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Automating Your Marketing & Branding
Article 2 in a 6-part series
Marketing Automation is one of six primary categories we recommend independent insurance agencies invest in to build out their InsurTech strategy in 2020.
What Is Marketing Automation?
Generate qualified leads, craft personalized buying journeys, and interact with contacts from top to bottom of the funnel with powerful marketing tools that allow your team to work smarter not harder.
Why It’s Important to Use These Tools
Marketing is critical to feeding your sales team and keeping loyal clients in the fold. But that means connecting with prospects and clients where they live— increasingly, online.
Marketing in the Digital Age
Online is where the action is—and if you’re not engaging there, your competition is.
If you are doing some digital marketing already, that’s great. Now think about what you could do even better—or finally start doing—with these labor-saving tools.
Marketing Automation Tools
Here are some of the major tasks and functions you can automate. We’ve included representative solutions vendors as well. These are just examples. Our list is not intended to be exhaustive of all the options out there, nor does ePayPolicy endorse or prefer one vendor over another.
Email Automation
Email is a versatile way to stay engaged with prospects and clients alike. But it requires time and skills you may not have on staff. Today, managing email campaigns has never been easier or more affordable, with software from HubSpot, MailChimp and Marketo, to name a few.
Email automation tools enable you to:
- Customize templates to your brand and target campaigns by audience segment or their actions
- Schedule and deploy your campaign during prime time and track essential metrics and KPIs
- Split test different elements to continue improving your campaign outcomes
Social Media Presence
Yes! Businesses do need to be on social media. People expect to find you there. Each site has its own niche, but it’s important to have a presence on all of them:
- LinkedIn is a professional (business) networking site
- Twitter centers around real-time global conversations and timely trends
- Facebook is a multifaceted social networking site with the emphasis on “social”
- Instagram is a popular photo and video sharing site owned by Facebook
- Pinterest is a photo sharing site dedicated to visual inspiration
Social Media Management
Your social media visibility is only as good as your last post. Luckily, Social Media Management (SMM) tools do the heavy lifting for you. SMM software from Sprout Social, HubSpot, Hootsuite and the like allow you to:
- Schedule social posts when the right people will see them
- Save valuable time by posting for you across all the platforms
- See every interaction with your mentions
- Connect with prospects and clients to grow your brand
Digital Advertising
Digital, or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising complements your other online marketing (especially social). You can display brief advertisements, service offerings, video content and more on Google and social media platforms and only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Management software and platforms such as AdHawk, Google Ads, and,AdRoll can:
- Manage your digital advertising across all platforms
- Aggregate your data into one dashboard for real-time updates
- Suggest optimization tips based on viewer response
Thinking Ahead
If this seems like a lot to absorb, you can phase in these Marketing Automation Technologies at your own pace.
Email Marketing, Social Media Presence, Social Media Management, and Digital Advertising tools are designed to turbocharge your marketing. With their powerful analytics, you’ll see instantly how each channel is working for your agency.
Where Does Your Agency Stand?
Find out! The InsurTech Award presented by ePayPolicy is now open for entries. Top scorers will get cash and other awesome prizes. All entrants receive their InsurTech adoption score, along with valuable feedback. Enter today and find out how your agency stacks up against others (and how you’ve improved over time, if you’ve entered before). Judges even offer tips on specific ways to leverage automation for:
Why Great Leaders Are Great
One of our favorite speeches in the ePayPolicy office is Simon Sinek’s viral TEDTalk, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.”
For almost 10 years, people have been quoting this 18 minute video, making Sinek a household name, and asking this deceptively simple question: Why?
Why do we buy what we buy? Believe what we believe? Why do we respect and trust those who lead us?
Why are Great Leaders Great?
Earlier this week I was in Charleston, S.C. at the Applied Client Network Leadership Academy and, after two very inspiring, very full days, my reasons Why were validated.
They Think Critically
Regardless of if they’re in the business of selling dishwashers or diapers, great leaders strike a balance between thinking with both their head and heart. No decision is made entirely autonomously. A great leader has to have a good head on his or her shoulders, and approaching obstacles ready to roll up their sleeves, and problem solve alongside their team, is imperative to success.
Cornell University and SC Johnson College of Business Professor Risa Mish. Kicking off Day 1 with an insightful and engaging keynote speech on The Critical Thinking Advantage.
They Encourage Others to Think Critically
As the old adage goes, “There’s no ‘I’ in team.
A leader will hone a skill. A great leader is great because s/he will hone a skill and teach & encourage others to do the same. They spread the wealth.
They See People, Not Employees
Thanks for the words of wisdom, Applied Client Network!
It’s true that it takes [wo]man-power to run an organization. Without that power, all that’s left is someone with ideas, but not enough resources to execute those ideas. We all need a little help making our ambitions a reality, and that’s where team members come into the picture.
It’s important to see the people behind the work. Everyone wants to be valued. To be a great leader, one must give credit and recognition for the incredible things their team does. But, they must also see that their team is made of people. And people are more than the work they do.
They Expect More
We all have people in our lives that demand more from us. These people are constantly improving and expecting those around them to also improve. These are the types of great leaders that believe it is everyone’s job to grow and learn.
Gregory Shiple embodies this belief. His journey with Applied Systems, Inc. (the principal sponsor of Applied Client Network) began in 1986, when he was hired as a programmer. Today, 32 years and multiple positions later, Shiple is the Vice President of Support at Applied, with an astonishing 95% retention rate. When asked how he maintains such an impressive rate, Shiple’s answer was concise and simple.
“Retention is the responsibility of all teams,” he said, “not just one.”
They Stay Hungry (& Foolish)
Why do you think great leaders are great? Comment below or Tweet to us at @ePayPolicy on Twitter.
The Leadership Academy is Applied Client Network’s annual gathering of chapter officers. This exclusive event is an opportunity for officers to discuss leading practices, learn about industry tools and resources, and network and exchange information with peers.
ePayPolicy is an electronic payment processor made by insurance professionals, for insurance professionals. They enable insurance agents and brokers to accept credit card and ACH payments while passing on transaction fees to the insured. To learn more about ePayPolicy, visit ePayPolicy or schedule a demo today.
