How to Cold Email Commercial Insurance Prospects

The insurance industry can be challenging to attract new clients or retain existing customers, as it is highly competitive. Your Insurance company must find ways to reach its target audience and communicate its value proposition from so many available options.

Cold email is still one of the most effective ways to help you generate insurance leads and start valuable conversations with prospects. A lot of people dismiss it before completely utilizing it, as they don’t know how to make it work.

That’s why it’s important for you to understand how to land at the top of your prospects’ crowded inboxes and get noticed. Cold email has many benefits, like hyper-personalization, cost-effectiveness, research-based segmentation, value-driven content, etc,  when it comes to naturally reaching prospects.

Let’s explore the role of cold email for commercial insurance prospects, laws and regulations for cold emails in different countries, how to craft your cold email to reach your commercial insurance prospects, and more.

What Is Cold Email for Commercial Insurance?

A cold email is a communication method that you can use to send a message to a business prospect that you don’t know or haven’t interacted with before. You can reach out to those directly through a cold email by personalizing your message that shows you have done your research.

Your main goal is to make the first contact, show them you offer insurance products or services that might interest your prospect, and take the conversation to the next stage. It is an effective way to make your company name well-known, especially in the B2B landscape.

Cold email is one of the best strategies and first lead generation methods when it comes to sales prospecting. You can collect email addresses by doing online research and focusing on businesses and prospects that fit your buyer persona. You can effortlessly reach decision-makers who actually control policy decisions, such as business owners, Chief Financial Officers, financial directors, HR managers, etc.

Cost Effective

Regardless of your company size or budget, cold emailing is an affordable approach. It helps your business get recognized by people who are genuinely interested in insurance services.

Flexible to Respond

Your recipients can easily respond to your cold emails at their convenient time. It doesn’t get ignored because your recipient can respond to your email without any interruption, unlike cold calls.

Increased Brand Awareness

You can easily generate commercial Insurance leads by promoting your company’s strengths, features, and benefits through your efficient cold emails. You can get recipients familiar with your insurance offer while building a sense of trust and reliability.

Personalize Your Messaging

You can contact your prospects with cold emails who fit your customer profile. You can add a personal touch that resonates with your targeted audience, improving your response rates.

Is Cold Email Legal for Commercial Insurance? Laws and Regulations

Cold email is one of the most widely used modern outreach methods and a powerful marketing tool you can use to start conversations for business purposes, like commercial insurance. However, it is often confused with spam, since it is an unsolicited email that you send to someone with no prior contact.

You can send a cold email; it is legal, but it depends on your approach and compliance with many cold email regulations worldwide.

You must follow cold email marketing regulations for commercial insurance, like the CAN-SPAM Act in the U.S, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the UK, Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), Australia’s Spam Act, etc, to avoid being spam. These laws direct how your business can send unsolicited emails without violating privacy rights.

CAN-SPAM Act (United States)

This federal law was enacted in 2003. It applies to all your commercial emails and makes sure that recipients can opt out of receiving emails. It also summarizes the penalties in case of violations.

• You have to use the right header information. Your “From, “To, and “Reply-To” should reflect your identity.
• Your subject line should not be fake and should deliver the content of your message.
• Your email must contain a valid physical postal address. This can be your company’s address, or a P.O. box registered with the U.S Postal Service.
• You must add a clear and easy-to-find option for your receivers so that they can opt out of your future emails anytime.

GDPR (The European Union and the UK)

This law became active in 2018 and has regulated cold emails in the European Union and the UK since then. It states that your commercial insurance business must get prior consent before sending unsolicited emails to individuals.

• You can send cold emails for valid reasons that align with your recipient’s business or professional interests.
• You can get their clear agreement through an opt-in form to receive emails from you.
• You can perform a 3-step Legitimate Interest Assessment if your business needs to process personal data, like names and email addresses.
• You have to give an easy way for your recipients to opt out of your future emails, like an unsubscribe option.

CASL (Canada)

Canada has strict rules and regulations in place, like CASL, which is related to your cold emails and other commercial messages. It has been in effect since 2014. This applies to everyone, like individuals, businesses, non-profit organizations, etc.

• Your recipient’s consent is necessary before sending cold emails or any other commercial electronic messages under CASL.
• Your recipient’s consent can either be expressed or implied. They can sign up through a form or make their information public without indicating that they don’t want to receive unsolicited messages.
• Your cold email must contain a clear sender identification, like your company name, email address, contact information, etc.
• You also have to add a clear, easy-to-use unsubscribe option to all your cold emails.

Spam-Act (Australia)

Australia’s anti-spam laws have been in effect since 2003. It regulates unsolicited emails and protects its consumers. You have to get your recipient’s expressed or implied consent before sending any commercial insurance email.

• You have to aim for securing expressed consent. You can use a sign-up form or a similar method to make sure your recipients explicitly agree to receive your cold emails.
• Your cold emails must involve the correct information about your sender, like your business name, a valid postal address, or contact information.
• You should add an unsubscribe option for your recipients for an easy opt-out from your future cold emails.
• You must avoid misleading or false content in your emails, like fake subject lines or inaccurate claims.

How to Cold Email Your Commercial Insurance Prospects?

Cold emails offer your insurance agency direct communication with your target audience. Your agency can build trust and establish itself as an industry expert by providing valuable content and educational resources related to insurance. It also helps you increase your brand awareness and generate more qualified leads.

It can be challenging for you to stand out in crowded inboxes while building trust around complex insurance products. That’s why you should know how to cold email commercial insurance prospects with the right cold email strategy to transform your prospects into policyholders and one-time clients into lifelong customers.

You can create creative cold email campaigns by targeting the right audience, personalizing your content, using attention grabbing subject lines with responsive layouts, while keeping the content short.

Research Your Prospects and Segment Your List

You should know your audience before sending them a relevant and engaging cold email. Your effective cold emailing should build on relevance, like identifying decision-makers, understanding their pain points, and more.

• Identify Your Decision Makers

You should look for specific people who handle insurance decisions, like the Chief Financial Officer, HR manager, or Chief Executive Officer. You can find your prospects by using the industry, company, job title, etc.

• Research Their Business

You can look for their recent company successes, like a new location, a merger, or expansion into a new market. You can use such information to hook your email.

• Understand Their Pain Points

You can research their challenges that are specific to their industry. Let’s say a construction company can have different insurance needs and alarms than a tech startup.

Craft Your Compelling Subject Lines

Your subject line is the first thing that your receiver will see. Your strong subject line will grab their attention and get your emails opened quickly. You can personalize your subject lines by focusing on a pain point, referring to a common connection, etc.

• Personalize at Scale

Your subject line should be more informative and focus on clear value propositions. You can make use of snippets, like {{First Name}}, or {{Company name}}, to be more personalized and targeted.

• Focus on Pain Point

Your subject line should be specific. You can focus on a particular pain point or specific risk relevant ot their business.

Example

“Is your [industry] business prepared for this sudden risk?”

• Refer to a Common Connection or Event

Your subject line should pinpoint the exact message that resonates with your audience. You can try mentioning a mutual connection or asking a question to test which one gets you the best open rates.

Example

“[Mention connection] recommended I get in touch.”

“[First name] saw your recent expansion”.

Write Your Concise Email Body

You should keep your email short and noticeable. You should get to the point quickly. It is because you will have a short span of time to capture your prospect’s attention, and you should lead with your most compelling piece of information.

• Your Opener

You should start with a highly personalized and relevant hook. You can mention something you noticed during your research to show you’ve done your part.

• Your Value Proposition

You can follow with a clear and concise statement on how you can provide. You can focus on the benefits, like reduced costs, simplified processes, etc, not just mentioning the features of your service.

• Your Call to Action (CTA)

You can keep your request simple with low commitment. You can always ask for permission to share more information, not just for a 30-minute meeting.

Subject: Prospecting [Company Name] from [Specific Risk]

Hi,

I saw on [LinkedIn/Company Website] that [Company Name] is [you can mention specific trigger event,e.g., “expanding into new facilities”, or launching a new project].

That’s exciting news, and it often brings you new risks to manage. For example, we’ve helped other [Prospect’s industry] companies navigate [mention a risk relevant to their news,e.g., ‘New liability exposures with larger distribution’, or challenges with cyber coverage for a new online platform”].

I’d like to share how we helped a similar company [ mention result,e.g., reduce their premium by 15% while expanding coverage].

Would you be open to a brief 15-minute call next week to see if we can identify any potential gaps or savings for [Company Name]?

Best Regards,

[Your Name]

[Your title]

[Your Insurance Agency Name]

[Your Phone Number]

Final Words

From the earlier discussion, we explained that thriving in your insurance business depends on stronger client relationships. Cold email, if you execute well with precision and empathy, it can be your powerful strategy to initiate them.

Your effective cold outreach emails need careful planning and personalization, like segmenting your audience, crafting your precise email body with a compelling subject line, complying with laws and regulations, etc,  when you’re writing for commercial insurance prospects. These are not just theoretical, but are actionable steps that you can implement today and speak directly to your prospect’s core concerns.