Category Archives: Dagley Insurance

Views from the corner of Insurance & Marketing

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From an executive management perspective when you think about marketing and insurance in a single thought process it is usually due to a unique or at least unorthodox marketing effort that your company is deploying and what the potential exposure is relative to that effort. For example, if you are hosting an event such as a golf outing or hosting a pre-race party at a NASCAR event or any other type of marketing that presents potential exposure to risk. That’s when you think about insurance and marketing in the same context. For many years now companies have been leveraging the popularity of events or attractions as a vehicle to convey their message to the patrons or participants, after all it affords the opportunity to interact live with your target market.  In more recent years there has been a more aggressive style (albeit not as efficient in zoning in on a specific target) marketing movement that is often considered to be controversial. Street marketing has been used effectively for years in bringing attention to causes like cancer awareness.  In 2007 in Germany an AIDS prevention campaign made use of little paper men to demonstrate the effects of AIDS. These little paper men were positioned around Hamburg.  People noticed. The campaign garnered so much success and instantly became the model or at the very least a jumping pad for street marketing campaigns all over the world. In fact, the evolution of this type of marketing has been so rapid that folks, in large cities at least, are rarely shocked or surprised or wowed when exposed to this type of effort. But they still notice and that’s the objective. Right? Well, perhaps not! This style of marketing has taken a ‘big brother’ turn recently and goes on now in ways that are very subtle with a supposed subliminal message being delivered. You may have already been immersed in or in fact been  a ‘player in’ a street marketing effort.

Would you spend your marketing dollars on a campaign that is designed to not get people’s attention? Whether you would or wouldn’t, either way, you better be certain of one thing, and that is, that your company is protected during any marketing effort that yields potential exposure.

So that’s when you think of marketing and insurance together. Makes sense. Not so fast. Dagley Insurance & Financial Services, headquartered in Katy, Texas has effectively changed the paradigm regarding this supposition. They not only think about insurance and marketing in the same thought process, no, they’ve actually created a harmonious and symbiotic relationship between the two. And guess what, it’s pretty. At least the commercial insurance clients of Dagley thinks so, they think it’s the most beautiful relationship that they have ever seen. It’s very simple, I’ll explain, If you are a commercial insurance client of Dagley Insurance you will receive, as a value added benefit, the effort of the in house marketing team implementing a comprehensive social media marketing effort on your behalf, for your company. It’s a benefit and it’s not one of those marketing efforts designed to not get people’s attention. This campaign gets people’s attention, it’s strategic and it works. It provides more exposure for your company because Dagley wants to earn and keep your business. They built this program because at Dagley they know when their clients businesses grow their business grows. It’s a good deal. What’s your insurance company doing for you?

Contact Dagley Insurance and Financial Services today for more information.

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Quality Service, Comprehensive Coverage and some Viral Marketing on the Side

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Viral marketing is all the rage. The success of many products and brands demonstrated the eclectic power the digital media possess in inspiring consumers to respond to a more intimate interaction with a brand. This phenomenon has caught the attention of sundry businesses including Dagley Insurance and Financial Services in Katy, Texas. The marketing team at Dagley looked at social media outlets as the optimal medium that to promote and sell auto insurance, homeowners insurance, commercial insurance, life insurance and financial services.

The question is, what is the role of viral marketing in the social media campaign?

Viral marketing is the process of distributing promotional materials through user-initiated efforts. In other words the company provides content that is entertaining, informational or otherwise interesting to the target demographic and that target demographic under their own volition forwards the information to friends and family in their circle. Chances are that you have been a critical link between the company who created the branding message and thousands or even millions of uninitiated viewers of this subliminal type campaign.

Let us look at two giant companies who initiated successful viral marketing campaigns – Nike Japan and Dove, Campaign for Real Beauty.

Nike Japan wanted to re-ignite the youth’s affinity to their tag-line “Just Do It”. They encouraged young people to submit a video of themselves doing a killer move in any physical activity of their choice. The chosen videos were used by Nike in traditional advertising campaigns but the multitude of submissions were the real home run for Nike as they were sent back and forth over and over again reaching millions on the web branding their name and successfully re-igniting the tag line.

Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty was a simple video that was developed to have the vital components of previous videos that have gone viral interwoven with their marketing creativity.  It simply showed the transformation of woman’s face in a way that was captivating.  This too was sent around the virtual world effectively providing the impressions that the company sought.

A few things to consider: First neither company was trying to sell a product, just branding, and secondly they take a single-minded proposition. Both are true of all top viral marketing efforts. Further, and most importantly, when considering how this could be implemented for a small company, the Nike model can be initiated with little or no cost, it’s called user generated content (UGC). The very idea of this should get all business involved in some capacity. Dagley Insurance sure isn’t missing the boat.

Yes, they identified that social media marketing and all of its aspects and nuances are vital to growth.  It truly offers them the best opportunity to promote their full line of auto insurance, homeowners insurance, commercial insurance, life insurance and financial services as well as to develop a more intimate relationship with their market. It is, after all, the most honest medium to date. Viral marketing is a step above traditional media because it offers immediate opportunity for your brand to be accessed by the consumer but beyond that, it is still very close to the good old traditional advertising. It still needs a single-minded approach, needs to be short and to have a breakthrough idea.

If you are in a business you need to know that social media marketing must now be a line item I your marketing budget. Additionally, you need to know that all clients of Dagley Insurance are provided with a social media-marketing package as a benefit of being a client. They extend their knowledge so that it helps grow your business. What’s your insurance company doing for you?

Contact Dagley Insurance if you would like to be more than a client.

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Great. We are buying a house. Now what?

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Moving to a new home whether across town or from across the country is always a challenging time. Identifying a neighborhood that is suitable to your needs and desires is as vital as is finding a suitable realtor to assist you in the process. It truly is an important relationship. Perhaps the most critical relationship though, and ideally the first you develop is your insurance provider. Not the big box internet carriers but the brick and mortar insurance company that you can walk in to and talk to your agent in person. Times have changed substantially over the last several years with the bargain basement online providers that advertise the cheapest prices. What they don’t highlight in their creative advertisement campaigns is that along with the lower prices they offer (which isn’t always the case by the way), they are also providing the lowest amount of protection. Imagine, that for the biggest personal investment that the average person makes in their lifetime many make the mistake of price shopping for the protection of that investment. A good rule of thumb while considering insurance coverage for a new home purchase is to go with a company who provides you with an actual agent, a real person that is accountable to you. A relationship, so that you can be educated on and therefore make the best decision on the level of coverage that you need to protect your investment. Not just, the least you need from someone that has never met you, never seen your property or has never been in your state let alone your neighborhood.

When you have a relationship with your insurance agent in place you’ll find that some of the other relationships fall into place. They work with and know the local market and therefore can provide you with reputable referrals to mortgage providers, realtor’s and many other relationships you’ll need in your new home. One company in fact, Dagley Insurance & Financial Services headquartered in Katy, Texas, one of the more sophisticated insurance providers, has developed a program that evaluates and monitors partner realtor’s, mortgage companies, etc. So  you can feel confident that when establishing a relationship with Dagley you will also have the benefit of their scrutiny when looking for the other needed relationships. It’s just how it’s done at Dagley. Now that’s a service you cannot get from someone who doesn’t have an office in your area.

For more information on protecting your home contact Dagley Insurance or stop by one of our locations.

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Effective Social Media Marketing in the Insurance Industry.

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Effective Social Media Marketing in the Insurance Industry.

First and foremost it is important to understand that much like traditional marketing social media marketing is sorely misunderstood. The general business populous that handles marketing for their organization still believes that putting an advertisement in a magazine, newspaper, dare I say yellow pages or on television, radio and so on constitutes an advertising campaign. When in all actuality no one single effort is a campaign. In fact, a campaign is a multi-dimensional approach to delivering a single message utilizing a variety of mediums targeting a specific demographic. Information is needed to identify the optimal combination of media and the inherent risk potential associated with any media effort. This information should never come from the person selling the advertising. Collecting and understanding this data rest solely on shoulders of the individual or team in charge of spending your marketing dollars. That’s what they were hired to do, Right.

That being said the burgeoning economy that is social media marketing, much like any new industry, yields the opportunity not only to gain ground or surpass your competitors but it all creates an opportunity for the unscrupulous to take advantage of un-savvy media buyers. You know who you are. As many companies that there are who are embracing (or at least trying to embrace) social media marketing there are more than five times as many who make no effort to participate in it, yet alone optimize this viable, valuable and ever evolving marketing platform. Of those who do engage the concept most of them are stuck in the quagmire that has haunted the marketing world since the cavemen developed signs. In this case the sign is Facebook. Companies put a page on Facebook and think that they have a social media campaign. And as indicated earlier a single sign does not constitute a campaign.

In conducting my research for this article I found a truly unique concept in social media marketing in a highly unlikely location, an Insurance and Financial Services company in Katy, Texas. This company has not only embraced the social media marketing world but they appear to be leading the charge. Having partnered with, and learned from, perhaps one of the top companies in the social media marketing world, they have successfully integrated a multi-dimensional and comprehensive social media marketing campaign that has effectively grown their business. Good for them. Right. Well in part, obviously, it is successful but it is also great for their clients. This company has turned the insurance industry on its collective ear. You see, now that they have a solid understanding of and documented success in social media marketing they have, uncharacteristically of the industry, not only asked a question that was never asked before, but they answered it too.

“What is your insurance company doing to help promote and grow your business?” What! Huh? That is the typical response when the question is asked. Go ahead. Ask yourself or the person sitting next to you….Go ahead, I’ll wait.

It is a perplexing question.  I’ve never heard it asked before and never even considered the prospect of it before. Why? Well the answer is simple. Why would an insurance company provide anything other than insurance? That type of narrow-mindedness has eluded this trendsetting Texas based firm that continues to grow with offices in Colorado now too. They have a different perspective and philosophy and the ideology that is at the root of this is simple, if your business grows our business grows.  So they’ve answered the question that they posed to themselves and developed a marketing department that works directly with their commercial clients to implement a social media marketing campaign to help their clients to grow their business. Free of charge. Yes, you’ve read that correctly, this is simply part of the relationship. If you are a client you get the benefit.

If you’re just getting an invoice it isn’t a relationship. Pick up the phone a give your agent a call and ask the question, “What are you doing to promote and help grow my business?” At least you’ll get a laugh from their response and that’s a benefit, right!

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how social media can save your insurance agency

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Facebook, twitter, and other social media channels are becoming increasingly important to the business world. And yes, that even applies to the tepid, misunderstood, insurance world. If used correctly, facebook and twitter will help maximize your web presence, build your company an effective brand, and allow you to interact with consumers in a personal way.

All too often, business owners, especially insurance folks, assume it’s a “set it and forget it” deal. It’s not that way at all. Social media must be tended to often and executed correctly, or it will simply be a waste of time. Below I provide 4 suggestions for your agency, or business, which will help you beef up your social media presence and use it to your advantage.

  1. Create a page that is eye catching, unique, and speaks to your business brand. 99% (unofficial stat) of business pages on facebook and Twitter come in the form of blandness and monotony. Make your pages stand out and sing to visitors.
  2. Interact directly with your visitors and encourage participation. Hold a contest, take a poll, offer a discount, give them useful information, etc. Keep people coming back with interesting tidbits and personal incentives.
  3. Track your metrics. Metrics are a vital aspect to a successful web and social media presence. Understanding your company’s metrics will keep you informed of what works and what doesn’t. There are several programs for social media analytics management including webtrends.com and kontagent.com – or you can handle it on your own.
  4. Keep posts frequent, but not too frequent. In other words, don’t annoy your friends and followers.

I’m calling out to all insurance agents and business owners! Get with it! Use social media to your advantage or don’t use it at all. Social media is not a fad and the hype is very real. Get on board or get out of the way.

Visit our website to learn more about our insurance agency http://www.dagleyins.com

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