The holiday season isn’t typically the busiest time of year for insurance sales. However, that doesn’t mean you should let your insurance marketing fall by the wayside. Although you may not close as many sales in December, the holidays are a great time to reach out to clients and lay the groundwork for sales in the new year.
Here are six top holiday marketing opportunities to consider.
1. Provide Tips for Important Family Discussions.
Many families are spread across the country or even the world – they may only see each other in person during the holidays. This means the holidays may be the most practical time to discuss important issues like financial planning, estate planning, and insurance needs. However, many people don’t think about these important conversations, or they don’t know what they need to discuss.
Send your clients tips and reminders about important discussions to have with their families. For example, some of your clients may have parents who are around retirement age and need to start planning for their long-term care, making this a good time to discuss long-term care insurance or other plans. Some of your clients may also have adult children who are just establishing their careers – they need to know about disability insurance options.
The Generation Financial Strategies handout is a good resource to share. You can send it to clients with a reminder to make time for important conversations this holiday season.
2. Send a Holiday or New Year Card.
Send a holiday card to express your warm wishes and build the relationship on a personal level. If you know which holidays your clients celebrate, you may like to send holiday-specific cards – for example, Christmas cards for clients who celebrate Christmas. Otherwise, a winter holiday card or a New Year card may be the safest bet.
Be sure to personally sign every card and add a friendly note if possible. It only takes a moment, and it adds a nice personal touch.
3. Schedule an Annual Review for the New Year.
The start of a new year is the perfect time to conduct an annual review. This gives you the chance to catch up on any changes that occurred in your clients lives over the last 12 months. For example, your clients may have gotten married, changed jobs, started a business, welcomed a new child, or purchased a home. Major life events like these often require a review of life and disability insurance needs.
Use this annual financial review checklist to help your clients prepare for a new year of financial stability.
4. Give Back to the Community.
Giving back to the community is a good way to show appreciation while building your brand. There are numerous charity opportunities around the holidays. For example, you could sponsor a local holiday play or other holiday event, or you could host a toy drive for a local charity. Another option is to sponsor a local group, such as a youth sports group. Reach out to nonprofits in your area to explore your options.
5. Send a Thank-You Card.
Thanksgiving is the perfect time of year to express gratitude. For insurance sales professionals, that should include showing gratitude for the clients who make your career possible. If you missed that opportunity this year, mark your calendar now so you remember to reach out to clients next fall.
However, you don’t have to wait a year to send a thank-you note. Writing thank-you cards is a simple way to strengthen your relationships and ensure your clients think of you first if they have any additional insurance needs or know someone else who does – and you can leverage this marketing tactic year-round.
6. Schedule posts on Social Media.
When you’re buys with the holidays, it’s easy to let social media marketing fall by the wayside. To help you out, we’ve created some ready-to-post social media graphics. If you scroll through the available graphics, you’ll find several with holiday themes and imagery. You can even schedule these posts ahead of time so you don’t forget. Here’s how to schedule posts on Facebook, and here’s how to schedule posts on Twitter/X. Or you can use a third-party tool like Hootsuite to schedule all your posts ahead of time.
Do You Need More Marketing Help?
The above holiday marketing opportunities should give you some ideas for the season, but insurance marketing is a year-round endeavor. DIS has handouts, infographics, ready-to-use social media posts, and other sales tools to power your marketing and client outreach.
To make things extra easy for you, we’ve put together a holiday marketing kit that comes with a generational financial strategies handout, four social posts and an email marketing template. Download your kit.