Mobile coupon statistics show that the response rate is 10 times that of print coupons. Combine these statistics with the fact that the average person checks their phone 150 times a day and then ask yourself how can my insurance agency benefit from text marketing.
As an insurance agent there are a lot of ways you can use mobile marketing to increase your customer base and to keep in touch with your current customers. In this article we will look at the 4 steps insurance agents are using mobile marketing to increase business.
1. Get a Keyword and Advertise It!
Gaining new insurance customers via SMS is how you make more money. Think about what you can offer that will grab their attention and get them talking to you. Can you offer the lowest rates on home insurance? Will you give them a free quote to lower their current insurance rates? Do you offer specials for good students, muti-line, or good drivers? Everyone wants to save money. In your current advertising add a line that says “Text Quote to 77948 to reduce your insurance bill today!” (In this example Quote is the keyword, you choose your own unique keyword) Make the ad relevant to the demographic that will see it and then follow up with each individual to see how you can meet their insurance needs.
2. Insurance Lead Opts In to Get Quote
Individual messages can be used to send a very specific reminder to insurance clients. You may want to send a message when a payment is due, new policy options are available, or if you need a client to contact the office directly about a claim or other issue. You can also shoot out a quick text message asking them to give you a call to discuss something on the account. To send an individual message just click on Contacts (Search) and then enter the name or phone number and click Search Now. Next to the the phone number you will see three icons. The middle icon looks like a closed envelope and is the Send Message icon. Click this icon and type your message. You can send it out immediately or schedule it for a later time. Be sure to include your name or agency name so they know who the message is from and include the best way for them to contact you. If possible, personalize individual messages with the customer’s name. For example, “Hi Jenny, this is John at XYZ I noticed we could save you money on the insurance on your 2010 Honda Accord. Call me at 123-456-7890 at your convenience.”
3. Follow Up with Call or Text Message
Another option is to send a text message to a group of people. Perhaps you want to send a special offer to a specific demographic, or you want to send a payment reminder to everyone that has a payment due that week, or maybe one of your agents has left the company and you want to let his/her clients know who will be taking over management of their account. Whatever type of message you are sending, the group option will let you choose any number of recipients and then send a message to all of them at the same time.
To send a message to a specific group just go to the Send Message page; in the Choose Recipients box check mark the groups that you want the message to go to. You will see a total number of contacts that are in those groups listed below. Type your message in the box to the right and then send your message immediately or schedule it for later the same day.
4. Send Reminders/Alerts to Leads
A third option is to send a text message to all insurance clients that have opted into your campaign. This is a great option if you have some news or promotion that you want to make all clients aware of. Maybe you are offering a new type of coverage or your office has moved and you want everyone to be aware of the new location. Whatever the message is, a text blast is the fastest way to get that message to all of your clients within a matter of minutes.
To send a text blast to all clients just go to the Send Message page and select All Contacts in the Choose Recipient box. Then type your message and send it immediately or schedule it to go out later the same day.
Schedule Your SMS Messages
Scheduling messages for a future date can be done for any of the above options. The Scheduler will allow you to select a group, or all contacts, to schedule a message to. These messages can be scheduled as a one time event or as a recurring option. You can have numerous mobile marketing messages scheduled to go out; in fact, you can schedule all your messages for the whole month or even multiple months. The messages will be queued the morning of delivery and will pull the current contact list at that time.
To schedule a message for a future date for an individual contact you will need to go to the Contact Search and schedule it through the Send Message icon, as detailed in the Individual Messages section above. You will not be able to schedule individual messages through the scheduler.
Remember that all clients must opt-in before you will be able to send them any message. Invite people to opt-in by having them text the keyword you choose to our short code 77948. If you want to group your contacts you can create the groups ahead of time and give the specific details required for them to be added directly to a group. To be added to a group directly they just need to opt-in using the format keyword.keywordExtension. For example, if your keyword is insurance and you choose 1 as the group extension you will then have clients text insurance.1 to 77948 to be added to that specific group. You can also manually move a number into a group after the optin. Check out our video tutorials to see an example of creating groups.