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Strategies to Help Your Agency

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PIAAgency Marketing Guide

A product of the PIA Branding Program

SALES & MARKETING

10 PIA Agency Marketing Guide www.PIAAgencyMarketingGuide.com

What? Another marketing term to learn? You barely have time as it is to keep up! Learning about Smarketing is well worth your time though. With a well-run Smarketing strategy you can maximize every opportunity. Smarket-ing is the perfect marriage between sales and marketing. When sales and marketing get married we see ridicu-lously amazing results. Let us show you how!

Agencies generally fall into three marketing categories:• They have achieved a size where they can afford

a marketing person or department. This team is generally on the other side of the building and no one really knows what they do and they have low engagement in sales.

• Agencies don’t have an established marketing team. They sponsor a few things, have business cards and an average website.

• You are a growing agency where the owner is in charge of most sales and using online and offline platforms to grow your agency.

The challenge is that neither one of these models are reaching their true performance potential. If you are going to do something, make it awesome. You need to practice Smarketing. Smarketing is something that a growing entrepreneurial agency generally practices but doesn’t know it. Let’s see if you are Smarketing with this quick test:

• When you attend networking events you often check in on social media and post pictures

• Every new business card you obtain goes into a CRM tool for drip email marketing

• You routinely blog about your community and cul-ture of the agency as well as share these items on social media

• Your prospects and clients are connected to you via social media channels

• On a monthly basis you share freemium content cre-ated by the agency (freemium content is free value added content that people can receive in exchange for contact information)

• Your brand is likeable, relatable and about the client, not you

When marketing and sales work together you can drive the highest results. Smarketing starts by taking into account a true strategy. A great marketing strategy includes the following:

• Start and End Date• Budget• Goal-Website Visits• Goal-Contacts

• Goal-Customers• Email• Calls to Action• Blogs• Social Media Messages• Sales Process

• Calls: # and time frame• Email: # and time frame

Goal of the Process:

• To utilize our resources effectively and efficiently at every networking event so we can:

• Obtain at least 4 new business cards per person

• Identify 2 workable leads• Close at least 1 piece of new busi-

ness

Reason This Process Is Important:

General:• To make sure our time is spent wisely• To create a seamless process that is

efficient on the organizer • To maximize each engagement and

generate the highest ROI• To utilize the engagement as opportu-

nity generation both immediately and post event

For Reporting:• To track ROI and lead generation from

each event• To identify events we want to attend

in the future• To track sales follow up efforts • To track our ability to hit the goal

For Management:• We have a proactive strategy that

is powered and tracking through Insightly (i.e. CRM)

For the Team:• A consistent process that is efficient

and effective• A clear plan to maximize every oppor-

tunity • We can work to remedy any issues

prior to renewal

Smarketing and Why Your Agency Needs It By Kelly Donahue-Piro

Continued on page 36

36 PIA Agency Marketing Guide www.PIAAgencyMarketingGuide.com

Pre-Event Process

• Identify the opportunities — ask for a list of attendees

• Connect with the contact on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and add them to MailChimp (i.e. email program)

• Connect with the organization on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

• Check LinkedIn on who you may know that is a member of the organization to reach out to them to say a good word

• Add the date to your calendar• Write a blog that you will be attending

an event and share it on social media

2 Weeks Prior to Event

• Confirm time of the event• Reach out to any people you want

to target to let them know you are attending

• Prepare marketing materials (bro-chures, giveaways, etc.)

• Research to see if there are any other prospects in the area you can book a meeting with

• Make sure you have plenty of business cards

• Have a hit list of five people you want to meet

During Event

• Work the room • Take cards and write notes on the back

of them • Provide a gift for the organizers (Star-

bucks gift cards, pen and sticky notes)• Have your business cards handy• Wear something memorable so you

easily stick out

Post Event • Send a follow up email to the coordi-nators

• Email the people who had requested information

• Add them to LinkedIn, email and or sales systems and Facebook

• Upload the list of attendees• Start follow up sequence • Send information and a small gift to

high value targets• Make 3-5 follow up calls to book

appointments with targets

You can see in this strategy how sales and marketing can come together to yield the highest results! Feel free to view our video on Smarketing to dive deeper into this topic: https://www.agencyperformancepartners.com/ blog/smarketing-training-video/

Also, you can download our Smarket-ing Infographic to help you get started: https://www.agencyperformancepartners.com/ sales-based-marketing/

Kelly Donahue-Piro, founder and president of Agency Perfor-mance Partners, is a no-nonsense effectiveness expert who has helped hundreds of insurance agencies identify and capitalize on sustainable improvement opportunities . Her specialties include agency culture assessment and change; manage-ment and supervisory coaching and benchmarking; customer retention strategy development; digital marketing strategy, planning and implementation; and sales planning, manage-ment and skill-building .

The centerpiece of Agency Performance Partners’ transfor-mational work is its Agency Performance AssessmentTM, a comprehensive survey tool Kelly created to zero in on organiza-tion-wide improvement opportunities and provide the founda-tion for a customized agency action plan . The proprietary tool addresses everything from agency mission, goals, values and culture to agency management and infrastructure, employee abilities, service processes and procedures, and marketing, sales and retention strategy .

Kelly is an engaging speaker who is available to conduct in-person and online agency success presentations that comple-ment her firm’s one-on-one on-site and virtual consulting practice . Connect with her on social platforms, via email at kelly@agencyperformancepartners .com or by phone at 401-415-6205 .

Continued from page 10

Smarketing and Why Your Agency Needs It By Kelly Donahue-Piro

When marketing and sales work together you can drive the highest results.

46 PIA Agency Marketing Guide

PIA Agency Marketing GuideEditor-in-Chief/Advertising Director Alexi Papandon, CAE alexipa@pianet.org 703-518-1353

Publisher Ted Besesparis tedbe@pianet.org 703-518-1352

The PIA Agency Marketing Guide is published by the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents.

400 North Washington Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314 703-836-9340 agencymarketingguide@pianet.org

©2017 All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a database or retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise except as expressly permitted by the publisher.

The information in this publication is general in nature and is not intended to serve as legal, accounting, financial, insurance, investment advisory or other professional advice as to any reader’s particular situation. Users are encouraged to consult with competent legal, financial, insurance, investment advisory and or other professional advisors concerning specific matters before making any decisions and we disclaim any responsibility for any decisions or actions by readers.

For additional information on any of the subjects addressed in this publication, please access the PIA National website at www.pianet.com.

PIA’s Agency Marketing Guide Is Brought

to You by the PIA Branding ProgramIt is the sincere hope of everyone at PIA that you and your colleagues have found great value in this, the eighth installment of the PIA Agency Marketing Guide.

PIA’s Agency Marketing Guide is made possible by our many wonderful sponsors and advertisers and is made available to you through the PIA Branding Program. Through this program, available online at www.piabrandingprogram.com, PIA provides members of the association with a variety of marketing materials. These include consumer-friendly issue papers, hundreds of

print and radio advertisements in both English and Span-ish, social media support materials, and past issues of the PIA Agency Marketing Guide.

Funding for the PIA Branding Program is provided in part by PIA’s Pinnacle Partners. Pinnacle Partners are highly regarded insurance companies that demonstrate their commitment to the independent agency distribution system and financially support the development of new marketing tools which are made available to PIA members through the PIA Branding Program.

P INNAC L E PARTNER

Bankers Insurance Group

Encompass Insurance

Erie Insurance

Nationwide Independent

Progressive Insurance

State Auto Insurance Companies

The Motorists Insurance Group

Wright Flood

2017 PIA National Pinnacle Partners

www.PIAAgencyMarketingGuide.com

How does PIA help me promote my agency?

Let me count the ways.

Everyday PIA members across America promote their agencies using materials and

strategies they get from PIA. Our PIA Branding Program is full of marketing materials they can customize and use in their local markets and beyond.

Best of all, PIA provides these materials to PIA members for free, as part of their PIA membership.

It’s just another benefit of being a PIA member.

Visit the PIA Branding Program at www.piabrandingprogram.com.

PIA would like to thank our Pinnacle Partners for supporting PIA members through their support of the PIA Branding Program.

National Association of Professional Insurance Agents400 N. Washington St.

Alexandria, VA 22314-23531-800-PIA-6900 (1-800-742-6900)piabrandingprogram@pianet.org

www.pianet.com

5. Annual PIA Agency

Marketing Guide

4. Radio commercials

3. Print advertisements

2. Social media support

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P I A N AT I O N A L P I N N A C L E PA R T N E R S

Learn how the PIA Branding Program can help your agency at www.piabrandingprogram.com.

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