A Holiday Marketing Guide for Insurance Agents
The holiday season can be a challenging time in the insurance industry. As people’s lives become preoccupied with visions of sugarplums and other assorted Christmas cheer, they tend to think less and less about insurance.
With the holidays fast approaching, now is the time to start planning how you’re going inject a little holiday spirit into your marketing efforts, boost your customer engagement, and strengthen your brand identity throughout the holiday season and beyond.
It doesn’t take much to incorporate the holiday season into your marketing plan. A little creativity and a little extra effort are all you need to keep up your momentum over the holidays. In this post, we will offer up four great ideas on how to leverage some tried and true holiday marketing strategies to benefit your insurance agency and increase your bottom line.
Holiday Marketing Strategy #1: Get creative with your method of contact.
Have you ever noticed that the open and response rates on your email marketing campaigns tend to take a nose dive somewhere around the third week in November, right on through the new year? Does it seem like your cold calls during the same time frame always end up being a disappointment?
If you’re running into difficulty using the same old standards of communication to reach your contacts, particularly during the holidays, now may be a good time to switch it up. Consider sending text messages to your top clients or leads, or connecting with them through social media. This is also a good time to re-evaluate your email subject lines and make some adjustments that will entice your clients to open your messages, especially during this busy time of the year.
Holiday Marketing Strategy #2: Offer savings or incentives.
This holiday season, consider offering a special product or package to customers and send them a personalized message outlining any savings potential they may receive. It is important that when you send these types of promotional emails that you clearly convey exactly how much money (either in a dollar amount or a percentage) that they will save if they add/switch to the new product/package.
At the same time, make sure that your messaging around the holiday promotion is consistent across all platforms. Your mailers, phone scripts, emails, and social media content should all match. Savings-inspired conversations are great because they offer real opportunities for you to upsell your clients. So make sure that your promotion is reaching everyone.
Holiday Marketing Strategy #3: Get personal and embrace the holiday season.
Insurance agencies rely on the cultivation of long-term relationships with customers. Since the holidays are all about friends and family, the holiday season offers the perfect opportunity to get personal with your clients by reaching out with a heartfelt message.
Personal, handwritten messages inside holiday greeting cards will go a long way to show your customers that you appreciate them. Compared to an email, your clients will be more likely to open a holiday card this time of year, especially if it is personalized.
You may also want to consider sending a friendly text message wishing them a happy and healthy holiday season. The best sales conversions come out of the long game, so forget about selling when reaching out with your holiday greetings. By simply connecting with them you open yourself up to the opportunity for increased referrals or more engagement after the holidays.
The holiday season is also a time to let your clients and leads know exactly who you are. If you and your company are involved in charitable or volunteer efforts, the holiday season is the perfect time to let them know.
Holiday Marketing Strategy #4: Keep your marketing efforts going during the holiday season.
If you are involved in regular digital marketing efforts, there is no reason to pause your campaign during the holidays. Even though there is a good chance that people aren’t thinking about their insurance needs during the holiday season, there are always exceptions to the rule. Whenever you pause or suspend an active digital marketing campaign, you create distance between your business and sales conversions. By maintaining your digital marketing efforts during the holiday season, you open yourself up to new opportunities for success.
Instead of putting your efforts on hold, tailor them to the season by creating holiday-themed content. You can also develop a series of blog posts, articles, or other content around holiday-related issues centered around the type of insurance you sell. Not only will this sort of marketing effort help to start conversations with your existing clients, but it will also help you to build your audience by driving more traffic and interest during the holiday season.
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