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The Mav Blog.
Best practices, texting strategies, lead economics, and the compliance rules that decide whether your messages ever arrive.
Mav is Headed to ITC Vegas 2026! Here's What to Expect
Mav is at ITC Vegas 2026, September 29 – October 1 at Mandalay Bay. Find us at Booth #42 and #2558, plus the sessions and parties we're watching.
Charlese Ferree
All posts
Newest first.
109 posts
Turned On AI Texting? The Compliance Questions You Haven't Asked Yet
TCPA applies the same way whether a person or an AI sends the text. The difference is whether your system clears the bar consistently or hopes someone remembers to.
Greg Spano
I've Walked Into More Than 1,000 Agencies. The Leads Were Almost Never the Thing Holding Them Back.
Greg Spano on why agents think internet leads don't work, the numbers to know before you judge a lead source, and the follow-up process that makes them pay.
Greg Spano
How Conversational AI Stays TCPA Compliant in Insurance
How conversational AI keeps insurance outreach TCPA compliant: documented consent, opt-outs, quiet hours, DNC scrubbing, A2P 10DLC, and the licensed-agent handoff.
Mav Team
Best CRM for Insurance Agents: What Top Agencies Run
The best CRM for insurance agents is the one someone actually works. See what top agencies run, how captive agents manage leads, and the layer that works every lead your CRM stores.
Mav Team
Text Messaging for Insurance Agents: A Farmers Agency's Playbook to Improve Contact Rates
See how text messaging for insurance agents helped a Farmers agency reach more purchased leads, lift contact rates, and convert without adding staff.
Mav Team
AI vs Offshore Call Center Cost: When AI Wins in Insurance
When do AI costs beat offshore for insurance leads? Learn the break-even point where speed, reach, and compliance risk outweigh labor savings.
Mav Team
Conversational AI in Insurance: Best Tools for Agents
Discover the best conversational AI tools for insurance agents in 2026. Learn which workflows to automate first, how to evaluate tools, and what ROI to expect from text-first AI.
Mav Team
The Insurance Producer Hiring Bottleneck: How to Grow When You Can't Hire Fast Enough
Can’t hire producers fast enough? Grow by working the leads you already own with instant follow-up, reactivation, and qualified handoffs.
Mav Team
Agentic AI and the New Insurance Shopping Cycle: The Insurance Buzz Podcast
There’s a new shopping cycle in the age of AI. AI notices opportunities based on a consumer's conversation, and now it's shopping for insurance on their behalf.
Matthew Black
AI for Insurance Agents: How Conversational AI Qualifies Leads and Books Appointments
Web leads go cold in minutes. See how AI engages every lead by text in seconds, qualifies them, and live-transfers the ready ones to a licensed agent.
Evan Smith
Conversational AI for Insurance: How to Pick the Best Platform for Your Agency
Learn how insurance agencies can use conversational AI to engage leads faster, qualify buyers, follow up, and boost conversion.
Mav Team
AI Tools for Insurance Agents: A Practical Guide to Selling More Policies
Discover which AI tools actually help P&C insurance agents convert more leads and grow their book without adding headcount or call center chaos.
Mav Team
AI Lead Qualification for Insurance Agencies: How It Works, What to Measure, and How to Scale It
A practical guide to AI lead qualification for P&C insurance agencies: what it is, how it works, the methods compared, the KPIs that matter, and how to scale it without a call center.
Evan Smith
How New Farmers Agency Owners Can Grow Their Book Without Adding Staff
A Mav case study on how Tim Ollson scaled his newer Farmers agency rapidly without additional hiring: consistent lead follow-up, recovered cold leads, and confident marketing spend.
Hillary Black
This Just In: 3 New Mav Marketing Sources
Three new marketing sources are now live in Mav: Fidato, Next Call Club, and Quote Nerds. Connect the lead providers you use and respond to new leads faster.
Charlese Ferree
How to Work EverQuote Leads with AI Texting
Turn EverQuote leads into quoted policies with AI texting. See the qualify-then-transfer workflow, plus what makes an AI texting vendor carrier-approved.
Mav Team
Insurance Agency Automation Software: What Actually Grows Your Book
Most insurance agency automation software lists rank back-office systems. Here's the growth layer that moves conversion, contact rate, and CPA.
Mav Team
How Conversational AI Qualifies Insurance Leads: The SMS-First Approach That Actually Works
Learn how conversational AI qualifies insurance leads through instant SMS engagement, follow up, and live call transfers. Step-by-step breakdown inside.
Mav Team
HawkSoft Insurance CRM + AI Texting: Work Every Lead Automatically
Learn how to connect CRMs like HawkSoft and AgencyZoom to AI texting so every insurance lead gets contacted in seconds.
Mav Team
Hold the Phone: Mav Voice is Here
Mav now supports inbound and outbound calling with a voice AI agent. Answer calls when a rep isn't available, re-engage leads that go quiet with a multi-touch text and AI call cadence, then warm-transfers to a licensed rep. Read more about it.
Hillary Black
SMS For Insurance Leads: How To Text First And Convert Faster
Texting wins SMS for insurance leads: reach every P&C lead in seconds, qualify who's ready, and transfer high-intent prospects to a licensed agent who closes.
Evan Smith
Automate Insurance Lead Qualification: A 4-Step System for Maximum Conversion
Stop paying for leads you never work. See how to automate insurance lead qualification in 4 steps, route to your CRM, and transfer ready leads to agents.
Mav Team
AI for Insurance Agents: 7 Signs It's Time to Replace Your Traditional Call Center
Missed calls, 42-hour lead response, rising CSR turnover? Here are 7 signs it's time to replace your insurance call center with AI, plus how Mav compares.
Evan Smith
Insurance SMS Follow-Up: Build It Yourself or Buy a Platform?
Should your agency build your own insurance SMS follow-up on a platform like Twilio or buy a platform? Compare costs, compliance, and conversion trade-offs.
Mav Team
Voice AI vs SMS AI: Which Follows Up on Insurance Leads Better?
Voice AI vs SMS AI for insurance leads: why text-first follow-up wins on speed, replies, compliance, and cost.
Mav Team
How to Use AI to Build a $10M Insurance Agency in 6 Months (Without a Call Center)
How to use AI for insurance agencies to scale to $10M without a call center. Six rules to cut cost per policy and hand warm leads to licensed agents.
Hillary Black
The Three Habits Every Lead Buyer Needs (Whether You Know It or Not)
Felt burned by leads? It's rarely the leads. After 20 years buying and selling leads, our CGO reveals the three habits that separate agencies scaling to $10M from those staying stuck on the Insurance Town Podcast..
Garrett Wilson
Two-Way SMS Messaging for Insurance: Turn Leads Into Policies
See how two-way SMS messaging helps P&C agencies reply in seconds, qualify leads, and hand ready buyers to a licensed agent. Get the playbook.
Hillary Black
Automated Two-Way Texting: The Complete Guide
What is automated two-way texting? How can you use automated texting with your existing business process automation to nurture and convert more leads? Real automated SMS messaging examples for sales & marketing.
Hillary Black
Captive Insurance Agents vs Independent: Who Wins on Lead Speed?
Compare how captive and independent insurance agents handle lead speed, response time, and after-hours follow-up, plus the AI tools closing the gap for both.
Evan Smith
The Most Important Allstate Insurance Agent Stats in 2026
Allstate's captive agent network is shrinking, and the ones left are competing for a smaller slice of new business. Review the 2026 numbers, and find out what they mean for anyone running a captive agency
Mav Team
The Best SMS Platform For Insurance Leads: A Buyer's Guide For P&C Agencies
Choosing an SMS platform for insurance leads is a lead-conversion decision. Here's what to look for, category by category, for P&C.
Evan Smith
Stop Counting Dials and Start Measuring What Actually Converts Insurance Leads
Dial count benchmarks miss the point. Contact rate drives insurance lead conversion. See why text-first engagement outperforms cold calling volume.
Evan Smith
A2P 10DLC For Insurance Agencies: What You Need To Know, Carrier By Carrier
Unregistered agency texts get filtered before leads ever see them. Here's the carrier-by-carrier A2P 10DLC guide, plus how Mav handles compliance for you.
Mav Team
Conversational AI for Insurance: Cost, ROI & Comparison
See how conversational AI for insurance cuts acquisition costs 50%, lifts conversions 30%, and how Mav compares to other solutions.
Evan Smith
Call Center vs. AI: What Lead Response Actually Costs Your Insurance Agency
Compare the real cost of call center lead response vs. AI for insurance agencies. Speed-to-lead data, conversion rates, and per-lead economics broken down.
Mav Team
Traditional vs AI Insurance Call Center Costs: The Full Breakdown (5 to 50 Agents)
Insurance call centers cost $375K–$696K/year for 5 agents, fully loaded. Real line-item breakdown by agency size plus how to cut your cost per converted lead.
Mav Team
How to Make Purchased Leads Work for Insurance Agencies
The 20-year playbook for buying insurance leads has always been the same: speed, cadence, consistency. The barrier was capital, not knowledge. AI just collapsed it. Here's what actually works, what doesn't, and why.
Evan Smith
Mav Included Among Liberty Mutual's Agent for the Future "AI-Driven Vendors for Independent Insurance Agents"
Excited to see Mav featured on the list as an AI sales assistant tool for independent insurance agents
Hillary Black
Ready to Ditch Your Call Center? Here's How Top Insurance Agencies Are Using AI
See how high volume insurance agencies are replacing call centers with AI agents that can convert at 30% higher rates.
Evan Smith
How To Buy Insurance Leads and Convert Them with AI
Learn how AI helps insurance agents convert more leads with instant speed-to-lead, automated qualification, and consistent follow-up — 24/7 365.
Hillary Black
Text Messaging Compliance for Insurance Agents: What You Need to Know in 2026
Master the TCPA, 10DLC, and CTIA rules every insurance agent must follow to text leads compliantly and avoid fines up to $1,500 per message.
Mav Team
Aged Insurance Leads: Are They Worth Working at Scale?
Aged insurance leads deliver 4-5x more sales per dollar than fresh leads. See the ROI math, contact rates, and the text-first system that scales.
Mav Team
10 Ways to Grow Your Insurance Agency Faster This Year
Grow your insurance agency fast by fixing follow-up and lead conversion first. Here are 10 strategies covering speed-to-lead, retention, and the metrics that matter.
Mav Team
Why We Bet Everything on Insurance
We didn't build Mav for every industry. We built it for insurance, on purpose and the future is bright.
Matthew Black
What Makes a Good Conversation? Behind Mav's Evals Feature
Our Head of Engineering talks Evals, a new feature that scores Mav's AI conversations across three dimensions. Learn why we built it, what makes conversations so hard to evaluate, and where we're taking it next.
Hillary Black
Your Sales Cadence Is Broken. Here's How to Fix It With AI
Most agencies don't have a lead problem—they have a follow-up problem. Here's how to fix your sales cadence with AI using two deployment patterns (AI-first vs humans-first), and the one setup that ruins results.
Evan Smith
What You’ll Learn at MavCon 2026 — Your Blueprint for Next-Level Agency Growth
MavCon is not a typical conference. It is a two day, high impact mastermind where agency owners learn what is actually working across leads, compliance, quoting, and growth while building real relationships.
Charlese Ferree
Party Lines: Turning AI Conversations into Live Human Connections
A look inside Mav's first-of-its-kind and recently upgraded AI-powered SMS-to-live-call transfer feature
Liz Love
Inside Spectre: A Conversation with Mav Full-Stack Developer Ilya Klapatok
Four AI providers. One clean interface. Our developer Ilya explains how Spectre turns a messy pile of AI remotes into one universal remote for Rails. Learn what it takes to keep things simple when you're juggling OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, and Ollama at once.
Garrett Wilson
Mav is Headed to Lead Generation World 2026! Here's What to Expect
Lead Gen World is here, and the Mav team couldn’t be more excited to attend. Here's what we're looking forward to.
Charlese Ferree
Your Next Big Ads Opportunity Is Inside ChatGPT, Here's What You Need to Know
Remember when first movers made millions on GoogleAds? OpenAI is about to make that moment happen again. Here's how insurance agencies can prepare.
Garrett Wilson
The 3 Roles Every AI-Powered Agency Needs
Garrett Wilson
We Built An AI Agent to Check Any Website for TCPA Compliance
More about how Mav built an AI-powered TCPA compliance checker to automate opt-in audits and reduce legal risk with a Claude Agent
Hillary Black
How to Scale Your Insurance Agency with Internet Leads (Without Building a Call Center)
Most agents don’t fail because of bad leads; they fail because they can’t keep up with the volume. AI fixes that. No call center. No burnout. Just instant responses, consistent follow ups, and scalable growth that runs like software.
Garrett Wilson
26 Reasons You Need to be Texting Your Leads
AI texting is transforming insurance lead buying. With 98% open rates, fast replies, and higher conversions, SMS beats calls and email—helping agencies stay ahead in 2026.
Garrett Wilson
Mav is Headed to ITC Vegas 2025! Here's What to Expect
ITC Vegas 2025 is almost here, and the Mav team couldn’t be more excited to join the insurance industry's biggest event of the year.
Charlese Ferree
Announcing Spectre 2.0: Claude & Gemini Support
Build smarter, faster, and more flexible AI apps in Rails with Spectre 2.0
Liz Love
The New Rules for Profitable Insurance Lead Buying
The top agencies aren’t playing the old lead-gen game. They’ve adopted a smarter, scalable model built on Level 2 AI — and it’s rewriting the rules. Here’s what’s changing, and how to stay ahead.
Garrett Wilson
Why Your Lead Buying Strategy is Failing (and How to Fix It)
Traditional insurance lead buying strategies are failing 📉. Agency owners are leaving serious money on the table without realizing it. Discover the 4 hidden problems killing your deals and how AI can help.
Garrett Wilson
We Ran The Numbers: AI is a Margin Expansion Machine for Insurance Agencies
For many insurance agency owners, more margin means more options: profitability, reinvestment, or scale. Let's explore the type of margin AI can help you unlock.
Hillary Black
Behind The Scenes: 24 Hours With Our Founder Documenting Mav's AI Strateg
Discover how one focused offsite led to clarity, alignment, and a blueprint for AI-driven execution in this behind-the-scenes of Mav's AI Strategy..
Matthew Black
Introducing Spectre: AI-Enable Your Ruby on Rails Application
Spectre is the latest addition to our open-source library: a Ruby gem that makes it easy to AI-enable your Ruby on Rails application.
Matthew Black
Insurance Industry Veteran Greg Spano Joins Mav Advisory Board
Greg brings a proven track record in the insurance industry through his work at EverQuote, which will help Mav expand our market share in the vertical.
Hillary Black
How Mav Cognitive Prevents AI Hallucinations
One of our favorite things about Mav Cognitive is how we’re mitigating hallucinations. Hint: It’s a lot more than just RAG.
Matthew Black
Introducing Mav Cognitive
Today we launch Mav Cognitive, human-level cognitive abilities that close the skills gap between Mav and human call center reps.
Matthew Black
New Mav Integration: Canopy Connect
Excited to add Canopy Connect to our roster of one-click Mav integrations!
Matthew Black
Should You Pretend Your AI is Human?
Here are the reasons why you should NOT act as if your AI is a human
Matthew Black
A Quick Tour of Mav Analytics
🎥 Our analytics are designed to help you report, alert and act on metrics like positive intent. Take a quick video tour of the new analytics dashboard.
Matthew Black
The Future is a One-Person, One-Billion-Dollar Company
A deep dive into AI Agents and agentic workflows, and the possibilities of a new type of company powered by AI employees
Hillary Black
An Overview of the Mav Outbound API
🎥 Check out this quick overview of our Mav Outbound API, how it works, and how some of our customers are leveraging it.
Matthew Black
Webinar: How to Scale Lead Generation Across Calls with Conversational AI with Mav and Phonexa
Mav's Matthew Black and Evan Smith join Phonexa COO Jeff Schaffer to discuss automating & enhancing lead outreach.
Hillary Black
Mav Wins "SMS Company of the Year" at the 2023 AFFY Awards
We’re proud to have received the award for "SMS Company of the Year" at this years' AFFY Awards!
Hillary Black
Join us at Contact.io to Learn About Driving Business Intelligence with Conversational AI
We're excited to head to Denver in August to exhibit at Contact.io and hear Matthew talk about understanding key lead indicators for your contact center
Hillary Black
Join us a Lead Generation World to Learn About SMS-Verified Leads
We're excited to head to San Diego in January to exhibit at Lead Generation World and hear Matthew talk about "Unlocking New Revenue Opportunities with SMS-Verified Leads"
Hillary Black
The Text Messaging Compliance Terminology Your Business MUST Know
Staying compliant is key to long term success with SMS, but what can you do and what can't you? What do the acronyms mean? This guide includes all of the vocabulary you must know..
Hillary Black
Introducing Party Lines
Today we launch Party Lines, or AI-Powered Live Call Transfers, extending our use of Conversational AI to initiate a live phone call between AI-qualified leads and sales representatives.
Matthew Black
Case Study: Mav + Calendly = A Perfect Match for Booking Demos
Learn how Mav helped Qandid see 33X ROI in 6 months by integrating Mav with Calendly.
Matthew Black
How Much Time Does Mav Actually Save You?
The details behind our new Time Saved metric and how valuable it is to have Mav on your team.
Evan Smith
A2P, 10DLC, TPS? A Complete Guide to the Text Messaging Vocabulary Your Business Should Know
Programmable Messaging is a must for business, but how do you know what options are right for you? This field guide has the answers.
Hillary Black
Why Automated Texting is More Powerful Than Any Other Channel for Sales Reps
Learn why automated SMS conversations are so much more valuable for sales than the alternatives
Hillary Black
New Mav One-Click Integrations
With our latest feature, you can now add Mav to Salesforce, Hubspot and Slack in seconds!
Matthew Black
How Mav Solves The Top 3 Problems for Sales Reps
Why should you choose Mav over other hybrid messaging platforms?
Hillary Black
Mav Named Among 55 Best Fintech Startups 2021
We’re proud to be among the 55 Best Fintech Startups ranked by The Startup Pill this year!
Hillary Black
22 Reasons Why You Need Automated Texting in 2022
SMS marketing stats: Simply put, your business needs to text. Automated two-way texting can help sales & marketing engage prospects and convert more leads.
Hillary Black
Instantly Experience Mav With Our New Text Demo
Give Mav a test drive and see what your leads will experience first hand.
Matthew Black
Mav "SMS Enablement Detection" Skill Now Live
In our latest update, Mav now has the ability to detect if a phone number is a landline, or if it can receive texts.
Matthew Black
Mav Named Top Fintech Company 2021
We’re proud to be among the top Fintech Companies on two separate Best Startup lists this year!
Hillary Black
What are Mav Playbooks?
Learn more about how Mav’s Automated Texting Playbooks can scale your sales efforts.
Hillary Black
How Mav Automates Your Sales
You’re ready to automate the back-and-forth with your leads and customers, but how exactly does Mav work?
Hillary Black
Introducing Mav 2.0
Mav has entered dark mode. See the new look and get inspired with all of the possibilities to scale your sales with artificial intelligence.
Matthew Black
Mav Named a HousingWire Tech100 Winner
It's the most innovative and impactful technology companies serving the real estate industry - and we made the list!
Hillary Black
Hear Matthew Black on the How We Solve Podcast
On this episode, "Product-Based Company," Matthew and GQ Fu talk about ow we transitioned Mav (FKA Black Ops) from a service-based consulting agency to a product company.
Hillary Black
What’s Missing from Your Marketing Automation Strategy? A Conversation.
Learn the secret to improving your lead-to-contact rate
Hillary Black
Marketing Automation is Dead. Do this instead...
You can do better than that 50% drop from online quote to completed application. Give your strategy an upgrade. In this video Matthew Black gives you two examples for Fintech that convert more customers from online quotes to applications.
Matthew Black
Hear Matthew Black on the Mortgage Marketing Expert Podcast with Phil Treadwell
On this episode, "Customer Experience," Matthew and Phil talk about how to create a relevant mortgage experience, the best way to balance price and value, and using technology to replace yourself and automate the process.
Hillary Black
Mav Makes The #DoleadScape500
We're excited to share that Mav was included on the first EVER map of lead generation industry
Hillary Black
Conversational AI: Build Vs Buy
Build vs Buy: The pros and cons of buying Conversational AI software or building your own custom solution.
Matthew Black
What is a Bot Persona & How Do You Create One For Your Business?
If you're considering creating a bot or using automated texting for your business, something you need to ask yourself first is: do you need a bot persona?
Hillary Black
Hear Hillary and Matthew Black Chat All Things SMS on the VUX World Podcast
Hillary and Matthew Black share how to design and implement automated conversational AI with SMS messaging, and why you should on VUX World Podcast.
Hillary Black
The REAL Reason Your Texts Aren't Converting (and How to Fix It)
SMS is a great channel to nurture leads, but are you leaving the real benefits on the table by using old school methods and one-way text notifications?
Hillary Black
Mav "Driving Intent" Skill 🚗 Now Live
Yesterday, we had a user text Mav that they were driving. Obviously, we don’t want people to text and drive. So we designed, trained and launched Mav’s “Driving Intent” skill. It's live in production today.
Matthew Black
Scaling Mortgage Acquisition? Automated Texting is Your New Secret Weapon to Convert
Are you a high performance mortgage marketer looking for new, innovative strategies to fill your funnel, but wish your lead to contact rate was better?
Hillary Black
How to Use Automated Texting to Bring Cold Leads Back to Life
Did you know 80% of sales require FIVE follow-ups after the initial contact, yet 44% of sales reps give up after only one attempt? Automated texting can put your follow ups on autopilot and help you convert more cold leads faster.
Hillary Black
6 Ways to Drive Traffic to SMS
Automated texting is one of the best new ways to grow your business. It's simple, SMS converts better. In fact, text messages have a 209% higher response rate than phone, email and Facebook. Here are 6 ways to drive traffic to SMS.
Hillary Black
What is Robotic Process Automation and How Can it Help Your Business?
Using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for manual sales tasks can give you more than just extra time. Learn how RPA and automated texting can convert more leads.
Hillary Black
Why Your Sales Team Should Hire a Robot
Why hire a robot? Here are all of the reasons to use automated two-way texting in your workflows, business automations & sales process & how to get started
Hillary Black
Should Your Business Use Automation? An Easy Way to Decide
A simple decision tree and mental model to help you identify opportunities for automation in your sales and marketing.
Matthew Black
Ready to grow your book?
Mav will make your phone ring.