In the insurance industry, lead generation software is a valuable tool for generating mostly home and auto leads. Selling products or services without having enough leads can be hard. Having adequate number of fresh, targeted leads will get your insurance agency noticed.
Lead generation software for insurance agents can be challenging to implement correctly and obtain the best results.Lead generators for insurance agents have many different features, options and benefits that are useful in various ways.
I talk about my recommendations for lead generation software for insurance agents and channel partners. I have been using these tools for 5+ years and have been successful with them. Some of the key success elements that I emphasized are customer service, training, and consistency in contacting prospects. I hope this helps!
Are you an insurance agent looking for lead generation software? Insurance agents are faced with a lot of competition. So it’s important that you be aggressive when building your business. One way to make sure that you’re generating leads from every possible channel is with the help of lead generation software. There are many different types of lead generation software, but it has to do with the kind of agency that you run, whether you are a small local business or a large corporation. It’s always good to have several sources of leads at your fingertips, especially when the phone stops ringing and it seems like all your leads have dried up. Lead generation software can help automate your agency, allowing more time for you to get out there and sell.
What is insurance lead generation?
Insurance lead generation is the act of insurance professionals deploying a variety of strategies and tactics in order to attract potential clients who are interested in their offerings.
Lead generation is critical in the insurance industry, as it ensures a healthy pipeline of potential customers and is key to have a thriving insurance business.
How to get insurance leads
Create a website chock full of value
As explained in The Ultimate Guide to Lead Generation, your website lies at the heart of your lead-generation strategy. Your goal is to convert visitors to leads. Create a clean site that is informative and easy to navigate featuring calls to action that make it easy for potential clients to quickly find what they need.
Atop this Ovation Insurance page are calls to action and contact mechanisms, including a special offer, mobile number to text or call, contact page and a trio of buttons that are impossible to miss.
Publish content
Buyers rely on the web to find insurance plans and products and they enter their questions into search engines. They’ll find you — and the advice you have to offer — only if you publish a steady stream of helpful content.
Optimize for search
Your site should feature a blog or articles that establish you as an industry expert. Learn how to apply the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) to your articles with keyword research and on-page optimization. This will increase your chances of ranking in search results and drive visitors to your website.
Offer lead magnets
Create content that requires interested prospects to complete a contact form so you can follow-up on the lead and build an email list. Agency Nation recommends offering lead magnets such as:
- Checklists
- Webinars
- Reports
- White papers
- Detailed guides
- Case studies
Make videos
You don’t need to invest in cameras and studio equipment to make informative videos that attract buyers and win their trust. Your smart phone does the trick.
Tackle an important topic or answer a common question and post your videos on your website and social media pages. Or better yet, use Taboola to distribute your video through native video advertising. Show off your personality. The goal is to get people to connect with you on an emotional level.
Richard Brown at Centennial Insurance swears by live video, which he shares via Facebook.
“One of the many benefits of doing Facebook Live videos, is that once I press the live button, I’m being my true, authentic self,” says Brown. “I’ve had the most success with my ‘Local Business Profile,’ where I go out and interview local business owners. It helps me learn more about the businesses in town and more about the people running them. On top of that, they’re sharing these videos on their personal pages as well as their business page, and of course, I’m sharing it as well. So it’s win-win for everyone involved.”
Offer interactive tools and content
There are many ways to employ this strategy. Insurance agents can provide quick and easy tools : think quizzes, calculators, and quote generators.
This life insurance calculator offered at SimplyInsurance.com not only helps prospects help themselves, it also delivers useful information about your insurance sales leads.
Local directories
Claim listings for your agency on local directories such as Yelp, Facebook Places, Yahoo!, Bing Places, LinkedIn, and Whitepages.
Most importantly, leverage the power of local SEO by claiming and optimizing a listing with Google My Business, a free directory of local businesses. It’s any easy process that enables your business to appear in local searches.
A search for “health insurance agents near me” produced the Google listing above, for example. Google My Business listings placed these agencies here .
Contribute to forums
Join insurance-related forums where people ask questions and become a knowledge resource. Position yourself as an industry professional delivering helpful answers.
Get customer reviews
Insurance is a perfect example of a service-based business that benefits from genuine customer reviews. The words of happy customers validate your business. Ask for reviews on your site and via a Yelp account. Display the ones you collect prominently.
Offer a chatbot
Make your website a 24/7 resource with chat functionality. Leadsurance recommends:
- Researching live chat or chatbot solutions to fit your needs.
- Configuring ‘triggers’ and ‘greetings’ to engage first-time visitors.
- Allocating staff to chat with interested site visitors.
- Helping your visitors with quotes and information they’ll value.
- Capturing names, emails, and/or phone numbers so an agent can follow-up.
Get active on social media
Make social media a part of your marketing efforts to increase your agency’s reach, build relationships, and possibly even generate new business. Here are some ways to achieve this:
- Target smart — Learn which social networks are most frequented by your clients and focus on them.
- Offer useful content — Make the content you share relevant to the customers you serve. Stay up-to-date on the issues affecting the industries you serve and create or curate content that addresses these topics.
- Be consistent — Your social efforts go further faster when you have a steady presence. A good guideline is to post daily on Facebook or Twitter and multiple times a week on LinkedIn.
- Think visual — Use rich media, including images and video, with your content to increase interest and interaction.
- Start conversations — Interact with followers and try to create dialogue. Respond to every comment or inquiry posted on your page.
- Stay on brand — Establish an image and voice for your company and continue to develop it according to your brand.
Lead generation tips for new insurance agents
1. Ask for referrals
When it comes to the quality of a lead, a referral from a satisfied client can’t be beat. Unfortunately, referrals are hard to come by when you’re new and your client list is small.
But there’s no rule that referrals must come from a customer. You can get introductions to potential clients from people who already trust you, such as your friends, family, or former colleagues.
And even if you get the dreaded call from a client asking to cancel their policy, make sure you remind them that you’re there for them anytime they need you. Consider creating a system to conduct exit surveys when clients leave to look for areas for improvement.
2. Be active in your community
Volunteering is a good way to establish a reputation as a caring and committed member of your community. But you can also show off your insurance industry chops by doing things like:
- Advising local charities on their insurance purchases.
- Hosting insurance seminars for small business owners.
- Taking part in area meetups or online forums.
- Offering to be a guest speaker for business groups.
- Assisting clients’ friends or relatives when appropriate.
It may be tempting to do so, but don’t treat these situations the way you would a sales presentation. While ultimately you’d like these interactions to generate insurance leads, your first goal should be contributing to your community. The sincerity you demonstrate will keep your name top-of-mind and draw prospects to your agency when they need your services.
3. Go old school
Spam folders, privacy laws and the Do Not Call Registry have unfortunately made connecting with insurance leads more difficult than in the past. But some tried-and-true prospecting tactics still work, such as:
- Fishbowl drawings
- Ask a restaurant if you can collect business cards and offer their gift certificates to weekly winners.
- Print advertisements
- Advertise in industry trade magazines with postage-paid pull cards.
- Read the local paper
- Scan the marriage and engagement announcements for personal lines sales opportunities.
4. Go new school
Your website is a good tool to help you generate leads. Enable features that request contact information, such as a “Get a Quote” button or newsletter signup. But bear in mind that these elements won’t do all the work for you. You might also want to do things like:
- Put contact forms on every page.
- Include testimonials to enhance your credibility.
- Highlight your contact information.
Don’t bypass the possibility of garnering referrals from social media, either. This often-untapped resource for finding clients can (and should) be harnessed by new insurance agents looking to grow their client lists.
What Is Lead Generation Software?
Lead generation software is tool that automates lead generation. Such tools can be used to generate leads from multiple sources like landing pages, social media, etc. These leads can further be used for lead nurturing and converting them into customers.
Depending on the channels to generate leads, each software works differently and has its own unique set of features, as discussed in the following section.
What Should You Look for in a Lead Generation Tool?
Though all tools work differently, they share some common aspects that you must look for while selecting the best lead generator tool for your business.
- Learning Curve
Choose a lead generation tool that is easy to master for your marketing and sales team. It should also have an extensive support service and plenty of help material to facilitate your team’s smooth onboarding.
- Targeting and Tracking Options
Ensure that the lead generation platform you choose offers audience targeting options so you can collect leads from the right visitors without annoying others. Just collecting the leads is not sufficient. You should be able to accumulate and track their interactions with your business in one place.
For example, CRO tools such as Qualaroo can help you target desired website visitors using surveys and lead forms to gather contact information. Similarly, lead management tools such as Salesforce will help you track and qualify the new leads.
- Pricing Tiers
Different lead generation tools offer various pricing options. They might provide a free account and paid plan. Often, there are tiers within the paid plans as well, so you can choose the correct option depending on your budget. Some lead generation platforms also provide a free trial, so you can test the tool before purchasing it.
- Provide in-depth Sorting and Data analytics
Data analysis is an integral part of converting leads into customers. Not all visitors are your potential customers. So the tool should be able to help you sort out the potential prospects from the miscellaneous data. It should provide a lead categorization option so you can prioritize different lead types.
- Seamless Integrations
Ensure that the lead generation software tool you choose for your business should seamlessly integrate with your other tools, such as CRM, email marketing tools, etc. Interactions reduce manual work and promote data consistency across all the tools.
To make it easier for you, we have listed some of the best lead generation tools available out there, along with their salient features, to give a detailed overview of each of them.
Conclusion
Generating leads is an essential part of being in the insurance business. While some insurance companies feel comfortable using brokers exclusively to sell policies, other insurers choose to carry out their sales process themselves with the help of insurance lead generation software tools.
As an insurance agent, it is important to know that lead generation software tools are available to you. These applications will help any insurance agent become more successful by easily creating and sharing leads with others. Any conversation about lead generation software should start out with the above statement and then move on to the following information.