Ways to Effectively Market Insurance Using CRM
Though insurance is something that most of us consider a necessity, many insurance agents have a difficult time marketing their products, and they may need help on how to market new insurance CRM idea. This is usually due to difficulties such as ineffective marketing campaigns, lack of training, underutilizing technology, and substandard customer relationships. But with CRM software, insurance agents can guarantee more sales and better business since it has the tools they need to overcome these difficulties.
So what are some ways to effectively market insurance policies using insurance CRM software? Through insurance CRM software, an insurance agent can utilize its tools to create better content, improve their website, write email newsletters, and generate more relevant social media ads. Compared to traditional marketing techniques, CRM software is easier to use and more efficient in generating more leads and converting these leads to sales.
Difficulties in Marketing Insurance
Just like other products and services, marketing insurance policies require techniques to turn an insurance lead into an insurance sale. However, certain bumps in the road can prevent them from being successful in their industry. Here are some of the difficulties agents face during insurance marketing:
Ineffective Campaigns
Insurance agents may find it difficult to find referrals and create sales because of ineffective marketing campaigns. An ineffective insurance marketing campaign may stem from a lot of internal issues such as not knowing the demographics or the interests of a target audience. Without these, an insurance marketer suffers from rolling out ineffective marketing campaigns that are of no use.
In the long run, continuing to create ineffective marketing campaigns isn’t sustainable and can cost so much money. Remember that it’s better to shell out money for one big insurance marketing campaign that’s guaranteed to create sales instead of continuously creating small campaigns that don’t generate funds.
Lack of Agent Knowledge and Training
A lack of agent knowledge and training can affect both big and small insurance agencies. For big insurance agencies, they might have many insurance agents but the agents lack training. This can backfire and cause further problems down the road because these big companies are paying individual agents without earning any money. Additionally, having agents who lack knowledge and training can also cause the reputation of these big agencies.
In the case of independent agents or small insurance agencies, they might not have enough resources to fully know how to market their policies. It’s already difficult for small insurance agencies to find referrals since they only have a small pool of agents. This makes it important for both big and small agencies to invest in good agent training from the very start.
No Utilization of Technology
Over the years, technology has proven to be great in helping businesses such as insurance agencies grow and flourish. Different kinds of technological advances have influenced all factors of the business cycle, especially marketing. Nowadays, utilizing technology to create an insurance sale and generate more income is important if you want to succeed in an industry.
However, some insurance agents haven’t utilized the technology they have at hand to its best. They’re merely just using technology to help them perform their daily tasks without thinking about what else it could offer. Technology has grown to the point that there are specific programs and software that could cater to the insurance industry, and agents who know how to use these forms of technology can be more successful in their field.
Substandard Customer Relationships
Lastly, another difficulty agents encounter in insurance marketing is the lack of excellent customer relationships. Substandard customer relationships can cause agents to receive fewer referrals, which means that they’re generating minimal sales. When the marketing for policies starts to sound more mechanical and robotic, some customers may not enjoy the service they receive. Those who cultivate better relationships with their customers are more likely to retain their existing customers as well as have more clients.
Importance of Effective CRM Software
Using effective CRM software is a great way to help insurance agents overcome these difficulties. CRM stands for “customer relationship management,” which proves that it provides a platform to understand customers better. It’s also a central platform that allows agencies to store data about their customers and other important data. A cohesive and effective CRM software is highly important when it comes to the insurance industry because of the following reasons:
Generates Leads
With an effective CRM system, your team is guaranteed to generate more leads. In the insurance industry, lead generation is significant since most insurance agents receive commissions based on the number of policies they sell. Lead generation is important in every business since it captures the interest of potential customers until they’re ready to buy a product. It can also help engage with customers who are already existing policyholders while raising brand awareness so that more people are aware of the products that you offer.
Using CRM software can help agents create more effective insurance marketing campaigns that cater to a potential client’s interest. In the long run, this can generate more sales and improve the business as a whole. Effective CRM systems can also filter out unimportant data that doesn’t serve an insurance agency. This decreases the risk of targeting the wrong audience and creating marketing campaigns that are a waste of money.
Improves ROI
Another benefit of an effective CRM system is that it helps improve the ROI. This happens because you can effectively target an audience with the right marketing tools. Important customer information stored in the CRM data can be utilized to generate the right analytics to understand your target market.
Though spending money on excellent CRM software can be costly at first, you can guarantee a higher chance of a better ROI by continuously using the tool. As an insurance agent or insurance broker who has already nurtured their leads, you can improve sales to make the business more profitable. This is important when it comes to the long-term financial goals of the agency since a good ROI allows the business to scale more quickly and efficiently.
Boosts Productivity
Effective CRM software is also great for boosting productivity within the agency. An important feature of CRM platforms is that they store all the important data the agency needs to operate. However, a CRM system goes beyond just storing important data since it stores relevant customer information that you can use to your advantage. Certain demographic information such as age and location can help an insurance marketer market more relevant policies.
Additionally, CRM platforms also create an all-in-one platform for insurance agents to collaborate. This allows better communication through different channels. Because of this, there’s a higher chance that different agents can contribute their ideas to create a better insurance marketing strategy. The platform also lessens the burden for agents since they don’t have to carry loads of paperwork when they meet up with clients.
Creates a Better Sales Funnel
An effective CRM system also creates a better sales funnel for both agent and policyholder. With a better sales funnel, you can guarantee that clients are able to smoothly go through the experience of closing a policy deal. A good experience through every stage of the buying process can help guarantee that clients are satisfied with the service. It can also guarantee customer loyalty and more sales in the future.
Additionally, a sales funnel helps an agent understand what a customer feels and experiences through every stage of the buying process. Just like what has been discussed earlier, understanding your customers allows you to create marketing strategies that cater to their interests. When an agent knows a client’s interest, they can easily use their interests to their advantage and upsell certain insurance policies for their needs.
How to Effectively Market Insurance Using CRM
Now that we’ve discussed the importance of an effective CRM system (especially for insurance agencies), let’s now look at how we can use CRM to effectively market policies:
Insurance Calculators
Insurance calculators are a simple yet excellent way to utilize CRM platforms. They provide an existing client with an idea about what to expect when paying for their premiums. This could already offer them a headstart on what kind of policy they want to have and also know how much money they need to save monthly or yearly, depending on the policy they close. Insurance calculators can also be helpful when comparing the amount they have to pay compared to other insurance agencies.
This simple integration of CRM platforms in everyday insurance transactions is a big help for insurance agents as well since it can also lessen the number of questions they receive about insurance payments. This could provide agents with more time to attend to other needs of their clients. For example, they could devote their time to answering questions about different policies and other services.
Email Newsletters
Sending out email newsletters to current policyholders can guarantee that they know about the latest updates about the agency. It’s one of the most popular forms of digital marketing available today since a certain target market can receive important information through relevant content.
What’s great about using CRM platforms to create email newsletters is that it has marketing automation features that roll out specific and personalized emails. Instead of sending ambiguous emails to a large group of people, CRM software makes it easier for agencies to send direct mail with the customer information in the system. The platform can even be used to send emails that address the receiver with their first name so that an email is more personal. Email marketing utilizes specific customer information to offer the right messages to certain audiences.
Since you’re sending more personalized emails to current and potential clients, there’s a higher chance that they become more interested in a certain product. In the future, those who are interested in a certain product are more likely to buy them, generating more sales and driving more conversions.
Social Media Ads
Another way to effectively market insurance policies using CRM is through social media ads. With advances in technology, businesses can now see and collect certain data about their customers. Data such as sex, location, and specific interests are now easily accessible and utilized to a business owner’s advantage.
For example, CRM platforms can help identify your top customers on Facebook. These are the people who frequently purchase a certain product or who have already purchased that product and show signs that they’re more likely to become returning customers. Using this information, you can target a specific Facebook ad with the information stored in the CRM system.
When it comes to marketing insurance policies, information that’s stored in your CRM can be helpful when marketing similar products to a potential customer. Tracking data about which ads receive more responses and what kind of social media strategies convert to higher sales can prove to help an insurance agency’s growth. CRM platforms have made it easy for businesses, whether big or small, to guarantee an ROI on their marketing efforts.
Better Content
Any business needs to create content that’s relevant to their brand and their audiences. When they create content that doesn’t fit any of these categories, they waste their time and effort on creating content that doesn’t convert to anything. Remember that content represents your business and products, and poor content marketing may cause clients to perceive your products in the same way.
A good example of how CRM allows agents to create better content that attracts potential clients is how it helps track what kind of content generates more responses. This is helpful for a marketing team since they know what kind of marketing content is more relevant to their audience. They can keep creating this kind of content or pitch ideas from it so that they don’t end up wasting their time and effort.
Utilized Website
CRM platforms offer various ways to help an agency owner utilize their websites. An insurance website or landing page contains important information about the business so that interested clients have an idea of what kind of services they offer. Additionally, websites can also provide a rundown about different kinds of products in the insurance market like health insurance and auto insurance.
For instance, using a ChatBot on your website is an excellent way to guarantee that a prospective client always receives customer support. This also lessens effort on the part of the agent since common questions can be answered with an automated response. Only specific questions that couldn’t be answered by the ChatBot reach the agent, so they have more time to do more important things that allow for the agency’s growth.
CRM vs. Traditional Marketing Tools
While there are still several kinds of traditional marketing tools that insurance agencies can use for their marketing ideas, CRM platforms have proved to be more beneficial. This is due to different factors such as the following:
Efficacy
A CRM system is efficient in storing relevant data and keeping out data that isn’t beneficial for an agent. This feature makes the pool of readily available information less cluttered and more organized.
The system can also improve efficiency for an insurance agency as a whole since it offers a space for agents and other employees to communicate and collaborate. Since most CRM platforms are also stored in the cloud, agents can access these data anytime and anywhere. This can lessen any delays during appointments with clients.
Ease of Use
CRM platforms are also easier to use compared to traditional marketing tools since it’s an all-in-one platform that stores all the relevant data an insurance agency needs to operate. They can also be integrated with third-party platforms that are more specific to the insurance industry. Because of this, agents don’t have to spend time switching through different programs just to accomplish their job.
Cost
Though CRM platforms come with an upfront cost, there’s guaranteed ROI in a short amount of time. This means that this upfront cost is a small price to pay for better sales and business growth. Those who are interested in trying CRM without paying an upfront cost can also look into free CRM software. However, free CRM software might not have as many features compared to premium options.
Enhancement of Customer Relationships
Perhaps the most important advantage of CRM software over traditional marketing tools is it focuses on enhancing customer relationships. Compared to traditional marketing strategies that fail to segment their market, this tool is incredibly helpful in generating strategies that cater to specific audiences. It guarantees that tactics are more personal to improve customer experience and customer satisfaction. CRM platforms believe that a key to success is caring for your customers and making sure that they’re guided throughout the sales funnel.
Insurance CRM at Commence
Insurance agencies that integrate CRM platforms into their business can guarantee to create an insurance marketing idea that’s more effective. Here at Commence, we offer a CRM solution that’s designed for insurance companies. Our team has been providing best-in-class CRM for almost two decades so you can trust us to offer a platform that offers everything you need.
Our CRM is easy to use, stored in the cloud, and able to offer features that cater to the insurance industry. For interested clients who want to test our platform, we offer free trials for you to know more about its features. Learn more about Commence CRM and what we have to offer here on our website.