How to Break Through the Clutter with Your Insurance Emails
As just one strategy used by insurance agents to reach current and future clients, email marketing is a beast. It involves copy, technical elements, data analytics, and the list goes on … But to reach your audience, it’s crucial to craft emails that people actually open, read, and engage with.
Though it may seem like email marketing is a free-for-all, don’t be fooled. Email marketing has best practices, and choosing to follow these general rules can strengthen your marketing strategy while engaging with your audience more effectively.
For insurance companies, it’s important to craft an email marketing strategy that’s on-brand and prompts people to action. Let’s break down some of the best (and worst) practices for email marketing.
What To Do Before You Press “Send”
Most of the hard work happens before you send out an insurance marketing email. Here are some general rules to follow to perfect your pre-email process.
Let People Opt In
If someone receives an email they didn’t ask for, chances are they won’t be happy it’s cluttering up their inbox. Create a clear process for people to opt in to insurance emails so they know they gave you permission to communicate via email.
The “Double Opt-In” method follows a two-step process for subscribers: first, they fill out a sign-up form and provide you with their email. Second, they receive an email confirming that they signed up for your mailing list. This reminds potential customers that they did indeed sign up to receive your emails.
Make It Personal
Because email marketing is often automated, people constantly receive boring, generic emails. To stand out from the crowd, make your emails personal. Address people by their name, remember their birthdays, and reach out if you haven’t heard from them in a while.
Just like with a friend, people appreciate it when you remember details about them. Personalizing your emails increases the likelihood that people engage.
Keep It Short (Like, Really Short)
The worst type of email to receive is one that’s cluttered with tons of information. Keeping it brief and skimmable makes your insurance emails easy for people to digest.
One surefire way of keeping an insurance email short is by limiting emails to a few main topics. You might send out a policy update to people with expiring insurance and also include details about your latest insurance offerings. By including a couple of related topics, you can avoid over-cluttering emails.
Welcome New Subscribers
Every great email marketing campaign has a wonderful welcome email. Creating a welcome email is the perfect way to kick off your virtual communication with a new subscriber.
Welcome newcomers and tell them exactly what they can expect. If they need to take action, list out the next steps for them, providing links along the way. Welcome emails have a stellar open rate of 86%. You know what they say: First impressions matter!
Craft a Killer Subject Line
Speaking of first impressions, the first thing someone sees when they receive an email is the subject. The best way to entice people to open an email is with a killer subject line.
While it’s best to keep these under 60 characters, create a sense of intrigue while informing people of what the email’s about. This is your chance to get creative!
Stay Interesting
The last thing you want is to send boring emails. Keep things interesting by adding multimedia like GIFs, photos, videos, memes — you name it. Not only does this keep things interesting, but it shows personality.
When choosing how to spice up an insurance email, remember to maintain a consistent voice and stay on brand. While it’s fun to change things up, it’s more important for people to recognize your company and brand voice.
If you’re feeling wary about the more daring ways to diversify your emails, try spotlighting customers, using an insurance email template, or simply reaching out to Liger Partners to get the creative juices flowing.
How To Keep Your Subscribers Engaged
Although some people might unsubscribe along the way, there are some useful strategies for keeping your mailing list healthy.
Make Emails Functional
One of the best ways to keep subscribers is by making emails functional. Send emails that are high quality, with functioning links, accurate information, and relevant copy.
Low-quality emails typically feel overcrowded, have broken links, or feel irrelevant to subscribers. Avoiding these red flags keeps your subscribers interested in sticking around.
Tidy Your Mailing List
Another strategy for retaining subscribers is simply to keep your mailing list tidy. This means deleting email addresses that bounce or removing people who never open the emails you send.
Try implementing segments so you can further personalize insurance emails. You might have a “new customer” segment or a “young client” segment. Creating segmented categories allows you to design specific emails for each segment rather than sending the same email to everyone. Targeted content keeps subscribers subscribed.
Don’t Be Spammy
Last but not least is the cardinal rule of email marketing — don’t be spammy. Landing in the spam folder is a one-way ticket to nowhere since your emails have to fight to avoid spam filters.
Spammy emails have false information, nonfunctional links, all caps, dollar signs, or excessive exclamation points. Basically, don’t be dramatic and include the facts to make sure the emails avoid the dreaded spam folder.
Creating insurance emails to engage your clients is a great way to build brand loyalty and expand your marketing strategy. Yet despite the supposed simplicity of email campaigns, it’s wise to follow the best practices and general rules. Rather than creating emails that no one opens, craft unique, personalized content that appeals to your target audience.