Text message marketing is increasingly becoming popular among businesses. Marketers are including text messaging as one of the strategies to reach out to customers. In today’s busy world, customers have no time for phone calls from marketers. They consider it intrusive. SMS marketing, on the other hand, is non-intrusive, which is why 86% of customers prefer receiving marketing messages through SMS. They can read these messages at any time, which is convenient for them. This is why text messaging is the best strategy for marketers to use.
Why use text messaging for insurance?
The insurance sector is part of the service industry. Insurance companies and agents offer products to ensure the life, home, health, and vehicle of customers. Their work involves constant interaction with customers. They need to provide information to customers about their products and services. They need to send policy documents and other information. While this can be sent through e-mail, text messages have a higher response rate (of nearly 46%). Marketing emails can get blocked by spam filters in mail servers.
SMS is not used only to send messages but can be used for interaction. It can be used for two-way communication. Customers can reply to a message and seek information. This can be automated through the use of keywords. Text messaging is done using SMS software that can detect the keywords and send automated replies. This allows easy interaction between marketers and customers.
Some other key facts that explain why insurance marketers should use text messaging include:
• An SMS is likely to be ready by 97% of the recipients within 3 minutes of receipt.
• SMS messages don’t require internet connectivity or a data plan. They can be sent over the mobile network.
• Text messages can be received on any type of mobile phone. The owner need not have a smartphone, even a feature phone will do.
Using text messaging for insurance
Text messaging can be used by the insurance industry to reach out and engage with their customers. Insurance agents can use them for various purposes that can help boost sales. An insurance agent would find text messaging valuable in their work. The following explains how this can be done effectively:
1) Acquire new customers
It is important for insurance agents to acquire new customers. They bring in more business allowing agents to earn more money. An insurance agent can have a database of people interested in insurance and can send a message to them. They can introduce themselves and the company they represent. They can inform the type of policies offered. In the message, there are different ways of providing more details:
• They can include a keyword prompting the customer to reply using the keyword. For example, the keyword INFO can be used to get more information about the products. A keyword with the name of the product can be used to get information about the product.
• A keyword CALL can be used by a customer to ask a salesperson to call back with more details.
• A link to a webpage can be provided where the customer can get more information or even buy the insurance product online. This link can even be used to track how many customers visit the page and how many make a purchase.
2) Offer new products
Existing customers can be contacted when there are new products offered by the insurance company. An SMS can be sent with information on the product and benefits in brief. An MMS can be sent with a picture of the brochure or a link sent to the website. The message can have a call to action prompting the customer to respond to the message.
3) Send reminders
Customers need to be sent reminders on the due date for premium payment, the date the policy would lapse, the status of the policy, etc. All this information can be sent as reminders or alerts through SMS. This can be automated with no human intervention needed. This will help customers be aware of their policy status.
4) Handle service issues
Any problems faced by the customer or complaints or any query can be easily handled through SMS. The query can be received and a response sent immediately. This ensures customers get timely service that is essential to keep them satisfied.
Text messages marketing is a powerful tool for insurance agents to reach out to customers and get new business. With 2021 being the year when the economy is picking up, insurance agents need to work double as hard to bring their business back to normal. Text messaging can help in this. It is very easy to use this strategy. An SMS marketing software service can be used to engage with customers using texting. If you are an insurance agent, you can start using texting from today
