News without Paper? Get Social.
April 30, 2012 by Dave Willis · Leave a Comment
Several years ago, I heard futurist Daniel Burrus speak at an industry event. Since then, I’ve followed his Technotrends newsletter. I find his insight fascinating and overwhelming, all in one.
Burrus recently shared his “Top 20 Technology-Driven Trends for 2012.” One is “social business takes on a new level of urgency as organizations shift from an information age ‘informing’ model to a communication age ‘communicating and engaging’ model.” He also said 2012 is when electronic books, newspapers and magazines “pass the tipping point, due to the abundance of smartphones with readable displays, tablets that provide a full color experience, and publishers providing apps that give a better than paper experience by including cut, copy, paste, print, and multimedia capabilities.”
A couple of weeks ago, a Burrus article in Technorati focused on the future of newspapers. Advertising was down 7.3% in 2011, he said, a point higher than 2010’s drop. Surprising, he wrote, “was that it was only down that much.
Knowing When to Use the ‘F’ Word (Free)
April 17, 2012 by Mariane Ceballo · Leave a Comment
While a brand is only as valuable as the time and dollars invested in it, sometimes, the F-word—“free”—is the answer.
Let’s face it: While the market isn’t as soft as it was, the economy is still unstable. Marketing budgets are reflective of the environment and aren’t quite what they used to be.
Typically, the average cost to produce a professional video ranges from $5,000 to $20,000 for two minutes of time. Companies such as GE, Microsoft and others have in-house video studios and a budget to allow for the high price of perfection. But in the insurance industry, we tend to have a little less focus on marketing and drive harder on reducing risk for our customers.
That’s not a bad thing. After all, we’re in the business of mitigating risk but video is a key communication vehicle when delivering your brand message. So, that’s where the F-word can be helpful. Read more
Playing to the Stereotype: Four Insurance Branding Lessons from the New Jersey Governor
April 10, 2012 by Charles Wasilewski · 5 Comments
Take These Four Insurance Branding Lessons Home With You
From modest beginnings in New Jersey, a larger-than-life politician has emerged onto the national stage: Governor Chris Christie. And he’s brought along branding experiences that apply to insurance.
Christie was criticized by opponents as an underqualified political appointee and a legal lightweight when he was nominated by President George W. Bush to the post of U.S. Attorney for the State of New Jersey. During Christie’s tenure from 2002 through 2008, the U.S. Attorney’s office won convictions or pleas of guilty from 130 public officials (state, county and local), both Democratic and Republican — without losing a single case.
Learning to Adapt
March 20, 2012 by Rick Morgan · Leave a Comment
“Digital Darwinism – The evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than the ability to exploit it.” – Brian Solis
What a great term—Digital Darwinism—to describe the fear many agencies and carriers feel as they struggle at make sense of the many challenges they face in today’s rapidly evolving environment.
Mobile, cloud, and social technologies are evolving faster than ever. These technologies are also transforming our society and giving rise to a new empowered and connected consumer. The reference to Darwin suggests that failure to adapt eventually will lead to the demise of the business of insurance, as we know it.
I believe that the challenge facing our industry is not just about making sure agents have blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and are using Pinterest to curate relevant business information. Yes, it is important to learn how to effectively use new technology.
Greater Visibility, Lower Cost: Top Agencies Prove It
December 6, 2011 by Charles Wasilewski · 5 Comments
Agents and brokers are boosting their advertising and marketing efforts.
But they’re doing so without spending more. In fact, the data show they’re spending less.
That’s according to Shirley Lukens, AAI, principal of Reagan Consulting, who shepherds the annual Best Practices Study, a joint project of Reagan and the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (Big “I”). Formerly the head of industry affairs for Big “I”, Shirley was a mover behind launching the Best Practices initiative in 1993.
Speaking at the ASCnet TENCon industry event in September, Lukens noted that the most recent 2011 Best Practices research showed that agencies in the study “really stepped up their marketing advertising. They really aggressively advertised and marketed in ways that they hadn’t done in years past.”
But the agencies were not increasing their outlay for marketing; they were keeping it level or even reducing it in some cases, according to the financial data in the Best Practices research. Lukens looked more closely and even spoke to a few of the agency principals. She reported: Read more
Gift Card In the Big Store
October 11, 2011 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
“It’s like a gift card in a big store.”
Recently a client made that statement at the conclusion of a discussion about a new branding initiative for his insurance firm. The client was delighted about having a range of choices in the creative materials we had developed. But he also was a bit torn and forlorn about having to only choose one approach from more than one choice.
Ah, there’s the rub, as Shakespeare once said.
With a marketing budget, or any budget for that matter, insurance brands need to make choices. Read more
Disaster Communications: We Can Do More with Social Media
October 4, 2011 by Rick Morgan · Leave a Comment
This post is a follow-up to the #Irene #Insurance blog I wrote on August 30. That post was written during Hurricane Irene and I talked about how agents, carriers and associations were leveraging social tools to effectively connect with their customers and communicate valuable information.
Since that post, much of the East Coast has suffered significant flooding from both Irene and Tropical Storm Lee—and the companies mentioned in my earlier post along with many other firms continued to make effective use of social networking to stay in touch with their customers.
They used everything from e-newsletter and blogs to Twitter and YouTube to post information on how to contact carriers, storm updates, emergency shelters locations, road closings, office hours, FEMA info, tips on cleaning, preparing a disaster supply kit, storm surge maps, “thank you’s” to emergency responders, photos of local flooding, and insurance policy coverage information. Read more
“This technology has people in it.”
September 27, 2011 by Dave Willis · Leave a Comment
A couple of weeks ago, I sat in on a presentation by James McQuivey, Ph.D., vice president and principal analyst for Forrester, held in conjunction with the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers Education Convocation and Young Agents and Agents Council for Technology (ACT) meetings. In the session, titled “Market Effectively to Today’s Consumers,” he addressed the need to adapt to a hybrid digital/personal customer relationship.
As part of the ACT meeting held later that day, McQuivey answered audience questions for an hour or so. One line he shared during this follow-up Q&A exchange caught my attention. He said, “You need to show this technology has people in it.”
“Online search” is one way to do this. Independent agents need to find ways to increase their ranking in search results. The Consumer Access Portal initiative unveiled at the IIABA meetings should help agents do this. Incorporating local presence will, as McQuivey said, “add the trust to the web experience.”
The hybrid digital/personal customer relationship plays an important role after the sale is made—and not just 10 or 11 months after, either. Ongoing communication and interaction, online and in person, reinforces the connection, leads to new sales opportunities, and builds customer loyalty.
This hybrid relationship can actually start before the sale. Social networking—Facebook and YouTube, in particular—is ready-made for such connections. “Introduce your business on Facebook, ask people to like it, and tell them if they do you’ll periodically post things about how to handle a car accident or other issues when you learn them,” McQuivey suggested. “At least the customer will have your contact info.” This is especially important with younger customers, many of whom prefer Facebook communication over other forms—including email.
McQuivey cited our friend, Lisa Parry Becker, who chose not to attend the meeting so she could stay home and help customers with flood claims, as a prime example of how to tie digital and personal. “Share the news of Lisa staying away from this meeting to help clients,” he said. “You as agents have always been personal. You’re connecting to human beings who live in your community. You just need to let people know that.”
Have you found success building out hybrid digital/personal customer relationships? Are you too focused on one or the other? How do you find balance? Are some agents or other businesses doing a really good job of combing the technology and people? If so, what’s making a difference?
Social Networking – Its Impact on Your Brand
June 21, 2011 by Rick Morgan · Leave a Comment
While it is common for people to think of their logo as their brand – it is so much more than that. Brand is everything and everything is brand. Your brand is the impression or feeling someone has about your firm and is formed and evolves from every customer touch point or interaction with your company. Brand is your storefront, your reception area, your employees, and your voicemail system. Brand includes all of your communication tools. In the digital age your brand is the user interface, content, and functionality of your website. Brand is also your Linkedin profile, your Twitter activity, and your Facebook page.
Today more than ever brand is being defined by consumers and what they think is more important or has more influence than your brand messaging. Interestingly enough, even if you are not engaged in social networking it is having an impact on your brand. In fact, not engaging in social networking may be doing great harm to your brand. Read more
Lessons from the Rebrand Frontier
March 8, 2011 by Maureen Wall Bentley · Leave a Comment
In an industry in which so much has been reported as “down” in the last couple years—sales, revenues, retention—the one number that continues to rise is that of mergers and acquisitions. In 2010, agency M&A alone grew more than 20% over 2009.
Why? Baby Boomer principals are looking to fund their retirements, benefits brokers are eager for P&C partners to relieve them of the uncertainty of healthcare legislation and, quite simply, bigger fish are just eating smaller fish. Agents, brokers, companies, vendors…no one in our space is immune. And among those left standing, there is a profound need to embrace their new family members and prove their relevance in a highly competitive marketplace. Add to that the number of organizations that simply need to shake off tired brand identities and touch points, and you’ve got a host of entities debuting new looks.
So, it should be no surprise that over the last two years Aartrijk has been involved in the rebranding of several industry organizations—providing brand research, naming, tagline and logo development, trademarking, rollout and sometimes all of the above. And while every rebrand is inherently different, I’ve noticed a few common misperceptions and lessons learned. For those even considering rebranding, some words to the wise…. Read more