astonish results’ january e-marketing agency of the month

Marketing Makeover

Comprehensive e-marketing helps agency reach “a whole ‘nother level”

Growing up, Steve Lewis’ step-dad left each morning for his job as a claims adjuster. And he came home each evening. But there wasn’t much about the work—or the industry—that Lewis found particularly appealing. In fact, says the owner of Security First Insurance Agency, Inc., in suburban Orlando, “One of the things I swore I never would do is insurance. It just seemed like a boring, dry industry.”

Shortly after earning a degree in business management, Lewis got married and bought a house. “So I had a guy come by to talk about life insurance,” he recalls. “We sat down and listened to what he had to say. But after talking with me, the agent actually tried to sell me on becoming an agent.”

The story plays out as one might guess. Lewis took a personality test and, sure enough, he racked up one of the highest scores the company had seen. “I thought maybe that was a good signal for me to explore the insurance industry,” he says. So he did.

Building a business

After several years as a MetLife life agent he got his P&C license. In the early 1990s, he was recruited by Nationwide and opened his own agency in Oviedo, Florida. When Nationwide offered the chance, Lewis went independent. Shortly thereafter, his agency merged with another and integrated operations into a new building he bought in Winter Springs.

Lewis summarizes his journey with a bit of advice—and an admission: “Be careful what you are and are not going to do,” he says. “I didn’t really understand the industry.”

But now he does understand the business. And he loves it.

One facet he particularly enjoys is “the challenge of trying to stay up with technology, the Internet and changes on the marketing side of things.” While he admits some technology can be boring and dry, “the fresh, innovative, creative, edgy stuff really gets me going,” he adds.

For instance, technology allowed the agency to rid itself of paper eight or nine years ago. “We were one of the first agencies I know of that went paperless, certainly one of the first in central Florida,” he notes. The $10 million agency uses a management system he describes as “quite intuitive,” although it’s less expensive and complicated than others.

Lewis has a staff of 10 in the predominantly personal lines agency—two commercial lines producers/CSRs, three in personal lines sales, several handling service and renewals, and one responsible for technology and business development. The tech/biz dev guy, Josh Wilson, has been with the agency since it embarked on its paperless initiative.

“Today he’s basically a full-timer,” Lewis says. “But he started off scanning papers.” Over time, Wilson learned about agency workflows and processes, then systems. “I was teaching him things I knew,” Lewis recalls. “Today, he pretty much handles all the software and networking issues we have.”

Marketing switch

For years, much agency business came through a strong referral network among mortgage companies. While the relationships are still strong, the mortgage business is not. “As that started dying, it had a dramatic effect on what we were doing,” Lewis recalls.

From a marketing standpoint, the agency has done what others have—”everything from cold calling to mail-outs to Yellow Page ads to knocking on doors to referrals,” Lewis explains. A few years ago, he started exploring Internet marketing. “I hired a search engine optimization (SEO) company to develop and tweak our Web site,” he recalls. “We did what we could to get it organically sound and did some pay-per-click advertising,” efforts that yielded moderate success.

But these early successes made him hungry for more. “I had seen where things were going, and wanted our Web site to be more than just an advertisement,” he recalls. “I wanted a sales tool to actually funnel the right people to the right spot to get what they needed.”

He also explored e-mail marketing as a way to build on his initial SEO experience. “I knew that e-mail marketing was certainly the hot thing at the moment—and I believe it will continue to be for quite a while,” he explains. “I wanted somebody that could help me integrate those and other pieces.”

In 2008, he responded to an e-mail solicitation from Internet marketing firm Astonish Results. “When they came and showed me what they offer, I realized that it was everything I wanted in one neat, tidy package,” he recalls. “I had seen companies that represented pieces of it, but I had not seen one that had everything all together.”

E-marketing 2.0

He signed on with Astonish to help build on the agency’s existing digital footprint. “They gave us Web site recommendations that they knew worked elsewhere,” he recalls. “We decided what to do based on those recommendations. When they got our site set up, it took us to a whole ‘nother level. From the day we turned it on, it’s been incredible.” While the revamped Web presence drove more sales leads, Lewis says that’s just part of the story.

“That just scratches the surface,” he adds. For instance, by working with the company, Lewis has tapped their resources to help him do a better job of interviewing and hiring, communicating expectations, establishing workflows, retraining staff, generating new marketing ideas, implementing what he calls a “robust” contact management system, managing leads and prospects, and even motivating and retaining employees.

The more he works with the firm, the more opportunities he sees. “When people ask me, ‘What’s the biggest problem with Astonish?’ I say, honestly, that it’s a huge tool, and it’s easy to look at it and say, ‘I’m overwhelmed. I don’t know what to do,’” he explains. “It’s the old elephant adage: You take one bite at a time, but you keep chewing.”

Just like in any other endeavor—marketing or otherwise—it’s a matter of setting priorities, Lewis notes. “You make a list of what you’ll focus on today, and then do it,” he explains. “Then the next day, go on to something else. Before you know it, you’ll be using the tools the way they’re designed. It’s a process.”

He works closely with an Astonish Results Raving Fan Manager—the marketing firm’s agency representative. “They’re there to be a sounding board,” Lewis explains. “I’ve had many healthy debates with my Raving Fan Manager, because that’s where you get growth. If everyone agrees with each other, it gets boring.” And we already know Lewis dislikes boring.

Sales plus

The agency has realized growth from more than just increased new business sales. “If an agency is looking for a sales boost, great,” Lewis says. “But if that’s all you’re doing, that’s crazy. You’re missing a big part of the puzzle—including retention and branding.”

His goal for switching up his marketing efforts was as much retention as it was sales. And he’s met the goal. “I just got a retention report from one of my larger companies,” Lewis notes. “In this economy, with all of the cancellations going on and people shopping and moving around, my retention actually went up a whole percentage point. I was blown away.”

Another key piece of the agency’s marketing effort is branding. “I want people to know who I am,” he explains. He’s incorporated social networking and media into the mix. For that, he tapped Josh Wilson. “His job over the last many months has evolved,” Lewis explains. “He set up our blog and our Facebook and Twitter presence, and now he’s growing them.”

Given Wilson’s background, it’s a good match. “He’s very creative—a music major, actually,” Lewis notes. “If you tried to cookie-cutter a blogger/social marketer, Josh would be the guy. He’s young and hip. He’s eclectic, he’s funny, he has a good, rounded intellect. He’s just a clever guy.”

The agency is working to build out its social networking presence. “We have a couple of normal commercial videos on the Net,” Lewis says. “They’ve optimized very well and they come out pretty well organically. We want to do some viral stuff, too. We’re going to try to do some funny, edgy comical stuff.” His goal is to grow the agency’s Twitter followers and Facebook fans.

Wilson’s focus is on building a track record of quality content. “Then, we’ll get the followers,” Lewis says. “I’m a believer in making a good product before we put it out there. Our blog is one example; Josh has done a really good job with that.”

Lewis summarizes his agency’s electronic marketing initiatives like this: “We’ve done everything we can to be technologically savvy and be on the cutting edge.” In doing so, he’s made sure his insurance business is growing and vibrant—and not the least bit boring.