Without Strategy, Ideas Are Just Noise

By Adam DeGraide, CEO and Founder of Astonish Results

What is an idea without execution? An idea is just an empty promise until the moment it's turned into a tangible action or result. Consider a golf course. You know the ball is supposed to end up in the cup, and you know you can't make it there in one shot (unless you're extremely lucky). So you carefully choose your clubs, i.e. ideas, line yourself up and prepare to drive the ball as close to the cup as possible. But what if you never swing?

Marketing is more complex than it has ever been. Between social media, email marketing, billboards, print ads, guerilla marketing, public relations, paid advertisements, and the dusty old Yellow Pages all vying for you and your customer's attention, having a strategy is more important than ever.

Many insurance agencies have the right ideas and knowledge to grow their business, but they lack the resources and an executable plan to turn ideas into leads and new business. Such was the case with Duffy Insurance in Massachusetts. After buying a second office in 2006, Duffy Insurance needed to build a second book of business completely from scratch. The family-owned independent agency was using email marketing with some success, but the approach was too fragmented and detached from other marketing efforts to fully achieve its potential.

The team at Duffy always knew the importance of rounding out accounts and letting people know how to get more value out of the insurance agency, but they had no real strategy to execute. However, after partnering with Astonish Results, the agency started holding employees more accountable while offering incentives. Furthermore, an automated email response was set up to make new, single policyholders aware that they can save money by bundling home, watercraft, or other policies. The result: Duffy increased the number of monthly bundling opportunities by over 500%!

Savvy email marketing is also combined with a social media strategies that encourage employees to work with friends and families to increase referrals and generate awareness of the agency's work in the community. Put it together and the agency is now generating leads from multiple different sources and having fun while doing it.

Duffy Insurance's Vice President of Marketing, Mark Duffy, says it best himself: "There are times customers want to sit down and talk, and times they want to talk on the phone. Electronic marketing automates the parts of our business that don't require intense personal interaction, which allows us to provide the human touch and true service and counsel that sets independent agencies apart."

We applaud Duffy Insurance for earning this month's Rough Notes e-Marketing Agency of the Month. To read the full story, please visit: http://www.roughnotes.com/RN2010/include/08_2010/page/emarketingpage01.html.

If your agency has the ideas and the people to serve the modern consumer, but you need help with strategy and execution, call Astonish Results today at 1.888.899.1936, or visit our website at www.astonishresults.com and take our free 180-second tour of the greatest lead-producing, modern consumer-attracting, strategy-building, digital marketing system in the world!