Generative AI has created a real buzz in the insurance industry. It’s hard not to be excited about its potential for innovation and business growth. (Credit: Planetz/Adobe Stock)
Many insurance agencies are looking for ways to get into the AI pool, but are encountering skepticism from staff who don’t necessarily agree with the change.
Navigating these waters can be tricky, but there is an easy place where agencies can intervene.
Integrate AI into the insurance marketing process is a simple, non-threatening way for staff to experience this new technology while providing value to the agency. And AI is just the tip of the marketing icebergLeveraging a marketing platform not only opens the door to AI, but also offers agencies a host of other useful features, such as automation and content libraries.
Let’s see how to adopt a marketing automation A solution with integrated AI can bring these land-based skeptics aboard the AI boat and paddle together toward a greater outcome.
Swim in a sea of content
Email campaigns are an important part of any marketing strategy. This could include newsletters that offer clients and prospects an easy way to stay informed about the agency’s announcements and educational content, or dynamic promotions that include targeted messages and content pieces. While these email communications are a valuable and cost-effective way to keep the lines of communication open, they can also be time-consuming.
Marketing automation solutions allow agencies to harness the power of AI to quickly create engaging emails. Many systems allow users to create their own campaigns from scratch and offer a variety of pre-built options so they can literally “set it and forget it.” Some products also include a built-in content library with options to add agency branding and contact information. Having a sea of content at your fingertips can save a lot of time and potentially eliminate the need to write content from scratch.
Reach for a targeting fishing box
Once email content is created, an agency must determine the audience it will target. This is an important step because sending the wrong type of message to a contact wastes the agency team’s time and effort and could annoy the contact.
Marketing automation provides a toolbox full of tools that simplify list segmentation so agencies can quickly identify prospects using their own data. Integrating a marketing automation solution into the agency’s core management system allows its team to create hyper-targeted lead and client campaigns leveraging contact, account and policy information with a minimal manual effort. Actions taken in the marketing automation solution, such as clicks and email responses, can also be reflected in the agency management system, allowing agents to easily track contacts with a client or a prospect without having to manually enter information.
Automating the targeting process also allows agencies to create dynamic lists. The criteria only need to be set once and the system will automatically update the list based on these criteria when contacts are added or updated. Lists no longer need to be updated manually. Segmentation automation also ensures compliance with email marketing laws and other regulatory restrictions by ensuring that anyone who has unsubscribed from the list does not receive emails.
Using these tools to target audiences gives agencies the opportunity to reach out to client accounts that might be starting to sink and need a little more attention to repair the relationship.
Easily throw away a life jacket
Regular touchpoints with relevant content demonstrate to clients and prospects that an agency is interested in a long-term, non-transactional consulting relationship. This is especially valuable for customers who are at risk of leaving and may need a little support.
A marketing automation solution allows agencies to leverage their contact lists to determine which audiences may need extra attention and which audiences may be oversaturated. If too many emails are sent, they become noise in the recipients’ inbox. It is therefore crucial to find the right balance. The marketing automation solution takes care of the manual efforts of segmenting contacts into groups that need nurturing and establishes a staggered communication cadence with each group.
With this approach, agencies can easily send targeted communications to different groups at different times, avoiding email fatigue and ensuring they are sending interesting and relevant content to their recipients without dedicating a staff member to this tedious task.
Let the ideas flow
Understanding email campaign performance is an important part of determining whether contacts are oversaturated or undersaturated. Automated marketing solutions can help agencies better understand the success and effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
Email analytics is the best indicator of campaign success and should be monitored closely. They can help determine how often agencies should email their contacts. For example, sending emails too frequently could increase unsubscribe rates, leading to a loss of future touchpoint opportunities with those contacts.
Performance insights allow agents to make corrections before they start to slip. Staff no longer waste effort on something that misses the mark and contacts don’t receive information that doesn’t concern them. This also allows the agency to see what information their contacts are interested in to sell more intelligently. Learning more about a client or prospect’s needs allows the agency to target recommended products, helping to keep the campaign successful or afloat.
Dive into AI with Marketing Automation
Anupam Gupta
Marketing automation tools are a great place to test the waters of AI and automation. Automated processes allow agencies to spend less time managing communications and more time growing their business. Automating mundane tasks like list building and email writing will surely entice the skeptics in every agency to join the AI and automation pool party.
