Interview: Relationship Marketing Strategies for Insurance Agents

Reminder media started about 18 years ago, and got its start in real estate. It’s a family business. About 11 years ago, I joined up with [my uncle]. Andrew has been really the champion to lead us into financial services … We want to empower entrepreneurs to live a life of freedom… If they can close more deals, it’s a commission check. If they get the commission check, they can send their kids to the schools they want them to go to. They can go on the vacations they want. They can live the life they want, and that’s why we exist.

[ReminderMedia keeps] you in touch with your database in a classy way that allows you to have conversations, and ultimately, build relationships. I believe relationships are the currency of business. If people have a relationship, if they know [they] can trust you, they end up using you.

I was a financial advisor for about 15 years and was very blessed and fortunate to find ReminderMedia … Yes, we have incredible four magazines [designed with content for] whatever the client is interested in, whether it’s diet, fitness, exercise, like our Start Healthy magazine, our flagship American Lifestyle magazine, which is travel, recipes, DIY, [and] our Business in Action magazine, [which] really engages with the entrepreneur or the small business owner, or even our Good to Be Home magazine, which is incredible for the real estate [agents] or just anybody that really is into architecture, landscaping. We have postcards. We have digital content that is absolutely incredible, very cutting edge. Whatever your client is interested in receiving, as far as content or delivery, we’re going to make sure that you’re able to connect with that client.

The unique thing about our client relationship tool is the fact that it is customized right down to the individual client. The agent is the star, the real value … [The tool] leverages all those relationships to generate more referrals … and close more business.

The magazine [we offer] … is super high quality … It’s not a pamphlet or one of those flimsy magazines that comes in the mail. It’s … a coffee-table magazine because we want it to be perceived as a gift. We wanted to apply the same concept to the digital [version]. We didn’t want just a PDF.

People consume print way differently than they consume digital … When we released [the] digital [version], we released seven articles, did it every two months like the print [version], and the engagement wasn’t that great. We realized people … want a bite-size article on digital. They want it to be visually appealing with images. So, we switched our digital [strategy], and the engagement rates [are] higher.

We’re just trying to give you tactical, non-salesy ways … to get in front of [people].

[The magazine content is] shareable on social … Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Pinterest. Everybody wants to be on social. The big pain point we see is they don’t know what to post. They don’t know how many times to post. They don’t have the time to curate good content.

So, we give you a library of content. Categorized by… different topics, like home, lifestyle, and health.

You can go in our interface [and] schedule posts on your Facebook page for one or two months [in advance]. For Instagram … we have images for you to use. We just started releasing videos as well. You now have Reels in there that you can post.

And the idea with social is you want to be consistent for your brand, but don’t get discouraged if people aren’t engaging. The algorithm will show your post to about maybe one to two percent of your audience if you have a business page. Many people get discouraged, and they stop posting.

Don’t; because when someone is thinking about doing business with you, what do they do? They Google you and find your business page. They find your LinkedIn [and other socials]. And that is a first impression. If you’re active on social, people are going to think you’re productive.

We want to give you the content to be productive, but here’s where you take it to the next level. Everybody has five minutes a day. Pick five people in your database, go into our content library, pick a piece of content that you think they would enjoy. Direct message them or go to their Facebook and post it.

If you send out a 48-page coffee table publication, it’s going to be an amazing touch point for you, but it’s still passive … What I always encourage people is … when you send this [magazine] out, pick up the phone and call the people you sent the magazine to. It seems very, very fundamental or basic [but] so few people are doing this right now, and it puts you leagues above the competition. Here’s why: When you call based upon the magazine, you’re not calling because you’re an insurance salesman. You’re not calling because you’re a financial advisor. You’re calling because you sent a gift to a friend. It builds gratitude. It builds reciprocity, where if you do something nice for someone and they want to reciprocate it back. But what’s so key here is it opens up the conversation.

We had a client by the name of Jane … She wrote an $800,000 annuity from a client she hadn’t spoken to in two years from a turkey recipe in the magazine … We hear these stories all the time, but just to go back to what Luke was talking about … Reciprocity’s absolutely going to kick in. When you send the magazine to the client, you ask them, “Where are two people I can send this magazine to?” And most people are going to give you that referral…. You’re liked because you just gave them a gift. You’re known. You’re on the cover of your own magazine. You’re trusted. You’re coming from their friend. So again, just to go back to that referral.

If there’s a referral partner, a strong relationship with maybe a state planning attorney or a CPA, what an easy way to engage them, make sure that you’re always in front of their clients and their waiting rooms. But I always bring it back to the client…. If you can really and truly take a client and do something that’s important to them — maybe they have a good relationship to the American Cancer Society or they’re doing something with their church, or charity, or school — and you feature them [and] you send it out to that client … You talk about turning somebody into a raving fan for your business.

If you are interested, we would obviously love to talk to you. You should become a Ritter agent because you get special promotions through Ritter. You can go to ReminderMedia.com/Ritter-Insurance [to learn more].