Growing Your Property Casualty Agency

The top functions of an agency newsletter are to keep in touch with existing insureds at times other than renewal and to establish or maintain contact with selected prospects.

Is your agency’s newsletter a snooze-letter?

If your agency sends out a newsletter, take a moment, sit back and honestly evaluate it. Is it interesting and informative, packed full of helpful insurance information and ideas. Or is it loaded with canned facts and articles [yawn]. The real test is whether e-mails and phone calls increase immediately after your publication is distributed. If these contacts don’t shoot up dramatically, then unfortunately, you have sent out a bona fide snooze-letter.

The top functions of an agency newsletter are to keep in touch with existing insureds at times other than renewal and to establish or maintain contact with selected prospects. This effort keeps your name in front of consumers and businesses and motivates them to call you when they want to talk insurance. Reduced exposure to errors and omissions claims is an added bonus.

The ideal newsletter is produced in-house versus purchasing the commercially-packaged variety. This creative approach gives you complete control over the contents. This approach also allows you to publish at least four different property/casualty versions; one each for personal and commercial insureds and one each for their prospects. Simply write a one-page, two-sided newsletter, using an identical back page for both clients and prospects. Produce a quarterly printed version for mailing or for person-to-person distribution and an electronic edition for e-mailing or Web posting.

To help you get started, here are 27 content ideas for a quadruple set of agency-created newsletters.

Front page: Personal lines clients

1) Announce an optional upgrade program to bring your clients up to minimum levels of protection.

2) Information on protecting against extreme weather and natural events, such as flood, mudslides, hurricanes, and earthquakes.

3) Include an “I Thought I Had This Coverage” column.

4) Offer to loan out an identification engraver, radon gas detector, books and videos on home repairs, etc., to interested agency insureds.

5) Highlight a local hardware store that you insure, where agency clients can purchase fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, and deadbolts-and earn discounts on their homeowners policies.

Front page: Personal lines prospects

6) Include an auto, home or boat insurance discount checklist that is geared to new prospects.

7) Offer a free computerized home insurance-to-value appraisal.

8) Display graphs that compare auto and homeowners premiums among leading companies.

Back page: Personal lines clients and prospects

9) Present a personal umbrella article that highlights actual claim situations. Display typical premiums for $1 million and $2 million.

10) List your agency’s most common homeowners claims and how to properly insure against them.

11) Include a sample depreciation schedule for the most common household possessions and point out how replacement cost coverage eliminates the financial impact of these charges.

12) Note how to properly insure a home-based business for property, liability and earnings.

13) List the motor vehicles most/least frequently stolen and severely damaged in a collision.

14) Suggest ways to prevent identity-theft. Also promote ID-theft insurance. Include sample premiums at various limits.

15) Promote the value of a scheduled jewelry floater versus the basic coverage provided by most homeowners policies.

Front page: Commercial lines clients

16) Feature success stories, including rapid claims settlements to local businesses. Be certain to get your insured’s permission first.

17) Informational articles highlighting terrorism insurance exclusions and coverage options.

18) Tips to reduce worker’s compensation and other payroll-based premiums/audits.

19) Feature premium financing options for competitive interest rates or small installment fees.

20) Point out how completing a short monthly contents reporting form might save premium dollars for commercial accounts that meet the eligibility requirements.

Front page: Commercial lines prospects

21) Display a dividend payment history of the agency’s association, safety group, and other similar-type programs.

22) Promote the peak-season endorsement as a premium saving device.

23) Offer a free or discounted computerized building insurance-to-value appraisal.

Back page: Commercial lines clients and prospects

24) How to properly insure mobile equipment such as cell phones, pagers, and notebook PCs.

25) Discuss the benefits of insuring mechanical and electronic equipment with a boiler and machinery policy.

26)How to insure accounts receivable.

27) Highlight the importance of non-owned and hired car coverage. Include common employee-driving situations where this endorsement may come into play.

Topics Property Homeowners Casualty