Sending card to your clients throughout the year

[Life Hawk]

I send handwritten birthday and Xmas cards . Hand write on the card and the address . I put HAPPY BIRTHDAY PENNY!!!! Next to the address on the envelope. I get a ton of thank you’s and referrals as I put 3 cards in there .

You've read you some "Joe Girard". Give out business cards everywhere you go!

Might as well follow the advice of the Greats!

 

[ValeRosso]

I send handwritten birthday and Xmas cards . Hand write on the card and the address . I put HAPPY BIRTHDAY PENNY!!!! Next to the address on the envelope. I get a ton of thank you’s and referrals as I put 3 cards in there .

i love that. Gets the message across and the cards are self explanatory, without needing to mention anything else.

My agents office was next door to a donut shop and I sent birthday cards each month offering a free gourmet donut just for showing the birthday card to the owner of the donut shop. Every month $10-$20 in postage for a hand written Happy Birthday with nothing asked in between. NOT ONE card was ever returned to the donut shop. A Fractured Prune donut was waiting for any of them to turn the card in. they did not even have to stop into the insurance office. Then I upped it to a lunch at Roy Rogers just to see if upping the offer helped. NADA

Man…not even a free lunch! And Roy Rogers is awesome! Point noted…card by itself is fine.

 

[shonceman]

I used to send out birthday and Christmas cards. I could have hired a service, but that was too costly and seemed impersonal. But doing it myself was too time consuming. Then I discovered an app for my iPhone called HitEmUp that gets around the text blast restriction by sending them out one by one in rapid succession. I have an annual subscription, so I text birthday, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, Fathers Day, and Juneteenth. I’ve also sent Happy Hew Year texts. I don’t know if I’ve gotten referrals directly, but I’ve definitely gotten a good response from it. I get a lot of thank you texts throughout the day. Some of my clients have even taken to beating me to the punch, texting me on holidays before I’ve gotten a text out to them.

(I should probably mention that these are mostly home service/FE clients. It may not go over as well with a more sophisticated clientele.)

 

[ValeRosso]

I used to send out birthday and Christmas cards. I could have hired a service, but that was too costly and seemed impersonal. But doing it myself was too time consuming. Then I discovered an app for my iPhone called HitEmUp that gets around the text blast restriction by sending them out one by one in rapid succession. I have an annual subscription, so I text birthday, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, Fathers Day, and Juneteenth. I’ve also sent Happy Hew Year texts. I don’t know if I’ve gotten referrals directly, but I’ve definitely gotten a good response from it. I get a lot of thank you texts throughout the day. Some of my clients have even taken to beating me to the punch, texting me on holidays before I’ve gotten a text out to them.

(I should probably mention that these are mostly home service/FE clients. It may not go over as well with a more sophisticated clientele.)

Thats a good idea with the texts. Do they have an ability to auto send messages, like if you upload birthdates or other dates it will automatically send according to the date?

 

[Real_AMG]

My clients get 10 touches from my office every year. I do a quarterly newsletter, a card on their birthday, three ringless voicemails, and two personal phone calls every year. Whether or not I mention referrals or other life and health products depends on the occasion. Each point of contact has a different purpose. The important thing is to make sure that your clients don’t feel like your relationship is transactional.

 

[shonceman]

Thats a good idea with the texts. Do they have an ability to auto send messages, like if you upload birthdates or other dates it will automatically send according to the date?

Not that I can tell. I think there may be other more expensive apps that will do that. But it does alert me to birthdays.

 

[jdeasy]

For those who send birthday cards, Christmas cards, etc, do you also ask for referrals in the card, or do you keep it specifically to the purpose of the special occasion and don’t ask for referrals or anything else?

I want to start sending birthday cards but wasn’t sure if I should include a referral “bit” in the card or not.

Also, other than birthdays, what cards are you also sending (if any)?

I send a thank you card to everyone that buys a policy from me. And have for about 13 years now. I used to also send a nice to have met you card to all non buyers but I stopped that about 10 years ago.

I used SoC for many years but stopped using them for life sales because they were just so slow. Many times I would deliver the policy before they received the thank you card. So now part of my submitting applications is to send a thank you card. I buy them at the Dollar Store or Walmart and just send a short note and another business card included.

I do send birthday cards to my med sup clients. I still use SoC for that. I set up a campaign at the same time I'm sending the thank you card.

I have never asked for a referral in my career. Not in person, not in the card. But I get a lot of referrals.

Is it the cards? Maybe? But it's more of the total. I'm a believer that referrals are earned, not asked for. I answer my phone. I help with address changes, bank changes, beneficiary changes, annual medicaid reviews, etc. I deliver policies. I help with claim paperwork.

It all goes together. There's no magic button.

 

[bill3173]

Is it the cards? Maybe? But it's more of the total. I'm a believer that referrals are earned, not asked for. I answer my phone. I help with address changes, bank changes, beneficiary changes, annual medicaid reviews, etc. I deliver policies. I help with claim paperwork.

It all goes together. There's no magic button.

That's it right there, I send thank you cards to all of my clients, new and recurring, but without the rest of the things that you mentioned, I seriously doubt that it would mean much.

 

[shonceman]

I'm a believer that referrals are earned, not asked for. I answer my phone. I help with address changes, bank changes, beneficiary changes, annual medicaid reviews, etc. I deliver policies. I help with claim paperwork.

It all goes together. There's no magic button.

As @WinoBlues and others have often pointed out, service is what makes a real insurance agent stand out from all the insurance salespeople out there.