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I know this post is a bit long. I thought about making several different posts for the different topics, but since they all kind of tie together (and everything is really about creating a marketing plan anyway) I figured I'd just make it one comprehensive post.
Current Situation
Right now I’m pretty low-tech. I’ve used Retail for a few years as my CRM, but just use it mainly for data entry like inputting basic contact info, medsupp plan selected, appointment notes, etc. I don’t have a website, brand, or logo (I just use that of my agency), don’t have a newsletter, don’t use any campaigns with Send Out Cards (SOC) or drip emails, or really have any repeatable, automated processes for contacting old leads and prospects, for client’s spouses turning 65, or for clients' annual reviews. Needless to say, I don’t do a great job keeping in touch with my clients.
My core product is selling Medicare supplements. I also have my Series 65 and my RICP and am looking to grow my business in doing retirement income planning, but haven’t gained much traction there yet. Below I have a rough idea of my marketing plan moving forward, and then broken down with more pointed questions for each component. What I’m really looking for is guidance on the best place to start, what strategies to use in accomplishing the plan, advice on any one area, or even examples on what you do that you find works in generating business.
What I’m Looking to Do
Use technology and the different tools out there to accomplish the following:
Website & Branding
I’ve read lots of the threads over on the Insurance Websites forum, and recently got a membership on Chris Westfall’s site. It seems like getting Wordpress and creating my own site would be the way to go, but I’m looking for input here.
Social Media
From the research I’ve done, it seems like Facebook is the only really logical choice when it comes to marketing to the senior market. Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. just don’t seem to have enough users in that demographic to make it worth my time learning these platforms, for now. Also, from what I’ve learned the best way to approach Facebook marketing is to be a valuable, trusted source of information first and a salesman second. The more articles and posts I make that followers “like” and find helpful, the more likely they are to share with their friends. This ultimately will drive traffic to my website where many of the articles I put on FB will be hosted, and where the calls to action will be.
So naturally the website and branding would come before establishing a social media presence. I’ve browsed a lot on FB’s site about how to use it for marketing: creating a page, boosting posts, targeting ads, etc. It doesn’t seem too difficult, but I’m sure there will be your usual learning curve. I don’t really have any questions about FB marketing at this time, but I’d be interested in hearing anyone’s advice along these lines including experience, lessons learned, etc.
Newsletters, Send Out Cards, Email Campaigns
The points above were more geared towards creating ways and reasons for people to find me. This section is more geared towards me reaching out to others. As I mentioned above, I’m not very good at this part but I’d like to automate as much of the process as possible in order to create the incentive for people to reach out to me, or at least warm them up when I do reach out with a phone call.
CRM
As I’ve mentioned, my only experience with a CRM is using Redtail for the last few years. They raised their rates to $100/mo. this year, so I figured I’d reevaluate this part of my business too as I launch these new marketing options. I looked around a lot in the other forums and threads on here and it seems like there are several options that might work for what I’m looking to do. As of now, Radius seems to be the one I’m leaning toward, but as I have zero experience in using a CRM to accomplish and coordinate the parts of my game plan above, I’d love the input of others here in which one may best serve my needs.
Anyway, if you made it to the end, thanks for reading. Please post if you've got any feedback for me. Thanks!
Current Situation
Right now I’m pretty low-tech. I’ve used Retail for a few years as my CRM, but just use it mainly for data entry like inputting basic contact info, medsupp plan selected, appointment notes, etc. I don’t have a website, brand, or logo (I just use that of my agency), don’t have a newsletter, don’t use any campaigns with Send Out Cards (SOC) or drip emails, or really have any repeatable, automated processes for contacting old leads and prospects, for client’s spouses turning 65, or for clients' annual reviews. Needless to say, I don’t do a great job keeping in touch with my clients.
My core product is selling Medicare supplements. I also have my Series 65 and my RICP and am looking to grow my business in doing retirement income planning, but haven’t gained much traction there yet. Below I have a rough idea of my marketing plan moving forward, and then broken down with more pointed questions for each component. What I’m really looking for is guidance on the best place to start, what strategies to use in accomplishing the plan, advice on any one area, or even examples on what you do that you find works in generating business.
What I’m Looking to Do
Use technology and the different tools out there to accomplish the following:
• Create a brand, logo, and website to establish credibility and for lead generation
• Create a Facebook page that promotes credibility, serves as a valuable source of information to my target market, and ultimately drives traffic to my website
• Create a newsletter to add value to my existing clients, keep my name fresh in their mind on a regular basis, and to ultimately convert website visitors as new clients
• Establish SOC and drip email campaigns to keep my name fresh in my client’s minds, suggest upsell products for targeted groups, and stay in touch with old leads and prospects to convert them to clients when they’re ready
• Establish a consistent process for contacting clients at policy anniversaries or when they have rate increases, and to sign their spouse up at 65
• Find an easy-to-use, inexpensive CRM that will make it easier to accomplish the above points
• Create a Facebook page that promotes credibility, serves as a valuable source of information to my target market, and ultimately drives traffic to my website
• Create a newsletter to add value to my existing clients, keep my name fresh in their mind on a regular basis, and to ultimately convert website visitors as new clients
• Establish SOC and drip email campaigns to keep my name fresh in my client’s minds, suggest upsell products for targeted groups, and stay in touch with old leads and prospects to convert them to clients when they’re ready
• Establish a consistent process for contacting clients at policy anniversaries or when they have rate increases, and to sign their spouse up at 65
• Find an easy-to-use, inexpensive CRM that will make it easier to accomplish the above points
Website & Branding
I’ve read lots of the threads over on the Insurance Websites forum, and recently got a membership on Chris Westfall’s site. It seems like getting Wordpress and creating my own site would be the way to go, but I’m looking for input here.
• My first question is: do I create one website for myself and my brand, or have a separate one for Medicare and another for retirement planning? From the little I’ve learned about SEO, I thought having one large website would get better results and establish more credibility than 2 medium size sites. So how important is having the word “Medicare” in the main domain name if I create a specific site for medsupp lead gen (e.g. www (dot) XYZMedicare (dot) com), as opposed to the subdomain name (e.g. www (dot) Xyzfinancial (dot) com/Medicare)?
• As far as branding and creating a logo, it seems like a lot of people recommend fiverr. Any thoughts here good, bad, or otherwise?
• Should I have the site professionally created, or just learn to use Wordpress and improve it as I go? A couple of the services suggested to me by my investment advisory firm are Branding Solutions | Emerald and Advisor Launchpad | Financial Advisor Websites and Marketing
• I plan on writing all my own content. I’m an information junkie and I like researching different topics about the senior market. How do I know though which topics are important enough to make as a menu or submenu item on my website, and which should simply be a blog post? For example, should explaining the benefits of Plan F over Plan G be a submenu item or an article in the blog section?
• As far as branding and creating a logo, it seems like a lot of people recommend fiverr. Any thoughts here good, bad, or otherwise?
• Should I have the site professionally created, or just learn to use Wordpress and improve it as I go? A couple of the services suggested to me by my investment advisory firm are Branding Solutions | Emerald and Advisor Launchpad | Financial Advisor Websites and Marketing
• I plan on writing all my own content. I’m an information junkie and I like researching different topics about the senior market. How do I know though which topics are important enough to make as a menu or submenu item on my website, and which should simply be a blog post? For example, should explaining the benefits of Plan F over Plan G be a submenu item or an article in the blog section?
Social Media
From the research I’ve done, it seems like Facebook is the only really logical choice when it comes to marketing to the senior market. Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. just don’t seem to have enough users in that demographic to make it worth my time learning these platforms, for now. Also, from what I’ve learned the best way to approach Facebook marketing is to be a valuable, trusted source of information first and a salesman second. The more articles and posts I make that followers “like” and find helpful, the more likely they are to share with their friends. This ultimately will drive traffic to my website where many of the articles I put on FB will be hosted, and where the calls to action will be.
So naturally the website and branding would come before establishing a social media presence. I’ve browsed a lot on FB’s site about how to use it for marketing: creating a page, boosting posts, targeting ads, etc. It doesn’t seem too difficult, but I’m sure there will be your usual learning curve. I don’t really have any questions about FB marketing at this time, but I’d be interested in hearing anyone’s advice along these lines including experience, lessons learned, etc.
Newsletters, Send Out Cards, Email Campaigns
The points above were more geared towards creating ways and reasons for people to find me. This section is more geared towards me reaching out to others. As I mentioned above, I’m not very good at this part but I’d like to automate as much of the process as possible in order to create the incentive for people to reach out to me, or at least warm them up when I do reach out with a phone call.
• What’s the best way to go about creating a newsletter? Is it best to create and distribute it through a CRM, or through a functionality tied in with my website? I’d first look to have it be electronic, but wouldn’t be opposed to snail mailing them to clients who are still unplugged. I’m thinking about sending them out quarterly to start, then doing it more often as I see results. I’d plan on offering it to clients and website visitors who opt-in.
• What does your follow-up process look like for a typical medsupp client after you’ve made the sale? I’ve seen some of Chris Westfall’s videos where he has a Send Out Card campaign set up for a new client. For those of you that don’t send out a newsletter, are you using SOCs to keep in front of your clients? If so, any campaign ideas you’d like to share? How often are you just simply picking up the phone and calling the client out of the blue if you don’t use any of these automated methods?
• Rates usually change on policy anniversaries. Are you typically reaching out to clients around this time every year just to do a review with them? Generally at this point you can save them a few bucks by moving them to another carrier, but moving them every year would get old for both you and them. What are typically your criteria for looking to flip them? Saving them $20 per month?
• What campaigns have you found that are successful with upselling financial services or life insurance? Do you send out a different newsletter for clients with a minimum amount of retirement assets? How about a SOC when the market starts to decline?
• If I want to start emailing newsletters or other drip campaigns, can I send them if I’ve spoken with them before and I have their email address, or do I specifically have to get their permission to email them? For example, once I create an email newsletter, can I send it to my existing clients that I have addresses for, or do I need to have them opt-in first?
• What types of automated systems do you have in place to reach out to prospects you’ve talked to in the past? For example, if you met with someone at T65 and they’re still planning on working til 68, do you just call them a few months before their 68th birthday to help them transition to Medicare? It seems like most people retire before they intend to, so by that time they may have already been retired for a year and already on a medsupp. Are you just creating a SOC campaign and mailing them once a year to get an update? The same types of questions go for spouses turning 65 and old leads who you know are having a substantial rate increase and you can save them money. Are you sending them something automated to get them to either contact you or at least get them thinking they should be taking action, or do you just make a cold call at that time?
• What does your follow-up process look like for a typical medsupp client after you’ve made the sale? I’ve seen some of Chris Westfall’s videos where he has a Send Out Card campaign set up for a new client. For those of you that don’t send out a newsletter, are you using SOCs to keep in front of your clients? If so, any campaign ideas you’d like to share? How often are you just simply picking up the phone and calling the client out of the blue if you don’t use any of these automated methods?
• Rates usually change on policy anniversaries. Are you typically reaching out to clients around this time every year just to do a review with them? Generally at this point you can save them a few bucks by moving them to another carrier, but moving them every year would get old for both you and them. What are typically your criteria for looking to flip them? Saving them $20 per month?
• What campaigns have you found that are successful with upselling financial services or life insurance? Do you send out a different newsletter for clients with a minimum amount of retirement assets? How about a SOC when the market starts to decline?
• If I want to start emailing newsletters or other drip campaigns, can I send them if I’ve spoken with them before and I have their email address, or do I specifically have to get their permission to email them? For example, once I create an email newsletter, can I send it to my existing clients that I have addresses for, or do I need to have them opt-in first?
• What types of automated systems do you have in place to reach out to prospects you’ve talked to in the past? For example, if you met with someone at T65 and they’re still planning on working til 68, do you just call them a few months before their 68th birthday to help them transition to Medicare? It seems like most people retire before they intend to, so by that time they may have already been retired for a year and already on a medsupp. Are you just creating a SOC campaign and mailing them once a year to get an update? The same types of questions go for spouses turning 65 and old leads who you know are having a substantial rate increase and you can save them money. Are you sending them something automated to get them to either contact you or at least get them thinking they should be taking action, or do you just make a cold call at that time?
CRM
As I’ve mentioned, my only experience with a CRM is using Redtail for the last few years. They raised their rates to $100/mo. this year, so I figured I’d reevaluate this part of my business too as I launch these new marketing options. I looked around a lot in the other forums and threads on here and it seems like there are several options that might work for what I’m looking to do. As of now, Radius seems to be the one I’m leaning toward, but as I have zero experience in using a CRM to accomplish and coordinate the parts of my game plan above, I’d love the input of others here in which one may best serve my needs.
Anyway, if you made it to the end, thanks for reading. Please post if you've got any feedback for me. Thanks!
