instead of 30min makes the goal a bit easier to achieve. 

Or maybe it is for your business. I want to increase the amount of auto insurance policies my agency sells by 20% this year. Awesome goal! Break it down so you can start working on that goal tomorrow not just hope it happened when you run your numbers at the end of this year. How many more auto policies is that exactly? How many is that a month a day? Is your goal realistic? If yes, then how will you sell that amount of auto insurance policies in a week? Maybe a cross sell campaign or some advertising letting your community know of your customer service and commitment to saving them money. Maybe add a simple message to your sales reps pitch. An example “On average we save our customers 28% on their car insurance, would you like us to quote you when you’re up for renewal?” Collecting renewal dates is a great way to market to your customers or prospects when they are actually thinking about their insurance. 

What about those 5 year goals. I would try to do the same as above. Take the big goal and chunk it up into little goals. Doing this allows you to continually work on your goal at a gradual pace. 

Give yourself a deadline. Set a deadline for when a certain task or goal should be met. If you do not make it by your deadline rework the task or goal and keep going. You might need to hand off some work to your employees. 

Tracking your progress is important to make sure you are on the wright track to meeting your goals as well. Having a public display on your refrigerator or hanging in the employee break room to show the progress toward your goal can be a powerful motivator. It can also help you stay accountable. 

Ok so let’s recap. Set some goals for this year! 

·       Write it down with a pen on paper!

·       Organize by putting your goals into groups.

·       Write your goals in a way to set yourself up for success.

·       Make your long term goals more achievable buy breaking them down to what you can do weekly.

·       Set deadlines.

·       Publicly track the progress on the road to reaching a goal. 

Well I know you are set to get going so don’t delay do it now! The sooner you set your goals, write them down, and make a plan of action, the faster you will see your goals become history like the year 2011. 

What are some of your goals for this upcoming year?

If you are an Agency Revolution user or a Fire Fly user this is for you! With the end of 2011 comes the end of all of the nurturing messages in the back end of your AR or FF. 

OH NO! 

WHAT CAN BE DONE!? 

Well lucky for you the staff at Agency Revolution Inc did one last thing before they took a week break at the end of the year. They created NEW nurturing messages for 2012. Now this means nothing if you do not transfer your current customers from the 2011 nurturing messages to the new and improved nurturing messages for 2012.

Sign in to the back end of your engine. 

Go to the underused “Autopilot” tab and scroll down to “Date Sequences”. 

Now you will need to open the old 2011 nurturing message, by clicking on the little pencil on the far left of the sequence. 

Scroll to the bottom of the messages.

Now click add rule (the yellow button at the top of the sequence management tool).  

Schedule the step for the December 31, 2011. 

What are the conditions for the response?

What should happen?

SAVE the sequence and Tada you have transferred your commercial lines to the new 2012 messages.

Now do the same for the rest of the nurturing messages. 

Sign in to the back end of your engine. 

Go to your “Contacts” Tab.

Select Personal Lines or Commercial Lines Contacts that are “Active” or who currently have a policy with you. If you do not know how to do this check out this helpful video curtsey of Lucas Jans.(If you don’t have time to view the whole video skip to the 12:50 mark).

Scroll to the bottom of the screen.

Click   “+ More Actions”

In the drop down select “All in group”

Select “Subscribe/Unsubscribe Sequence”

Find “#2012 Personal Lines Nurturing Messages – V2”

Select and Confirm.

Now do the same for the rest of the nurturing messages. 

Well now that’s done you are ready to pop the cork and bring in the New Year!

I was sitting in front of the TV the other night writing Christmas cards to friends and family and watching a movie. Now at one point I noticed I could finish a personalized letter and address one card for each commercial break. So after I had finished with the cards I started counting the number of commercials in-between each showing of the movie. I counted 10-15 commercials! To me that seems like a lot. 

My first thought was marketers are bumping up their advertising for the Holiday Season. My next thought was I need to get TiVo. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements all day and right now it is even worse. So how do you make your message stand out from the rest of the Holiday marketing madness? Try personalizing a simple message.  

Instead of pumping out massive amounts of advertising wouldn’t it be better to give something a little more personal. A postcard with a PURL (personal URL) and your office staff picture on it with a simple message would be such a nice gift compared to an email or TV commercial. I guess what I am saying is market to your customers the way you would want to be marketed to. Sometimes getting something in the mail is better than email. Sometimes getting a fun video is better than a packet about conserving energy this winter. Not that you should not send that letter too, everyone wants to save money on utilities in the winter. But after you send that letter also take some time to send just one nurturing message with no sales pitch included. Just happy holidays from the staff of your business name. 

You never know the next time you send a letter or a postcard your customers or prospects might be more likely to open it because of the wonderful surprise they received in the mail over the holidays. A little extra time can go a long way to build good will for your business.  

P.S. If you send me a Holiday Greeting I will send you one back.

Nurturing your customers is easy and rewarding. Nurturing messages are intended to build relationships with your customers. Sending personal nurturing messages to your customers can do a few things like:

How do you create Nurturing Messages? Well an email is an easy way to go. If you want to do something more than just text try a short Video it is fast and easy. The video also creates a great human touch and reminds the customer that your company is more than a logo but a business built of people just like themselves. You can send the video email from just the company director or create a message from your whole staff. Keep the video less than one minute and keep it short and to the point. Add interesting information as well as the nurturing message to give your audience something to think about and share with friends and family. Post the message on your social networks as well. 

Try these ideas to help create a nurturing video message.

Now it is your turn! Check out some of the links below to get inspiration and then make a nurturing message yourself. Post your videos in the comment section or send me a link on Facebook. 

Good luck and enjoy the holidays!

When you are looking to get as much information as possible over from your Agency Management System over to your new Agency Revolution or Firefly system sometimes you need to add fields. The main idea is if you have one place for a first name and last name on a policy where do you put their partner’s name. Another example is the addition of adding a Representative or Niche a contact falls under.

Having these extra fields can help you sort and target a specific amount of your customers or prospects and market or nurture them accordingly. So how do you go about adding or editing contact fields in you Agency Revolution or Firefly? 

1.     First thing first always make sure your agency management system can transfer over the information that you would like to have in your AR or FF. If you do not know how to check this information on your own I would suggest calling a customer service and finding out what you need to do to have the needed information transfer over quickly. 

2.     Log into the back end of you AR or FF. Here is a link to get you to the Engine Log in http://www.agencyrevolution.com/members/revolution-engine-login

 

3.     You are now in the back end of your AR or FF engine. At this point I would make a note of what fields you would like to add to your contact information. 

4.     In the top right hand corner click the “Admin” button. 

5.     Under Commonly Used Tools click “Field Editor”. 

6.     Here you can add a new field or edit the order of the sections found under each contact. 

7.     Now one of the most important parts. Checking that the information transfers over correctly. If you have automatic transfers wait till the next morning and check your contacts. Now this can get messy so be patient and work through any hiccups.

If you are manually importing contacts adding the field in the CSV document should allow it to be placed correctly in your contacts information.

If you have any problems don’t hesitate to call me and ask questions. Too busy? Then call me today and I can to do it for you. 401-400-2467. This video should also help.

(If you are having problems hearing it turn up your volume really loud.)

Hope this helps you get more complete data stored in your AR or FF system.

Tell me what you need help with. Don’t wait till a training when you are just one of many with questions and don’t put a ticket in to just get shoveled off to a link. Get your personal answers here. Please don’t worry about how simple the question is remember if you have the question chances are someone else has the same question too.   

This week Google announced a new “Freshness” Update, which is said to affect 35% of all items searched. The idea is to keep the most current information on a query at the top of a search page. Fresh Content or content updated more recently/ including new content is more important than ever. Now don’t go changing your website every day to keep it Fresh. Some of the key factors associated with how Google determines Freshness is: 

1.     Inception Date – when your site was first crawled or discovered.

2.     Average Age of Document – determine age of your site by averaging out the age of its documents.

3.     Proportional Document Change – the amount of a page that stays static vs. the amount of a page that changes frequently.  An example being a homepage with blog content.

4.     Query Based Scores – popular queries can be ranked higher.

5.     Link-BasedScore– Assign Freshness Score based on freshness attributes of link documents.

Chances are you already have most of this in place on your website. If you are not it might be time to update your website. For more information on Google’s New Freshness Update check out Justin Briggs Blog or this great Whiteboard Friday Video with Rad and Mike discussing some of their early observations on the Freshness update.