How to develop a life insurance email marketing strategy
You could just sit down and start writing, but planning out your email strategy makes it more effective. Before you start composing your messages, create a content calendar. Set a goal for email frequency and start brainstorming potential topics.
Your emails should not be overly sales-oriented. People are more likely to unsubscribe from your mailing list if they don’t perceive value from your messages. Instead, create content that helps your readers. Use your emails to answer frequently asked questions or tie them to relevant seasonal topics. See 32 Email Marketing Topics for Life Insurance Agents for more ideas.
When you’ve generated a thorough list of topics, choose your desired tone. Think about the type of language your prospects use and speak directly to your audience.
Picking the right tool
The great thing about email marketing is that you can start with your existing email provider (Google for example), but this strategy becomes less effective as your list grows. There are many platforms on the market that you can use to create and send newsletters and other messages to large groups. Look at tools like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Drip, or Sendinblue. Most clients that approach you as a professional want to know who you are in an elevator pitch.
Most of these platforms offer tiered pricing depending on your number of contacts and how many messages you send every month. Many also offer templates you can use to make your messages look more professional and engaging. Compare different platforms to see which one you find most affordable and user-friendly to you.
Creating successful emails
The goal of any email campaign is to generate life insurance prospects and convert them into customers. Email marketing is more likely to succeed when the messages are unique and helpful.
At first, your list of topics might include the importance of bundling insurance products or other similar subjects designed to sell life insurance. However, These emails may likely be deleted because they could come across as impersonal and read like a sales pitch.
Tie insurance into seasonal topics
Instead of selling, vary your messages and focus on what’s important to your clients. Find a way to make insurance topics relevant to consumers. For example, in the spring, send an email celebrating wedding season and remind your clients that when they get married, it’s important to review their life insurance policy and make changes — or to purchase a policy if they don’t have one.
Keep track of client anniversary dates and send a yearly reminder to customers so they can review their policy and make any necessary changes.
Use your email list to generate new leads
Entice existing clients to send new business your way by running a referral contest or incentive and promoting it through your life insurance email marketing.
If you’re wondering how to find prospects for life insurance, a simple answer is to build your word-of-mouth advertising. You could offer a small incentive for every successful referral or host a contest with a bigger prize for the client who generates the highest number of referrals.
Celebrate your community
Being active in your local community is a great method for finding new life insurance prospects. Write emails celebrating local events and businesses. You can create lists of the best restaurants in your area or highlight upcoming festivals and events. These emails are harder to tie directly into insurance, but they help you connect with locals, and building a network makes selling life insurance easier.
Offer tips for improving quality of life
For many people, buying life insurance brings their mortality to the forefront. Although you can buy insurance at any age, most people don’t typically consider it until they get older — aside from policies offered by their employers. Push mortality into the background by emailing your contacts with tips and tricks on getting healthy and maintaining personal wellness.
Use email as a touch point
When someone buys an insurance policy, send a welcome email thanking them for their business. You can keep this message short or use it to address frequently asked questions. Include directions for any next steps, and include your contact information in case they have questions in the future.
Elements to include in your messages
Regardless of the context, your life insurance emails should include a call to action (CTA). This could be a request for referrals, a prompt to contact you for further information, or links to follow you on social media. If you have an email creation tool, a CTA is commonly presented in the form of a “button,” as opposed to a simple text link, to help it stand out.
It’s considered a smart practice to place a CTA fairly high up in your content so it gets seen quickly, but it also helps to place it a second time farther down to account for users who may rapidly scroll past the first button.
Write a good subject line
Create a subject line that stands out. People receive an abundance of emails every day. Your subject line should entice them to open your email. Some sample subject lines include:
- Announcing Our New Referral Program: How You Could Win $500
- Common Life Insurance Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
- It’s Time to Review Your Policy — Are You Paying Too Much?
In general, your subject line should be short — common guidance suggests 41 characters, or seven words. When possible, personalize your subject lines and include language that makes them seem relevant and/or urgent. Make it descriptive so the reader knows what’s in the email.
Lastly, if you’re not using an email marketing tool to send bulk emails, create a group in your email contacts and adjust the settings so people can’t see the whole list of recipients. You can add each address manually, but make sure to BCC each contact for privacy.
Based on the first subject line example from above, here’s what a full mailing might look like:
Subject: Announcing Our New Referral Program: How You Could Win $500
Hi Tony,
Do you have a friend or family member who doesn’t have life insurance but might want to consider it? Refer us to one or more people, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win $500 — one entry for every referral who connects with us for a free consultation. Even if they don’t become a new customer, you’ll still be entered — all they have to do is talk with us for free!
Check with your friends and family. Did anybody recently get married? Did they just have a child, or do they have one on the way? It could be a smart time for them to look into providing some protection for their loved ones.
Again, they don’t have to commit to anything. If your referral simply consults with us (for free), you’ll be entered in the $500 drawing!
ENTER NOW
We appreciate your business and are committed to making sure you’re a happy customer.
Next Steps
Becoming familiar with life insurance email marketing is a must for anyone wondering how to generate life insurance leads. You can use your email content to establish yourself as a trusted expert and keep your business at the top of your clients’ minds.
Varying your content from straightforward, insurance-related issues to fun, yet useful information helps keep customers engaged and lets you build a relationship with them. It also lets you remind customers to approach you with questions and other insurance policy needs.
Now that you’re familiar with the elements of successful email marketing campaigns, create your content calendar and start writing emails that inspire your clients and help you generate new prospects.
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