Tague Alliance: Autonomous Vehicles - All Hype or Not?

Happy New Year Tague Friends!

I hope each of you had a phenomenal Christmas and New Year's with your family and friends.  2016 was an interesting and productive year, but I am not one to dwell too much on the past as I would rather see us be forward leaning! We will be recapping our 2016 group results at our Tague Alliance member meeting on January 25th so I will save our look back for then.

One topic I do want to discuss because there was so much buzz about it was the "autonomous vehicle" trend that is sweeping our news cycles.  I read an article last year that said autonomous vehicles are still 30 years or more away. Yet the article below suggests the future may be closer than we think as progress by multiple companies continues to be made.  Who knows when autonomous vehicles will reach the masses, but there is a lot of money and momentum around this trend.  One thing is certain, Auto insurance will be impacted in unanticipated ways.

As builders of independent insurance agencies, we need to be thinking not only about our current reality, but really leaning into the future of what we can create in our businesses!  Things are changing and there are numerous macro-trends that will impact the opportunities we have.  Some of us will thrive with the change and others will die because of the change.  Those not willing to adapt and recreate themselves will be left behind.  I read a great quote, "strong convictions, loosely held".  Meaning we need to have a strong sense of direction, but be willing to change course when new facts present themselves. Auto insurance will be different in 5+ years, we just don't know how different. In the coming years, make sure that your premium portfolio is diversified.  Auto is a $19b premium market in California.  So it will continue to be an important part of your portfolio and growth.  However, as you create the future of your agency consider writing more Property, Commercial, Life, and any other insurance line that helps you have diversified revenue pillars.

You will hear me talking about "education" more and more and this means staying educated on a multi-faceted array of topics, not just insurance training. So for your reading pleasure check out this snipet from an article by Peter Diamandis that reviewed 2016.  I encourage you to stay informed and educated on important trends.

Cheers to a robust and effective 2017!

Tony V

The Year of Autonomous Vehicles

2016 was definitely “the year of the autonomous vehicle.”

As Google, Tesla and Uber lead the charge, almost every major car company is investing heavily in autonomy.

This will be one of the defining technology developments of the decade -- soon we may well look back in shock that we ever let humans drive cars on their own…

In looking back at the last 12 months, here are the top nine developments in self-driving cars:

a) Autonomous Uber Operational in Pittsburgh: Uber's self-driving autonomous cars began picking up passengers in Pittsburgh this year. They also attempted a rollout in San Francisco.

b) Uber’s Self-Driving Trucks Made a Delivery of 50,000 Beers: This year, Uber acquired autonomous truck company Otto, and the retrofitted 18-wheeler made its first delivery… 50,000 cans of Budweiser.

c) Every Tesla Will Be Fully Autonomous in 2017: Elon Musk announced that all new Tesla cars will have Level 5 autonomy. This means that by 2017, Tesla cars will be fully capable of driving themselves with zero interaction from a human driver.

d) Ford Targets 2021 for Autonomous Vehicle Release: Ford announces intention to deliver high-volume, fully autonomous vehicle for ridesharing in 2021.

e) GM’s First Fully Autonomous Car: The company plans to bring its fully electric self-driving cars to the masses by launching its first driverless cars on Lyft.

f) Google Creates Waymo to Support Self-Driving Car Technology: Google spun out its self-driving car unit as its own separate entity called Waymo.

g) Google Plans Ride-Sharing Service with Chrysler: Google will deploy a semi-autonomous version of the Chrysler Pacifica minivan by as soon as the end of 2017.

h) Autonomy Will Kill Car Ownership: A former Tesla and BMW exec said that self-driving cars would start to kill car ownership in just fiveyears. John Zimmer, the cofounder and president of Lyft, said in September that car ownership would "all but end" in cities by 2025.

i) Self-Driving Tractors Hit Farms: The self-driving tractors can deliver faster, more precise results than their human-controlled counterparts.

Links to source articles:

https://futurism.com/breaking-ubers-self-driving-taxis-have-hit-the-streets/ (Autonomous Ubers hit the streets)

https://futurism.com/50000-beers-ubers-self-driving-truck-just-made-its-first-delivery/ (Uber’s Self Driving Trucks, make 50,000 beer delivery)

https://futurism.com/elon-musk-every-tesla-car-will-be-fully-autonomous-by-2017/ (Every Tesla in 2017 to be fully autonomous)

https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2016/08/16/ford-targets-fully-autonomous-vehicle-for-ride-sharing-in-2021.html (Ford 2021 Objective for Autonomous Cars)

http://uk.businessinsider.com/gms-first-autonomous-car-will-be-electric-and-launch-on-lyft-2016-7?r=US&IR=T(GM’s first fully autonomous car will be electric and launch on Lyft)

https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/13/googles-self-driving-car-unit-spins-out-as-waymo/ (Google Creates Waymo to support self-driving car technology)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-13/google-said-to-plan-ride-sharing-service-with-chrysler-minivans-iwnox94h (Google plans Ride Sharing Service with Chrysler)

http://uk.businessinsider.com/former-tesla-vp-georg-bauer-autonomy-will-kill-car-ownership-2016-11?r=US&IR=T#digitalhealth (Autonomy will kill Car Ownership)

http://newatlas.com/self-driving-tractor/45169/ (Self Driving Tractors hit Farms)

SIAA and Tague Alliance - A Powerful Force For Independent Agents

Tague Alliance Insurance Agents - Do You Use Video With Social Media?

This is a great article from Sprout Video which Tague Alliance uses to host some of our video content.

The State of Social Video in 2016

HOW TOS SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEO MARKETING

The landscape of social media is highly nebulous, and the only constant is change - really rapid, pull-the-rug-out-from-under-you change. One of the areas that has seen the greatest amount of transformation is the way video is discovered and shared on nearly all major social platforms. Today, we are taking stock of where we stand in 2016, complete with a demographic breakdown of the audiences on each platform, to summarize the state of social video.

Facebook

In what is now clearly a self-fulfilling prophecy, Mark Zuckerberg declared back in 2014 that the majority of the content on Facebook would be video. Facebook is exploding in terms of popularity as a video destination, with more than 8 billion daily video views on its platform.

This is largely thanks to major upgrades recently made to the Facebook viewing experience, with an emphasis on enticing viewers to keep watching, as well as heavy investments in the technology powering it. These investments have also increasingly made Facebook the place for interactive video, such as 360 degree video and virtual reality. With the introduction of new metrics for businesses, tools for creating videos suited specifically to Facebook, and even hardware, Facebook’s position as a leader in video discovery and technology is being cemented before our very eyes.

Another important factor is that Facebook has sustained an incredibly large and engaged user base for several years now. Research from the Pew Institute reveals that72% of American adults are on Facebook, with a majority logging in every day or several times a day. The demographics skew slightly young, with nearly 30% falling in the 25 - 34 years old range, and almost evenly split between men and women.

To position your videos for success on Facebook, consider uploading them natively, create subtitles to allow your message to get across if it’s played in silence, and target a specific niche with your content. To help encourage sharing, use emotional hooks to engage your viewers, and try to get a strong reaction. Also, test paid promotions of your videos to see if it gives you the boost you need.

Pinterest, Instagram, Linkedin and Twitter

Compared to Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Linkedin and Twitter have much smaller user bases in the US, and around the world, although growth rates have accelerated on nearly all platforms since 2012. The rate of adoption is similar; it ranges from about 24% to 30% of all American adults on each of these platforms.

_Pew Research Institute_

It’s important to note that while adoption rates are similar across these platforms, the audience and content strategy vary quite a bit. Here’s a breakdown of how to approach each of these platforms.

Pinterest

Sharing videos as pins does happen on Pinterest, but most people’s feeds and boards remain dominated by still images. One look at how video appears on Pinterest tells you why that’s the case - it appears that little has been done to encourage viewers who start watching videos to keep doing so. Yes, related videos are displayed along with related images below the video, but there isn’t an easy way to advance to another video, and the mix of content types detracts from the viewing experience in a way that’s not true for still images.

That isn’t to say it won’t work - there are anecdotes of Pinterest driving lots of video views out there. Position your content around highly informative how-tos, lifehacks, fashion trends, recipes, workouts, or anything to do with babies or pets, and you might just see some success.

It will be worth keeping an eye on how Pinterest changes the way video is discovered and shared on its platform, especially as they explore video ad opportunities. For now, it’s not a top choice for video marketing.

Demographics: Pinterest skews heavily female, with 42% of women who are online using the platform, compared to only 13% of men. It is also more popular amongst younger demographics, with 34% of adults ages 18-29, 28% of adults 30-49, 27% of adults 50-64, and 17% of adults 65 and over using Pinterest.

Instagram

After Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, you shouldn’t be surprised that video is also taking off on this platform. Although its user base isn’t as substantial as Facebook’s, Instagram has a lot to offer video marketers, especially those looking to drive organic engagement with video. Since Instagram hasn’t been optimized to drive people to paid or most popular content to the same extent as Facebook, you can reach a lot of people with an entertaining, informative, or emotional message just using hashtags.

Instagram has a particularly visual focus, and it’s important to share only great-looking content if you choose to leverage this platform for your business. Recently, Instagram rolled out one minute videos to everyone on their platform, taking a big step forward into longer form content, and creating new opportunities for more involved storytelling.

If you’re willing to pay for a video ad on Instagram, you have up to two minutes to get your message across. The longer time isn’t the only benefit: ads are the only way to include an outbound link in your post. If your goal is to drive traffic with your Instagram video, instead of just brand awareness, promoted video posts are the way to go on Instagram.

Demographics: More than 300 million users, and counting, are sharing up to 60 million posts a day on Instagram. The platform is nearly evenly split between male and female users, with slightly more women than men. Instagram is notably more popular amongst younger demographics, with 53% of 18-29 year olds, 25% of 30-49 year olds, 11% of 50-64 year olds, and only 6% of those 65+ on the platform.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is similar to Pinterest in the sense that it has a lot of potential to be really great for video marketing, but still has a long way to go before that will come to fruition. To their credit, they have made some big strides recently, such as introducing autoplaying video in the timeline. They also completely refreshed their mobile app, and introduced a more modern, streamlined user interface, which will only encourage more video viewing for users on phones.

Importantly, LinkedIn doesn’t support native video, meaning you can’t use their app to record a video, or upload a video directly to their platform. Since you can only share links to your videos, you need to ensure the page containing your video is properly setup with the correct metadata so that LinkedIn will pull the correct information about the video when generating your post.

Demographics: Their recent updates to video in the newsfeed, along with their mature and relatively affluent user base, make them an excellent choice for many video marketers, especially for B2B companies. Evenly split between men and women, LinkedIn’s 347 million-strong user base is also more evenly distributed by age. Roughly 30% of people ages 30-64 use the platform, while 23% of those 18-29 and 21% of adults over 65 use LinkedIn.

Twitter

Twitter is a great home for video, with easy support for native video, autoplaying videos in the timeline, great promotional options, and decent organic reach through hashtags. It’s really just a crying shame about that stagnant user growth.

It’s hard to say whether some of the changes they are making to how tweets are displayed will work in your favor in the long run. For instance, the While You Were Away feature, which surfaces tweets similar to those you’ve engaged with in the past, seems like it could be a good thing. However, all the tinkering that’s happening could alienate their core users, and without any meaningful new user growth, that could make Twitter less attractive down the road.

If you include Twitter in your marketing mix, share your video two or three times throughout the day using different copy and hashtags to see what might resonate with your audience. Buffer, a subject-matter expert, seems to think this is a good idea. Consider uploading your video natively since there is evidence to suggest that, like Facebook, native video drives more engagement on Twitter than links to external pages containing video. Currently, native video is limited to 30 seconds, so be sure to make the most of it!

Demographics: Unlike the other platforms, Twitter counts more male users than female, with 24% of men who are online using Twitter, compared to 21% of women. Their user base tends to be on the younger side, with 37% of people ages 18-39, 25% of those 30-49, 12% of 50-64 year olds, and 10% of those over 65 using Twitter.

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Are any of these platforms working particularly well, or maybe not so well, for your campaigns? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Note: We purposefully did not include messaging apps in this analysis, since they have specific nuances that deserve their own analysis. Look for that in a future post!

All demographic information is from Pew Research Institute’s Report on Mobile Messaging and Social Media 2015.

TAGGED: HOW TOS SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEO MARKETING

WRITTEN BY COURTNEY PURCHON

Courtney is the Head of Marketing at SproutVideo. Follow her on Twitter.

POSTED APRIL 13, 2016

SIAA Celebrates 20 Years of Helping Independent Agencies Grow Nation’s Largest Alliance

For Immediate Release Media Contact: Gary Kimball Kimball Communications 610‐559‐7585 gkimball@kimballpr.com


 SIAA Celebrates 20 Years of Helping Independent Agencies Grow Nation’s largest alliance has written nearly $6 billion in premium and signed more than 5,500 member agencies

Oct. 21, 2015 – Hampton, N.H. – SIAA (Strategic Insurance Agency Alliance) today celebrates its 20th anniversary, having grown to be the nation’s largest agency alliance. With 48 master agencies, SIAA has signed more than 5,500 member agencies and generated nearly $6 billion in revenue since it was formed in 1995.

 SIAA celebrates the milestone with a champagne gala in Boston this evening, with more than 425 attendees expected, including CEOs and senior officers of SIAA’s strategic (carrier) partners, principals and staff of SIAA’s master agencies, publishers and editors of insurance industry media and other business associates and friends.

 “When we began to build a national network of agencies two decades ago, we focused on a mission to support the growth and continuing success of the independent agency distribution system,” said SIAA CEO Jim Masiello. “Today we celebrate the success of our integrated model with multi‐level partnering, which continues to be a proven solution to help agencies grow both premium and profitability.”

 The idea for SIAA grew out of the success of the Satellite Agency Network (SAN), a “master agency” comprised of independent agencies, which Masiello formed in New Hampshire in 1983 to overcome the biggest challenges facing independent agencies – growth and access to markets. Today, SIAA estimates that 13 percent of all independent agencies in the United States are or have been signed members of SIAA master agencies.

 SIAA has continued to add value to members through professional development and education, access to program and specialty markets, lead generation and more:
 • SIAA Business Insurance Advantage is a program that gives member agencies the ability to start or grow a profitable book of small commercial lines business.
• SIAA Agency Foundation is a program designed to assist new member start‐up agencies write quality business sooner than might otherwise be possible.
• SIAA Training & Learning Center had more than 1,000 member agencies register in 2014 with a dramatic increase in the use of content, such as a series of proprietary ACORD form lessons, Business Owner Policy training and CE credits.
• SIAA MarketFinder is used by member agencies to place difficult‐to‐write excess and surplus lines and specialty market business.
• Insurancedeals4u (ID4U) is a consumer‐facing web portal SIAA rolled out in 2004 to provide consumer access to all SIAA member agencies. It had more than 25,000 site visits providing 4,500 consumer leads to member agencies in 2014.

About SIAA SIAA is a national insurance agency alliance dedicated to the creation, retention, growth and continued success of the independent insurance agency distribution system. SIAA has signed more than 5,500 member agencies through 48 master agencies across the country since its inception in 1995. Of that member number, SIAA and its Master Agencies have created 3,100 new start‐up agencies coming predominantly from former captive agents. An estimated 13 percent of all independent agencies in the U.S. are or have been signed members of SIAA. SIAA brings profitable premium growth and quality relationship integration between its member agencies and strategic partner companies, and provides a wide range of resources to help agencies increase sales, retention, revenue and value. For more information on SIAA visit www.siaa.net.

Tague Alliance Members & Independent Agents Should Consider Embracing The E-Myth Concepts

If you are not yet familiar with the E-Myth and the concepts behind the business principles espoused by Michael Gerber it is time you become acquainted.  The fundamental tenant of the E-Myth is that a the "technician" or in our insurance world "producer" believes they have what it takes to run an agency and become an "entrepreneur" or "agency owner".  The myth is the producer believes he/she will have more time, more money, more control, more happiness, etc.  In order not to fall into the entrepreneurial myth, the business owner must be able to work "on the business" not just "in the business".

Take a look at a simple but solid concept called "Your Business Ecosystem"  and check out this snippet of content from E-Myth Revisited.

If you have not already read the E-Myth and want to get more insight into the concepts take a look at the E-Myth website at http://emyth.com/blog/

Years ago I read the E-Myth, then E-Myth Revisited, and finally E-Myth Mastery.  All of these books are great sources of information and you should consider them as part of your small business ownership education program.  Amazon sells all of the books.

It is critical that you think critically about building your business and making sure you are doing the things that will have a lasting positive impact on you and your families financial health long-term!

Tague Alliance Brings The Agency Growth Seminar To Member Agents

Tague Alliance is always looking for ways to help our member agencies become more successful preferred independent agents!  We brought in the Agency Growth Seminar to train a number of our members in simple but effective ways to dramatically increase their revenue.  We had a great training session and look forward to seeing positive sales growth as a result of the immediately implementable ideas that were provided to the attendees.

The class size was limited to allow for good interaction and a more personal experience.

Talking shop!  The class took the agents through an agency analysis and then into solutions for growth.

How to maximize cross‐line selling by Taping the income potential of your book of business

Setting the Stage
“Most people already have the knowledge and ability to increase sales results.  What they don’t
have is the knowledge about how to put it all together, manage it and make it happen.”
Scott Channell

The Agency Growth System has four distinct features:

• A Sales and Marketing System that generates a dependable and reliable source of new business.
• Simplified Goal Setting
• How to Tracking and Measure for Results
• Staff Accountability

Problems and Challenges
Here is the reality of what you face on a daily basis: The average household owns 7.1 policies.
The average agency has a household penetration of 1.9 policies which means 5.2 policies are in some
other agency’s book of business. The numbers don’t get any better when you analyze life and
financial services. On average 1 in 12 households will purchase some form of life or financial
service from someone in the next 12 months. Over the next 7 years, statically, 100% of your book of
business will purchase life or a financial service from someone else.  It isn’t a question of “if”
they leave; it’s a question of “when.”

The problems and challenges that face insurance agencies never seem to change. Every agency has the same basic questions:

• How can I increase New Business?
• How can I improve Profits?
• How can I improve Retention?
• How can I accomplish all of this with the least amount of effort?

The Solution is Simple
Faced with limited resources and time, The Agency Growth System provides an agency with
ready‐to‐deploy field proven sales and marketing strategies where much of the work is already done
for you, not by you.

• It is low impact for the staff and the client
• It is specifically designed to redefine the agent’s role as a Profession Insurance Advisor
• It focuses on what I believe is our Professional Obligation and that is to ask questions, identify problems and offer realistic solutions
• It is a systematic and dependable way of producing a steady follow of new business.

The Agency Growth System Workshop

The participants will leave the workshop with a customized “Game Plan”, for their specific agency,
that can be immediately implemented and produce measurable results in days not weeks or months.

Implementation
The Agency Growth System takes the guesswork out of increasing sales and agency profitability by
giving the agency a unified approach to establishing an Agency Sales Culture based on simple easily
implemented strategies.

The sales strategies include:

• Policy Review / Cross‐line Selling
• Internet Sales
• Targeted Markets
• Life and Financial Services

Agency Growth Systems will provide implementation assistance and coaching for 30 days. We will do
what is necessary to make you successful.

The Philosophy
The philosophy behind the Agency Growth System is simple:    “Stop selling insurance!”

"I believe our Professional Obligation is to ask questions, identify problems and offer realistic
solutions. This means providing client with advice on all of their policies regardless of who
controls them. If we can accomplish this in a professional manner, clients will give you the opportunity to provide the policies they want."  Harlan Warthen

Tague Alliance End of Summer BBQ

The Tague Alliance staff had a great time with some of our members and partner insurance companies last Friday!  Thanks to everyone who showed!

Here is a link to our Facebook page so you can check out some of the photos:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tague-Alliance-Insurance-Services-Inc/157544370966

Or check out our Google+ photo page:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/106526333406563306309/albums/5926877271664455649

Tague Alliance - Insurance Industry Report Out Now

At Tague Alliance we try to keep our members updated on what is happening in the insurance industry so we all have a better idea of the trends that will have an impact on our agencies and our clients.  Read the report below for a ton of good information:
http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/fio/reports-and-notices/Documents/FIO%20Annual%20Report%202013.pdf

Tague Alliance 8th Annual Awards Dinner

At Tague Alliance we put a very heavy emphasis on profitable growth with our partner insurance companies and each year we celebrate our results at the Annual Awards Dinner.  This gathering is designed to bring all our constituents together (members, carriers, and staff) to deepen our relationships and reinforce our the value of our partnerships!

The value that SIAA as a national group brings to our local Tague Alliance members is huge, and as a local SIAA Master Agency in California Tague Alliance is able to deliver deep value to our member agencies and partner carriers.  We are very blessed to have an extremely talented and experienced group of carrier executives supporting Tague Alliance.  As we all know nothing starts without a sale, so thank you to all our member agencies who are the horsepower behind Tague Alliance.  Of course, without our Tague Alliance staff supporting the entire effort we would not be where we are today.  It takes all of us contributing to be successful!

Thank you to everyone for your commitment to growing profitably!  Below is a link to our photos and a small montage of photos.  See you all at our 9th Annual Awards Dinner.

8th Annual Awards Dinner Photos

Photo montage on YouTube