We've all heard claims that e-mail is dying and that the nextsocial media platform—whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Google+,LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest or Snapchat—is the new silver bulletfor marketers.

But e-mail marketing is far from dead, and every agency ownershould place e-mail ahead of social media efforts. This is notmeant to steer you away from social media, but to help youprioritize your efforts by focusing on “low-hanging fruit.”

The fact is, 60% of consumers prefer communicating with brands throughregular e-mail updates and newsletters, according toMarketingSherpa. Here's why you should master e-mail before socialmedia:

• You already have the e-mail addresses of your clients. Aseasoned agency may have 2,000 to 4,000 clients, and hopefully hase-mail addresses for the majority of them. Contrast that withsocial media; even Facebook superstars are only going to convince10% to 20% of their entire books to join them on social media. Thisnumber is even less if the demographic is older.

• Your clients or prospects don't have to “join” a new socialnetwork to engage with you. This one is key. Almost everyonehas an e-mail address, but not everyone is on social media. Whatyou can be sure of is reaching your clients via their inbox throughe-mail marketing.

• E-mail marketing is the best option for customertouchpoints. If you're going to make the effort to createawesome content, then get the most out of your efforts by sharingit with your entire book of business.

Leverage automation

For birthdays: Not every service provider has thebirthdays of his or her clients (such as mortgage lenders, realtorsor auto dealers). As an insurance professional, this is a uniqueopportunity to reach your clients on his or her special day withautomated e-mail marketing. Two of the more popular e-mailmarketing service providers are MailChimp and ConstantContact.

For welcoming new clients: After a new client has joinedyour agency, a best practice is to (automatically) send them aseries of onboarding e-mails.

Here's an example of a welcoming sequence of e-mails for newclients:

• Day 1: Thank you from the agency owner, with a link to asurvey.

• Day 7: Meet the team, with staff photos and contactinformation.

• Day 21: Convey that the agency offers full service andcan help with all of its clients' insurance needs.

• Day 35: Ask for feedback and online rviews on Yelp,Google+ or other platforms.

• Day 90: Ask insureds if they have had any changes intheir lives, such as marriage, children or big purchases. Remindthem that bundling coverages could save them money.

• Day 270: Focus content on the importance of an annualreview.

Measurable results

A great feature of these e-mail services is that you can measureopen rates. If low, tweak and test other content or subject lines.This will help you gain insight into what is effective for youre-mail list.

If an e-mail is sent to 3,000 people and has a 15% open rate,you just reached 450 people who have already done business withyou. Compare that with a boosted Facebook post about Floodinsurance to an audience that may not even own a home.

These actionable steps will get you started on e-mailmarketing:

• Decide which e-mail marketing platform works best for you.

• Focus on the type of content you want to curate or create.

• Choose the frequency at which you want to connect with youre-mail list, and keep it consistent.

• Measure results.

Once you conquer this, social media and other forms of marketingcan be used to amplify the foundation you have set in place. Muchof the content you create for e-mail will also be good for socialsharing.