Growing numbers of successful agencies are using e-mail marketing to bring in new customers as well as cross-sell or up-sell existing customers. Unlike direct mail, you can determine who has opened your e-mail and, more important, who hasn’t. Here are some highlights of the key strategies used in e-mail marketing and how you can apply them to your agency.

A key component for successful e-mail marketing involves your database. The most successful insurance agencies have an up-to-date database that includes all of their customers’ and prospects’ e-mail addresses as well as a process to continually update and add to that database. Everyone in the organization sees e-mail as a strategic method for continually staying in front of customers. Staff is trained to ask for a valid e-mail address during every customer interaction. To keep it fun, agencies run contests for their CSRs to see who can collect the most e-mail addresses. Your database is gold, and maintaining valid e-mail addresses must be a top priority.

Properly segmenting your database—according to client life cycle or prospect product interest—is critical. This allows you to send targeted and timely communications that will increase the success of any campaign. With a properly segmented database, you’re better able to create targeted e-mail campaigns to focus on commercial niches in which the agency specializes or to efficiently cross-sell to customers.

Having a CRM (customer relationship management) system that allows you to easily segment your database is critical. Remember, the better you can segment your database, the more effective your marketing effort will be.

Once you’re able to segment your database, creating the most relevant and actionable content is an important next step. You know all the hot-button points for the niches your agency specializes in and what should motivate prospects to purchase insurance from you. These factors will serve as the basis of the content of your e-marketing campaign to bring in new customers. There must be a clear call to action. Typically, that call to action should drive the recipient back to your agency Web site to a specific landing page designed just for the campaign. Top agencies track this traffic, giving them a clear indicator of the success of each campaign.

What your e-mail communication looks like, the images, text and overall layout, also plays into the success of any e-mail marketing campaign. There are two different schools of thought on the topic of “the creative.” One school opts for a completely image-free or text-only e-mail. E-mails containing artwork or an image tend to get caught in spam or anti-virus filters more frequently due to their construction and content.

On the other hand, text-only e-mails do not motivate the recipient to act as much as their image-based counterparts. Another negative concerning text-based e-mail is that it is difficult to track the hits and the misses.

Ultimately, there’s no “right answer.” The only way to truly know is by testing each version and comparing the results.

Frequency is another important component of a solid e-mail marketing strategy. How often should you e-mail your customer base or pros­pects? E-mailing them too much will cause “list fatigue,” the result of too many recipients opting out of your communications. A safe approach is a monthly newsletter that will keep your customer or prospect informed, continue to build your brand, and generate more business.

Many agencies have been hesitant about starting an e-mail marketing strategy for fear of being categorized as a spammer. There are clear rules for CAN-SPAM compliance, and your agency should be aware of those rules or work with an organization that is. You must have a clear opt-out mechanism on all non-transactional e-mail communications or marketing messages.

Be careful about buying lists of e-mails. Many of these lists are generated by e-mail scraping programs and e-mailing to them can get you blacklisted.

My recommendation is to work with a company experienced in e-mail marketing.

Growing your agency depends on leveraging all of the Internet marketing strategies available. Developing a solid e-mail marketing strategy can allow you to target specific niches, keep you in touch with your customers and prospects, and ultimately create greater loyalty in your customer base.

John Boudreau is COO and co-founder of Astonish Results, a digital marketing and consulting firm based in Rhode Island. He oversees the CRM, SEO/SEM, social media, and e-mail market­ing strategies for the Astonish system.