Gaining Leads for Your Insurance Agency: The Digital Way

Marketing

In our last post, we explored some of the more traditional means of lead generation within the insurance industry. Although these traditional methods are impactful, in order to diversify your efforts, your independent insurance agency should also employ newer, digital means to gain new clients. As with your marketing, it’s important to use a variety of strategies in order to cast a wider net to expand your agency’s client base.

There are numerous digital methods used to attract new clients, and we’ll take a look at three of the most effective and efficient.

Email Marketing

• Similar to direct mail, but a digital version
• Easy for clients and prospects to share with you and with others via a simple “reply” or “forward”

Tips

• Keep content focused and relevant so people keep reading
• Pay attention to subject lines, writing so your message to keep it out of spam folders
• Include a way to request quotes or gain more information

• Know when and how often to send

Organic/Paid Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Both paid and organic use keywords on your website to move up your search engine ranking
• This method catches prospects you may not be able to identify on your own

Tips

• Hire someone to identify your best keywords – it pays to invest in this expertise
• Use a combination of organic and paid
  • Use paid for highly competitive keywords like “auto insurance quote”
  • Use organic for more specific keywords like  “discount bundle insurance Cincinnati”
• Know the right balance of keywords as overuse can make you look like a spammer

Social Media/Blogging

• Social media and blog posts will give a point of entry to your lead generation funnel (social/blog post > website > requesting more info)
• Both can be easily shared, passing along your agency’s name

Tips

• Build a blog with relevant, educational content to attract interested persons
• Publicize blog posts on social media to get the word out
• Have your employees share blog and social posts to further increase your reach
• Train individuals in your agency: blogging and social media are easy to pick up and maintain with some guidance

With each of these digital strategies, the goal is to get potential clients to your well-designed website. Once there, you’ll be able to direct prospects to places to request more info or get in contact with an agent.

You should be tracking prospects through you agency management system. Our recently updated Partner XE has improved search and reporting tools, providing a leg up in prospect tracking. To find out about Partner XE’s other updates and capabilities, contact us!

Gaining Leads for Your Insurance Agency: The Basics

Marketing

Your independent insurance agency’s success lies in your client base and client service – gaining and keeping clients is what keeps you going. Although you may have a solid client base today, you know the fluid nature of the insurance business, and are always on the lookout for new clients. You need to constantly gain leads to keep your agency thriving.

In order to gain leads, you’ll need to take a look at your current clients. Once you have an idea of who you’ve already attracted, you’ll get insight in to what type of audience to target for new clients. Once you know that, you’ll need to think about howto attract more of these leads.

Once you know the who and what, it’s down to how to gain leads. In this post, we’ll look at some more traditional methods for lead generation. In our next post, we’ll cover some newer methods, which should be used alongside these traditional approaches.

DIRECT MAIL

“Snail mail” sent directly to a potential client’s home or business.

• Choose the right way – postcard, brochure, greeting card, flyer
• Make it stand out – bright colors, eye-catching designs
• Include something special – discount, limited time promotion, etc.
• Test it – ask trusted clients what they think
• Follow up – call, email or send a follow up letter reaching out

REFERRAL

Providing incentive for current clients to refer new clients.

• Offer a discount –offer rewards like a free month or a discount on adding a new car to a policy
• Create a contest – enter those who referred someone in a drawing to win gift card to a local business, like a car wash or home and garden store
• Send in the mail – enclose an easy to pass along flyer or postcard to expand your reach
• Thank clients for their referral – call or send an email, and publicize those who have referred on social media, your enewsletter and other forms of marketing

WORD OF MOUTH

Individuals (clients, car dealers, real estate agents, etc.) telling others about your agency.

• Give special access – help your clients and partners feel exclusive, letting them in on special announcements and frequently asking for their feedback, so they’ll want to share with others
• Make sharing easy – allow individuals to share their experiences and have them seen by posting them on your website, social media, in your enewsletter, etc.
• Ask for ideas – when your clients share what they want, make it happen – they will be eager to share about something they feel a part in creating
• Identify influencers – specifically target clients who refer often, provide lots of feedback, and have a large social media reach as their word will make a larger impact

Once you’ve got leads coming in, your next step is to create a system to track them. We suggest using your agency management system, as you plan to add these individuals to your client base. Partner XE users find it a great tool for lead management with capabilities like Outlook integration and mobile access, agents can keep track of an individual as they move from prospect to life-ling client.

To find out more about what Partner XE can offer, contact us today at 800.747.9273 or [email protected].

Know How You’re Doing: Make Your Independent Agency Website Measureable

Marketing

After covering ways to make your site attractive, searchable and actionable, it’s time to think about whether or not the tactics you’re using are working. Your site, like your agency, is unique, and what works for others may not work for you and your client base. To find out what does work, you’ll need to set up and monitor specific site analytics.

Analytics are a way to measure different aspects of your site, such as how users found your site, how long they stay on each page, and how many unique visitors you get each month. Monitoring analytics help you judge your site’s effectiveness. When gathering analytics you should look at stats that answer the following questions:

HOW is your site found?

These stats help you determine the different ways current and potential clients find your site.

• Direct visits: Users who typed your website into their address bar or have it saved as a bookmark
• Organic visits: Users who came to your site through unpaid search results
• Referral visits: Users sent to your site by other sites (i.e. insurance raters, blogs, etc.)
• Top non-branded keywords: Keywords that send people to your site. These do not include your agency’s name, but are something like “auto insurance Ohio”.

WHERE do users go?

These categories let you know which pages are attracting users and what they’re doing on these pages.

• Top landing pages:  These are the pages through which users enter your site.  Direct visits are usually to the home page, but search and referral visits could send users to other pages like “Request a Quote” or “About Us”.
• Top visited pages: Shows which pages are visited most often, and for the longest length of time.
• Bounce rate: This is when a user visits your site and leaves without interacting with a page.
• Percent exit: Similar to bounce rate, this shows the percent of users who leave your site from a specific page.

WHERE, WHEN and HOW OFTEN do users contact you?

These stats are usually found through:

• Number contact forms completed
• Most effective call to action
• Percent total site visitors completing a form
• Most effective day and time for completed forms

Other great stats to look at include pages indexed in Google and link popularity. Pages indexed shows you which pages on your site are known by Google, making it easier for Google to direct users to those pages. Link popularity provides info on the number of links to your site from other websites, and the quality of the sites that link to you. These stats are helpful in your searchability, which, as it improves, helps you bring in more potential clients.

Google Analytics is a great free tool for tracking your site’s stats, or you can ask your site’s administrator if they provide analytics. Regardless of which you use, have a professional look over your stats to analyze them and provide advice on how you can improve your site’s look, usability and reach.

Other great contacts to help improve your site are those in your agency management systems user group. We at SIS know the importance of connecting with other agency owners, and our NASPA user group is always buzzing with new ideas. To find out more about NASPA, and the latest updates to Partner XE, contact us today!

Content for Your Clients: Make Your Website Actionable

Marketing

In this third post on improving your independent insurance agency’s website, we focus on your site’s content. There is some content that is obvious to include, like your agency’s contact information and a description of your services, but just having the bare minimum won’t make your agency attractive and memorable to potential clients.

According to a recent study, 78% of consumers see custom content as a sign that an organization wants to build a good relationship with them. By giving your clients the content they want, you will also attract other agencies and industry leaders, thus increasing your site’s reach.
The first step is to know who you’re reaching. Ask questions like:

• Where do my clients and potential clients live? How old are they?
• Do they spend more time on their phone or their computer?
• What challenges do they face?
• What information can my agency share to help them?

Once you’ve honed in on who your audience is, start thinking about what they need. Here are a few popular content items that you should consider adding to your website:

• FAQ section
• Online quoting
• Online claim filing
• Links to online raters
• Online change requests
• Printable certificates of insurance

With all of these content items, be sure to include a strong call to action. This is typically placed at the end of a page and in the last step of any online process, telling the user what to do next. To help generate leads, you can include a “contact an agent” or “share this quote” – anything you can do to try and capture user information.

In addition to the resources mentioned above, it is a good idea to reach out to your target audience in a purely educational format, providing valuable content by way of a blog. You can easily generate blog content by:

• Jotting down notes as clients ask questions or have concerns and address those questions: you will soon find you have a steady stream of inspiration
• Making your blog personable: Highlight staff members, clients and local events
• Sharing industry tips and tricks that can be picked up and shared by other sites: this increases your reach, and your links, boosting your online reputation

We at SIS love sharing relevant info and tools through our blog. One tool we are proud to share is the new 2014 Partner XE, which includes dozens of upgrades to help your agency. To get the full story on what Partner XE can do for your agency, contact us today!