Which Leads to Chase, Leads With More Information or Less?

Leads that come complete with all the information you could possibly need can be considered easier. These leads come ready for you to get on the phone right away and get working. On the other hand, leads that have the bare minimum of information provided require you to obtain it.

Consider this, leads with less information are, in the long run, more expensive because they cost you time to track down information that you need to call them. Therefore, it makes sense to spend a few more marketing dollars initially, in order to buy virtually guaranteed leads that are ready.

Of course, it is your choice when picking which type of lead you want to pursue. Knowing the real cost of obtaining leads and conversions will help agents determine what is best for their work style and the future of their agency.

The True Value of an Insurance Lead

As and agent, your bottom line is one of the most important performance indicators to your business, but are you considering all the factors?

In the lead business, we often hear a lot about agents return on investment (ROI) or their cost per acquisition (CPA). Though our communications, we discovered something that most agents don’t realize when it comes to calculating ROI; the need to measure renewals. 

As part of ROI, initial commission is often not the only commission is you will receive from that lead. Granted, not every consumer will resign come the following year, but a considerable number will. The question is, how can you maximize the value of a lead on a more consistent basis?

Our recent survey has highlighted a potential answer to this question: Selling multiple products. 80.8% of agents sell multiple products as part of their business, and most of those agents are 8+ years in the business! By selling multiple products, you offer your clients the possibility to be a one stop shop for their insurance needs.

By doing this as part of your business, every lead’s value increases significantly as they go from initially needing health insurance to needing life insurance down the road, or needing medicare insurance but wants to add final expense a few years later.

Longevity and renewals are all in the name of the game when it comes to selling insurance, and the leads are not just worth their initial value, they hold value for years. Think about that next time you are calculating the value of a lead.

Is Google Ads’ ROI Worth the Cost per Acquisition?

In internet marketing there is a variety of sources that help contribute to a company’s goals in marketing efforts. One of the most popular internet marketing platforms that is well utilized is a little platform called Google Ads, ever heard of it?

Google Ads is a hot topic in internet marketing and has been for a decade now. However, there has been a recent discovery that is making marketers thing twice of the platform in their marketing strategy.

Marketers who have used Google Ads year over year, a trend of increasing average bid price per keyword has become a more prevalent issue every year. As seen here using data collected by Hochman Associates, the average Price per Click (PPC) across all verticals for keywords has increased by roughly 73% since 2010, and 463% since 2005.

In addition, the average Cost per Conversion has steadily increased in correlation with the increase in average PPC. While each advertiser may have a different definition of what constitutes a conversion, these statistics show on average how the advertisers conversion cost has increased year over year.

Like investments, marketing sources are best to be diversified in order to reduce reliance and the impact that a potential problem could have on a marketing program. However, being that Google Ads was, at one point, a cheap source that could provide incredible volume, marketers are now looking elsewhere to supplement their volume needs. This increases cost per acquisition across the board.

Summer Seasonality of Insurance Consumers

Seasonality affects every industry slightly different. Just like landscaping companies see more volume in warm months vs cold and tax consultants see more volume from December through April, the Insurance industry has a decline in interest from end of November through June.

As seen above, search queries in Google that refer to Health Insurance gradually decline through the end of May. However, in the year over year comparison we can see that searches begin to rise from June and continue to increase through the end of fall. The only inconsistency looks to be around the Labor Day weekend, but volume of searches increase steadily throughout the entire time period regardless.

As seen above in Medicare Insurance queries though Google, we see the same type of pattern as we saw with Health Insurance. Once May is over, search queries begin to rise as consumers start to think about their insurance needs for the following year.

This data shows that there is a significant difference in the volume of consumer leads available to agents from end of February through June, when the insurance industry as a whole sees a lull in activity. However, as an agent, you can profit off of this trend.

Think about it. Most agents take their vacations in the summer when the weather is nice. This leaves less competition for an increasing volume of consumers that you can capitalize on. Take your vacation in January-April, summer is the time to sell!

Email Marketing Campaigns Need to be Relevant

Email marketing campaigns are essential growing any insurance agency. When done right, email marketing can trigger new leads to express interest in getting insurance. Here are some tips on creating relevant email marketing campaigns.

The first thing to consider when creating an email marketing campaign, is the information put in it. The first goal of any insurance agent is to educate their potential and existing leads on insurance policies. Email marketing is about education and not as much about selling. This is because the recipients need to know about a product or policy before they buy it, hence educational marketing is very valuable in making sales. To educate is to build a rapport with those reading the emails, a crucial element in any email marketing campaign. In fact, rapport, or relationship marketing, is one of the key elements in gaining new leads and eventually selling insurance. Any agency that sends out blanket emails about a new product or new pricing faces greater numbers of opt-outs and complaints about spam from recipients and the recipients’ ISP.

Once you have composed a relevant and well-informed email marketing campaign, you need to think about crafting the subject line for the email. Most emails, are left unread therefore, it is important to pique interest in email marketing campaign recipients. A captivating email subject line should ensure that the open and click-through rates increase.

Lastly, email frequency is an important factor to consider. Frequent emails will be regarded as nuisance emails or spam. Instead construct marketing campaigns that provide useful and new information. Limit the number of campaigns to one a quarter. The focus of you campaign is to build a reputation as an informational and educational agency. That is the ticket to more sales and building a solid customer base.

What Is Better Cold Insurance Leads or Warm Insurance Leads?

In the world of insurance agencies, there seems to be a never-ending argument between two camps, the cold insurance leads and the warm insurance leads. Which type of lead is better? Maybe, it is time the examine this debate.

Warm leads are prospects who have demonstrated an interest in your agency. In other words, someone has referred your business to others, or your reputation has generated interest. Cold leads, on the other hand, are leads that the agent has to work to get. This is done by direct contact with the chosen prospective leads.

Now, some insurance agents prefer warm leads and others prefer cold leads because each type of lead has its own perceived benefit for the agents. What works for one may not work for another agent, however. The best advice here is that agents have to try out pursuing both types of leads and measure the results. In other words, one type of lead is not necessarily better than the other. Both, cold or warm leads, can be used for great success.

For instance, warm leads are usually referred to your agency by friends, family, previous and current satisfied customers, and anyone who has shown an interest in your product by way of interacting with your agency’s social media, website, newsletters, etc. However, without a good marketing strategy in place, you may find that not many people can or want to access your product online. Furthermore, friends and family tend to run out when you have upsold everyone in your close-knit circle.

Cold leads can prove to be problematic as well. For example, cold leads can prove unsuccessful because they had previously engaged with other agents and refuse to work with you. In some cases however, a cold lead that has not heard from an insurance agent for a long time and may now be interested in your pitch.

As outlined above, there are pluses and minuses to working with both cold and warm leads.

While the debate between which lead is better will likely continue, that is not what is most important here. As an agent, you are in charge of your business. Therefore, as long as you continue to be productive and bring in leads, it will not matter if they were warm or cold. You will not know until you try which technique of obtaining leads is best for you.

Each niche has its own rules and ways it needs to be worked. Find the best solution for you and start using leads to build a solid business base for your insurance agency.

Are You on the Lookout For Leads?

Are you always on the alert for leads during your day? Being alert to possible customers is one of the best ways to find new customers for your product. No one says you need to go out and stalk customers, but if you happen to be in a location and the subject of insurance comes up that is your chance to chime in and change the narrative.

Perhaps the man in line at the grocery store is saying that he feels he got ripped off with his new health insurance policy and does not understand what it covers and what it does not cover because the agent never explained it. This could be an opportunity to get involved in that conversation and offer up your card. It is important for all agents to carry with them updated business cards. While you may not get a sale right away, it is possible that the man will remember you and will tell others how you helped him. Word of mouth is a powerful form of marketing.

Be alert no matter where you are. There are chances around every corner to find leads. Remember to carry your business cards with you. All sales start with you.

Frantic to Get Large Numbers of Leads?

Leads are the uncontested lifeblood of your insurance agency – the best way to grow. So what are some of the best ways to attract new customers?

Most agents will often focus on attempting to obtain as many leads as possible. However, hasty connections are not likely to produce the results expected. Part of insurance marketing is forming lasting relationships with leads.

To find and keep the best leads, agents need to develop the right offers for the appropriate groups of leads. For example, developing the most well suited pricing and policy combination for seniors in need of Medicare/Medigap coverage.

Creating a strategy that is well suited to every group of leads, pays off by getting your agency new leads and creating lasting relationships. Developing a focused strategy, rather than running frantically trying to sell just about everything to anyone, will grow your agency as a trusted source of insurance.

Master the Phone, It Is Your Best Marketing Tool

Sometimes making a phone call to someone about buying insurance is difficult to do. Even with a script these phone calls can be awkward. What do you do? Invest in exclusive leads from a reputable lead generation company, such as benepath.net, and get only the best. Your leads can be sent when you want them, as many as you like, in the demographic parameters you prefer, daily, or weekly pre-screened and ready to talk about insurance.

Imagine that – a list of people ready and willing to talk to you about buying insurance. People who are actively looking to buy a policy of one sort of the other, who want answers and are likely to buy fairly soon (if not immediately) after you have spoken to them. Investing in pre-qualified leads that come only to you and are not shared with other agents is the perfect way to smart market your insurance agency.

In fact, if you previously hated making phone calls, investing in leads from a lead generation company is a wise move to grow your agency. It saves you time, frustration and the pay off in conversions is well worth it.

Want to leverage time working with leads?

If you want to be able to work with the best leads and have even more time to do so, use only the best quality leads you can buy. Best quality leads, are ones that are exclusive only you, pre-screened, pre-qualified and not shared with other agents.

Buying quality leads ultimately saves you time and money because such leads come to you ready to be worked. You are not spending time qualifying them or competing with other agents over who called a lead first.

Moreover, working leads is also about being organized, diligent, a good time manager and making sure that each lead gets your full attention. Purchasing and working pre-qualified leads, will often lead to conversions. After all the more leads you convert into customers of your insurance, the more your business grows.

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