Should an insurance agent start a local newsletter?

I spent nearly twenty years in insurance before this, and I think insurance agents might be the best people to run a local newsletter. I've already helped one of the five largest agents in a major carrier's network launch local newsletters in his community.

Why insurance agents and not realtors?

"How many people are buying a home each year, getting a new roof? 2%, 3%. With insurance, everybody's buying."

Two things line up. Agents make a lot per client, and every single local person buys insurance. A realtor only needs a couple of deals; one a year and they're good. An insurance agent can win eight or ten clients from the same audience, and they'll pay for that.

What's the newsletter actually for?

The primary reason to start a local newsletter isn't to sell ads. It's to build influence in your community, with you and your high-value business as the back end. Ad revenue is secondary. Carrier systems also limit what agents can do with their own marketing, and a local newsletter sits outside those constraints.

Can I just email my newsletter list about insurance?

No, and this is where agents can wreck it. You don't own the database, you own access to it. When I worked in insurance I had everybody's email, but I couldn't just send emails because I wanted to.

If someone looks at a list of 10,000 local readers and decides to email them every day about how great they are, that destroys the business. In the franchise models I've designed, the owner gets one non-newsletter send a month to say whatever they want, reviewed so it's nothing too crazy. Mention the agency occasionally, in a footer or at the end. Most of the content should have nothing to do with insurance.

What about a done-for-you newsletter for agents?

That's a different product, and it isn't local. The model I've sketched is about $250 to $300 a month. Every agent gets the same issue twice a month, branded to them: agency name, photo, contact details, their calls to action, header and footer, plus an optional short update or photos the agent sends in through a greetform form.

The content is roughly 30% fun insurance material (wild or funny real claim stories, scams to watch for, surprising claim facts) and the rest simply entertaining: a meme set, a light video of the week, one big interesting story. It only works as a business if adding the 80th agent costs almost no human time.

How long before it pays?

It's a long-term play. My own network of agents could probably get me to 100 partners on its own, but local business owners want proof of closed deals before they buy in. That's fair. Even the downside case is decent: an owned list of 10,000 to 15,000 local people paying attention to you.