TL;DR
- Start with what you have. Use your existing AMS/CRM to segment customers and prospects into four basic lists: personal lines customers, commercial lines customers, and their corresponding prospects.
- Grow your list automatically. Set up simple automations using tools like Zapier to add new leads and clients to the right email list without manual work.
- Send stuff they’ll actually read. Share short, relevant updates, like community news or blog snippets, with a clear call to action. Monthly is fine; consistency matters more than frequency.
- Pick a tool and commit. Choose an email platform that’s affordable, integrates well with your systems, and actually delivers emails. Then show up regularly, even if it’s just once a month.
I’m going to assume a couple of things before we get started.
- You already have customers and prospects
- You are using an AMS/CRM of some sort. I don’t care what the flavor is for this issue.
Building your email list is your businesses kryptonite for the social media algorithms. And I will yell this from the mountain top as long as I have breath. Part of building that list though is actually fucking using it. Depending on what you’re selling there’s a few buckets you might want to be putting people into. The technical term for this is segmenting, but it’s literally putting a person into a specific bucket based on some filtering data.
And then you have to again, send them things. That’s what we’re going to dive into today. How to build your list, how to segment your list, and what to send them! Also a few of my favorite tools to send them.
Your First Four Email Lists
Before we get into the nitty gritty of growing your list, let’s start with your very first segment. Customers! Now I wouldn’t export all of your customers, dump them into mailchimp and start blasting away.You need to send out an activation email. Take that list, upload them to your email service provider of choice and send them a quick email or two. We’re going to do this because it’s a default opt-in, but gives them the opportunity to opt-out.
I’d send them something like this:
Hey, {{firstname}},
Just a quick note to let you know we’re starting something fun here at FAFO Insurance. We’re launching a community email newsletter. Not just insurance mumbo jumbo, but also things going on in the community, cool businesses in town, and even celebrations of our team.
If you’re in, that’s awesome you don’t need to do anything else, we’ll start the party.
If this sounds terrible and you don’t want anything to do with it, simply click unsubscribe below.
Don’t worry, unsubscribing doesn’t mean we won’t email you about your insurance policies, or anything, you just won’t get the awesome newsletter.
Thanks,
Nick Berry
FAFO Insurance
Now if you’re selling Personal AND Commercial lines, you might need to do some segmenting from your AMS/CRM data, splitting those two out. I’d send the same email to both groups. The commercial clients might even want to be promoted in your email.
Now you’ve also got your existing prospect pipelines, those also should be getting emails from you. I’d send a similar email to them offering them an opt-out.
That means we might have up to 4 lists built now:
- Personal Lines Customers
- Commercial Lines Customers
- Personal Lines Prospects
- Commercial Lines Prospects
We’ve built the lists, now let’s grow the lists.
How to Grow and Segment Your Email List
You might have guessed it, but maybe not. We’re going to build a quick automation to add those customers and prospects to lists. There’s a couple of ways I would do it. First your CRM probably has a zap connection to use, or you can use your data intake platform of choice and add people that way. Also using zapier. Then you’re going to use one of those ways to get the data and add them to your email marketing platform lists.
Now whenever you add a lead, bind a new policy, or get a dec page you can add or move people to the appropriate lists. Look at that you’re growing your email list. Secret move, you can also add those people to custom audiences in facebook or linkedin for advertising, but that’s another post for another day.
You don’t need 28 different segmented categories to have an effective email marketing process. A few buckets and add people to them as you get new prospects and customers.
What to Send to Your Growing Email List
Honestly, you can send whatever you want. I personally think local community insurance agencies would benefit from a community based email newsletter. It doesn’t have a 1756 word behemoth, it can be 4 cool things going on in town that week or month.
You can take your blog content, and send that. When I first started this newsletter you would get those massive emails, but if you’ve noticed I stopped sending the entire article, and send what I call the three bullet email. A quick couple of sentences about the thing I wrote about, three bullets about the thing, and a call to action to read the full thing.
Why did I make that change? I wanted to drive traffic to my website. If I gave away the milk, why would you buy the cow? Do the same thing. Write a blog post, summarize it and send it to your lists.
And you can send the same email to the different lists, or make a variation with the call to action for customers vs prospects.
You also don’t have to send a weekly email, I understand this content stuff is a huge time commitment. But even sending monthly emails is better than never sending anything at all.
Secret time, sending anything coherent, and/or relevant to your customers and prospects will increase sales and retention. This has worked at every company I’ve worked at, and for every insurance agency that actually does what I tell them.
3 Email Marketing Platforms to Try
Note: None of these are affiliate links, I’m not trying to make $3.28 cents if you sign up for them. These are three I’m familiar with, and personally have used.
SendFox – The cheapest of all of them, but they play well with Zapier and deliverability is good.
MailerLite – My personal favorite and platform I use to send my newsletter. Great deliverability, a bit pricier as you grow, but not terrible.
Mailchimp – This was the goat back in the day, still decent. I think the most expensive of these three options.
If you’ve got beef with all three of these here’s some things to look for in an email marketing platform:
- Price – Email newsletters aren’t free, but they shouldn’t break the bank. Most of them will charge based on the number of contacts.
- Zapier – This is probably the first thing to consider, if you can’t easily get the data in there, we both know you won’t do the export and uploads long term.
- Deliverability – If the email isn’t being delivered to your list that’s a problem.
The three I recommended all fit my core requirements, so it’s just about picking one that fits in your budget and you’re comfortable using.
Now you’ve learned how to build your first email lists, grow your email lists, what to send to the lists, and even a few resources to start sending more emails.
You don’t need to be a marketing wizard to make email work. You just need a simple system, a few solid lists, and a commitment to show up. Not perfectly. Not daily. Just consistently.
Even one thoughtful email a month can remind clients why they chose you—and why they should stick around.
Most agency owners wait for the perfect strategy. Meanwhile, someone else is sending the email and getting the sale.
That’s why we built the Agency Content Engine. With ACE Orbit, you get blog posts, social captions, nurture emails, and video scripts—delivered every week without lifting a finger. It sounds like you, it builds trust, and it helps you stay top of mind when it matters most.
Because attention is earned over time. And if you’re not sending anything, you’re getting left behind.