Episode 12 : Monthly Newsletter

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This podcast will give you all the tools to grow your business and live life on your terms. Millionaire agents and entrepreneurs think and act differently than others. This podcast will give you a simple, proven three step blueprint to grow your business. Over the past 31 years of research in your industry, Mike Stromso has created a unique philosophy called the three people Process and promotion. This outside the box thinking and guidance provides agency entrepreneurs just like you the knowledge and tools you can quickly implement to explode your agency business. He has been there, done that, and he's still doing it. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or are well on your way to the success you desire, with the right people, processes and promotions in place, you will be unstoppable. And now I'd like to introduce your host, Mike Stromso.

Welcome everybody to podcast episode number 12 of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This is Mike Stromco coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. And today we're going to be digging into and sharing everything that we know so far about probably the number one thing, the absolute number one item. And I remember I learned this over a decade ago when I said to agencies all over North America that I was talking to, I said, what's the number one thing that you're doing that cements your herd that makes a concrete wall around your existing client book, your communities and everything else? And they agreed that it's a monthly agency newsletter. Yes, I know a lot of people feel that that's old school or the thing of the past. Ladies and gentlemen, I strongly.

Feverishly disagree with that thought process and I want to share with you why, as we dig in today, I want to give you some nuts and bolts that you can get your mind around. So make sure that you have something to write with, something to write on. And I'm going to give you everything that I've got on monthly agency newsletters and related communication. Because the goal, what this means for you is you are going to create a cement wall around your herd like no other. And I'll share with you as we get down the road here the other things that it means for you by making the time and the effort to make this happen consistently. I hope this finds you well. Let me share with you just some of the things that a monthly agency newsletter communication should contain. There's a formula that I learned years ago and it's one that we still use today in our monthly agency newsletters. And it's a percentage formula the first percentage is 60%. So of all the information that you've got contained in your newsletter communication, it should be the 60% should be other stuff. It should be fun, it should be interesting, it should be informative. It should be about referral winners, things that people like to see that when they look at it they say that's awesome type stuff. So 60% of your newsletter should be that kind of stuff. The next 20% should be mindless stuff. I mean like crosswords, comics, recipes. I mean, look how many people are out there on social media just wasting hours of their day. That could be productive hours. But they're out there doing mindless things every single day. So 20% should be mindless stuff because at some point in people's evolution as some part of their day, some part of their week, they just want to get away a little bit. So it should be mindless stuff as well. And then the other 20% should be educational, it should be informative. If you're in the insurance agency business as an example, it should be stuff about insurance coverage, about your agency, maybe you've recently received an award that leads to you better protecting people because of your newly earned educational endeavors. So 60, 20, 20, 60% other stuff, fun, interesting, informative referral winners. As an example, 20% mindless stuff. Crosswords, comics, recipes and 20% education insurance coverage. Your agency 60, 20, 20. In our particular newsletters, and we've done this for years, we have been doing a newsletter coming upon 20 years we've been doing it. We consistently deliver it month after month after month. And I'll get into that in just a few minutes as to why and how. But every month with our newsletter has a theme. So I'm looking at five different newsletters that we've done over the last couple of years and the first one that comes up is in the month of November. Okay, and I'll get back to that in a minute. So January, some theme tips for you. Tips for playing or driving in icy conditions. Some parts of the country have icy conditions. I'm blessed and fortunate not to live in one of those areas. But that could be a sample for you. The next thing is February. February is all about love. March, it's the luck of the Irish. And we Here's a March sample in front of me. It says we're so lucky to have the opportunity to serve and protect you. We've got a bunch of four leaf clovers all over with a bunch of our team members at an event. April, springtime and Easter, May, all about the moms and Memorial Day, June Dads in summertime, July fireworks safety, and most importantly, why are you independent? And I remember one of the best cover stories that we ever did in a newsletter we got. You may or may not realize this, but my wife and I, we have 13 grandkids, alright? So we got, I'm going to say probably five or six of our grandkids were over probably around Memorial Day. And I always try to think about this about two months in advance. You got to be thinking about your publications a couple of months in advance. You got to plan ahead. Failure to plan is planning to fail according to Benjamin Franklin, I believe so. Got to plan ahead. So they were over and I had sit at the table out on the patio and I got a piece of paper and a pencil for each one of them. And I said, I want you to Write down the 10 reasons that you love being independent and having freedom. Okay? So we all started having a little learning session with my grandkids. And so we wrote this all down and so I took a picture and I put it on the front of the newsletter with them at the table and I wrote a little story about that conversation of why they loved their freedom and why they loved having independence. And I built it right into an independent insurance agency story. See, that's the kind of stuff that nobody can get anywhere else. That's uniquely you. It separates you from the rest of your marketplace. Nobody else can trump that. It is you. Those are my grandkids. It's our family. Nobody else can replicate that. And that's what builds relationship. August is back to school. September is Labor Day. Get ready for fall. October's Halloween. November, September 17th. Celebrate family gratitude Thanksgiving. I'm looking at one of our Thanksgiving newsletters. The title is simply Thanksgiving Gratitude. It's got a picture of the majority of our grandkids and it talks about the top 10 reasons, things that they're grateful for. It builds relationship like no other friends. And of course December. There's lots of holidays in December, so the possibilities are endless. So 60, 20, 20 and every month has a theme. So that's the basis of everything we do. And if you just let your imagination soar, if you just lean your head back and close your eyes for just a minute and you pay attention to what's going on around you, it's really easy to put this stuff together. Alright, so that's number one. Number two, what are the benefits of a newsletter and what does this mean for you? Well, most importantly, if you're in the insurance Agency business. If you're in one of our coaching programs, you have recently heard me talk about the retention numbers and the amount of significant money that is on the table when you do not have that cement wall around your acre of diamonds, right? So increasing retention is the number one thing. And if you bump your retention just three points, ladies and gentlemen, over the lifetime value of a client and you should know what the lifetime value of a client is in your insurance agency business. That is significant money. So increased retention is the number one benefit of having a newsletter. Number two, you build relationships. You build deeper, better relationships that are long lasting. People know you, they love you, and they trust you through the relationships that a newsletter bring to what you have with them. Number three, it builds trust. And remember, money follows trust. It builds trust. The fact that you are on it all of the time, the fact that you're delivering your communication effectively every single month. I can't tell you the number of people that I run into in the grocery store, at church, around our communities, at business events, and on and on and on. Who mentioned to me, mike, we get your newsletter every month, whether it's in our inbox or our mailbox. And we just can't believe how organized you are and what a great business you are to continue to deliver this stuff. Think about what I just said. I hear those words consistently. What does that do for us? It lends us more referrals. And that's the third thing. It gives you more referrals. And referrals are 70% closing rate business, my friends. The fourth thing, the fourth benefit for you, what does this mean for you? And having a newsletter, it reminds your existing clients or anybody else that's receiving your newsletter that you also offer other types of insurance that they may not be thinking about. Toma right now. Toma, will you ask top of mind awareness. Top of mind awareness. Consistent top of mind awareness every single month of the types of insurance that you offer in your insurance agency business. And that is the fifth thing. Toma, Top of mind awareness. So let's do a quick recap of the benefits of a newsletter, what this means for you, increased retention. Number two, it builds relationships. The know, love and trust type of relationships. Number three, it builds trust. And money follows trust. The consistency, the proving who you are. Money follows trust. The.

Fourth thing, you earn more referrals by being the fabulous, incredible agency business that you are. Number five, reminder to existing clients that you offer other services that will continually keep that door open. You're always the welcome guest, never the annoying pest and the last thing keeps you top of mind, keeps you toma top of mind awareness. Alright, so number one, what it should contain, number two, the benefits, what this means for you. The third thing is how often should you send a newsletter? Let's talk about that for just a minute. Well, first of all, as marketers we test, alright? So we're consistently testing in everything that we do. We send newsletters monthly. We have for almost 20 years. Alright, so one year we decided to send out a bimonthly newsletter. We thought, oh, you know, I'd get the bill and I'd say, oh, it's too much or we don't have time for it. Excuse me. Excuse. Excuse, right. And you know that what about, you've heard about an excuse, right? An excuse is like an armpit. Everybody's got one and they all stink right? Now I originally heard that another part of our body, but I won't go there. Okay, so when we decided to send it out bimonthly and did that for a period of time, guess what happened? Some of our clients and other people that received our newsletter, they started asking us how. Hey, what happened to the newsletter? Every month. Yes. They let us know that they missed our monthly communications that told us how important it was. The door is always open when you fulfill what you said you were going to do to people because you said you would, or a promise that you've made to them. All right, and let me give you another tip. Let's say you don't have time for a four page newsletter. That's okay, send them a postcard. Now I've got multiple people in our coaching programs who really don't have time for a four page newsletter. Totally understandable. So they send out a postcard and what they do, a couple that I'm thinking of right now have sent out a very unusual size so that it stands out in the mail pile. We received that because we're on their list. That's fantastic. By the way, if you'd like to get on our newsletter list, please drop us an email@infounstoppable profitproducer.com infounstoppableprofitproducer.com we'll be happy to add you to our newsletter mailing list. Let us know. By the way, put in the body of the email. I want a snail mail copy or I want an electronic copy because we deliver it both ways. And I'll get into that in just a minute. Okay. So many of our coaching members have created a, an unusual size so it stands out in the mail pile. Fabulous stuff. So lastly, use 100% of the ways. And that's what I was going to touch on just a second ago.

Deliver it by snail mail, but also deliver it via email, put it in your, all of your social media outlets, make it the basis of your blog and I'll be talking about this in an upcoming podcast. But you know, if you have any organic generic SEO actions, search engine optimization, to get yourself constantly in front of people at a higher level online, you should be doing a blog. And the blog is the central piece of your entire online operation. It's, you know, more on that later. But so your newsletter is, that could be the centerpiece of, of your blog and you could take sections of your newsletter and you know, you can make a piece here and a piece there as a blog post. Okay, so if you're blogging, you should be probably blogging, I'm going to say six to eight times a month. If you have time to do it more often than that, good for you, fantastic. But use it 100% of the ways. Okay, so how often should you send it? We send it monthly. We learned a lesson as marketers. We test, we stopped doing it so often and we heard about it from our lists. If you don't have time for a four page newsletter, send a postcard, an odd sized postcard that stands out in the mail pile. And lastly, make sure that you deliver it in 100% of the ways. So you might be saying to yourself, mike, I can't afford a newsletter, I can't afford to do a monthly newsletter, I can't afford to do a monthly postcard or anything like that, I have a question for you. If you have something to write on and something to write with, I want you to write this down. Okay, so if you've got annual commission of $500 for a client, so you've got to figure out what your commission for a good double a, maybe triple a client. And we've got all of the clients in our insurance agency segmented. We just got done going through a complete.

Resegmentation process. Alright, so let's say the average annual commission is $500 or even if it's $250. Okay, but I've got 500 for this example. And our lifetime value is at least eight years. We know because we've tracked this for so many years. And you too, if you haven't been tracking in the past, regardless of your past, you have a spotless future. Start tracking today. So that a year from now, three Years from now, five years from now, you have this information because it's critically important. Okay, what is the average lifetime value of a client? So let's say it's eight years. So $500 in annual commission times eight years equals $4,000 in commission from just one client. What are you willing to invest? One client. What are you willing to invest to earn at least $4,000 time and time and time again, you heard me say in the very beginning, we're looking to put a wall around our herd. A rock solid concrete wall around our herd. What is our herd, you ask? That is our existing clients. It's our existing prospects or future clients. It's our existing community members, including COIs, which is centers of influence. All right. What are you willing to invest? Remember the Bain and McKinsey studies? The Bain study was done with that captive company, State Farm, but nobody has more numbers than they do. The McKinsey study was done with another competitive captive insurer in the U.S. but both studies revealed that out of 100 clients over a 10 year period, if you only have one policy, that you're going to lose 90% of them. If you have two policies, you're going to lose up to 38% of them. But if you have three or more policies, you are only going to lose 10% of them. How important is it for you to keep business from going out the back door? Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to ponder that very closely in your mind as we wrap this up. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, what does this mean for you? What does the extra effort mean of doing a newsletter? Like I said, you are going to put a wall around your herd like no other relationship marketing piece can do. A monthly personalized, effective storytelling, educational, fun, relationship building newsletter. There's nothing else out there that can do it delivered via snail mail or delivered electronically. I've got a little fun note for you as well. By the way. This is a huge note. If you're doing any kind of snail mail marketing at all. And I can bring people onto this podcast like the one that was on last week, Mr. Russ Castle. And I'm sure he won't mind me saying this, that is his primary marketing strategy is direct mail. If you're doing any kind of direct mail, anything, make sure you add your own home address onto the list so that you get it at your house whenever it's distributed. Especially if you're using a mail house. You want to see when it arrives. And.

I'll tell you a little quick story in just a second about our Newsletter adventures over the years. But you want to make sure that you know the timing of when it arrives at wherever it's going. Okay. And when it arrives at my house, I know it's been distributed. And the funny thing that I was going to tell you is when I get home and the mail stacks there and I see the newsletter there, it's always been opened by the other person that lives in our house. My wife can't wait to see what's in the newsletter. It just cracks me up every time I know what she's looking for because she never knows what I'm going to do. And. And she always wants to say, what's he going to do next? But I know that also she wants to check it out and see what's going on within the agency. Because she works remotely. She doesn't work in the actual office. It's just a fun thing.

It's.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's just an awesome, awesome relationship builder door opener. Again, you're always a welcome guest, never an annoying pest. What else this means for you? You will have truckloads of money deposited in your bank account every single month, ladies and gentlemen. I'm serious about that. I can prove it to you. Over decades in this industry.

It'S just part of you being able to consistently deposit every single month. A lot of people say to me, mike, can you directly attribute it to the newsletter? No. But I will guarantee you it's a significant portion of why people do. The next thing I'm going to mention and what else this means for you. Instead of shopping elsewhere, people are going to. Your existing clients are going to come shop with you. I can't tell you the feedback that I get from our leadership teams on when a rate action happens. And I was talking to a company person just this morning, and she was actually calling it a rate investment. She was turning the table on it. They actually had a rate decrease, but she called it a rate investment. The company was investing back into the marketplace. I like that analogy. Right? We're not spending, we're investing. We're not spending, we're investing. Right. We're investing money every single month in a newsletter. So she called it a rate investment. So people are investing back into us. See, when you invest in them, the law reciprocity is always in effect. So instead of calling elsewhere, we tell them that right in our communications. If you have any questions about your insurance programs with us, contact us first. I got a AAA client. I had him on the phone today because he just wanted to say hello. And he's talking about. He's telling me a story about. He went down to one of the captive carriers, went in to do some registration work. And what did they do? They immediately gave him a quote. I said, why don't you go ahead and send that to me? He goes, I can't. I threw it away. Ladies and gentlemen, that's what it's all about. We have that herd cement walled by our effective relationship building communications. He could care less about what they gave him because he knows when he needs something, he is going to contact us. Instead of shopping elsewhere, they're going to shop with you. Ladies and gentlemen, I've got to strongly encourage you. However, it takes time to build this kind of relationship with your herd. It doesn't happen overnight. This has all happened over years of consistent outreach messages both online and offline to our entire marketplace. You can do this regardless of your past. You have a spotless future. My director is waving at me. I've got to wrap it up. But I've got to tell you the story that I promised you a second ago. So in our adventures in the newsletter world, I'm going to say probably six, seven years ago, we used to print our newsletters in house. We thought, oh, we're going to be cool. The latest color printers were out. We're going to have complete control. We're going to mail them. And what a pain in the it was to run down to the post office every month and deliver the newsletters.

I'll just leave it at that. Okay? I was talking to an extremely successful agent one day and he asked me a question that I've never forgotten. And this is what I want to pose to you. What business are you in?

What business are you in? I thought about that for a second. I'm in the business of.

I protect people and everything they work so hard for. He said, what business are you in? I said, I protect people and everything they work so hard for. He goes, with what? I said, insurance. I said, aha. He goes, you're in the insurance agency business. You're not the printing business. And if you go and I'll give you another little fun tip. I showed this to you some of our platinum coaching members a couple weeks ago. They were laughing hilariously. So go to YouTube and Google. Bob Newhart, stop it. Because that's what he told me to do. He said, mike, stop it. Stop it right now. Stop printing newsletters. Send them out to somebody else. We haven't looked back. So we have a resource that mails all of Our communications. We simply create our newsletter, send it to them via PDF, and it magically gets distributed. So they send us 50 of them back to our office that we use for our welcome kits and everything else. And of course, we use that PDF to distribute via all of our online portals, et cetera, et cetera. So that is all about newsletters. It's probably the single, if I think of, you know, we got the three Ps, right, people, processes and promotion. And this is a lot. It's all about the three Ps, the newsletter, but it's part of the promotional aspect and, and at the end of the day, if I had to think back to all of the things that I've done consistently in the promotional realm, the newsletter, without question, is in the top three. I strongly encourage you to consider some kind of effective, consistent, that is your own communication. And by the way, canned newsletters off the shelf from a carrier. Don't do it. Stop it. Don't do it, please. All of ours are custom. They're unique to us. Make it your own. Make it uniquely you. Nobody can trump you. Nobody can ever become better than you. Nobody can bring more than you. My friends, thank you for tuning in today. This is Mike Stromso live from the Living Agency Laboratory. Love you guys. All we want is your success. Remember, go out there, make a difference. Be unstoppable, leave no regrets. And because you said you would to yourself, to your family, to your business, to your communities, get out there and do it. I'll see you on the next podcast. Talk to you soon. Thank you for listening. If you would like to listen to more episodes or share this podcast with someone you care about, please visit www.unstoppableprofitpodcast house. Com. Now go out and make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets.