December 16, 2015
Many new and long time insurance agents often ask themselves, as they are looking to increase their business, are insurance leads worth it? Or, are insurance leads worth the money you pay? While this may seem like a basic question, the real question should be, compared to other marketing programs, will insurance leads provide our agency with a higher return on investment or ROI? Will the program not only pay for itself, but will we make money and will the return be higher compared to other marketing programs we could spend the money on?
The key point being relative to other marketing programs. Fundamentally, internet insurance leads work and they work for thousands of insurance agents every year. Millions of internet insurance leads and insurance calls are generated every year and sold to insurance agents. These insurance agents work with the insurance leads to provide prospects with competitive insurance quotes and write insurance policies. Auto insurance leads or calls are the biggest category of insurance leads.
The most important element of insurance leads, especially insurance live transfers or calls, is the fact that they are performance based, meaning you only pay for what you get. Internet insurance or inbound insurance leads are the only insurance marketing programs that promises that everyone you speak with has expressed interested in receiving a quote and you only pay for the leads you want and receive. Further, you know, upfront, how many people you will have an opportunity to quote. There is no other marketing program on the market today that is performance based and you only pay for what you get.
Another important difference between purchasing leads and other marketing programs is your ability to specifically target who you want to speak with and your ability filter out customer service requests. The ability to purchase auto insurance leads from people with prior insurance, who are not current customers with the carrier you represent, and without major violations or a DUI is an element that will help to significantly improve the ROI of leads compared with other programs. Further, because the lead company filters out customer service requests, you are not paying for calls or customer contact from people who are already customers.
Based upon these two very important differences alone, relative to other programs, insurance agents can expect to have a much higher ROI from insurance leads than other marketing programs. So the short answer to the question, are insurance leads worth it?, the answer is yes, compared to other marketing programs.
Special Note:
It is really important to point out that regardless of the insurance marketing program you use, as an insurance and sales professional, the necessity of being good at closing sales and following-up with people you quote. A marketing program, whether it is leads, or anything else, is only as good as the insurance agent. You need to develop rapport with the lead or prospect, build trust, listen, offer a competitive product and ask for the sale. If you don’t get the sale, you need to follow-up, follow-up and follow-up. Lastly whether you get the sale or not, you need to ask for referrals. Your ability to make sales can be equal or of greater importance than the type of marketing program you employ.
December 15, 2015
An insurance lead is someone who has expressed interest, in some manner, in receiving more information about insurance, with the stated intent of purchasing for the first time or switching from another carrier. The key elements are expressed interest and desire or intent to purchase. Consumers can express their interest in a number of ways. Once interest is expressed, the consumer is passed along to a licensed insurance agent to be assisted.
Insurance leads are generated in a number of ways. The most common way is online from a computer or laptop. A consumer conducts an online search using a search engine, they click on either an organic listings or sponsored ad and are directed to a landing page or website. The consumer then completes a request for a quote. An example of one such site is http://unitedstatesinsurance.com . Once this request is received, it can be send to an agent as is, or it can become an insurance live transfer. An agent that receives the lead as is must move quickly to reach out to the consumer, as they are usually expecting an immediate response.
An insurance lead becomes a live transfer when an insurance lead company calls an insurance lead, verifies intent and transfers the call to a local insurance agent. The call is transferred live, so the insurance agent does not need to call the insurance lead back to get them on the phone.
A second way that insurance leads are generated is through mobile devices. Ads are placed in mobile apps, mobile websites and mobile search. Consumers looking for an insurance quote, click on an ad. Using click to call technology, the ad/mobile device offers to automatically dial up the lead company. The call is answered by an automated system to verify intent and the call is then transferred to a licensed agent. These calls are sometimes called inbound insurance leads or more simply insurance calls.
Insurance agents looking to purchase insurance leads can find them for auto, commercial, life, health, renter, condo and home insurance. Leads can be filtered to meet certain criteria such as geography, type of insurance, current provider and depending on the type of lead, other criteria based on the consumer's insurance history.
Insurance leads and calls are sold on a pay-per basis and are the only 100% performance based marketing program on the market. Insurance lead companies provide insurance agents with consumer initiated, high intent prospects that are verified and guaranteed to have expressed desire or intent. Most lead companies allow agents to set their hours of operation, number of leads they want per day and the number of concurrent calls they can accept.
Insurance agent wondering, “what are insurance leads?”, should know that some people think they are the best thing to happen to insurance in the last 20 years. Insurance leads save agents time from cold calling, going door-to-door or even wasting time and efforts on programs that do not guarantee results.
Agent Ethan Kosmin Generated over $200,000 in premiums during first year in business thanks to Contact Concierge.
A look at some surprising facts and shocking statistics from the insurance lead industry.
