At this point, most insurance agencies have jumped on the email marketing bandwagon. Sending out holiday emails and birthday greetings seem like no-brainers, but how effective is your email strategy in selling your agency’s commercial services? There seems to be a belief in the industry that email is a great tool for personal lines and branding, but falls short for commercial. That belief couldn’t be more wrong, and by thinking that way, your agency may be leaving money on the table.

If your agency has a focus on commercial lines, chances are you sell to at least a couple different specialized industries outside of your average BOP policies. Businesses like restaurants and churches require different attention when it comes to their insurance coverages. When identifying industries to market your commercial coverage and services to, consider the following:

• Which industries does your agency work best with?
• Which industries do you have programs for?
• Which industries do you already have clients in?

Asking yourself these questions can help identify where you should start with commercial niche email marketing. This type of email marketing (whether you send one-off emails or drip campaigns) can help you focus on one industry at a time, targeting particular types businesses in your services areas and showing them why you are the agency to work with.

What are the Benefits?

Commercial niche email marketing will benefit your agency for a number of different reasons. Primarily, enacting this type of marketing strategy will:

1. Showcase the agency’s expertise
   Sending emails focused on a particular industry will allow you to focus in on the issues and insurance concerns of those businesses within it. For example, showing a restaurant owner that you understand they need different types of liability insurance, like liquor liability, helps them to see that you are an expert in their needs.
2. Brand the agency
   I know what you’re thinking – won’t your agency cover this in generic and personal lines emails? Sure, but commercial niche email marketing will show your commercial customers and prospects that your agency is different than other local agencies or the “big guys.” This strategy will show that your agency works to understand their industry, not just provide them with blanket policies to get them in and out the door. You may think being a local business only helps you with your personal lines opportunities, but it works to connect with local business owners as well. Chances are, the business owners you are marketing to value working with other local, independent businesses.
3. Make business owners aware of the unknown
   In showcasing your expertise on the coverage needed by particular industries, you may just help a business owner discover an insurance need they didn’t realize they had. For example, perhaps the local day care owner you emailed was not aware that there was an option to purchase special abuse and molestation coverage, which works outside of general liability insurance. Or, maybe the local brewery owner didn’t realize the need for equipment insurance outside of their traditional commercial property coverage.

If your agency has an email marketing system and resources to generate industry-specific content, take these suggestions into account and start working commercial niche markets into your email strategy. If you don’t, we welcome you to learn more about our Digital Marketing Suite.