Video Marketing Entry: Insurance Proposals and Renewal Reviews
We did a blog post a few months ago touting the many benefits of including video marketing in your insurance agency’s marketing mix. As mentioned in that post and video, video marketing doesn’t have to be difficult or daunting…really?
The best way to proceed with most anything new, is with the easy button and early wins, so that’s what we’re going to suggest here. Probably the easiest place to start with video marketing is with proposals and renewals.
Humanize your insurance agency
Consumers, when considering insurance purchase options, consider a number of factors, not the least of which is what it’s going to be like working with your insurance agency. Your agency is likely a local business, employing people who live, work and shop in the same community. Consumers who want to work with a local business generally want to connect with the people they will be dealing with. If people wanted a constantly shifting, faceless relationship with their insurance provider they would dial an 800 number or take a trip to cubicle-land through a direct writer’s website.
Having an office in the same community where your clients and potential clients live and work presents an opportunity for face-to-face meetings. But people have busy lives, traffic, work and personal schedules don’t always accommodate in person meetings. Zoom or Google Meet are great options, delivering non-verbal cues and a more humanizing interplay than phone calls alone. But even there, you have to synchronize schedules which is not always easy to do.
Four benefits of video proposals:
Often quotes and proposals are sent after no more than a phone call. You want those proposals to stand out, get opened, and improve your close rates. Video will do all that.
Make it Personal
If your prospect is getting multiple quotes likely none of the competing quotes will use video, making your proposal stand out. Putting face, voice, facial expressions and gestures together with a quote will humanize your proposal in a way that text alone just can’t. Delivering a quote and related coverage options in an email is time-efficient but it doesn’t optimize your chances of closing the sale. You need to continue to humanize your new relationship and build on it. Delivering a quote proposal with a video email is a great way to do that.
Establish trust, improve close rates
Some level of trust has already been established by the proposal phase of the sales process. Using video when delivering the proposal further builds that trust and improves close rates.
According to January, 2023 research published by Proposify, video proposals increase close rates by up to 41%.
Highlight key benefits
You can highlight proposal benefits with text in your email, but on average, people only read about 200 words of any given email so the benefits you are delivering with your proposal - coverage upgrades, higher rated insurance company, discounts that you found - may not get noticed in a plain text email. But a video proposal can change all that.
Get improved email click rates (with GIFs)
Most click rate data relates to email campaigns, not the kind of one-off emails you send with quotes or proposals. That data suggests a click rate (the link clicks divided by the number of recipients who open an email) above 3% is good. Other surveys indicate that when a GIF is embedded in an email click rates increase by 42% or more. Clearly, whether sending a one-off email or launching an email campaign, you are going to have better results when your video proposal email includes a GIF to launch your video than just a link.
Recipe for a video proposal:
- Make sure your lighting and sound are adequate. This video doesn’t need to be Hollywood quality but it shouldn’t be difficult to watch or listen to.
- Shoot the video, if possible, from eye-level or slightly above eye-level. You can use your phone or desktop (at least you can with Confluency’s VidGain video marketing platform.
- Make a personal connection by commenting on something you have in common with your prospect (school, sports team, hobby) or recognizing an accomplishment your prospect has achieved, e.g.
- Mention some of the benefits included in your proposal. If you can, use the problem-solution-benefit format.
- Include some text in the email that references what is included in the video and gives your prospect a reason for clicking on the GIF to launch the email.
- Include the word ‘video’ in the subject line. According to research from Brainshark, placing the word “video” in the subject line of an email increases open rates by 19 percent and increases click-through rates by 65 percent.
Routine insurance renewals with video
Many insurance policy renewals (thank God!) are fairly routine…no significant premium increase, likely no real need for coverage updates, no statutory or insurance company changes that might affect coverage. Still, you should offer to review exposure changes. If the renewal is truly routine, you can include a link to a short questionnaire with questions related to potential insurance coverage updates (Confluency includes forms for this for both business and personal clients with the Gold Website Toolkit.)
To save time you can record one ‘evergreen’ renewal video and email to be used over and over for higher volume renewals and review offers. The video can highlight the benefits of a renewal review, like uncovering hidden coverage needs or discount eligibility. Even if an individual client doesn’t take you up on a renewal review offer the fact that you extended an offer will be appreciated. If a client does take you up on a renewal review then you have secured a cross or up sell opportunity as well as a chance to ask for a referral.
Not so routine insurance renewals
Then, of course there are renewals that aren’t so routine. Certainly centers-of-influence accounts, high commission bearing accounts and renewals with potential premium sticker shock will all fall into this category. These renewals and pre-renewal reviews are better offered with a video email recorded especially for a specific client. And since the renewal and/or client is ‘routine’ your message will be better received, and the outcome of your upcoming renewal likely more positive, if you offer to do an in person or video call meeting to go over options and explain the situation.
Recipe for a video renewal offer:
- Highlight the benefits of a renewal review like peace of mind that coverage needs are met, and any discounts are applied.
- Give the recipient a choice as to the next step by providing a link to a renewal questionnaire and offering the option of setting a video or in person meeting.
- Include a link to your calendar for appointment setting.
- If you have data, include information about how often renewal reviews uncover coverage needs or save clients money.
- Include some text in the email that references what is included in the video and gives your prospect a reason for clicking on the GIF to launch the email.
- Include the word ‘video’ in the subject line. According to research from Brainshark, placing the word “video” in the subject line of an email increases open rates by 19 percent and increases click-through rates by 65 percent.
Removing friction in the appointment setting process benefits everyone and makes it more likely that you will get an appointment. Including a link to your calendar to display available meeting times and including an automatic video conference set up, if that’s the email recipient's preference, is a great way to remove that friction. If you would like to try out a calendar tool like this, Confluency has you covered. Just message us for more information and a free trial seat.
Some side benefits of video emails for proposals and renewals
Many of your competitors, large and small, don’t pay enough attention to building a personal bond with clients. When they do, that usually happens once - at new business time. Introducing humanized messaging at different points in your client relationship, rather than waiting five or seven years between onboarding a new client and that first claim, will distinguish the experience clients have with your insurance agency from previous insurance experiences.
The more humanized and value-added communications you have with your clients the more clients will move along the path to the pinnacle of the customer journey when a client becomes an advocate. Advocates are far more likely to directly refer others to your insurance agency. You can’t beat referrals as a new business source when the close rates are 3 - 4 times higher than from other sources. Additionally, 49% of consumers say that friends and family are their top sources for brand awareness.
Client-advocates are also more likely to give your agency a Google or other online review, and the more positive touches, like a video renewal email, present your agency with more opportunities to ask for a review.