Marketing Your Brokerage

Are you on target for brokerage growth this year? Where is your marketing plan taking your company? Who’s your best customer? What’s your marketing budget this year? What are the key messages for your prospects and customers?

Your brokerage marketing plan should answer all of the above questions and more. A well-developed marketing plan is your best solution for brokerage growth, retention and customer satisfaction. And yet, it is often one of the least-considered aspects of an insurance brokerage’s overall business strategy. Of course some offices think about it, but with the daily grind of doing your work, it is frequently a forgotten area.

MARKET ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS

In order to make fact-based decisions regarding marketing strategy and design-effective, cost-efficient programs, you must possess a detailed, objective understanding of your business and the market in which you operate.

Marketing analysis can be structured into three areas: customer analysis, company analysis, and competitor analysis (the so-called “3Cs” analysis).

Research into these areas can assist with both the strategic planning process and market planning. Remember: the more effort you put into research, the more effective your marketing plan will be. Market research will help determine what people want, need or believe. It can also involve discovering how they act. Once this research is completed, it can be used to help determine how to best market your products.

SELECTING A MARKETING TARGET

The focus of customer analysis is to develop a method for market segmentation, breaking down the market into various groups of like customers. Market segmentation is the division of the market or population into subgroups with similar motivations and needs.

Develop your detailed profiles for each market segment, focusing on any number of variables that may differ among the segments: demographic, psychographic, geographic, behavioral, needs-benefit and other factors that may contribute to your customer groups (church, soccer, hockey, dairy farmer, retail shop, line of business, etc). For example, many brokers are targeting the 50-plus age category as part of their marketing plan. This is a simple yet effective option you can use. However, many brokerages are neglecting to take into account students and/or the the increasing number of young people with high disposable income and electronics that will make your head spin. Who is targeting this area of the market? Not many at all.

ESTABLISHING A MARKETING STRATEGY

Once the research is complete, the strategy can be established. The marketing strategy provides the goals for your marketing plans. It tells you where you want to go from here. The marketing plan, in contrast, is the specific road map that’s going to get you there.

A marketing strategy should be focussed on the key concept that customer satisfaction is the main goal. The strategy allows you to concentrate your limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. In establishing your marketing strategy, keep in mind who in your brokerage will be cham- pioning your marketing efforts. Keep this person at the forefront of all planning.

MARKETING MIX

This is the creative side of the marketing process, taking into account the costs associated with the strategy. It is really just the selection of the ways to communicate or deliver your key messages and call to action to your target market.

This usually involves planning across the “4Ps” of marketing: product, promotion, place (i. e. sales and distribution channels) and pricing. The implementation choices across the 4Ps are often referred to as the marketing mix, meaning the mix of elements you will employ to “go to market” and execute the marketing strategy.

The overall goal of the marketing mix is to consistently deliver a compelling value proposition that reinforces the firm’s chosen positioning, build customer loyalty and brand equity among target customers and achieve the firm’s marketing and financial objectives.

In the broker’s world, products are basically already developed and priced. The broker’s role is to match the products — and in some cases, services — to our customers. To that end, our use of promotion and place are employed more in the marketing mix and factor heavily in our marketing plans. For simple marketing plans, do it in-house. If you are going to take it to the extra limit, then hire a professional. Whatever approach you use, make sure you are not paying more for the marketing effort that is needed. Your plan should not be so ambitious that it fails before it starts.

Don’t forget to keep it simple. Review your promotional options with your local broker’s association, since the association may have already pre-approved co-marketing opportunities with insurance companies.

THE VALUE PROPOSITION

The Broker Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is the message you want your customers to receive about your product or service. It represents the heart of your marketing plan. The key features of USP are as follows: • brokers simplify the insurance transaction process;

• brokers provide consumer choice;

• brokers ensure the coverage the consumer needs is the coverage the consumer gets;

• brokers are there in a time of crisis;

• claims advocacy;

• brokers talk in plain language;

• local presence; and

• brokers are Canadian.

BROKERAGE TOOL BOX

Technology Tools

• By leveraging technology (learn Excel and BMS reports), marketing objectives can be clearly defined in quantitative terms (hard numbers) and return on investment (ROI) can be easily calculated, providing greater efficiencies to your marketing operations.

• Understand what tools are available with, as well as the limitations of your broker management system. Learn and use any and all marketing components (integrated workflows).

• Clean up your data, so it is more accurate and useful. To this end, you may look into data audits, data standards and data quality.

• Use available fields in your broker management system or create an MS Word document to detail each customer’s profile and attach it to their customer record.

• Report and create lists on the profiles/market segments to the best of your BMS capabilities. This will help identify the appropriate market segment for each customer and prospect you have.

Research Tools:

• Create key customer fact books, outlining their purchases, preferences, opportunities, needs, likes, dislikes and threats. Your key customers are the 20% of your customers who drive 80% of your revenue.

• Create key competitor fact books, including their key advertizing spend, key messages, key customers to target, customers lost, staff and critical issues (moving, succession issues, staff retention, etc.)

• Create key insurer fact books that outline insurers’ strategic goals, the assistance they provide, their record on product innovation, key contacts, solvency, their financial strength rating, ownership and their competitive situation locally.

Survey Tools:

• Use survey companies and tools to gain customer understanding and research.

• Research firms offering predictive intelligence technologies can provide consumer research for the insurance industry, and can also potentially provide benchmarks and insights.

• Online tools such as Survey Monkey can be used to engage in consumer research.

Sample survey questions might include:

1. Who are the customers?

2. Where are they located and how can they be contacted?

3. What quantity and quality do they want?

4. When is the best time to sell?

5. What do they like or dislike about our service?

6. Would longer hours of operation be beneficial to you
?

THE MARKETING PLAN

The content of marketing plans varies from firm to firm. It commonly includes:

• an executive summary;

• a situation analysis summarizing facts and insights gained from market research and marketing analysis;

• the company’s mission statement or long-term strategic vision;

• a statement of the company’s key objectives, often subdivided into marketing objectives and financial objectives;

• the company’s marketing strategy, which specifies the target segments to be pursued and the competitive positioning to be achieved;

• implementation choices for each element of the marketing mix (the 4Ps);

• a budget; and

• measurement and results reporting.

Once you’ve established your marketing plan, remember it needs to be a living, breathing document. Establishing a marketing plan goes a long way towards helping you stay focused and on track to market your products and services effectively.