Insurance Marketing for the New Agent:
When you get into the insurance business it may be difficult to recognize in the beginning that you’re actually not in the insurance business but rather a marketing business. Being an insurance intermediary means that the products and sales systems are already in place so all you need to do is market yourself to get clients. In my professional opinion, this is probably the most important aspect of having a successful insurance business.
Now, that we got that covered let’s look at some different ways you can generate clients through marketing.
- Buying Leads– This is probably the most common type of marketing that agents get introduced to and it can work if you find a solid lead vendor. Essentially you’re buying contacts that showed interest on the lead companies site and the lead can be shared or exclusive. This is not a bad way to start if you need to get sharp with your sales and have some extra money but there are better ways which are to create your own leads.
- Direct Mail– A very old-fashioned type of marketing which still happens to work if you can create a postcard that stands out and has a strong message. If you do this consistently you’ll be able to generate some quality leads that are exclusive to you.
- Cold Calling– One of my favorite approaches for new agents since it is free and all you have to do is put in some elbow grease. If you dedicate at least 3 to 4 hours of calling per day you’ll be able to secure at least one client per day once your pipeline builds. Many veterans started this way and added other marketing to their repertoire.
- SEO– This is what I did to build a successful life insurance agency. With digital marketing, you create a website with a blog so you can educate consumers and build traction on google rankings. Once the website starts ranking you have a lead generating machine that brings you leads without needing to pay for them.
- Book of Business– As you grow your client base you may not realize that you’re sitting on a gold mine which is your existing clients. You’ll be surprised how many leads you can generate from referrals and repeat buys from your clients. To do this successfully start a nurturing campaign that reminds your clients of your services and other products you may offer.
Whatever your circumstances when starting out simply pick out one of these marketing avenues and pursue until you build up enough capital to expand your marketing efforts. Once you get this done you won’t know what to do with all the leads that are coming your way. This is an overview of different ways to market yourself so feel free to read on each type of marketing more and don’t forget to implement a system of managing your leads. That way you’ll know what is converting and at what percentage so you can adjust your effort to the highest ROI.
