Insurance lead generation for most companies is a straightforward process. You start by buying leads or generating them yourself through advertising online and off. Then you start selling.
Simple!
For the consumer however, buying insurance is confusing, time consuming, and tedious. They are afraid to ask someone like you for more information because they believe it will lead to a sales pitch. That means that you don’t get as many leads as you would like. This is unfortunate, because you’re probably the one person most qualified to answer their questions and help them make an intelligent decision.
In short, if you want to place more customers, you need a way of generating insurance leads that sets you apart from the other insurance companies who are targeting those very same prospects. So how do you do that? How do you make yourself stand out?
Starting with the customer in mind, the best method of insurance lead generation is to make it easy for prospects to contact you and find the information they’re looking for – without fear of the dreaded hard sell.
It might sound crazy but if you want to generate more insurance leads the smart thing is to…
… give your prospect the information they want, with no strings attached.
Providing content that answers your prospects queries will attract more prospects – the ones who are put off by the hoops that other agents make them jump through. Secondly it will make you a trusted resource that they will return to. Of course, you’ll also want to gather prospects’ contact details where possible. This is your permission to continue to market to them over time. To encourage prospects to give you this permission you’ll often need an incentive.
In your insurance lead generation process, the first step could be to create a special report that covers the key points your prospect should be aware about before buying your kind of insurance (life, auto, income disability, home, etc). The report should cover basic dos and don’ts and give him advice about what to expect when purchasing your insurance product. Then, at the end, you should include a simple way for them to get in touch.
Many times he will call you to finish what he set out to do – buy insurance. If not, you can still go back to route one and call them. Even if this does not lead to an immediate sale, you’ve started a relationship and are now one step ahead of your competitors.
Many prospects still don’t buy immediately, even if they need what you’re selling. Things happen. They get busy. Other life events take attention away from buying insurance. So what else should you do as part of your insurance lead generation process?
Simple. Follow up with them. By joining your mailing list the prospect has given you permission to keep in touch. You want to stay top-of-mind and ask for the sale as many times as needed until they become a client or ask you to stop contacting them. Depending on what contact information you have, you can stay in touch by phone, email, mail, or a combination of all three.
Ideally, you will automate this communication to save you time and allow you to focus on fresh leads as they come through. You’ll find by being consistent and communicating with lukewarm prospects over time, those that don’t buy now often buy in the future (or do other good things like refer business to you).
Now that you have a mailing list of prospects interested in insurance, you can cross-sell them other lines of insurance. For instance, if the first reason they contacted you was about information on Life Insurance, you can now offer information on purchasing Income Disability Insurance. Also, if you only focus on one line of insurance (for example, Business Owner Policies), you can partner up with another agent that specializes in a different line of insurance and split commissions.
Many agents use the leads they buy poorly. They buy them and wait days to call the lead back. When asked why, many say that they were busy or at appointments when the leads were emailed to them. Don’t let these leads go stale.
Have an assistant or sub-agent call them back immediately. If too much time passes the prospect’s enthusiasm dies and their level of interest disappears, making a sale harder or impossible. Chances are they’ll also be contacted by other agents. If you don’t get a sale right away, remember to encourage them to join your mailing list (again using free info as an incentive). This can provide a long list of prospects to contact in future with new offers or simply keep in front of until they’re ready to buy.
Related Articles
Health And Life Insurance Lead Generation
How to Buy Leads & Lead Generation & Lead Management & List Building Strategies & Target Marketing
Health insurance lead generation or life insurance lead generation can be difficult. It’s a very competitive market and it’s difficult to distinguish your insurance products from those of your competitors. In some cases you’ll even be selling the exact same insurance products as your competitors. So how do you set yourself apart from the others and generate more insurance leads?
Actually, the answer is in the question. You need to set yourself apart TO generate leads. Let me explain. When someone is looking for health insurance or life insurance there will be no shortage of businesses and agents lining up to take their business. From the customer’s point of view it can be very confusing. They want to make sure that they get the best possible coverage at the best possible price.
You’re in a good position to advise them but they have no reason to listen to you over anyone else – to them it’s all just a sales pitch. They don’t know who you are. They don’t know what you know. You need to create trust.
Trust is important in any business but in an industry where the customer is confused by contradictory claims and jargon, it’s essential. Trust is based on a relationship – either with you personally or your brand – but you don’t have the time to go out and build relationships with every single prospect individually. You’re still going to buy leads in. You’re still going to do all the things that you usually do. But, to generate more trust — trust that leads to leads — you should consider the following three ideas:
People are confused. Ideally they want a simple, unbiased answer to their questions: what is the best coverage for me and what is the best price I can get that coverage for. To generate trust and build leads for your insurance business, you should look for ways to answer those questions, minus the sales pitch.
You could start with a few introductory articles on your website, covering general insurance topics. People searching for this information online are good prospects. Providing that information means that they will find you before they find your competitors – and trust you more because you’ve helped educate them.
People like doing business with other people – especially people they know. Again, it’s down to trust. There are plenty of opportunities to bring your own personality into how you market your business. You could start in your local market by being an active networker.
Online you should make sure that your website – and all marketing communications – display elements of your personality and include things like personal biographies, contact details and even photos. Finally, you can use any number of social networking tools to help build your personal profile online.
Referrals are great business because they come with an endorsement attached. Accountants, solicitors, financial planners or any other professional could well be able to refer business to you. When they do, your job is simply to uphold the trust they’ve put in you and do a good job for the client. Customers are also an excellent source of referrals in the same way.
However you choose to generate leads for your insurance business (health insurance, life insurance or any other kind of insurance), finding ways to build trust is an excellent way to set yourself apart from your competitors and encourage people come to you.
Return from health insurance lead generation to Insurance lead generation
Back to lead generation home from health insurance lead generation page
How to Buy Leads & Lead Generation & List Building Strategies & Small Businesses & Target Marketing
