Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Here is what I think would be appropriate:

- Some outdoor to show the location of your office: for example, stele (a bright guide sign with the name of the company and necessarily indication that this is an insurance company). If you can see the office from that point - then just with an arrow, or if you don't - then the exact address is needed. If you can mount a good and visible entrance sign - that's perfect.

- Absolutely necessary is info in yellow pages (preferably a small but visible block with a contrasting background or in a frame), also the local telephone inquiry and internet searching engines, if any.

- If you have some good local business association - you can become a member of it: membership in such unions usually give you opportunities to interact on different meetings, conferences, round tables, seminars and other events with other member-companies, that is already a good chance to promote your business. Besides, such organizations usually promote their activity and are proud to show their members list.

- Depending on the field(s) of insurance, find those local newspapers and magazines that most apply to your field, for instance - automobiles, or medicine, and thus will reach your target audience.

- Local radio and local (maybe cable) TV would be a plus, but only if you can make a precise, bright and involving message about what you offer. Something uncertain will not help at all.

- Use the service of local postal office to send nice leaflets or beautiful postal cards to the neighboring areas (directly to the mail boxes of houses and offices near your insurance company). If the scope of your business is bigger, then you can add more regions.
I would not recommend the email messages, though: such emails are usually treated like spam and can only damage your image.

- Order some business gifts with your logo and address and give them to your customers.

- The most important thing is providing a perfect service to your customers. Word-of-mouth is still one of the most powerful things in the world.

What else... if I have some other ideas, I will add.

Good start for you!
Yaroslava

Do you sell products for a variety of carriers or are you an agent of the larger insurance companies such as State Farm, Liberty Mutual, etc.

Marketing-Riot

What country are you in? Who is your primary target audience? What unique benefit do you offer them? How do you acquire new customers today? Commercial or residential, or life/health, or other/all? How do the target buyers typically learn about insurance agents?

Do you represent a large insurance company that advertises nationally/broadly? Is there an opportunity to tie-in with some of their programs and/or use their creative?

Why should a prospective customer buy from you instead of from one of your competitors? What makes you different from, and better than, other insurance offices in your area?

If you'll help us by providing some additional information we can probably steer you to some efficient vehicles for advertising your services. Then you can test them to see which actually works best for you.