Updated: 11/13/2022
Are you looking to generate insurance leads online? If the answer is yes then you are at the right place. In this article, we are going to discuss different components of online lead generation and what you can do to increase the success rate of your insurance agency/ brokerage.
“Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.” – Henry Ford
There are 3 steps to generating insurance leads online
1.Generate traffic
2.Convert traffic to prospects
3.Convert prospects to customers
Below we have discussed each of these steps in detail.
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Generate traffic to your insurance agency/brokerage
There are different ways to generate traffic to your insurance agency/brokerage business, below I have mentioned some of them. Try to focus on one or two of these strategies when you start Instead of trying all of these techniques at once.
When you compare a small and large agency, you will find that marketing is one of the key differences. If you are not able to market your agency, then people will not know that you exist or what kind of product or services you provide.
Policygenius is valued at more than a billion dollars; HealthIQ is valued at more than $450 million; both are online agencies. They spend heavily on marketing, a major differentiator when you compare to agencies that are finding it difficult to scale up.
1. Instagram Marketing for insurance leads
Have you tried using Instagram Marketing for your business? With more than 1 billion users engaging with Instagram every month this is one of the best platforms to find your customers. Out of these 1 billion users, around 71% of users are below the age of 35yr. Hence whether you are a startup or local business (like insurance agency, real estate agent) or a big company, you cannot ignore Instagram when it comes to marketing.
Remember, a lot of people are visual. As a result, they connect to things they see as opposed to those they read. Therefore, Instagram gives you an opportunity to entice people into wanting to learn more about what you provide in a different way from other social media sites.
Even if you use other online selling techniques, you definitely want to take advantage of Instagram marketing. As one of the highest-ranking social media platforms, this site is a highly effective vehicle for reaching both prospects and existing customers. If you have not yet begun to post photos and videos, you are missing an excellent opportunity.
Instagram is great for building the brand of your insurance agency. Also it is one of the most economical channels in today’s world when it comes to building a brand or generating leads for your business.
Today everyone is trying to glamorize having a huge number of Instagram followers, but having 10K, 100K, or even a million means nothing if people are not listening to your message or buying the products/services you are trying to sell. Aim to have an engaged target audience. For a small local business or startup, getting even 10–15 new customers in a month via Instagram is huge.
Reels:
Currently, Instagram reels are generating a lot of FREE organic reach and you should try to use this option whenever you are posting on Insta. This is a format similar to tiktok and Instagram is promoting these reels in order to attract TiKTok users. For example, in a regular Instagram post if I am getting 100 views then by posting Reels I am able to get 2000 views. Posting reels is a great hack to get in front of your audience for free and you should leverage this before this benefit is gone.
What is the fastest method to get insurance leads?
Running paid Instagram ads is probably one of the fastest methods to generate leads.
Which lead generation methods offer the best return on investment?
Currently, Instagram ads are providing the best return on investment. If you are looking to learn how to run campaigns effectively to generate leads then please feel free to reach out to us.
You can learn more about Instagram by reading the article mentioned below.
2.Facebook for Insurance leads
With over 2.7 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the biggest social network worldwide. It can do things many of us would never have dreamed of 10 years ago.
The best part is that almost everyone uses Facebook; some of the other social networks have a heavy concentration of certain demographics. Instagram, for example, is mainly for the young generation; Pinterest has an 80% female audience.
Marketing gurus like Gary Vaynerchuk suggest that if you are starting or want to grow a business today, then you can’t be alive in the game without a Facebook account.
Best way to use facebook for generating leads for your insurance agency is by leveraging their ad platform. Facebook’s ad platform allows your to target specific audiences by leveraging different parameters like demographics, interests etc.
For example you can target someone between “30 to 40yr” age and “earning more than $100K”.
Once you start running facebook ads you can test different marketing messages, audience and price per lead. If you are able to generate leads with positive ROI then facebook will be literally printing money for you.
If you want to learn more about facebook ads then please refer to article below.
https://www.friendlyagentbot.com/2017/12/19/crush-facebook-ads-for-insurance-agency-via-chatbot/
3.Twitter for Insurance leads
Twitter is a great platform to connect and start relationships with like-minded people. I have connected with a lot of successful agents over Twitter. Recently I published a book called “Friendly Agent – The secrets behind building a multi-million dollar agency” and without Twitter, this book would not exist. In this book I have provided below some of the techniques which you can use to improve your success rate on Twitter.
Twitter is a great mechanism to establish connections with influencers and your prospective customers. You might have seen big celebrities and politicians using twitter to broadcast their message and you can also replicate some of that.
Hashtags are very powerful on twitter and you can use them to find people who are interested or related to a particular topic. For example if you type #insurance on top of twitter ,you will find tweets from people who are either expert in insurance or people who are looking to buy insurance.
You should respond to tweets of people you want to establish relationships with and be consistent about it.
There are apps like Buffer which you can use to schedule posts in advance so that you don’t have to tweet regularly.
If you are looking to sell insurance to high net worth or commercial clients then this is a good platform to leverage.
4.SEO (search engine optimization)
“The best place to hide a dead body is on the second page of Google.” – Unknown
Search engine optimization, commonly abbreviated as SEO, is a digital marketing strategy designed to make a business more prominent in internet search engines. Most internet users browse only the first page of search results, so having your agency’s website appear there means it is much more likely that clients will find their way to you instead of your competitors.
This is one of my favorite strategies and we acquire most of our customers via SEO. If you google “best books for insurance sales” or “best chatbot for insurance agency” or any keyword related to insurance you will find us as the first result or on the first page of google.
Search engine optimization, commonly abbreviated as SEO, is a digital marketing strategy designed to make a business more prominent in internet search engines. Most internet users browse only the first page of search results, so having your insurance agency’s website appear there means it is much more likely that clients will find their way to you instead of your competitors.
If you want to learn more about SEO then please refer to the article mentioned below.
5.Podcast for Insurance leads
Many people like to consume content in audio format and that’s why Podcasts have gained huge popularity.
Most of the podcasts are specific to a niche or topic and hence they attract an audience specific to a niche/topic.
For example, Podcasts related to buying or selling real estate will attract an audience interested in that topic. From an insurance perspective, this may be a good audience for generating homeowners insurance leads.
There are multiple ways to leverage podcasts for generating insurance leads
- Start your own podcast : In this case you caan interview experts in an area/niche you want to focus and create an audience in a specific niche.
- Appear as guest on Podcast: This is an easier approach where you can be an expert in the insurance field and talk about relevant topics to that audience. For example if you are appearing on a real estate related podcast then you can talk about insurance related aspects of buying a real estate.
- Sponsoring ads on Podcasts : You can also sponsor ads on podcasts which attract the audience you want to reach.
Check out below mentioned article for best podcast for Insurance agents
https://www.friendlyagentbot.com/2020/02/12/best-insurance-podcast-for-agents/
Clubhouse to generate leads for Insurance Agents
Clubhouse is a social media app that has a unique and attractive value proposition. Think of Clubhouse like live-streaming meets podcasting. Clubhouse app users can join or create chat rooms focusing on a wide range of topics, and conversations are audio-only.
I have recently started using clubhouse and already I am able to have conversations with people I would have never connected with before.
If you need an invite to the clubhouse then please feel free to reach out. My clubhouse id is @avdheshsaxena
So how do you generate leads for insurance using clubhouse?
First, you create a room focused on a topic which your intended audience is interested in. And no one is interested in buying insurance so please don’t create a room for that. For example, if you want to sell insurance to high net worth individuals then you can create a room that focuses on ” How to protect wealth”. In that room, one topic which you can discuss is how insurance can be used as a tool to protect wealth.
This way you are positioned as an authority in this space and when they need insurance they will come to you.
6.Referrals for insurance leads
A referral is one of the best mechanisms to generate leads and for most of the agencies, this continues to be a major driver for business.
When someone books a call with me to discuss their marketing strategy, the first question I ask is “How are you getting your customers currently?”. Almost 99% of the time, the answer is via referrals. Yes, referral marketing is the #1 strategy that works for most agents.
Referral may come from existing customers, or from someone who deals with your customer but in a different industry. For example, many insurance agents get referrals from real estate agents or mortgage brokers. If your customer is purchasing a house from a real estate agent, one thing which they will need is home insurance. Hence, real estate agents or mortgage brokers can easily refer those customers to you.
We use referrals and recommendations on a daily basis to make decisions about products or services we purchase. It may be via a person we know like our family or friend referring their attorney or insurance agent or it may be via an online channel when we look at reviews of a particular restaurant or product on amazon.
It’s important that you ask your customers for referrals and track them to measure results.
Referral marketing has many advantages.
- There is a social proof involved as the person referring you have either used your product/service or knows you, leading to added credibility.
- Leads generated via referral marketing have a higher conversion rate.
- It’s free or very cheap. Many businesses have some kind of reward system for referrals.
- Customers coming via referral stay around longer and have high lifetime value.
Many successful companies such as Uber, Dropbox and others were grown by leveraging referral marketing strategies. Nielsen reports that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know.
If you want to learn more about referral marketing then please refer to the article below.
https://www.friendlyagentbot.com/2018/05/21/referral-marketing-for-insurance-via-chatbot/
7.Online ads for Insurance leads
Ads are a great way to reach your audience in a short amount of time. There are multiple ways to publish online ads for insurance leads and some of them are mentioned below.
- Social media ads : You can use social media platforms like facebook, twitter, instagram etc and run ads targeting your audience.
- Search based ads : You can use search based platforms like google, youtuber or pinterest and target specific keywords.
- Banner ads : You can also run banner ads on websites which have articles specific to the product you are selling. For example if a site is attracting huge traffic on an article related to “How to save on Home Insurance” , then it might be a good candidate for ads related to home insurance.
8.Business directory
Many people refer to Yelp and Google reviews to find business they are looking to engage. They also use reviews on these platform to judge how good or bad a business is.
Hence it’s important that your agency is listed on business directories like Yelp and Google reviews. Also you should ask your customers to provide review on these platforms.
9.Pinterest Marketing for Insurance leads
As of now Pinterest has more than 84million users and it can be leveraged to generate insurance leads. You can convert content which you are publishing on your blog or social media into pins which can be posted on Pinterest.
Pinterest works more like a search engine hence its important that your heading corresponds to most searchable text.
10.Webinar for insurance leads
Webinar is a good mechanism to share content which may need more time to explain. For example you can host webinar for people getting eligible for Medicare enrollment. That audience will be interested in learning how the open enrollment process works and what are some of the items they should focus on while enrolling for Medicare.
Once you share relevant information you can mention that you can help with Medicare open enrollment ( if you are licensed and deal with this product). Since you have established some rapport with your audience there is high chance that they will go with you instead of anyone else.
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Acquisition- Convert online traffic to prospects
Traffic is of no use if you don’t do anything with it.Now once you are able to attract traffic your next focus should be to convert this traffic to leads.
More than 95% of people visiting your website or social media will leave without interacting with you. You need some kind of lead magnet to get email or contact information from people visiting your website.
How to get traffic for insurance
The first step is finding the right hook which will prompt customers to share their email or join your messenger list. It should be something they are interested in.
For example, someone who is nearing retirement age may be interested in taking the quiz “Are you ready for your retirement?”. In this quiz you can have questions which determine gaps in their insurance coverage.
1. Email Opt-in
In email opt in you ask for their email address and provide them some thing of value for free. You can offer an ebook or result of quiz they took or some freebie like a gift card.
2. Messenger Opt-in
Messaging is very powerful and it has an open rate of more than 70%. You can either have a messenger on your website (like we have) or ask your prospects to send you SMS.
If you combine email marketing with messenger marketing then you can get amplified results. You can leverage Chatbot to send them a message and inform them about an article or email which you just shared.
Check out this article to learn more about messenger marketing
https://www.friendlyagentbot.com/2018/04/24/insurance-email-marketing-to-messenger-marketing/
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Convert prospects to customers
Once you have contact information of prospects you should start nurturing those leads to convert them to customers.
Most of the time prospects are not ready to purchase when they visit your website. But if you nurture your leads correctly then you establish a relationship with your prospects and once they are ready to buy they will come to you.
People buy from someone who they know, like and trust. The easiest way to build authority is by sharing content with your prospects which provide some kind of value. For example, if you have prospects who are appropriate for home insurance products then you should share content related to home, educate about insurance.
Signup for below mentioned webinar to learn “How to this Insurance Agency became a $450Million Company in 4yr?” Click Image below
Hopefully, these insurance marketing ideas and strategies were useful to you and helped in learning something new. Please share it with anyone who may benefit from it.
If your business needs help with digital marketing and/or with Chatbot then please connect with us via messenger 🙂 or set up a quick demo via the link below.
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