Where would your health insurance agency or brokerage be without email marketing?
Email provides a fast and efficient way to communicate with a number of prospects without requiring much heavy lifting thanks to tools such as CRM platforms, which automate much of the process.
That said, we all get bombarded by a seemingly endless onslaught of emails. For example, the average business professional receives 121 emails each day. That being the case, it can be tricky for email senders to make sure their messages stand out.
You might write the best email the world has ever seen. But if your prospects don’t open that email in the first place, what good does it actually do?
Learning how to write persuasive and effective prospecting emails is one of the best skills you can have as an insurance agent or broker.
You’re reading these words, so you’re interested in becoming a better email writer. Good news: You’ve come to the right place.
These five tips will help you write more effective prospecting emails, streamline your funnel, and grow your insurance business because of it.
Subject lines play an incredibly important role in determining whether someone actually opens your email. This makes perfect sense because they’re the first thing we see when a message pops into our inbox. Believe it or not, 35 percent of folks decide whether to open an email based on the subject line alone.
Great emails start with great subject lines—which are usually short, maybe 6-10 words. As general guidance, personalize each subject line when you can. Also, use emojis when it makes sense. One study revealed that 56 percent of companies that use emojis in subject lines enjoyed higher open rates.
One more tip: Use an email service that lets you A/B test subject lines. That way, you can increase the chances that more prospects engage with your messages by sending the more effective subject line to the bulk of your prospects.
Personalization is all the rage these days. Clients are increasingly expecting personalized experiences when they deal with brands—including health insurance agencies and brokerages.
Using a CRM platform to automate your email outreach to prospects enables you to easily personalize every message you send out, addressing each prospect by their first name.
As a result, you are able to meet customer expectations surrounding personalization without having to spend countless hours writing emails manually.
In the news business, there’s an idiom called “burying the lead,” which is when a journalist starts a story with superfluous information and waits until the end to relay the most important and newsworthy details. Reporters are advised to avoid burying the lead—and you should do the same in your prospecting emails.
To improve your email marketing results, keep emails short and simple and make sure that the reader will be able to tell, very clearly, what the purpose of the message is after reading the first few sentences. If you stick the important details at the bottom of your email, there’s a good chance that at least a chunk of your prospects won’t see the message you’re trying to convey.
The best health insurance brokers and agents position themselves as strategic partners. They become trusted advisers—knowing and anticipating what each client needs and proactively responding to their changing preferences.
Your email marketing campaigns should contain helpful information that’s delivered in a timely fashion. For example, if you don’t let your prospects know that the open enrollment period has arrived until three weeks after it begins, chances are that a good portion of them will look to buy insurance products from other vendors.
Great prospecting emails help educate, entertain, and engage prospective clients—giving them convenient access to helpful information with enough lead time before any decision needs to be made.
After each prospect reads your email marketing communications, they should have a clear idea of what they’re expected to do next.
For example, if you are sending out an email blast announcing that the open enrollment period just kicked off, your call to action might be encouraging your prospects to start browsing plans by providing a link to the marketplace at the bottom of the email.
Simply put, failure to include a call to action in an email is a wasted opportunity.
You have your audience’s attention, so you might as well try to get them to perform a desired action (e.g., enrolling in a plan or subscribing to get updates to your blog).
Here’s a sample email to get you thinking in the right direction:
Hi [First Name],
It’s time to start thinking about your health insurance needs for the upcoming year.
The open enrollment period returns Nov. 1 and runs through Dec. 15.
Get a head start by [browsing our marketplace today] (link) [*NOTE: If you're a Quotit user you can update this link with your own ePro link.*] to see which plan works best for your unique situation.
Any questions? Just hit reply or call me at [phone number].
Have a great day,
[Your First Name]
The above example should give you an idea of what a successful prospecting email might look like.
But you know your business better than anyone else. Do your due diligence and use data to continuously refine your approach. Find out what’s working and mimic it. Find out what isn’t working and ditch it.
With determination, patience, and a solid plan in place, you can transform your prospecting email marketing efforts—persuading more and more would-be clients to give your agency or brokerage a try.