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Smarketing and Why Your Agency Needs It

By Kelly Donahue-Piro

What? Another marketing term to learn? You barely have time as it is to keep up! Learning about Smarketing is well worth your time though. With a well-run Smarketing strategy you can maximize every opportunity. Smarketing is the perfect marriage between sales and marketing. When sales and marketing get married we see ridiculously amazing results. Let us show you how!

Agencies generally fall into three marketing categories:

  • They have achieved a size where they can afford a marketing person or department. This team is generally on the other side of the building and no one really knows what they do and they have low engagement in sales.
  • Agencies don’t have an established marketing team.  They sponsor a few things, have business cards and an average website.
  • You are a growing agency where the owner is in charge of most sales and using online and offline platforms to grow your agency.

The challenge is that neither one of these models are reaching their true performance potential. If you are going to do something, make it awesome. You need to practice Smarketing. Smarketing is something that a growing entrepreneurial agency generally practices but doesn’t know it. Let’s see if you are Smarketing with this quick test:

  • When you attend networking events you often check in on social media and post pictures
  • Every new business card you obtain goes into a CRM tool for drip email marketing
  • You routinely blog about your community and culture of the agency as well as share these items on social media
  • Your prospects and clients are connected to you via social media channels
  • On a monthly basis you share freemium content created by the agency (freemium content is free value added content that people can receive in exchange for contact information)
  • Your brand is likeable, relatable and about the client, not you

    • When marketing and sales work together you can drive the highest results. Smarketing starts by taking into account a true strategy. A great marketing strategy includes the following:

    • Start and End Date
    • Budget
    • Goal-Website Visits
    • Goal-Contacts
    • Goal-Customers
    • Email
    • Calls to Action
    • Blogs
    • Social Media Messages
    • Sales Process
      • Calls: # and time frame
      • Email: # and time frame

     

    Goal of the Process:
    • To utilize our resources effectively and efficiently at every networking event so we can:
      • Obtain at least 4 new business cards per person
      • Identify 2 workable leads
      • Close at least 1 piece of new business
    Reason This Process Is Important:

    General:

    • To make sure our time is spent wisely
    • To create a seamless process that is efficient on the organizer
    • To maximize each engagement and generate the highest ROI
    • To utilize the engagement as opportunity generation both immediately and post event

     

    For Reporting:

    • To track ROI and lead generation from each event
    • To identify events we want to attend in the future
    • To track sales follow up efforts
    • To track our ability to hit the goal


    For Management:

    • We have a proactive strategy that is powered and tracking through Insightly (i.e. CRM)

    For the Team:

    • A consistent process that is efficient and effective
    • A clear plan to maximize every opportunity
    • We can work to remedy any issues  prior to renewal
    Pre-Event Process
    • Identify the opportunities — ask for a list of attendees
    • Connect with the contact on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and add them to MailChimp (i.e. email program)
    • Connect with the organization on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
    • Check LinkedIn on who you may know that is a member of the organization to reach out to them to say a good word
    • Add the date to your calendar
    • Write a blog that you will be attending an event and share it on social media
    2 Weeks Prior to Event
    • Confirm time of the event
    • Reach out to any people you want to target to let them know you are attending
    • Prepare marketing materials (brochures, giveaways, etc.)
    • Research to see if there are any other prospects in the area you can book a meeting with
    • Make sure you have plenty of business cards
    • Have a hit list of five people you want to meet
    During Event
    • Work the room
    • Take cards and write notes on the back of them
    • Provide a gift for the organizers (Starbucks gift cards, pen and sticky notes)
    • Have your business cards handy
    • Wear something memorable so you easily stick out
    Post Event
    • Send a follow up email to the coordinators
    • Email the people who had requested information
      • Add them to LinkedIn, email and or sales systems and Facebook
    • Upload the list of attendees
    • Start follow up sequence
    • Send information and a small gift to high value targets
    • Make 3-5 follow up calls to book appointments with targets

    You can see in this strategy how sales and marketing can come together to yield the highest results!  Feel free to view our video on Smarketing to dive deeper into this topic: https://www.agencyperformancepartners.com/blog/smarketing-training-video/

    Also, you can download our Smarketing Infographic to help you get started: https://www.agencyperformancepartners.com/sales-based-marketing/

    Kelly Donahue-Piro, founder and president of Agency Performance Partners, is a no-nonsense effectiveness expert who has helped hundreds of insurance agencies identify and capitalize on sustainable improvement opportunities. Her specialties include agency culture assessment and change; management and supervisory coaching and benchmarking; customer retention strategy development; digital marketing strategy, planning and implementation; and sales planning, management and skill-building.

    The centerpiece of Agency Performance Partners' transformational work is its Agency Performance AssessmentTM, a comprehensive survey tool Kelly created to zero in on organization-wide improvement opportunities and provide the foundation for a customized agency action plan. The proprietary tool addresses everything from agency mission, goals, values and culture to agency management and infrastructure, employee abilities, service processes and procedures, and marketing, sales and retention strategy.

    Kelly is an engaging speaker who is available to conduct in-person and online agency success presentations that complement her firm’s one-on-one on-site and virtual consulting practice. Connect with her on social platforms, via email at kelly@agencyperformancepartners.com or by phone at 401-415-6205