Marketing Agency of the Month

Always moving forward (well, sometimes sideways)

The Seltzer Group becomes a marketing machine

By Dennis H. Pillsbury

When Robert W. Seltzer Sr. started the Seltzer Insurance Agency in 1948 in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, he had plenty of insurance experience. He represented the fourth generation to serve as secretary of the Schuylkill Mutual Fire Insurance Co. The agency was, like most start-ups—small. A small agency in a small town in a sparsely populated area. And it served its community well.

In 1972, Robert Jr. and Bruce Krammes joined the agency, and Bob Sr. focused his attention on the agency as the mutual insurance company was phased out. At that time, the agency wrote about $250,000 in premium, nearly all of it personal lines.

Over the next decade the agency nearly tripled its volume to reach about $700,000 in 1982. Bob, who now serves as president of the agency, remembers, "Unfortunately, Dad passed away that year. Bruce and I purchased the agency and had to figure out what to do next, Our goal was to keep moving forward."

Bruce, who is secretary/treasurer of the agency, continues, "We decided to start branching out to other lines of business and to bring people in to help produce." In 1989, Steven Stramara joined the agency as a producer and quickly asserted himself as both a top-notch producer and another developer of new ideas. Today, he serves as senior vice president of the agency and was named producer of the year in 2010 by Keystone Insurers Group.

"One of our goals was to build awareness," Steve says. "We were in a small town. How were we going to reach out and develop more business?"

One of the first solutions was telemarketing. "One of the companies we represented was Allstate, and we could do telemarketing for its homeowners product," Bruce says. "In 1995, we hired kids from the local Penn State affiliate to get on the phones. That year we won the Titan Award from Allstate for selling more homeowners insurance for Allstate than anyone else in the United States."

Steve adds, "That was proof of the power of marketing, of getting our name out in front of people. We knew we could sell once we made the contacts and once people knew who we were, so we began building on that initial marketing effort by adding radio and television advertising to our efforts. We were one of the first cable TV advertisers in our area."

The power of programs

Throughout the 1990s, Seltzer continued to be primarily a personal lines dynamo. "We went through a period of acquiring smaller agencies and growing our expertise so we could build our commercial lines side of the business," Steve says. "In fact, we made a conscious decision to try and equalize our commercial, personal and financial products offerings."

One avenue into significant commercial lines production was program business. In the mid-1990s, the agency worked with Pennsylvania National on a malt beverage program. "It was much easier to become an expert in one field and to really concentrate on that field," Bruce points out. (Editor's note: As an expert in malt beverages myself, I must admit that I approve of their choice.) "We wrote the first liquor liability policy for Pennsylvania National and are now endorsed by
the Pennsylvania Malt Beverage Association." That program also resulted in "the start of our first marketing database."

The success of that program led first to the agency becoming a franchisor with ISU. Unfortunately, ISU East folded after four years because of geography, as it proved difficult to put together programs when the ISU headquarters was on the West Coast.

But Seltzer found the concept intriguing and, in 1998, became the 17th partner with the recently formed Keystone Insurers Group. "What excited us," Bob remembers, "was that the programs were all in one jurisdiction so they were a much better fit for us and the other members. It has been a great, ongoing relationship for us."

The next leap forward

Programs were a great opportunity to write certain businesses, but they obviously failed to help with those businesses that fell outside the purview of the programs available to the agency. "Our marketing was working and we were starting to develop relationships with larger clients," Steve points out. "We had always looked for ways to differentiate ourselves from the competition. Now we needed something that would work with most commercial accounts."

In 2004, Seltzer management met with Frank Pennachio of the WorkComp Advisory Group and Preston Diamond of the Institute of WorkComp Advisors. Both men promoted a risk solutions approach to marketing workers compensation insurance. "That started a fundamental shift in the way we did business," Bruce notes. "And it is a shift that has taken over every aspect of the agency, not just workers compensation.

"We hired a loss time workers compensation claims adjuster and began developing individualized programs for our clients that would help them improve their workers compensation experience," Bruce continues. "In 2006, we formed a safety company in conjunction with Duncan Financial out of Pittsburgh, one of the Keystone partners. That company, East Coast Risk Management, has grown from three employees to 25 employees and now includes human resources consulting."

Bob adds, "A lot of employers we work with don't have the resources for a full-time risk manager or human resources person. They understand that they need professional help with safety, loss control, human resources and so on. We are able to provide that help. We are viewed as partners with our clients, as a resource rather than an expense."

Frank Dumbleton, vice president-commercial lines, who joined Seltzer in 2007, points out that the shift also has "changed the conversation we have with our clients and prospects, as well as those we have with our companies. Our approach with clients now is not focused on insurance but on solving problems, finding out what they need to become more successful.

"If they need an employee handbook, we can provide that. If they need a wellness program, we do that," he continues. "We've even formed a payroll company because our clients needed help in that area and wanted to institute a pay-as-you-go comp program. Several clients had difficulty with audits. We have a full-time person on staff who handles workers compensation and general liability audits. We also have a strategic partner relationship with a disaster recovery firm.

"And our conversations with the insurance companies focus on the solutions that have been implemented by the individual client," Frank continues. "The insurance companies recognize the value that our risk mitigation efforts provide, and that is reflected in the coverages offered and the pricing of those coverages."

Bob interjects: "It really helps that Frank speaks 'insurance company.' We first met him when he was with INA and were impressed with his knowledge of the business. Before he joined us, we didn't have anyone who dealt specifically with our company relations. He's done a great job at keeping our relationships strong with our companies to the benefit of the agency, our clients and the companies themselves."

Replicating the approach in personal lines

"As mentioned earlier, we've always been strong in personal lines," Peter Krammes, vice president-personal lines, says. "But we're really starting to ramp up that effort by providing the same risk management approach that we use in commercial lines. Our discussions with personal lines clients and prospects now focus on solving problems, and that has resulted in more cross-selling of property/casualty coverages, as well as financial products.

"At the same time, we brought our IT in-house so we could better manage our Internet marketing. We hired a full-time IT manager in 2009 and, in April of 2010, found the right company to provide help with our digital marketing efforts. We went through three solutions before finding Astonish Results, a company that understands insurance and Web site design."

Bruce continues, "Our Astonish Raving Fan Manager meets with us on a weekly basis. Astonish has helped us put together a marketing campaign and helps us track the results. The campaign includes various social media as well as our Web site in order to drive communication to the agency. Sarah Stramara serves as our Internet guru."

A continuing commitment to marketing

"It's a big commitment in terms of both time and money," Bob points out. "The key to an effective marketing campaign is follow-through. That's something we understand. We've had a dedicated marketing department for more than 20 years and it's been effective because of Jennifer Tahaney, who's been with us for 22 years and is a marketing wiz, and because we followed up on leads and provided a value-added proposition that our competition couldn't match.

"We see our Internet effort as just the latest iteration of our ongoing commitment to keeping our name out in front of the public. We're still a small-town agency, although we now have three offices, each in a small town (Orwigsburg, Schuylkill Haven and Pottsville), in a sparsely populated area. There are about 150,000 people in our county.

"We're quite proud that we produce annual premium of $12 million in personal lines, $20 million in commercial lines, $5 million in benefits and $5 million in alternative risk."

We at Rough Notes are proud to recognize The Seltzer Group as our Marketing Agency of the Month. It is indeed a marketing machine that well deserves the title.