Three ways to bag more personal lines sales

The Post Office isn’t the only way to deliver insurance marketing materials. Inserts, e-mails, Web site downloads, and hand delivery are some of the other options that are available. The first three methods are regularly employed; the last is often overlooked. Basically, it involves placing promotional materials in plastic bags and handing them to, or dropping them off for prospects. This style of delivery is common at trade shows, so why not employ it outside of the exhibit hall? It distinguishes the aggressive personal lines agency from other marketers who limit themselves to the more traditional avenues of distribution.

Here are a few possibilities.

Auto litter bags
These transitory trash receptacles serve as short-term insurance billboards. Once in use, they usually hang in full view of the driver for weeks before they are filled and discarded. The colorful plastic bags cost about 20 cents each, custom imprinted with your logo, agency information, and sales message. Print different bags with messages that promote auto, home, boat, and life insurance. Then add your prospect’s first pieces of trash: a custom marketing memo that ties in with the bag’s message, a free pen, and a business reply card. Prospects can then fill out the card with the pen and drop it off at the nearest mailbox, all without leaving the car.

• home
• boat
• life] insurance rates.”

Distribution possibilities: Supply select business clients and commercial prospects with litter bags to give to their customers. Invite them to join in the promotion by inserting a coupon or marketing brochure of their own. Potential distribution sites: Gas station shops, car washes, repair/collision/muffler shops, and parking lots. Persuade restaurants with drive-up windows to hand out your bags by inviting them to add a copy of their take-out menu. To promote watercraft insurance, encourage marinas and dockside restaurants to distribute your boat litter bags as a free environmental service.

Plastic newspaper bags
Gone are the days when children on bicycles pedaled from door to door delivering carefully folded newspapers. Now they are rolled up and placed in weatherproof plastic bags and tossed from moving mini-vans. So check with your local daily or weekly’s ad department to learn if you can provide these bags for subscribers who live on routes that match up with your desired demographic. If they agree (for a fee) supply them with imprinted bags from a vendor or purchase them directly through the paper, if they offer the service. Either way, the approach is most effective when you also advertise in the paper that’s being delivered in your bag. Emblazon it with a message that guides the reader to your ad’s location. Or, if you prefer to place an agency insert, use the bag to let readers know it’s there. Either way, this bag-to-ad tie-in can favorably increase your response rate.

Door-hanger bags
These bags can contain any type of insurance solicitation that you want, such as an auto policy rate comparison graph or a coverage checklist for homeowners. You can even provide sample rates and facts on renters or condominium-unit owners policies. Apartments and condos are especially quick to deliver to by this method, due to the close proximity of their doors. Furthermore, many of these prospects don’t carry any property insurance at all, mistakenly believing that the landlord or the master condo policy protects their personal belongings. Consider enclosing an agency certificate for a free gift along with your promo material as a reward for dropping by your office for a new or comparative quote.

Here’s a different twist on this concept. Team up with other neighborhood businesses or your own commercial lines clients to put together specially imprinted “coupon bags” that are hung on the doorknobs of pre-selected prospects. You might even support your efforts with a postcard that tells people to look for a special discount coupon bag this week. Test out various themes such as automobile services containing discounts for auto parts, detailing, tires, etc. Home safety bags might include discount coupons for first aid kits, burglar alarms, etc. As for who physically hangs the bags on the doorknobs, hire your clerical staff, employee’s kids, or a professional delivery firm.

Conclusion
Try thinking outside of the mailbox, inbox, and Web. Hand delivery may not be the most sophisticated marketing method there is, but it has a key advantage. You know that it won’t be blocked by a spam filter or misdelivered by a letter carrier; as it is physically transported to its destination. However, it still comes with its own set of cautions. Always check first with your state insurance department and local government to see if the above types of promotional gifts and delivery activities are freely permitted in your marketing territory.

Alan Shulman, CPCU, is the publisher of Agency Ideas, a subscription-only sales and marketing newsletter. He is also the author of the 1001 Agency Ideas book series and other popular P/C sales resources. He may be reached at 800-724-1435 or by e-mail shulman@agencyideas.com. Visit: www.agencyideas.com.