This is an important week for insurance agents and insurance sales teams. It marks the close of the first quarter of the year and the opportunity to identify areas for improvement and growth for the remainder of 2021. Traditionally, April has been an important month for insurance agents as it tends to be part of the peak season for interest in auto purchases and leases among consumers. This year tax refunds are coupled with the added benefit of stimulus checks for many consumers. Connecting with prospective customers early and often is crucial to scale success in customer acquisition efforts, sustain customer loyalty and increase conversions.
Email marketing can be an effective way to help achieve your sales goals. Email is often revered because it is a fast, flexible and cost-effective strategy for reaching new customers and reengaging current clients. Compared to social media, email marketing is approximately 40% more effective at driving sales and conversions.
For many sales professionals, cold email is the preferred method of cold selling. Cold email describes messages sent to contacts you do not currently know or contacts that have not engaged with you previously. Used during the early stages of the sales funnel and customer journey, cold email can effectively help insurance agents increase brand awareness among prospects and provide high-intent consumers with solutions that match their needs.
While email can be incredibly useful, it rarely is effective when used just once. Many top producers in the insurance industry will agree that email should be regarded as a stream of connected messages instead of a singular one-way form of communication. While crafting emails to your current clients may feel easy, you might be less comfortable with the thought of creating cold emails, but the tips below can help.
Email usage is one the rise. According to data from Statista, more than 306 billion emails were sent in 2020. Building a plan and writing relevant messages for cold email is not as difficult as it may seem. Here are four actionable and simple steps you can take that can help you write the perfect cold email workflow.
Before you start sending cold emails, establish a simple plan. Start by honing in on the action you want your contacts to take. Map out the number of emails you want to include in your cold email marketing campaign. Tracking and measurement are extremely important and will help you evaluate the performance of your cold emails. Be sure to identify the relevant KPIs and metrics that you will use to review and judge your campaign’s effectiveness. You may want to consider measuring KPIs such as open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate and response rate.
Next, determine what days of the week and times of day you want to send your messages. You likely already use email marketing with your current clients. Analyze your data to determine what days and times perform best for your current audience. Be sure to avoid sending emails that will seem inauthentic or disconnected. For example, it is unlikely that you would be sending email to a prospective client at 4:00am, so avoid scheduling messages to go out at that time. In addition, do not restrict yourself to only sending messages Monday through Friday. If you’ve noticed emails sent on weekends perform well, consider scheduling cold emails to deploy on Saturdays, but acknowledge that you are sending the message during the weeked within the body of your email. This acknowledgment can help your cold emails sound more human and engaging.
Email subject lines are arguably one of the most important aspects of a cold email campaign. Even though some contacts may see a preview of your email in their inboxes, the subject line is likely going to have more impact on open rates. Email subject lines should motivate a prospect to open your message. When drafting email subject lines, ask yourself these four questions:
1. Are my intentions clear?
2. Did I create a sense of urgency?
3. Is my message relevant?
4. Did I add personalization?
Consumers continue to increase their preferences for personalization in email. Many email platforms allow you to easily add personalization tokens to email subject lines. Moreover, consumers are more likely to open emails that resonate with them and connect to a challenge they have or a problem they are trying to solve. Consider doing A/B testing to optimize email performance and identify the subject lines that drive the best results.
With email inboxes becoming more and more crowded, it is important to get your message across quickly. Focus on drafting short email messages that offer your contact the opportunity to take action easily. Make sure your email body contains three key areas:
1. Introduction: Honestly define who you are and what you do.
2. Purpose – Express why you are sending them this message and what action you want them to take.
3. Closing – Thank them for their time and insert a personalized closing salutation with your relevant contact information and links.
Keep in mind as you create multiple emails designed to be sent to the same person, you may want to draft different messages based on a contact's behavior. For example, a contact who did not open previous emails should receive a different email message than a contact who repeatedly opens emails, but does not take action. Similarly, if you notice a contact opens cold emails, and clicks the link but has not submitted a form or taken another action, you might want to send them a more specific, customized message.
Testing new email techniques is an important part of an insurance agent’s sales strategy. Having a fresh supply of leads to email and call on is just as important. The experienced ZipQuote team is committed to providing high-quality insurance leads and calls. Click here to learn more about how ZipQuote can help you grow your business. Contact us today!