Case Study - Setting Yourself Up As The Expert

An insurance representative had just signed on as a broker for a national insurance company offering what was an outstanding new corporate product. After reviewing the corporate insurance product he could not see how any corporation with 5 - 50 employees could turn it down. It offered better employee benefits for a much lower cost and the same deductibles as other similar products.

PROBLEM:

Although he had the best product, he could not compete because he could not get in the doors! Others with similar - but not better - products had established contacts and years of experience.

The insurance representative decided to try a soft-sell approach - inform the prospects of the product and teach them about the advantages in a teacher-student setting rather than a high pressure 1-on-1 situation. This would set him up as the expert by default. The question now was how to accomplish this task.

SOLUTION:

He booked a meeting hall to hold a seminar and printed material regarding the insurance product. The seminar would be free to everyone and include breakfast and prizes for attendees.

In every communication he let it be know clearly that this was an invitation only event and seating was limited - no exceptions.

In order to promote the seminar he:

1. Created specific home and reservation pages for his website. The pages included links to the national insurance company website and PDF files of literature from both the national insurance company and his own company about the new product. Reservations could be made instantly online.

2. Ran ads with Google, Yahoo and MSN that were geographically specific. The ads began running in just a few short hours.

3. Contracted with a service bureau to bulk email an ad based on a guaranteed opening of 12,000 emails, which were expected to take up to 90 days because of the specific market he was attempting to reach. The email contained an image which linked the viewer to the seminar section of his website.

4. Since he had 90 days for the bulk email campaign to be completed he created a quick newsletter focusing on the seminar but also offering tips and advice - more informative than sales oriented. The newsletter was a simple self-mailer on card stock with a perforated return form for readers to make reservations for the seminar. He thought he would need to produce two newsletters, one per month for the first two months. A third could be produced if needed. He thought he would need at least two newsletters but he was wrong.

RESULTS:

The seminar was full within 45 days of the beginning of his promotion and responses continued to come in.

Instead of creating a waiting list he quickly reserved the meeting hall for a second date... then a third.

Neil Walsh
Daba Designs
P.O. Box 255
North Olmsted, Ohio 44070
Phone: (440)465-0744
Website: http://www.daba-designs.com