1. Social media marketing goes mainstream. Corporate use of social media has reached a tipping point and will continue to grow inside organizations, especially in customer service. Social ad spending has grown from $2.52 billion in 2009 to $4.26 billion projected in 2011.
2. Gone mobile. The evolution and adoption smartphones has taken the market to a very mobile environment.  Over 30% of cell phones are smartphones and that category is growing.  While email remains the dominate use of smartphones, the explosion of mobile apps creates a tremendous opportunity for mobile marketing.  The ability to search on the go is providing a huge marketing opportunity for those willing to participate.
3. Online retail is gaining traction. Online retailers continue to take market share from the traditional brick-and-mortar retail stores. While still a small percentage of total retail revenue, it is projected to grow from $166 billion to $235 billion in 2013. Social media will continue to expand its influence due to its ability to target and appeal to consumers early, often and in a cost effective manner throughout the decision making phase.
4. Intergration is a reality. Social media marketing is no longer a nice afterthought or “toy” to play with. The new paradigm is a total marketing plan that incorporates social media, mobile, email and traditional methods (TV, print, radio, etc…). All of these methods will mesh together to present a new comprehensive marketing environment.
5. Measuring the results. As the dollars invested in social media marketing increase, tracking, measuring and analyzing results will be required.  Better social media metrics will be developed to justify the financial investment based on ROI,

As you begin your marketing initiatives for 2012, keep these trends in mind and incorporate online, social media and mobile device marketing campaigns in your plan.

New AgencyIQ Features

Happy New Year 2012! A new year brings new OPPORTUNITIES…. and AgencyIQ has rolled out New Features that will have a positive impact on your marketing in 2012. The best news is….. they’re FREE!

*Upgraded Email Certificate – promotes improved deliverablity and open ratios for emails to your prospects and clients….FREE!

*Newsletters - send a monthly Newsletter to up to 2,000 recepients per month….FREE!

*Mirrored Emails - receive emails to any email address outside of AgencyIQ… great for mobile applications or remote use and keeps a record of all of your correspondence…FREE!

ALL of these New Features are fully integrated into the AgencyIQ workflow platform and create a fully robust Marketing System for your agency!

Check out these new features in our “Lunch-n-Learn” webinars on Wednesdays from 12:00-1:00pm CST. You can also learn more about Newsletters by clicking on the following link Webinar Schedule

AgencyIQ is excited to bring these Powerful, New Tools to you for 2012….
Let us help you Grow with our AgencyIQ Marketing System!

• Deliver on promises – sounds simple, but by following through with a commitment, you show your integrity, that the customer is important, and that you have their best interests in mind.
• Exceed expectations – don’t do the minimum! Take the extra step to put an exclamation at the end of their customer experience.  Make them think “WOW!” when they walk out the door.
• Make the Customer #1 – don’t sacrifice a long term relationship for a short term profit gain. Do what is right for the customer and keep the door open to additional business opportunities.  There is a great deal of truth in the old adage “the customer is always right”.
• Nurture your staff – they are the face of your company! Keeping a loyal, happy, empowered, long tenured staff is one of the single best steps to keeping lifelong customers. Treat your staff as well as you expect them to treat the customers….
• Choose the right lifelong customers – I know this seems crazy, but some customers are just not worth keeping around.  Knowing the cost to keeping a customer long term is essential. If you are putting more resources into keeping the customer around than you can ever hope to recover in revenue, it’s necessary to cut them loose.  Re-invest those resources into customers that a good fit for your business.

Monitoring your customer’s experience with your company and listening to what they say will help keep you on track in your efforts.  Informal surveys, personal observation and simple conversations with clients will provide invaluable clues to how good a job you are doing.  Southwest Airlines and Chick-fil-A are doing something right!!

• Know your Customers – Who are your chosen customers? What are their needs and expectations? How well are you meeting those needs
• Empower Your Front-line Staff – train your staff to handle customer issues themselves. Allow them to act independently and with flexibility. Nothing kills customer service quicker than “I have to check with my manager”.
• Organization/Importance – Customer service must be a priority for Senior Management! Develop an organizational mentality that facilitates a smooth flow to resolve customer issues and places a priority on a positive, successful resolution to customer issues.
• Turn Problems into Opportunities – if handled quickly, fairly and effectively, you can turn a customer with a complaint into an advocate for your brand!
• Learn from Your Mistakes AND Your Successes – View mistakes by your staff as learning opportunities! Be willing to change procedures or practices based on customer and staff feedback.  Review your successes and incorporate those practices and principles into areas that may need improvement.
• Anticipate the Future – Technology changes constantly! Don’t fall into the trap of “if it’s not broke don’t fix it”. The business landscape is piled high with the corpses of businesses that failed to recognize and embrace change. Webchat, email, text messaging, Facebook, Twitter are just a few of the high tech avenues to communicate with customers. Don’t let your customers disappear into the technology dimension without you!

Contact AgencyIQ today for a FREE 15 Day Trial and let us help you provide a GREAT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE for your prospective and existing clients!

1. Develop multiple revenue sources – Never rely on one customer, industry or client to be your only revenue stream. Diversity will help insulate you if you lose a high value customer. You should plan on losing at least 10% of your customer base annually, not necessarily through your fault, it’s just the natural flow of business.
2. Document It! – The first rule of business is ‘get it in writing”. What may have been understood in a verbal conversation can easily lead to major misunderstandings at a later date….that’s why the court house is full of lawyers. A well defined and thorough written document can save hurt feelings, money and clients!
3. Rainy Day Money – You never know when your revenue stream will be interrupted or for how long. Fire, flood, natural disasters or even economic uncertainty can bring business to a sudden stop. Having a reserve fund to see you through slow months or more trying situations can save your business until your cash flow returns to normal.
4. Back Up, Back Up, Back Up…. In case you are one of those folks who has never experienced their computer hard drive crashing….YOU WILL BE, it’s just a matter of time. There are so many easy, automatic ways to back up your business data, especially from PC’s and laptops available today. I suggest you consider an online backup system that is cloud based. They are numerous and inexpensive, and are accessible 24/7, allowing you to recover vital data to keep your business moving if those geek gremlins attack.
5. Have a Plan – sounds easy, and it really is. Take a few minutes and think about some of the vital activities you, your staff and your business perform routinely. Write them down, make copies, distribute and familiarize key employees with those processes. Then, when someone is out for a day or week or month, a co-worker will know how to turn on the copier, write an invoice or turn on the coffee maker!

Every company say the “Focus on Customer Excellence”, “Our Customers Are #1”…….. but how effective are they in delivering GREAT customer service? Review the list below for some insights and ideas on how to create a GREAT customer experience:

Know your Customers – Who are your chosen customers? What are their needs and expectations? How well are you meeting those needs

Empower Your Front-line Staff – train your staff to handle customer issues themselves. Allow them to act independently and with flexibility. Nothing kills customer service quicker than “I have to check with my manager”.

Organization/Importance – Customer service must be a priority for Senior Management! Develop an organizational mentality that facilitates a smooth flow to resolve customer issues and places a priority on a positive, successful resolution to customer issues.

Turn Problems into Opportunities – if handled quickly, fairly and effectively, you can turn a customer with a complaint into an advocate for your brand!

Learn from Your Mistakes AND Your Successes – View mistakes by your staff as learning opportunities! Be willing to change procedures or practices based on customer and staff feedback.  Review your successes and incorporate those practices and principles into areas that may need improvement.

Anticipate the Future – Technology changes constantly! Don’t fall into the trap of “if it’s not broke don’t fix it”. The business landscape is piled high with the corpses of businesses that failed to recognize and embrace change. Webchat, email, text messaging, Facebook, Twitter are just a few of the high tech avenues to communicate with customers. Don’t let your customers disappear into the technology dimension without you!

Contact AgencyIQ today for a FREE 15 Day Trial and let us help you provide a GREAT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE for your prospective and existing clients!

Survey results from an online insurance comparison site CoverHound.com  indicate that consumers of auto insurance still prefer to deal with local agents versus online or telephone purchases from direct carriers.  While direct carriers continue to gain market share, shoppers still prefer that personal connection. That’s great news for agents!

The survey shows that 39% prefer to deal with a local agent, 32% prefer direct contact with carriers and 29% are indifferent. Not surprisingly, 50% of 18-25 year olds preferred a direct carrier association, while only 27% of 41-50 year olds held a similar preference.  As an agent, this provides some valuable insights into market demographics and should assist you in defining your marketing strategy. Utilizing online technology should be an important part of you marketing plan. Having a presence online is crucial to reaching a significant percentage of the market, regardless of age, but is essential to reach the younger age demographic.  By making contact in an environment clients are comfortable in, you make yourself available to begin the process of developing a lifelong relationship. Reality is, the younger age demographic will probably have less extensive insurance needs early in the relationship, but as they mature, their insurance needs will increase to keep pace with larger homes, more expensive cars, life insurance policies, and health care needs.  Branding yourself as a valuable resource that will assist a client with wealth retention and protecting them from loss from young adulthood will create a steady, reliable income stream potential.

The use of online technology by consumers will only continue to grow in the next ten years and beyond. Position yourself NOW to be an active participant with your potential clients online. If you haven’t already done so, take a look at what AgencyIQ can do to assist you with our online program. Our customizable software and drip email marketing campaigns will assist you in growing you business!!

In our careers, we’ve all know a few Mike Modano’s. People that embody the spirit of our company, contributing at the highest level, team players, always encouraging those around them and bringing out the best performance of others through their example in action. You just can’t imagine how you’d survive without that person! Unfortunately, most organizations don’t plan ahead in anticipation of key personnel eventually leaving. Do you as a business owner have key personnel that you depend on to carry the load? We all do, but do you have a plan on how to move forward if/when they leave? Succession planning is usually way down the list of strategic planning activities, but it is vital to the sustained growth of an organization that you have a plan for replacing key employees. To keep your company vibrant, forward thinking and prepared, having a potential talent pool of internal or external resources is not only smart, it will save you and your organization a lot of heart ache when the day comes for a key employee to be replaced. As a owner/manager, it’s important to recognize the Modano’s in your organization and look ahead on how to deal with the void after their last “game”.

Ever hear the John Mellencamp song “Tumbling Down”? That’s what I thought of when the old Texas Stadium in Irving, TX was demolished recently. Being a native of the area and a huge Cowboys fan as long as I can remember, I could not convince myself to join all those who watched in person or on TV the destruction of a place that held so many memories. Landry, Staubach, Lilly, Aikman, Irvin, Smith, the Ring of Honor, NFC Championship games…. The list goes on and on. And yes, I do believe the hole in the roof was there so God could watch His team play! What was once a state of the art facility featured in numerous movies and mesmerized Sunday football viewers on TV, had, over the years, suffered from age, neglect and a public that demanded new heights of technology to keep their intrest. No lingering, slow demise for this former showcase, Jerry Jones, the eternal promoter, made Texas Stadium’s last hurrah another money making deal. It was even sponsored by Kraft Foods (I don’t get it… but they ponied up the cash, the single largest requirement). Faster than you can say “Kraft macaroni and cheese”, Texas Stadium disappeared in a cloud of dust, soon to be a distant memory of those who will remember her in her glory days!

Yes friends, even those monuments that seem indestructible on their christening day, have their eventual fall from favor and are replaced. So it is with the tools we use to run our business. Technology changes constantly, computers and communication systems require constant review and the software we use to manage our data is always undergoing tweaks and updates. Over the next few weeks and months, you will be receiving notices of important enhancements to the AgencyIQ operating system. Future blogs and newsletters will detail these enhancements that will make your lead management efforts more effective, efficient and increase your book of business. AgencyIQ is committed to delivering to our clients the tools you need to grow your business. Please look for these announcements and let us know what you think!!

It’s been quite a few years since my last trip to Vegas…. BOY HAS IT CHANGED! At some of the hotels and resorts, I thought I was at Disney World…. They have really marketed to a “family” experience. Bugsy Siegel and the original Vegas mobsters must be spinning in their graves! Upscale shopping, spas, amusement rides, arcades for the kiddos… where were the smoked filled, dimly lighted casinos, with booze flowing and an edge of danger in the air? The only danger I saw was from all the helpful customer service employees falling all over themselves to help you find the nearest Starbucks counter at the hotel!! The “Rat Pack” wouldn’t stand a chance in today’s Las Vegas…

I would like to share a few moments from my trip; this was to celebrate my youngest son’s 21st birthday. My other son (24yrs) and my cousin were along as well. An early flight has us in Vegas at 7:20am… a quick breakfast and out to Hoover Dam. Then, hit the casino’s!! My oldest learned quickly why there are so many “nice” casinos in Vegas, he lost 75% of his “entertainment” funds in about an hour. Round 1 to the casino. The boy’s room was not ready at check in, so after a 4 hour delay, the room was ready and they were “comped” an upgrade to “resort status”….. wait a minute… whose name was on the credit card for the room? Round 2 to the casino. Later that night, Texas Hold’em and up a few hundred bucks. Round 3 to Marcus. The next day, the best $75 I spent the whole trip: Indoor Skydiving!! All I can say is WOW… I’m doing the real thing later this year, awesome. That night, it was guys night out on the town. Ever see the movie “Old Hogs”? What is up with today’s youngsters? Both young guys were in bed by midnight, the “old guys” stayed out til 4:00am, got up at 7:00am, went to Denny’s (is there any place else?) and then got new tattoos ink in (6 hours of needle work.. ouch!) The young guys stayed in bed ‘til noon and then laid around because they were “tired”…. Seriously, this should be renamed the “Tired Generation”. At 24 and 21 years of age, I wouldn’t have slept for 3 days!! Another interesting phenomon takes place on the sidewalks of “The Strip”. Starting at 3:00pm, there are groups of 10-12 men in brightly colored hoodies standing along the sidewalk, slapping business cards in their hands, trying to get your attention and hand the card to you. Distracting and disgusting, they are the marketing force for the “private entertainment” industry, with full color photos of the personal services available. In spots it looked like there had been a ticker tape parade! The old mobsters would be proud of these guys! New tattoos aching, I try to teach my cousin how to play craps…. It’s a love/hate relationship… the dice table, not me and my cousin! While at the craps table, my youngest “figures out” roulette…. a collective few hundred dollars later, he “figures out” the law of averages is a cruel mistress! Round 4 to the casino.

What does this have to do with lead management or insurance? Nothing really… every once in a while, we all need to take a break and refresh/renew ourselves! If you chose to do it in Vegas, I have an addition to their marketing line: “What Happens in Vegas (and your $$$$), Stays in Vegas!