In this Power Producers Podcast episode, David Carothers dives into the world of email marketing with Jay Schwedelson, founder of SubjectLine. The discussion focuses on how to refine your email marketing strategy, specifically the art of creating subject lines that boost open rates and increase engagement.
David and Jay explore practical tips and insights on how to optimize your email outreach, avoid common mistakes, and ultimately build a more effective email marketing campaign.
David and Jay kick things off by discussing why many businesses struggle with email marketing, especially when it comes to automated cold outreach. Jay emphasizes the importance of shifting the mindset from “selling” to “providing value” in email marketing.
Jay shares insights on the often-overlooked power of subject lines. He explains that small tweaks, like starting with a number, capitalizing words, or using brackets, can significantly increase open rates. He also debunks myths about spam trigger words and emphasizes the importance of clarity and relevance.
David and Jay discuss the value of using personalization in subject lines. Jay explains that the real magic happens when you personalize based on industry, job function, or company name, making the recipient feel like the email is specifically for them.
The conversation shifts to the structure and content of email bodies. Jay suggests keeping emails concise, with no more than 75 words for new prospects and up to 150 words for existing customers. He also shares best practices for using bullet points, white space, and strong calls to action.
Jay explains the importance of writing calls to action in first person. He emphasizes how this simple change can increase click-through rates by over 28%, and he gives practical examples of effective CTA phrasing.
David and Jay talk about the role of urgency in email marketing. Jay advises using FOMO (fear of missing out) to drive action, like mentioning limited spots for events or expiring offers in the subject line and PS.
The commercial insurance world isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s unpredictable, chaotic, and constantly demanding producers to manage competing pressures—client needs, renewal deadlines, life events, prospecting goals, and agency responsibilities. And if you’re a middle-market producer, multiply that by ten.
In the middle market commercial insurance space, the role of the producer has never been more critical—or more misunderstood. Too many producers still view their job as selling policies instead of what it truly is: protecting the assets and livelihoods of the businesses they serve.
The middle market rewards depth, not breadth. Yet many producers still approach it like a volume game, quoting everything that moves, chasing price, and hoping activity turns into production. From the outside, it looks like hustle. From the inside of the underwriting and wholesale world, it looks like noise.
Personal lines has quietly become one of the most competitive segments in the insurance industry. Agencies that once dominated their local markets are now fighting to differentiate themselves against direct writers, digital-first carriers, and large brokers with massive content machines.
The cyber insurance market has always been unpredictable. Over the past decade, we’ve seen it move from an emerging line of coverage to one of the most volatile, swinging rapidly between soft and hard market cycles. But today, cyber has entered one of the softest markets in recent memory—and that presents a rare opportunity for both agents and clients.
For most of my 20-year career, captives felt like something reserved for the insurance elite—the jumbo accounts, the Fortune-level operations, the companies with multimillion-dollar manual premiums and entire departments dedicated to risk management. If you had asked me ten or fifteen years ago whether a $250,000 account was a legitimate captive candidate, I would’ve laughed. I thought captives were reserved for companies so complex and so large that the only rational way to insure them was to build an insurance company around their risk.
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