Strictly Sales: Exploring the alternatives to mass marketing

Most businesses are regularly barraged by sales “pitches.” The telephone brings automated telemarketing calls as well as real people reading scripts. The postal carrier delivers pounds of paper citing numerous reasons for consumers and businesses to part with their money. Even our facsimile machines print unwanted–and immediately discarded–advertisements. Despite electronic filters, our daily e-mail still contains a plethora of spam, while television, radio and billboard advertising continually bombard our senses.

For most mass marketers, advertising is a numbers game. The more imprints they make on a consumer’s mind, the greater the likelihood that he or she will purchase their products or services. However, mass marketing does not generally apply to the insurance industry, except for national and regional personal-lines direct writers. For independent agencies, marketing is much more targeted. We may advertise personal lines to a specific geographic area, but the commercial niche is much more difficult to reach.