When you started your insurance agency, your first concern was learning all of the various products, passing your Series 6 exam, and hiring the right staff members. When it came to marketing, you simply used the various company’s programs and resources to start getting the word out about your brand new agency.

That did okay for a while, but then you realized the phone just wasn’t ringing enough. Trusting insurance companies alone to get you business wasn’t going to cut it. You had to learn how to market yourself quickly.

Promoting yourself and your agency specifically should always be your No. 1 priority. Most agents are competing with multiple other independent agencies in the same town. What makes someone contact you and not the other five agents selling the exact same thing a few blocks away? It’s all about your unique marketing strategy.

So what makes an effective marketing campaign?

Targeting. When creating a marketing campaign, you should begin by focusing on who you want to attract. Let’s say you want to run a campaign to sell life insurance to clients who currently have a policy with you. You might begin by running a list of clients in your agency who are likely to have small children. You’d choose an age range (like age 25-45) and those that are listed as married. You’d also remove anyone who already has a life insurance policy with you. This trims down the list to only those people who are most likely to purchase life insurance!

Targeting the right people increases overall response and saves you lots of money. Blindly sending marketing to your entire book just wastes your marketing budget and is not a savvy way to bring in new quotes. Narrow it down as closely as possible before you send out anything to your list.

Multifaceted approach. Once you find the right market and create your list, you have to design your message and get it out in multiple ways. You can’t assume that everyone will read one email or pick up the phone the one time you call. For that reason, a well-designed campaign requires you to think of different ways to get the word out.

You’ve created a list of clients who need life insurance. Now how will you share it? First, you want to create a physical piece of mail to send out. This could be a letter or postcard. Write it and send it out to your small targeted list.

Now it’s time to follow up. Begin with a telemarketing phone call to everyone you mailed the letter to. A simple “did you get our letter and can we give you a quote?” message will do the trick.

The letter or postcard serves an important purpose: By mailing first, you warm up the prospect for your phone call. They’ve already heard from you once and have an idea of what you’re calling about. It also makes it easier to begin a phone conversation.

What other ways can you continue to get the message out? Email is a great place to start—it’s budget-friendly and easily scalable. Create an email message or a series of messages and send them out over the next few days to people on your targeted list.

You can also take your message and break it down into short Facebook posts and Twitter messages to share over several weeks. Social media is a great way to reinforce your marketing message. Plus, when someone comments on or “likes” your post, it will show up to all of their friends—giving you a free branding message to new prospects at the same time.

Consistency. That means you create a message and share it continuously over the life of the campaign. You can’t expect to send one letter or email and get hundreds of quotes. Instead, you must instead develop a long-term strategy that reaches your clients and prospects over several weeks and in multiple ways. A little bit of consistency in the message goes a long way toward prompting a prospect to take action.

Marketing is not a simple task. It requires a lot of action, a lot of testing and a lot of consistency. But once you crack the code, you’ll reap the benefits for years to come.

Robyn Sharp is the owner of Mega Agency Marketing.