An outdated database can undermine all the good marketing ideas you’re trying to implement. The people you talked to at a tradeshow six years ago, the names you forgot to add context to, the leads you can’t remember if you followed up with or not...this is the clutter that can muck up your insurance marketing efforts.
Let’s dig in to your CRM system, and how it can work hand-in-hand with your marketing campaigns:
Whether you have a simple excel spreadsheet or a sleek CRM system, your database is most effective when it’s organized.
If you’re operating from a cluttered, chaotic system with no real consistency, you’re going to have a hard time communicating with your clients. Excellent customer communication is a major component of growing, scaling and retaining an insurance business.
Think about the typical sales cycle: prospecting, making a contact, qualifying your contact, nurturing that lead, presenting an offer, closing the sale, and following up and/or getting referrals.
Most of the sales cycle happens after someone expresses interest in your product or service. If you don’t keep track of what phase of the sales cycle your contact is at, then you’re missing out on the opportunity to give them what they need.
This is especially true in the insurance industry, because your clients’ needs are constantly changing and evolving. Staying organized can help you meet those needs.
If you or your team isn’t routinely updating client notes and information, then your database probably needs a good decluttering.
It can be time-consuming to comb through your list, but don’t worry: it’s worth it. You’ll likely come out of the process with forgotten leads to follow up on, clients you want to reach out to, and ideas for how to be better organized in the future.
This also comes up when insurance companies partner with marketing agencies. If you bring an agency in to help you create an effective marketing campaign, a disorganized CRM system can seriously hinder progress.
A cleaned up, current CRM can be a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. It can give you important insights like how and when people got in touch with your company, what stage of the sales cycle they’re at, when they were last contacted and what products or services they’ve expressed interest in.
You can get a birds’ eye view of your contacts to see the breakdown of leads, clients, and clients lost over the years. Or, you can zoom in and see how individuals have responded to your marketing campaigns or other communications.
Whatever marketing insights you’re hoping to glean from your CRM, remember that it starts with a clean, up-to-date CRM system.