BraveMatters » Blog

Improving Performance in Insurance Markets

Peter — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:17:42 +0000

Yukon Insurance Agency serves the personal and business insurance needs of its clients in the surrounding communities of Yukon, OK. The organization’s leadership represents 65 years of combined experience. According to President, Henry Israel Jr., “Our years of experience means that we’ve seen everything. Experience is important, but our success is a result of our consistent efforts to be innovative and seek knowledge that will better protect our clients’ interests.”

The insurance and financial services industry is highly competitive, with more than 500,000 independent representatives in the U.S., alone. Combined with the challenges in the current economic climate, the pressures are greater than ever to reach customers, provide personal attention and to find new ways of saving money for clients.

Yukon Insurance Agency, engaged the Small Business Practice within BraveMatters to provide expert evaluation about their current marketing efforts and to develop a cost-effective limited-engagement to better protect and expand Yukon Insurance Agency’s customer base.

BraveMatters developed a strategic program and leveraged its mobile messaging and social media platform address specific challenges in the sales cycle where customers miss paying their premiums, and in some cases, lose their coverage. BraveMatters also identified that by modifying behavior around paying premiums, customers purchased more frequently on an annual basis and fewer customers were lost. The results make significant difference in cashflow and annual profitability, not to mention overall customer satisfaction.

Yukon Insurance Agency sends monthly payment reminders, birthday messages and other relevant messages via SMS and BraveMatters mobile broadcast platform. Yukon Insurance Agency utilizes the self-service application to easily manage communications with internal resources.

Henry’s clients are receiving, and reading their messages and Yukon Insurance reaps the benefits. “The results have been amazing” said Henry. “My clients appreciate the reminders and they are paying their premiums on time. I have also begun cross selling more products through mobile voting campaigns.”

BraveMatters adds New Client Solutions Manager

Peter — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:06:36 +0000

NORMAN, OK - April 2, 2010 – Peter Wyro, President and Founder of BraveMatters, Strategic Marketing, has announced the hiring of Korey McMahon as Client Solutions Manager. McMahon is responsible for new business development and mobile marketing solutions. “Korey will make a tremendous difference in our business, right here in Oklahoma,” said President and Founder, Peter Wyro. “As a former financial representative, Korey brings a unique perspective that is essential in linking our services to real financial outcomes. However, it is his optimism, energy and ability to create trusted relationships, that will make him a great success.”

McMahon comes to BraveMatters as a former professional snowboarder, Mountain Dew social media marketer and graduate of Colorado State University. Most recently he served as a licensed financial representative with Northwestern Mutual, based in Denver, CO. He currently lives in Norman with wife Autumn.

BraveMatters drives new revenues and improves customer loyalty through a strategic platform of measurable marketing programs, insights and innovation. The organization’s mission is to help each client build an effective and systematic market approach that returns consistent profits to shareholders and creates long-term value for customers, employees and their families. BraveMatters was founded in 2008 and is based in Norman, OK with additional operations in Austin, TX. For additional information, please visit www.bravematters.com.

Korey McMahon | Linkedin | Twitter

10 Slide Intro to SMS Advertising

Peter — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:57:29 +0000

There are a lot of questions being asked about mobile marketing, social media and other engagement marketing tactics. Few are asking if they “should” embrace a direct, digital link with their customers. Instead, most companies are asking how they can use new platforms to listen and connect with their loyal clients and transform those interactions into real business outcomes.

Citywide Goes Mobile

Peter — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:20:45 +0000

Citywide Garage Sale is an Austin institution. For the past 28 years, thousands of deal hunters flock to find the best in antiques, collectibles and “vintage everything” in an ever-changing flea market environment. Typically, it’s held one weekend per month. Citywide has tens of thousands of fans, but since the show dates occur on an inconsistent, but perfect-for-Austin schedule, a significant number of people who would ordinarily attend don’t have the opportunity to do so, because they miss vital information about the event. This means lost revenue to Citywide’s vendors and lost revenue at the door. Enter BraveMatters and Merge Messenger.

Citywide chose to engage BraveMatters because of their experience in developing strategies to connect businesses with increasingly-mobile customers and communities that have scattered beyond the reach of traditional media.

Rue Dwyer, Owner of Citywide Garage Sale, opted for Merge Messenger’s unlimited mobile SMS broadcast platform and BraveMatters consultation to reach Citywide’s fans and to keep them informed about show dates and digital coupons. According to Dwyer, “It’s a great service to offer our loyal fans. Everyone carries their mobile phone with them now. We know nearly every person who opted-in to our list will receive, and actually read, the text message. For them, it’s a courtesy notification. For us, it’s a numbers game. The more people we have on our text message list, the more people get reminded, the more business our vendors win, the more business we generate at the door. Everybody’s happy. It’s a no-brainer.”

Norman Chamber Goes Mobile

Peter — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:58:44 +0000

The Norman Chamber of Commerce (Norman, OK), like many professional organizations, has sought out a mobile advertising platform to reach its members, on-the-go. The benefits of the system provide the Norman Chamber, almost instant access to its subscribers and new ways of interacting with the organization through voting, receiving updates and valuable offers from the Chamber and its partners.

Mobile advertising and the Merge Messenger platform offer community organizations, the ability to create a greater level of engagement and an immediate, anywhere-connection, from the convenience of a mobile phone. The platform will provide the Norman Chamber additional opportunities to monetize this new advertising platform through sponsorships.

BraveMatters developed a custom mobile marketing program, tailored to the unique needs of the local Chamber of Commerce and its members and will provide consultation on the configuration of mobile campaigns and methods of seamlessly integrating the technology into the overall communications program.

Why process will free you

Peter — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:23:05 +0000

The greatest misconception about process is that it is a constraint on an organization, strangling creativity and opportunistic behavior.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Process frees talent and energy in your organization to take action within a given set of guidelines and provides reasonable contingencies for exceptions to the rule. A process provides a roadmap for clear and consistent interactions with your customer at every stage of the relationship. Your brand is dependent on clarity and consistency. The value of your business is then dependent on its ability to continue to drive profit in the future. Without process, you’ve bought yourself a job.

Smart marketing strategy in a bad economy

Peter — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:06:19 +0000

Today’s economic downturn offers opportunities to recharge your marketing strategy, if you are willing to refocus, work smart and develop a platform that enables you to retool your approach and focus on what is most important. What’s not an option, is pretending that by doing nothing, your business will automatically blossom with the resurgence of spending. Your competitors know this too, and the result of inaction is opportunity for someone else.

One of the fundamental problems is that, with surprising frequency, companies rarely understand the winning formula of their own success when times are good and buyers are abundant. If you have a record quarter. Stop and uncover what’s working, so that you can continue to invest in the right areas and build a recession-proof business.

Stop spending and start making investments: Have a clear understanding of the requirements to make your marketing investment practical and necessary. What’s the value of acquiring a new customer or the profit on selling another unit? Prioritize the strategies that drive not only the best, but most sustainable results.
Pick the right customers: Align your offering to industries that demonstrate improving trends and best understand your value. Utilize an end-to-end marketing process that nurtures prospects and creates an ongoing dialogue long after the sale. These interactions will shorten your sales funnel, lower your cost of sales, and protect your margins.
Be a broker of solutions and opportunities: Ask your customers about their challenges, even if it involves solutions that your company doesn’t provide. Find out where they are struggling and use your network to connect people that have needs and those that can solve problems. Your stock will skyrocket.
Good, satisfied customers are great marketers: Don’t assume that all of your customers are happy, they aren’t. Make sure you regularly take their pulse. Use negative feedback as an opportunity to fix a relationship that might be headed for the competition. Ask satisfied customers for referrals and give them a way to promote you. Profile your customers in your newsletter, your website and your social media interactions. Create a portfolio of customer stories and promote them on your website.

21st Century Relationships

Peter — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:57:53 +0000

6 Critical Issues to consider for your 21st century Relationship Management Machine

Your Brand is the product of a conversation - Your market is made up of ongoing conversations about experiences, opinions, and common interest. Your brand is the sum of these interactions. Monitor, measure and be a part of the interactions to influence the discussions that lead to sales and long-term profits.
Pick niches in the market to compete - It is unlikely that your business offers the same value to every potential group of customers. Some are a better fit than others. By picking places in the market that you can compete and have the will to focus on – you are better prepared to align your entire business.
Align strategies with relationship stages - Start with your target customers. Define your business processes and activities by the stages that you and your customers interact within the entire life of the relationship.
Measure the lifetime value of your customers - Your profits are driven by the lifetime value of your relationships, not the margins on any single sales transaction. Some groups cost more to acquire, convert and service. Some purchase infrequently but many refer and influence countless others. A marketing relationship may be far more valuable than any single paying customer.
Capture useful information at all stages - A CRM platform, such as salesforce.com will help you collect data and build targeted lists using all of your customer touch-points. Utilizing a 360 degree perspective of your relationships will enable you to serve your customers better.
Measure only what creates value - There is a lot of noise in all of your business interactions. Create a culture that focuses on measuring the actions that are connected to your cashflow: extending the reach of your target market, gaining positive word-of-mouth, advancing sales and creating referrals.

What will you stop doing?

Peter — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:02:02 +0000

Make sure you are just as focused on your not-to-do list. Plans are often packed with new initiatives without the critical assessment of what must STOP!
This is always the interesting part of a consulting engagement. You’ve got a great new strategy that everyone buys in to and that has great promise for your business. Have you built into your strategy, a plan for what you will stop doing? Unless your current activities are at a complete standstill and your organization has too much time on its hands, there is a better than average probability that you are directing your resources in ways that will compromise your focus and the new layers of activities that you are adding to the organization. Do you define aspects of your strategy in terms of what you should NOT do or what you should STOP doing?

Who are NOT your customers?
What characteristics of historically, high-performing employees are NOT a good fit for your organization?
When will you STOP hiring them?
Should you STOP worrying about profits at the expense of relationships?
Should you STOP investing in X to invest in Y?

What are the last strategic STOPs that you made?

Startup Social Intelligence

Peter — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:51:29 +0000

Are you building intelligence about your social network that will translate to greater long-term relational, rather than transactional value, i.e. closing deals. If you are not, I suggest that you build a practice within your organization to identify people that you can help.
I’m not suggesting that you do this for a fee – I’m suggesting that you become a broker of solutions and possibilities and create a culture of community. Why? Because you develop intelligence about the needs of your network and become a resource for solving problems and connecting people and companies that can help one another. Your sales organization grows exponentially with the number of people that you can help. Examples: “Who is hiring?” and “Who needs a job?”; “Who needs an expert in a particular industry?”; “Who needs a new mechanic?” – you get my point. What would it mean for your organization, if your brand were, not only associated with your products and services, but the compassion and leveraged knowledge of your organization?

The 10,000 Ft. Perspective of the Simple Set-Up:

Decide on criteria for your network – where are the boundaries around your business community?
Invest in some efficient technological means of managing and measuring your list, needs and problems solved? e.g. Batchbook
As people interact with your organization, identify their connections within your network.
Identify and capture business or personal needs within your network.
Implement a process for asking people within your network about their challenges.
Track, review and require your organization to problem-solve.
Measure and incentivise solving problems and identifying needs
Measure the long-term value of referred business and positive impact of your brand.

How could we connect you with a potential opportunity or solve a problem that would improve your success or quality of life. No problem is too small to consider. Leave a comment and we’ll put the network to work for you.