Advertising center professionals are separated into six disciplines,
so franchisees have access to the expertise that results from
specialization. These disciplines include traditional advertising,
direct mail advertising, alternative advertising, public relations, and lead
generation.
Traditional Advertising
The traditional advertising professionals coordinate media buys,
assist in the research and development of new advertising pieces
and coordinate radio, television, billboard and print advertising. The traditional advertising professionals currently work with two
advertising agencies, Brush Art of Downs, Kansas and Seraphein
Beyn of Sacramento, California. These agencies assist the
advertising center with the development of advertising materials,
media buys and research, analysis and planning.
Direct Mail Advertising
The direct mail advertising professionals specialize in mailing list
acquisition and management, and scheduling of direct mail printing
and processing. The direct mail advertising professionals generally
use the advertising center’s print shop for printing and processing of
direct mail and the traditional advertising professionals are typically
responsible for the development of new advertising pieces.
The direct mail advertising professionals use AccuZIP software
for validation of mailing lists and typically purchase mailing
addresses in large quantities from suppliers such as Polk. These
professionals have developed an expertise in sorting and validating
mailing lists to help get maximum advertising effect for minimum
postage costs.
Alternative Advertising
The alternative advertising professionals specialize in yellow
pages advertising. These professionals are also responsible for
experimenting with other means of advertising such as flyers, door
hangers, event sponsorships and promotional gimmicks.
The alternative advertising professionals have a relationship with TMP Directional Marketing, a consulting firm that provides valuable
research of yellow pages advertising and negotiates
significant discounts from publishers.
TMP Directional Marketing research includes ranking reports, directory
classification and mapping of coverage areas. TMP
also provides specific directory recommendations
and access to graphic designers specializing in
yellow page ads. Additionally, TMP has negotiated
significant advertising discounts for franchisees with
yellow page directories, including SBC, Bellsouth,
Yellow Book and DEX Quest.
Another benefit of working with TMP Directional Marketing is
access to the measurement of results from yellow
pages advertising using standard call, remote call
forwarding and phantom numbers. TMP provides
sourcing and customer service data such as time of
call, missed calls, rings to answer, identification of caller and length of call. This data can be analyzed
to identify peak calling times, record caller addresses
for follow up mailings and develop socio-economic
profiles of callers.
Public Relations
The public relations professionals work with
individual franchisees to create news releases about
local events and distribute those releases to the
franchisee’s local media. These professionals also
work with senior management to create news releases
for the insurance trade industry that promote the
Brooke franchise and increase franchise value.
The public relations professionals have retained
eNR Services, a Connecticut-based marketing firm
that specializes in grassroots public relations, to
assist with the distribution of local news releases to
local media. The public relations professionals assist
franchisees in identifying newsworthy events and drafting news releases. These professionals also work
with eNR Services to develop six byline articles each
year for distribution on behalf of franchisees.
eNR Services assists the public relations
professionals in the measurement of results from
local news releases with monthly media reports that
provide news release activity, newspaper circulation
and estimated impressions.
Additionally, the public relations professionals
utilize PR Newswire to distribute news releases to
larger audiences, such as the insurance trade industry.
Lead Generation
The lead generation professionals organize their
activities into internally and externally generated
leads. Internally generated lead activities include
support for individual franchise Web sites, the www.
BrookeAgent.com Web site for all franchises, and the
866-77-AGENT and 866-99-FAXIT toll-free numbers
for all franchises. Externally generated lead activities
primarily include lead purchases from third parties.
Lead generation professionals consult with
franchisees to host, customize and personalize their
Web sites. Individual franchise Web sites are linked
to the www.BrookeAgent.com site, which typically
improves search engine performance rankings.
Lead generation professionals are also responsible
for the development of the www.BrookeAgent.com
Web site, which is specifically designed to attract
consumers for franchisees. Each month, approximately
11,000 visitors use the site’s agent locator tool and view approximately 60,000 pages. The www. BrookeAgent.com site is generating leads for franchisees at a growing
pace.
A pair of toll-free telephone numbers, 866-77-
AGENT for voice calls and 866-99-FAXIT for fax
calls, is made available to all franchisees by the lead
generation professionals. When calls are received on
the voice toll-free line, callers may use the automated
system to automatically transfer their calls to a
franchisee or choose to speak with a live operator who
will also transfer their calls to a franchisee. When
faxes are received on the toll-free fax line, operators
automatically forward the faxes to franchisees via
e-mail.
The lead generation professionals also purchase
leads from third-party vendors such as NetQuote,
InsureMe and AllQuotes. Volume discounts have been
negotiated with these vendors and leads are tracked to
monitor cost effectiveness.
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