Text messages: The missing piece of agency marketing?

Texting is quick, personal and convenient. Here's why insurance agencies should add it to their communication strategies.

Here’s what insurance agents need to know about text messaging and how it works best when combined with other strategies. (Photo: Shutterstock)

You’ve got a great insurance agency website, and your Google My Business profile is up to date. You’re sending personalized emails and handwritten cards at the right times throughout the year — and you’ve got a solid social media presence.

If this is you, nice job. You’re doing all the things that have been proven to get clients to stay longer, buy more and refer their friends. And companies that invest in the customer experience, communications and improving client relationships do better than their competitors.

Now here’s where text messaging comes in. On top of all the fantastic work you’re doing, texting is likely to give you an extra boost if that’s what you’re looking for. However, that will only happen if you treat it for what it is: texting is a communication supplement, not a complete replacement.

How texting can help grow customer relationships

Texting is quick, personal and convenient. Here are a few reasons it may be time to add it to your tool belt:

Texting isn’t a silver bullet…

Even though it offers fresh ways to interact with clients, texting isn’t a magic cure-all. Some messages and touchpoints will never translate well to texting. It’s hard to share a useful article, explain a cross-sale opportunity or meaningfully wish someone a happy birthday.

Nobody will ever get the fuzzy feeling that comes with a birthday card from a text message. That’s why you should continue leaning on email and handwritten cards to do some of the heavy lifting.

What kind of messages work best via text?

Flowroute found that customers preferred texting over email for:

As an insurance agent, it’s unlikely you’ll be sending prescription refill or service outage messages any time soon. So, what’s the closest parallel?

Probably those things that are easy to act on through a smartphone, such as:

A healthy communication strategy should be diversified

Don’t fix what isn’t broken. If you find what you’re currently doing is getting results, why change it just because texting is the flavor of the week? Or, at the very least, don’t force texting on your customers when they may prefer other kinds of communication.

Just like a healthy investment portfolio, your communication strategy should be individualized and diversified. While some customers might enjoy the personalized touch of text messages, others tend to see them as invasive.

Here at Rocket Referrals, we find our clients get awesome Net Promotor Score results via email as it is. Their customers are already willing to leave testimonials and reviews.

Switching to text requests might mean you get more overall responses, but the quality of the feedback could go down. People are less likely to write longer and more thoughtful testimonials on a phone keyboard than they would while sitting at a computer.

Personalize the communication to the individual. See what’s resonating the most. Send a text when it makes sense and send emails at other times. And don’t forget the handwritten cards for those life and seasonal milestones throughout the year.

The strengths and weaknesses of text messages, emails and handwritten cards. (Source: Rocket Referrals)

Nick Kleppe is the social media and communication manager at Rocket Referrals. Nick is an exercise science turned marketing geek with over three years of experience building social media audiences and followings for companies across multiple industries.

This article was originally published by Rocket Referrals and is republished here with consent. 

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