Online Communication is the Key to Success

Everyday, technology becomes a bigger and bigger part of our lives. In today’s business environment, technology is perhaps the most powerful tool we have to keep customers satisfied and coming back. E-mail and Web sites are two of the most effective methods of providing customer service.

Many agencies and organizations have been successfully using e-mail newsletters and their Web site to reach out to customers. “Using e-mail and online posting is the easiest and most affordable way for our agency to inform to our clients with the day to day changes of this industry,” said Sherry Capps, marketing manager for Tulsa, Oklahoma-based CFR Inc.

“I use e-mail extensively,” said Douglas Megill, president of Virginia-based Maclean Insurance Agency. “I have noticed a lot of people using e-mail newsletters recently where, instead of it just being text, you’re actually receiving an e-mail that looks like a flyer or a newsletter.”

San Diego, Calif.-based BlueHornet Networks, Inc. specializes in managing e- mail newsletters for clients, including the Insurance Journal. “Newsletters are a really good way for people, for a company or business to get information that is hot or fresh or just hit, whatever it may be, out to there subscriber base,” said relationship manager Jeremy Swift. “Find out who your audience is, and know who your audience wants to receive in their in-box.”

“We’re trying to accomplish value-added service,” said Jim Armitage, president of California-based Arroyo Insurance Services. “Our newsletter is kind of light- hearted and folksy. But I think there are pretty good graphics and interesting things. We get pretty good feedback.”

When developing a newsletter for clients, you must first identify what software and format you will utilize. “Obtain software that will perform e-merge, the ability to merge data from a database into an e-mail,” said Jack Fries, president of Fries and Fries Consulting. This ensures that you don’t send your newsletter to undisclosed recipients, or send an e-mail with everybody’s name and address on it.

Formatting is an important decision that should be carefully considered as well. “The agency’s got to make a choice if the newsletter is going to be in an html format or ASCII,” said Fries. “Html will give you colors and graphics and that sort of thing on your e-mail, where as ASCII is just words, just text. Html Internet newsletters take a lot more time to load than do ASCII.”

Here are some tips to consider when putting together an e-mail newsletter:

• Obtain the e-mail addresses of all your clients. “Any customer contact at all should result in the securing of an e-mail address,” said Fries.
• Provide useful content. “Our monthly letter is actually sent electronically,” said Capps. “It’s about risk issues. We go into commercial p&c, employee benefits and personal lines. We hit every segment we can think of that our clients might be worried about with an issue, mold or terrorism, for instance.”
• Make sure you send out an interesting subject line. “I would say your subject line is your killer point,” said Josh Carlson, Web manager for Insurance Journal. “The subject line is really the only thing that they have to judge your whole e-mail by at first.”
• Keep it short, providing links to the actual story. By including the entire newsletter in the e-mail, clients won’t have any reason to return to your Web site. “There’s no incentive then for the person to go forward and click on the link,” added Swift.
• Develop an efficient “survey” page. The survey page, usually found on a Web site, allows users to “opt-in,” in other words, sign up to receive the newsletter. “A lot of it has to do with the questions that you’re asking on your survey page,” said Swift. “If you’re asking the appropriate questions, you’re not only going to be getting more opt-in subscribers, more people are hitting your survey page and actually filling it out, rather than hitting your page and leaving it. A lot of folks will click on that link and actually hit the page, and then don’t continue to actually fill out the survey page.” There are many things that can turn a subscriber off. Asking for too much personal information and asking a lot of questions are just two examples. People who are not comfortable with a company won’t share their personal information with them.
• Don’t develop a reputation as a spammer. Spam is the unsolicited e-mail that ends up in your inbox. A reputable e-mail newsletter provides an “unsubscribe” option, or “opt-out.” This allows the recipient to unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. “I think it would just be smart to stay away from things like spam, because insurance is one of the highest things you get spam-blasted about the most; different types of insurance offers,” said Carlson.
• Finally, be consistent when sending your newsletter. Set up a schedule and stick to it. “The best time to send an e-mail is late Monday night, so that the people receive it first thing Tuesday morning. They’re a lot more apt to read it then,” said Fries.

E-mail newsletters are a great way to bring people back to your Web site. “The second thing that we try to do is drive people to our Web site, where they can get additional information,” said Armitage.

“Rather than waiting for someone to actually come back to the Web site on [their] own free time, a newsletter… is a good way to actually get in front of them with what’s the new and current information going on with their business,” added Swift.

Web sites are a crucial marketing tool in today’s Web-savvy business environment. However, it is important that your Web site be relevant to the visitor. Many agencies can effectively utilize Web sites to bring their clients up-to-date information on current industry news, and perhaps more importantly, allow the client to access their own personal account information.

“It does need to evolve to become a resource for our clients or our prospective clients to share information,” said Megill. “We have a client section of the Web page right now. The ultimate goal is to have that be a secure area where they have to sign in with a password.”

“We have a couple of service products available to our clients through the Internet,” said Amy Ritschel, marketing analyst at CFR Inc. “One is available through our Web site which allows us to provide policy services online for their insurance account needs. Security verification forms, endorsements, certificates of insurance, and claims reporting can all be done online by the client.”

Here are some tips to consider when putting together a Web site:

• Again, provide useful, informative content. “You can get auto quotes, home quotes off [our Web site],” said Armitage. “We’ve got emergency claim numbers so that if somebody were to have an accident, and they needed information, they can get it off there for all of the companies that we represent. [Those are] the things that we think would be helpful to people if they needed it. People can actually go online and look at their accounts.” “It’s not what the Web site looks like, it’s the information that’s contained in there that will help the customer,” added Fries.
• Provide useful services to your current customers. “The Web site should be set up primarily to accommodate your existing customers,” said Fries. “I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have sales information on there, but the Web site should give the customer a couple of things, [including] the ability to communicate certain information to the agency, such as a change in policy or the ability to order certificates.”
• Don’t use your Web site strictly as an advertisement. “One of the things that I caution people about is that advertising is not information,” added Fries. “The key is to provide your customer information that will help them protect themselves from financial loss.”
• Make your Web site easily accessible and easy to navigate. This ensures users that have different Internet connections and browsers will be able to see it too. “Clean, straightforward presentation of information will win you more business,” said Carlson. “Stay away from flashy design. Customers are not coming to your Web site to be entertained.”
• Promote your agency Web site to your customers. “Advertise it as much as you possibly can,” said Fries. A good way to do this is by communicating with your customers about services available online, such as claims handling or the ability to order certificates.

While many agencies still use the method of direct mail to touch base with their clients, e-mail communication has proven to be much faster and cost-effective. J.B. McCampbell, communications manager at the Independent Insurance Agents Association of New York Inc., uses e-mail to communicate with its almost 2,000 member agencies and their 18,000 employees.

“We find that communicating with our members electronically makes a lot of sense for us for just efficiency and timeliness,” said McCampbell. “We communicate with our members with a weekly newsletter. During the legislative session, we send out, oftentimes on a weekly basis, a legislative update via e- mail to our members just updating them on what’s taking place in Albany. We find that this is a way that we can reach our members quickly. If we need to reach 75 agents via e-mail in the next two hours about something, we’re able to do that.”

Besides its efficiency, e-mail communication is much less costly than direct mail. “We save a lot of postage,” said Capps. Direct mail can be a costly endeavor, especially when agencies are trying to reach hundreds of clients.

Some of the few disadvantages of e-mail communication versus traditional mail include the ability to delete an e-mail deemed as spam. “Mail, at least they have to put their fingers on it, if they’re going to throw it in the trash can,” said Megill. “With e-mail, the click of a button and it’s gone. Especially if they’re in a hurry and they’ve got hundreds of e-mails to go through.”

Another problem that occurs frequently involves the different capabilities of the various e-mail software programs available to consumers, making it difficult for some recipients to open attachments. “Member agents, they use different types of e-mail software,” said McCampbell. “About a fourth of our membership subscribes to AOL, [which] frequently has a problem with attachments. We found out that many of our members had problems opening up attachments.”

Finally, McCampbell said that there are still many members who prefer to receive newsletters and information via fax, which presents formatting and cost concerns. “Some use technology very little… because maybe they’ve been in business for quite a long time and they built up a successful business without building up any kind of sophisticated technology platform,” he added. “So they may not be rushing off to make the investment in technology that other agents are doing. I think that it’s all going to change, but it takes time.”

Topics Agencies Tech