SINCE ITS RELEASE, JGS INSURANCE RISK &
BUSINESS MAGAZINE HAS RECEIVED RAVE
REVIEWS OVERALL AND NUMEROUS REQUESTS
FOR MAILING LIST ADDITIONS.
H
HOW DOES a midsized family insurance agency with over 100
years of history compete with insurance giants that have been
gobbling up independents and creating formidable competitors?
This was the challenge faced by JGS Insurance co-owners, brothers
Kenneth and Vincent Hager, and their teams over the past several
years as the industry continued to consolidate, squeezing out many
of the smaller players and causing the industry to suffer.
Proud owners of JGS Insurance for over 40 years, the Hager family
was determined to set its agency apart by offering a wide range of
insurance coverages and carriers, working with clients on both the
retail and wholesale end, and providing high-quality products and
exceptional service. The agency offers commercial and personal
lines, risk management tools, and HR benefits programs as well as
a unique niche that provides coverage for community associations.
JGS also has been a longtime member of Agency Peak Performance
Exchange (APPEX), joining a select group of similar-sized agencies
that meets regularly to exchange ideas, share benchmarking
statistics, and act as one another’s sounding board for developing
and implementing agency best practices. At an APPEX meeting
last year, Vinnie Hager heard guest speaker Andy Buyting, the
founder and president of Carle Publishing, give a presentation on
the benefits of custom publishing — and was instantly intrigued.
As soon as Buyting began to speak to the APPEX group, Hager
was impressed by his deep understanding of the enormous
challenges faced by “the independents” as they faced off against
much larger competitors. Looking back, Hager says “Carle’s
message about becoming the ‘voice of your community in your
space’ was extremely empowering.” He was also impressed with
how the company presented itself on its website: emphasizing core
values of a strong work ethic, absolute client dedication and
commitment, relentless quality control, and a philosophy of
teamwork and open communication.
At the time, JGS had been searching for a powerful medium to
help build on the company’s traditional advertising campaigns,
which targeted both the retail and wholesale marketplaces, in an
effort to significantly expand the company’s reach. “We were
looking to expand further from our broad coverage of the
habitational insurance sector into more middle-market industries
like manufacturing, wholesaling, distribution and other similar
niches,” says Hager.
JGS decided to partner with Carle Publications to produce its first
custom magazine early in 2017. According to the Carle method,
content would be composed of a combination of articles written by
national thought leaders in areas as diverse as business and
entrepreneurship, cooking and gardening, and spirituality and
healthy living along with JGS’s own internally generated content.
“The process of working with Carle was easy,” says Hager. “We
developed local content with the help of ghostwriters that the
company provided, and Carle contributed 16 pages of national
content written by their experts.” Hager also praised the smooth
flow of the magazine’s content generation, editing, design, and
production processes, all driven to conform to strict quarterly
deadlines.
They even encouraged the Hagers to find advertisers and other
sponsors to help defray the already economical cost of publication.
With the magazine’s exclusive access to the northern New Jersey
insurance market, one of JGS’s main objectives has been to educate
companies about important topics in the field: benefits issues,
workers’ compensation, and food industry legalities, just to name a
few. But they also loved the idea of being able to generate a
dialogue on interesting topics beyond the realm of insurance and
risk management although that would remain the core focus of the
magazine.
The response to the first two issues has been extraordinary. “We
have had great feedback from both employees and customers to the
point where we now have too much content and have to tighten it
up and make some tough decisions about what to include,” says
Hager. “But the biggest competition within the firm is who gets to
have their story on the front page of the magazine. It’s become a
highly coveted marketing space,” he says with a laugh.
For each of the magazine’s first two print runs, JGS sent out nearly
30,000 magazines to CEOs, CFOs, and board members of New
Jersey companies with at least 20 employees and $5 million in
revenue. The marketing objective is to position JGS Insurance as
the experts that they truly are in an effort to develop positive buzz
around the company and, at the same time, generate new business.
The agency also finds the magazine extremely valuable to hand out
at trade shows where they have been able to generate much higher
company interest than they would with simpler promotional items
or brochures.
Since its release, JGS Insurance Risk & Business Magazine has
received rave reviews overall and numerous requests for mailing list
additions. According to Hager, it has also provided increased
recognition and a greater sense of legitimacy for companies within
their geographic region as well as o ther businesses in their industry.
As Hager notes, “We have been recognized as a Top 50 broker in
the country and a top wholesaler by Insurance Business America.
And through our continued work with Carle in building our
brand, reputation, and name recognition, there is no other
direction for us to go but up.”
JGSINSURANCE.COM
CARLEPUBLISHING.COM | 21