Engaging a prospect into a dialog is the silver bullet to successfully closing insurance leads. Getting to that point using email however, can be the challenge. To get more people to respond to your emails, objectively ask yourself two questions: “In the course of a hectic day, would I really read my own email and would I actually respond to my own email?” Performing an objective analysis of your email and making a few easy improvements can create noticeable lift in your email response rate.

Start by giving your email a high-level litmus test. Make sure that its appearance is professional, clear, and succinct. As you are fighting for the attention of a new prospect, a plain text email may not be enough to distinguish yourself from the competition. Consider adding a few graphical elements that truly represent your brand, integrity, and obvious points of differentiation from other agents. Logos can be invaluable in supporting your brand and quality image, and headshots specifically are a unique twist that our industry uses very well. Performing a graphical email facelift can be very simple using your current email platform. In fact, you will find that most email programs like Outlook® allow you to easily create templates for professional emails; simply visit the “help menu” of the program for more information.

With a sharper professional image in hand, now determine if your messaging is organized, brief, and compelling. In email communication, less is always more. Your email shouldn’t read like a book report, and shouldn’t take more than 60 seconds to read. Prioritize your points using different font styles, short paragraphs, and bullet points. At the same time, be aware of the tone you set, as emails have a way of creating unfortunate misrepresentations of otherwise good messages. As you quickly copy-and-paste quote information, keep in mind that your unique charm and sales approach is something that differentiates you from all other agents, so use it.

If you are concerned that prospects are not responding to your message, reevaluate your call-to-action. What are you asking them to do? Recognizing that consumers are probably comparing multiple quotes, is your call-to-action worth his/her time? “Call me, I need more information” is not as compelling as, “I specialize in insuring Honda Accords and can help you find additional discounts. Give me a quick call when you have two minutes.” Email is a fantastic medium for testing your call-to-action and optimizing your total sales approach.

Most importantly, if the prospect never even opens your email, then everything is for nothing. For this reason, the email subject line is perhaps the most important part of an email. Even though the reader is expecting to receive your quote, your subject line must still be compelling enough to catch the reader’s eye and get him/her to click on your message. In five words, explain the nature of the email and why it is relevant to reader. Email subject lines generally find great success with personalization. An example of an effective subject line might be: “Fred Smith’s ‘04 Accord Auto Insurance Quote.”

There are only three ways you can communicate with a lead: you can call them, mail them a quote, or email them. Of the three, email is perhaps the most effective approach to quickly delivering quote information and at the same time demonstrating your unique service offering. If you want prospects to respond more to your emails, analyze and adjust your current program. It’s a discipline that brings InsWeb’s Marketing team much success, and an exercise that will help most insurance agents with their sales communications.