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Marketing Matters Branding your agency A practical guide to creating a successful advertising campaign By Nanci Evarts Changes in agency ownership, carrier exits, launches and consolidations, declining and softening prices are forcing all insurance segments—retail agencies, wholesalers and MGAs, carriers and reinsurers—to pay more attention to getting, gaining, and retaining business. While direct sales efforts are your surest means of achieving those results, successfully branding and advertising your company and differentiating it from rival companies, other agents, other wholesalers, and other carriers will help position you for success. You need to reinforce your position with current clients, validate why they should choose to work with you, and give them a reason for not looking at another resource. However, you may very well need to reach out to new customers and prospects due to softening prices or customers choosing someone else. The only way to replace lost revenue is to put yourself in front of potential prospects. Unfortunately, when competition increases and revenue falls, companies often react by tightening their belt—pulling back, particularly in print or online advertising—just at the time they need to be out there to be seen and recognized. A change in the marketing environment also requires a second look at the advertising you’ve been doing—where you advertise and what you want to promote. Is your advertising reaching the proper targets? Is your message or appeal ringing true enough with those prospects to create interest, generate an inquiry, and ultimately set up and support a specific sales effort? Does advertising work? Clients often ask me, “Does advertising work? Aren’t people just too busy to read magazines and newspapers?” Fortunately, insurance most often deals in the world of trade publications—within the industry itself, or in vertical, business-to-business “industry” magazines. Overall statistics indicate that B2B “trade” pubs rank positively when it comes to readership and response. While general consumer advertising is a huge challenge these days (try having your TV commercial seen by those using TiVo®), the insurance industry is focused on business-to-business messages. Many buyers utilize the trade press, not only to keep up with the issues covered editorially, but to identify advertised products. A study of business-to-business marketing reported the following when participants were asked: “What sources do you find most useful in making purchasing decisions?” Specialized industry publications ......... 67.8% The study also showed that: • 60% of the readers read 4 of the last 4 issues of “their” trade publication. These figures demonstrate that your advertising does have a good chance of being noticed, and perhaps more than once since readers thumb through issues several times, pass them along to colleagues, and even archive them. Studies also indicate that print advertising drives traffic to the advertiser’s Web site, the second most-often-cited source for identifying products and services. All of this bodes well for the insurance advertiser investing in print “trade” advertising. And don’t forget the myriad online opportunities offered by many of the publications—banners, pop-ups, audio and video streams, newsletter sponsorships, Webcast sponsorships, to name a few. All advertisers have a good deal more to choose from and utilize than they did just a few years ago. Does this mean each and every ad elicits a specific response? Unfortunately no, but the effect of advertising exposure is cumulative. Advertising reinforces an impression. It communicates what you stand for and what you do. It reminds a buyer that you are “in the game.” And it triggers response and inquiry. Support your strategic goals with advertising An effective campaign begins with deciding which targets you wish to reach, influence, and motivate. This analysis typically includes the general category (e.g., widget manufacturers), the size of company or location (e.g., companies with $5 million and up in revenue, located in the Southeast), and an analysis of the actual level or type of decision maker (e.g., CEO, risk manager, CFO, etc). Your targets might include, in addition to the buyers themselves, “influencers”—other advisors such as attorneys, financial consultants, investors, etc. As you evaluate possible advertising vehicles, you’ll be able to ask for or gather your own data on the readership to judge how well a publication matches your targets/decision makers/influencers. This will help you determine which advertising vehicles are the best buy for reaching your audience. Review publications to see whether your competitors are advertising. If they are advertising, you may wish to advertise to make sure your company gains recognition as a player or provider. If they are not advertising, you have a golden opportunity to make a first impression. After you review your options, you will most likely find that to reach your targets, you will have multiple advertising investments to consider and balance. You’ll want to strive for a good mix. Advertising vehicles and tactics Whether you’re a retail agent looking at “vertical” trade publications, local newspapers and business magazines, or a wholesaler, carrier, or reinsurer advertising within the industry itself, the process of evaluating potential advertising vehicles and tactics is the same. If you already know which publications you wish to advertise in, look over the publication’s Web site and make contact with the publisher or advertising rep. As previously mentioned, you first want to review the publication’s readership and compare it with other publications for reach and influence. For publications with official “audits” of their readership, you can often find precise data on the “titles” of the readers. Examine these carefully in making your choices. Does the publication have a recent readership study that provides you useful information? You will rarely choose a single publication. The impact is cumulative, so you’ll most likely want to choose two or three publications that reach the same target. However, you won’t want to scan “single” ads through multiple publications. A general rule of thumb is the 3X rule: You will not begin to have impact in a publication unless you advertise three times or more in a calendar year. And that is for pure “maintenance.” If you’re trying to launch something new, you will need to make a greater investment in order to make an impact. With the publisher or ad rep, review the publication’s media kit carefully to discuss the many options—both print and online. Speak frankly about whom you trying to reach and what you are trying to accomplish. Have them explain the potential purpose and impact of the options they have to offer. The more they understand about your business, the more they can advise how to “use” their publication to your benefit. A good rep should have a vested interest in seeing you and your company succeed. Of course, ad reps are trying to sell you space, so check out what the reps tell you with noncompetitive colleagues—fellow advertisers—to get their opinion of which publications have worked well for them. Or contact a marketing consultant or ad agency familiar with the marketplace. What if you’re trying to reach out to a new audience where you are unfamiliar with the possible advertising vehicles? For example, you’ve decided to promote a new program to CPAs or the energy industry. Start with your customer or buyer contacts. What do they subscribe to and why? What’s a “must read” in their industry? Industry associations are another good source of information or may even sponsor a publication. An Internet search (e.g., “magazines read by massage therapists”) is a quick and easy way to identify new publications and Web sites. You may find it challenging to sift through the options to come up with an objective view of the benefits and value of each. This is where tapping into the expertise of a marketing consultant or ad agency can be of value. Using a consultant or ad agency that is familiar with the insurance industry as a whole, or familiar with your chosen industry specialization, can be a good investment. They can help identify publications and advise you on the best way to utilize them. It’s their business to “know” and they often have experience—good, bad or otherwise—based on their work with other clients. They will inquire about bonus distribution and other services that can enhance your advertising efforts. Such consultants are often well respected by the publishers and ad reps who get multiple pieces of business from them. Once you’ve chosen a publication, you’ll need to decide which issues offer you good exposure. Some of your consolidations will include: • Editorial match: Issues tied editorially to your product or service. The new world of online advertising options—banners, pop-ups, videos—can enhance and reinforce your print options. In recent years, I’ve become particularly interested in online opportunities that allow an advertiser to add its brand messages to communications sent out by the publications to its target audiences. These can include banner advertising on the publication site, sponsorship of newsletters, and Webcasts, etc. Next month in Marketing Matters: The creative side—developing and designing ads with impact. * The author |
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