This post originally ran on Forbes.com.
Are you looking for ways to win back lost customers? If so, you’re not alone. Brands across all industries want to keep customers engaged for as long as possible. There are plenty of advantages that come with building an audience that’s loyal to your brand. For starters, you can save money and increase your profits. It can cost five to 25 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. And I've noticed that long-term customers are likely to spend more when they place an order. The percentage of people who stop using your product or service in a given time period is known as your churn rate. You can calculate this by dividing the number of customers you lost by the total number of customers you had at the beginning of the time period and multiply by 100. So, if your business has 200 customers at the beginning of the month and 20 stop using your product, you have a churn rate of 10% that month. Companies with a high customer churn rate often have smaller profit margins and see mixed reviews on social platforms. As a business owner or marketer, keeping your churn rate low is crucial to your success. Below are several ways you can win back customers when they stop placing orders or responding to your emails. I started using these strategies back in 2016 when I co-founded my company. We've since grown exponentially and even acquired a few new brands along the way. 1. Find Out Why You Lost Them First, find out why they decided to stop ordering or responding in the first place. If you can get to the bottom of the issue, you’ll have a much easier time figuring out your next course of action. For instance, if someone stopped buying from you because they found a better deal on a competitor site, you could send a coupon code that gives them a special price on their next order. Small incentives go a long way toward retaining customers. You can easily find out why customers are leaving by sending an exit survey to email subscribers. When someone goes a specific period of time without completing an order, or cancels their membership, send a short survey with targeted questions. You could ask them what your company could do to get them to stay. Alternatively, you could create a form that pops up when a customer is getting ready to abandon their shopping cart. These forms should only have one or two questions. Both questions should directly relate to their decision to leave and what you can do to change their mind. 2. Make Returning Worth Their Time Once you understand why customers are leaving, you can start taking action to make returning worth their time. At my company, we like to publish three to five blog posts every week so customers have a reason to come back to our site that doesn’t require them to spend money. Consumers should see your site as an experience and not a simple visit to a store. Content marketing is the perfect way to connect with your audience and give them one more reason to stay loyal to your brand. You can also entice customers into returning by frequently updating your website. Every business is slightly different, so your updates may vary depending on your budget and industry. Website users are often receptive to design changes. If you see that most people who filled out abandonment forms cited a slow checkout page as their reason for leaving, a revamp could be the thing that brings them back for future orders. When you make substantial changes to your products, features or website design, don’t forget to email your subscribers and let your social media followers know. If a former customer is still following your brand or subscribed to your list, they will see the message and they could come back to place a new order. 3. Create Personalized Campaigns So, you’ve figured out why customers are leaving and made changes designed to bring them back; what’s next? The next step is creating personalized campaigns that are designed to bring customers back to your website. Earlier, I mentioned sending coupon codes to customers who found a better deal elsewhere. This tactic is just one example of how you can personalize retention strategies for each person. In many cases, email subscribers will not come back and buy something after just one email. You have to build up their trust in your brand again. You could segment your audience based on their interests and last interactions and create a re-engagement campaign. Let’s say you own an online pet supply store and want to reach your inactive email subscribers. First, pull all inactive subscribers who haven’t opened an email in at least six months. The key is to keep them in their designated segments. In other words, all of the inactive customers interested in dogs would go to one group, and those interested in cats would go to another. Now, you can create a campaign where you send relevant content and offers to the subscribers. I also suggest personalizing the headlines so they can see that you know they haven’t interacted with your brand in a long time. Headlines like “Was it something we said?” are eye-catching and can bring inactive subscribers back to your site. As business owners and marketers, we have to admit that we won’t convince everyone to keep using our products or services. Use these tips to put the odds in your favor and win back more customers.
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Recently, Mike took to Insurance Soup and let them in on a bit of advice and openly admitted that he needed to this advice himself, which is why he felt comfortable relaying it to the members of the group.
Basically, not every insurance agency owner is really meant to do EVERY job in the agency itself. As an agency owner, you're going to have your strong points and one of those strong points should be having the courage and wherewithal to notice your weaknesses. In many cases, Mike thinks that a lot of agency owners resist hiring an agency manager because they feel that managing staff should fall under the job description of the owner, but it doesn't have to be and SHOULD NOT be the case if that owner feels that managing people isn't something they're well-suited for. See what Mike had to say about it below: "I am going to let you in on a little secret. It's a secret that for many of you (once you know it, if you decide to embrace it) could save your business. I mean this with all due respect and I will say it as someone who also acknowledges the problem in himself. Some of you SUCK AT MANAGING PEOPLE. Maybe you're a hothead. Maybe you are non-confrontational. Maybe you set goals that are too easy. Maybe you do not want to hear about anyone's personal drama. Maybe you just expect people to do their job without being supervised and coached. Maybe you're the type that is always changing what is wanted or how things are done. Maybe you give people too much rope to hang themselves. Maybe you fire people too quickly. Guess what? If you are one of those things (or many others) and YOU run the show, your Agency is in constant danger of collapse. Now that is not to say that you do not add value to your Agency. You have a ton of skills that an Agency needs. You would not have gone into business for yourself if you did not believe this. But if you KNOW or uncover QUICKLY that you are unhappy managing or bad at it, stop forcing yourself to be something you are not. Or even worse, something that you do not enjoy or WANT to be. HIRE A MANAGER. Hire a manager that reports up to you. Give them a clear and concise role. Communicate goals. Let them know what is important to you. And have a solid plan for keeping that ONE person accountable for their ONE job. Let THEM manage the staff. You can work collaboratively on behind-the-scenes conversations about team, staff, sales goals, etc..., but you remove yourself from the role where you feel very weak. Or from a role you hate. Instead, hire someone who loves it and has a good track record of experience. A LOT of Agents never think to do this because in their head, it's THEIR Agency.. THEY have to manage, but the truth is that they don't. And neither do you. It's a choice and if you suck at it or if you hate it, for your businesses chances of success and your own personal sanity, HIRE A MANAGER. Someone Karen can speak to when she stops in." An agency manager can be an amazing asset when it comes to directing and facilitating all parts of an insurance agency. They work with agents and customers to guarantee that objectives are met, important strategies and rules are maintained, and consumer loyalty is accomplished. Specific information might be required relying upon the kind of organization, but if an agency owner feels it's in the agency's best interest to step aside and assign the role of managing staff to someone else, it can make a world of difference for all involved! People would tell you to get out of the sales industry if you don't like selling. An insurance agent's primary responsibility is finding customers who need insurance and converting them into customers. Many agents are paid on commission, which is based on the volume of sales. In case you feel uncomfortable pitching your product, don't worry-there are plenty of alternatives that are more effective, less pushy, and less cynical than the glad-handing stereotype.
LET THEM DO THE TALKING Think of sales as an opportunity to raise your customer's awareness of your product, not a chance to sell someone something. Focus more on listening to your prospects, not selling them something. Try asking more questions rather than talking most of the time. Identify what your prospects need, and provide them with your expert advice. There would be times when you should honestly tell your prospect to buy what you sell. But there are times when you should tell your prospect honestly that he or she can get a better deal somewhere else. You may end up selling to some prospects simply because they're impressed by your honesty. LEAN INTO YOUR MARKETING Direct marketing, SEO, email marketing, direct mail, sponsorships in your community, and many more ways exist for you to indirectly market your business. People are brought in and warmed up for your sales pitch through these efforts, facilitating the sales process. Sometimes they can convert a buyer by themselves - but the person who is buying insurance will want to speak with an expert before deciding to go through with it. Either way, your job will be to provide any and all information you can so that the prospect is 100% sold on you and your product. BELIEVE IN WHAT YOU'RE SELLING Having a sense of dishonesty about sales contributes to some people's dislike of it. It won't feel disingenuous if you're promoting something that you believe in. When playing a sales role, those who feel uncomfortable may have to be more selective about the products and companies they choose. Your prospect will believe you when you demonstrate the benefits of your product over the competition if you do that. By stating the truth, you don't need to sell the product. If you've tried everything and you still can't get the feel for sales, the best advice we can give is to choose a product and company you honestly believe in. By offering those products or the serviceS of that company, you won't feel as if you're being duplicitous in any way. Instead you'll feel as if you're helping someone by giving them information about a product you know they can trust and you can feel good about selling to them. We hope these quick sales tips help even the most nervous of sellers. By practicing your sales pitches and focusing on doing the best you can for your customers, we're sure you'll find your stride in no time! This post originally ran on AgentPipeline.com.
To be a successful insurance agent, you must plant yourself in the communities you serve. After all, your job as an insurance agent is based on helping the people around you get the coverage they need. How Community Engagement Benefits Your Insurance Agency Being involved in your community holds innumerable benefits for your insurance agency and helps you better understand the people in your community. When you build relationships and get to know your community members, you can understand their needs better as clients. Your natural market is vital to your business, and there is no better way to gain constant referrals than to become the “go-to” insurance agent in your community! In addition to generating referrals and new business opportunities, you can raise awareness of your services when you are an involved community member. There are so many additional services insurance agents provide in our communities. Many people think insurance agents sell a policy and move on. A more significant piece of what insurance agents do is educate our customers on how to ensure they are covered and help protect their financial security and teach them how to take advantage of benefits that are included in their insurance policies. You must brand yourself as a resource and not another salesperson. Some ways to do this are sponsoring local sports teams, volunteering on behalf of your agency, or having a float in the local holiday parade – being active in the community is the best way to get your name out there. Once you become readily available to your community members, you can begin conversations and share some of the knowledge you have about insurance products. For example, many people do not realize some Medicare health plans include free transportation to and from doctor visits. The best way to understand peoples’ needs is to get out and get to know them! Attending local events allows you to get to know those in your community. Learn what matters to your community and let them know how they can prepare to keep themselves covered. Tips on Getting Involved Not sure where to start with getting involved? Talk to your local newspaper, community center, or school to find organizations and projects in need of support. We also have some suggestions that can help you get started:
Building solid relationships with your community members helps you create genuine connections and build trust within your community. Ultimately, this can lead to personal growth and success in your insurance business. Whether you're in the mood to create some social media content while staying on-brand for October, there's a lot more for you to capitalize on beyond the changing fall weather or Halloween at the end of the month. There are tons of monthly holidays to create extended themes around, as well as daily #NationalDays for you to jump on board with. And based on the hashtags for different food days, individuals days, pet days, ailment days, military days, or industry days — it seems like each and every day is a public day of recognition for someone or something on Twitter and Instagram.
Just because this list is extensive, it doesn't mean every one is going to automatically align with your agency and it's message. You're going to need to get crafty to come up with ideas to make the best themes work for your business. Even still, there are sure to be some special times of the month that fit your agency's niche. Below are complete lists of October's monthly holidays, as well as national days which are great for creating posts with popular trending hashtags. OCTOBER 2021 MONTHLY HOLIDAYS Breast Cancer Awareness Month Emotional Wellness Month Employee Ownership Month Financial Planning Month Global Diversity Awareness Month International Strategic Planning Month National Bake and Decorate Month National Cookbook Month National Cyber Security Awareness Month National Disability Employment Awareness Month National Ergonomics Month National Fair Trade Month National Work and Family Month Positive Attitude Month Right Brainers Rule! Month Self-Promotion Month Workplace Politics Awareness Month Adopt a Shelter Dog Month National Work From Home Week, October 4-10 Get Organized Week, October 4-10 Customer Service Week, October 4-10 Drive Safely Work Week, October 7-11 OCTOBER 2021 NATIONAL DAYS International Coffee Day, October 1 World Vegetarian Day, October 1 World Smile Day, October 1 Taco Day, October 4 World Mental Health Day, October 10 Physician’s Assistant Day, October 12 Coming Out Day, October 11 Columbus Day, October 11 Indigenous People’s Day, October 11 Canadian Thanksgiving, October 11 Dessert Day, October 14 Boss’s Day, October 16 Pasta Day, October 17 Sweetest Day, October 16 Evaluate Your Life Day, October 19 International Nacho Day, October 21 Make a Difference Day, October 23 United Nations Day, October 24 National Cat Day #NationalCatDay, October 29 Halloween, October 31 |
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