Stop relying on insurance postcards to meet your insurance marketing goals and instead take advantage of training courses and educational resources. By adding to your skill set and educational background you will have the confidence to close more deals and increase lead generation.

Choosing to continue your training and education will not only enhance your resume but also keep you at the forefront of insurance marketing trends and strategies. Before deciding what course of action is right for you, consider the following regarding insurance marketing education and training:

1. Participate in marketing in insurance training or education programs and workshops.

2. Increase leads, even commercial insurance leads, by strengthening your skill set with videos and webcasts.

3. Use specialized links and resources available online that are geared toward marketing for insurance professionals.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Enroll in marketing insurance training or education programs and workshops

Add to your resume and enhance your insurance sales marketing expertise by completing individual courses or training programs. Continuing your education will provide you with the skills to fulfill your insurance marketing services effectively and efficiently. Consider what aspects of your professional knowledge need strengthening or updating before signing up for any courses.

I recommend: Learn about the professional and personal development programs offered through the National Council for Insurance Marketing provided by the National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research. Visit the Atlas Insurance Marketing website and click on the Workshops and Product News link to view upcoming training workshops and newsletters. Take a look at M & O Marketing's insurance sales training.

View agents insurance marketing videos and webcasts

Watch specialized videos and webcasts focusing on issues such as life insurance marketing, sales, marketing insurance legal issues and commercial insurance telemarketing. You will be able to access most videos and webcasts for free, making this medium of education both easy and affordable. It also provides you with scheduling and geographical freedom as you can choose where and when to access such resources.

I recommend: View the A-Z Insurance Marketing Blueprint and other useful links at the Insurance Marketing Rebel website. Visit the Insurance Marketing and Communications Association and take a look at the IMCA Leadership Series of webcasts.

Strengthen your insurance marketing management and sales expertise by accessing useful resources

Employ more than insurance marketing postcards in your business efforts by taking advantage of informative and strategic online resources. There are a number of free online assets geared toward insurance marketing professionals. Visit only once or keep useful links and resources on-hand to consult in the future.

I recommend: Utilize the insurance marketing resources offered by ProspectZone. Take advantage of the informative links provided by Insurance Sales Tools, an insurance marketing and sales tools resource for insurance agents and financial advisers. Peruse the plethora of insurance marketing links for agents available at InsureMe.

Insurance marketing is a means to gain the notice of a specific audience. After all, insurance is a product that everyone needs, for life, autos, homes, businesses, equipment and disability. It’s a huge market with scads of competition from other insurance agents. You need more than insurance postcards to gain notice in today’s market.

Build your insurance business by:

1. Understanding the many facets of a successful marketing plan.
2. Making your marketing goals support your business goals.
3. Determining the right advertising media for marketing in insurance.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Identify your audience

You can't start marketing insurance businesses unless you know who your target market is. If you specialize or want to build a certain aspect of your business, ask yourself who is most likely to buy your product.

I recommend: Once you’ve determined your target audience, focus on lead generation, whether it’s commercial insurance leads or other markets. Visit Grow Your Agency for ideas on how to build your insurance business.

Create a marketing in insurance plan

After determining your ideal client, consider the best ways to reach that target group. You might find your target group reads the business pages of the local newspaper or surfs the Internet. Look at your competition, and ask yourself what ways you could be better at marketing in insurance. Consider all these factors when building a marketing plan.

I recommend: Writing it down turns ideas into a plan. Get help from free online marketing courses provided by Small Business Administration (SBA). Don’t forget to include follow-up with existing customers as one element of your market. Happy customers can turn into more customers through word-of-mouth. Talk with other members of the Professional Insurance Marketing Association about insurance sales marketing strategy.

Build a presence

If you haven't invested time and money in a good logo and website, now's the time. Many entrepreneurs hire out for these projects and consider it money well spent.

I recommend: SASid Insurance Development can provide you with web tools to keep your website updated with insurance quotes and rates.

Market regularly in more than one medium

A big one-time ad in a newspaper is a waste of money; so is investing all your marketing efforts on insurance postcards. You need to increase your name recognition among your target population by placing your name in front of them regularly. When you successfully invest in active insurance marketing services, people needing insurance will automatically think of you.

I recommend: Consider publishing a newsletter to educate and enlighten potential customers with insurance tips. Any desktop publishing program can help you layout a newsletter for mailing, or use eNewsletter Online for email newsletters.

Spend marketing dollars wisely

While advertising can be expensive, marketing your business doesn't have to be when you use no cost or low cost marketing methods. Join your local Chamber of Commerce and other civic organizations where you can network with potential customers. Use a talent for writing by writing a regular newspaper column with helpful insurance information for consumers.

I recommend: Publicize everything about your business by sending publicity releases to local and regional media. Office openings, anniversaries and accreditations are all newsworthy. Moreover, sending publicity releases costs nothing.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Measure your return on marketing investment by keeping track of how people learned about your firm.
• •  If your marketing efforts seem to be floundering, consider hiring a marketing consultant for her expert knowledge of insurance marketing services.
• •  Think hard before committing to insurance telemarketing. With caller ID and the bad rep that telemarketers have, it could be a waste of time and money.

As you start looking into insurance marketing, key terms will you help understand things such as marketing goals, audience and medium. While some of these terms apply to general marketing, you'll want to make sure that you know how they relate specifically to insurance in order to ensure that your business is getting the advertising it needs. Other terms you may find useful to know include lead generation, networking and marketing plan.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Marketing goals

Marketing goals help establish the route your marketing will take by identifying what you want to get from your marketing. When it comes to setting goals, keep in mind that not all goals will be monetary ambitions. In some cases, you may want to set a number of clients to contact per day or determine the amount of time you want to spend on marketing.

I recommend: Find tips on setting insurance marketing goals and identify ways that setting these goals can help motivate you at InsureMe.

Marketing plan, PR plan

Once you have your goals in place, you need to create your marketing plan, also called a PR plan. The plan maps out how you will meet the goals you've set for your insurance business.

I recommend: Lycos provides an article with an overview of the elements an insurance marketing plan should provide. It also provides links to sites with additional information on the different elements.

Lead generation

Lead generation is a method through which you can get prospective client information, or leads. There are several methods of lead generation that you can use, many of which are free. To be beneficial, leads must include the contact information for the prospective client.

I recommend: InsuranceLeads.com provides a sample of a lead available through lead generation. It also offers information detailing how the systems works.

Advertising media

The way you market your business will depend on the type of advertising medium that you use. The Internet, television, radio and printed documents are all different types of advertising media.

I recommend: SmallBusinessBible.org shows how you can use different advertising media to market your insurance business.

Campaign

A marketing campaign is the way your marketing works to shape the image your clients have of your company. For example, if you want to let clients know that you offer the best rates, you might structure your campaign around comparing the competition's quotes with your rates.

I recommend: DMNews discusses the distinguishing characteristics of successful insurance marketing campaigns.

Target audience, qualifying leads

Your target audience, or the group of people you want to reach with your marketing, plays an important role throughout your entire marketing campaign. When you begin, you may have only one target audience you want to reach, but as your campaign progresses, you may need to start qualifying, or screening, your leads and adapting your campaign to different audiences.

I recommend: SALESWORKS provides information showing how to define your target audience and also explains the process of qualifying leads. Chief Marketer shows how Esurance used its target audience to determine its marketing campaign.

When it comes to marketing in insurance, there are many different strategies that may be employed to reach a targeted consumer base. Everything from insurance telemarketing, to direct mailing, to emails and more all have a way of penetrating the customers’ thoughts so that they pick up the phone and call for an insurance quote.

Take the time to learn the basics associated with insurance marketing so that you may develop a strong marketing campaign for your insurance-based business. Here are a few resources to get you started. Think of this tutorial as "insurance marketing for beginners."

1. Learn about insurance marketing through the sale of postcards.

2. Educate yourself on insurance sales marketing through the use of telemarketing.

3. Find full service insurance marketing companies and learn how they employ an entire strategy.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Educate yourself on direct mail insurance marketing through the use of postcards

Postcards are a cost effective way to deliver a short and concise message to the consumer that you know they will receive. When the potential customer opens their mailbox, they will pull out the postcard and give it a glance. It is then incumbent upon the insurance marketing firm to come up with design and copy that grabs their attention and inspires them to call for a quote.

I recommend: Go to the website for Postcard Ideas. This is a company that provides many insurance marketing postcards solutions. The company Insurance Leads also discusses insurance postcards and other direct mail marketing strategies.

Learn about insurance sales marketing by utilizing telemarketing

There's a reason that telemarketing still occurs despite the moans and groans of many people on the other line. It's effective. Because insurance is something that everyone needs, and no one really wants to pay for it, being able to provide a customer with savings on a comparable plan gives that customer an incentive to listen to the sales pitch. Learn how to generate targeted telemarketing lists to enhance the sales of your insurance-based business.

I recommend: Check out the website for TJ Telemarketing for additional information on insurance telemarketing. Agents Marketing Insurance is also another great resource to familiarize yourself with the basics of commercial insurance telemarketing.

Find companies that specialize in insurance marketing and seek a consultation

There are many insurance marketing services that will offer consultations to a potential client. This allows the insurance marketing service to target a specific marketing strategy for the type of insurance to be sold. It also allows the customer to answer any questions they might have about the marketing service. Visit the websites of these full service marketing companies and learn about the multitude of platforms and strategies they employ. Then set up a consultation for your insurance-based business.

I recommend: Go to the website for LifeCo. This is a full service provider of insurance marketing services. Also the company Innovative Marketing Strategies is another great resource that provides full service marketing.