How Sun Insurance Services leverages technology to connect with customers.
In May of last year, Sun Insurance Services achieved a company milestone: reaching their tenth anniversary. Located in Orlando, Florida, the personal and commercial lines insurance agency has more than a few reasons to celebrate. Sun has survived four back-to-back hurricanes, a challenging housing market and a down economy. While others packed up shop, Sun Insurance’s business boomed. Their team’s secret to longevity? A marketing strategy that puts technology – and the people who use it – at the forefront of everything they do.
Jim Brandt
Paperless Since Day One
Since opening its doors in 2003, Sun Insurance has always been a paperless agency. Founder and President, Jim Brandt, says that they’ve never owned a filing cabinet and never will. His agency has always utilized an Agency Management System to keep business humming – and to streamline their agents’ workflow.
As technology evolved, Brandt upgraded his team to QQSolutions’ new cloud-based Agency Management System, QQCatalyst®. QQCatalyst allows Sun to store all of their files – from client records, to images, forms, and insurance policies – “in the cloud.” As QQCatalyst works on any device with a modern browser, it allowed Sun Insurance’s team to transition from PCs to Macs – a change they’ve wanted to make for some time. “We loved that QQCatalyst was a brand new agency management system, and not just a legacy system retrofitted for the Internet,” Brandt says.
Print is Not Dead
Although Sun Insurance doesn’t see value in printing policies, forms, and other paperwork just to file them away, they do believe that print is still an effective marketing medium, if done strategically. Sun’s team recently developed a direct mail piece about homeowner’s insurance that utilized variable data. The print piece featured the recipient’s name, a personalized insurance quote and an image of their home.
“It’s a one-on-one pitch to 500 people at the same time,” Brandt says. “If you want your audience to feel like you’re speaking directly to them, treat them like they’re already a valued customer, as opposed to number 59 on a mailing list.”
Turning Social Media “Likes” Into Leads
With an active presence in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+, Sun Insurance’s marketing strategy revolves around building authentic relationships with customers. Brandt’s team follows an 80/20 rule when publishing content. Eighty percent of the time, they publish content that isn’t necessarily related to insurance at all. This includes posts about local restaurant recommendations in Orlando, movie reviews and local charity events. Every Friday on its blog, the Sun Insurance’s team posts about, “What to Do this Weekend in Central Florida.”
It’s this “insurance doesn’t have to be boring” mantra that has led their agency to experience increased leads as a result of their efforts. Brandt says their website traffic has increased by at least fifty percent, which he attributes to their active social media presence. “By publishing content our customers have come to seek out and rely on, even if it’s not about insurance, we’ve noticed that they often think of us first when it comes to insurance, too,” Brandt says.
Forecast for Tomorrow: Sunny
What’s next for Sun Insurance? Refining all of their internal processes and systems, in order to maximize productivity and generate more revenue. Brandt says that keeping up with the times is just as much about looking at how you operate internally as it is about looking out to see what new innovations exist. “You have to constantly be thinking, pushing and trying new things,” Brandt says. “We believe that utilizing technology to connect with people has put us in an ideal position to capitalize on the opportunities ahead of us.”
