2013 OUTSTANDING COMMUNICATIONS AWARD

The Young Agents Committee of the Independent Insurance Agents of

Georgia. Inc.

2013 OUTSTANDINGCOMMUNICATIONS AWARD

For outstanding achievement in maintaining a communications campaign dedicated to young agents.

OVERVIEW• Theme for the year –

“Perpetuation.”• Communications Goal: Old school

and new school – engage both young and old YACs.

• Utilize all successful methods – existing electronic/social media plus traditional.

• Methods: Facebook, Linkedin, email, snail mail, phone, text service.

• Also: Survey Monkey – ask all attendees to register to help us improve communication.

Objective – Bring back “old” YACs whoHad waned in participation.

GRASSROOTS DEVELOPMENT• Developed prototype introductory

email for district directors to personally send to their “constituents”

• Accountability – District directors were asked to forward progress to YAC Chair and Membership Development Chair.

• Email contained personal introduction and established open door relationship – also apprised recipient of free registration process.

• Careful not to call it a “survey.” • Helped capture young agent

information for communication and marketing purposes

Part of the Group at YAC Sales & Leadership 2013

METHODOLOGY• Pushed our Survey Monkey registration process live

at conferences (again, being careful not to call it a survey)

• This sounds simple, and yet we’ve never done it before. We literally made time for an official announcement during various times of our conference to ask people to stop what they were doing, pull out their smart phone, type in the address, and register as a Young Agent if they hadn’t already.

• Used a Tiny URL to make it even easier• Reached out to Past YAC Chairs (most of whom are

now Principles) for help in reaching new YACs.• Open line of communication between leadership

and district directors to continue updating the master membership list with new and old.

• Phone, phone, phone – this is definitely the most labor intensive aspect of our communication plan but we feel it has the biggest impact.

Pick up the phone!

COMPANY LIAISONS

Carrier Liaisons from Genesee General

• Historical company participation• Historical roles within YAC Board• Georgia 1752 Club• Membership Development Committee• Marketing Meetings – who spends more

time with other young agents? Us, or carrier reps?

• “Calling cards – business card sized marketing tool with website (Tiny URL) and social media info

• They were thrilled to be on the board because they get more personal face time with industry leaders

• NOTE: During our meetings, we conduct the business portion at the end, dismissing company liaisons.

TARGET PIA MEMBERS• Assisted Big I in reaching out

to existing PIA members to high light differences in our associations.

• Targeted email campaign.

The YAC InVEST Team at UGA’s Career Fair

OTHER SUCCESS/STRATEGIES• Develop relationships with area colleges –

future of the industry (and future members). Utilize their communication methods to our advantage (i.e. UGA listserv).

• “Low hanging fruit” – Work prior attendance lists and reach out personally to people who haven’t signed up for event.

• Tried to personally reach every YAC in Georgia by way of introductory email and again before events. Prototype email for board to make it easy.

• Officers reached out personally to new members to welcome them to GA YAC and offer assistance.

• Continued to purchase YAC specific domains – “Tiny URL” – to improve aesthetic feel to communications

Dr. Rob Hoyt, Department Chair of the # 1risk management school in the country, UGA,

speaks to GA YAC

CALLING CARDS

CLOSINGThe Georgia Young Agents Committee was able to be tremendously

successful in 2012-2013 because of creative, exciting new ways to engage

Young Agents. By going back to the basics, we were able to continue

communications growth by way of cutting edge methods and old

traditional methods. This allowed us to grow our membership and

increase engagement. Using up-to-date, relevant communications and

relying on team efforts, we were able to promote our events and

fundraisers with unprecedented success.

We’re looking forward to working together towards even more successes

in 2014!