MARKETING: WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU AND YOUR COMPANIES!

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:45 am Post Subject:

Frank,
I agree with you in allot of ascpects. While I have developed entire regions just be cold-calling it is a lot of work, allot of agents prefer to short-cut the process and buy or generate leads with advertising. However I must agree with your second point about follow-up. Did you know about 60% of internet leads are never contacted? Most agents don't follow up multiple times, I'm talking about 3 to 4 times a day untill contact is made. Then just because a lead that is not interested now, maybe they just purchased a new policy, why not call them back in 3, 6, 9, months? Good chance they got a rate increase or would just be willing to see about saving some money.
One more tip, ASK FOR REFERRALS. I don't know how many agents don't do this, and I'm not talking on just the client that fell in love with you, I'm talking about the client you didn't sell, ask everyone! It's easy to turn one lead to five, five to twenty-five and so on by asking for referrals.

For more sales training and free agent tools please visit http://opportunity.rescuemyinsurance.com

system edited: link deactivated

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 02:53 am Post Subject:

Selling insurance is work! No where is it written that selling insurance is "easy".

Being financially successful is not about taking short-cuts. I have recently talked to three other agents about buying leads and the amount of money they claim they have budgeted for buying leads. One said his monthly budget was $1,000, another told me $3,000 and the third gave me a staggering figure of $820 per week. That is $42,640 per year. That is insane!

All three of these agents work in the senior market. The one who told me he spent $820 per week said after a few calls, if the person didn't buy he threw the "lead" away.

He implied he was buying direct mail leads. Direct mail "leads" are nothing more than a name, address, birth date and phone number. I have called thousands of them. I can't remember one person who said they remembered filling out the card. He might as well been calling names off of a list.

I buy lists. They cost me around $100 for 1,000 names. I can guarantee you that I will make more appointments and sales from those 1,000 names than any telemarketer or direct mail piece will bring in. And, I get to keep the money.

I haven't purchased leads for many, many years. The last list I purchased was almost two years ago. I have my Prospects database chock full of people I can call. Many of which I have already talked to and will call again several months after the first contact.

Regarding referrals. You make is sound so easy. If you have ever worked as an agent you will have to agree with me that only happens in a "perfect world". I don't live or work in that kind of world.

Referrals are not something that people give you, it is something you earn. You first have to earn the client's trust. This can only be accomplished by staying in contact with your clients and providing them with superior service.

All of my clients receive at least three personalized, written communications from me by snail-main, not e-mail each year. Among those are a birthday letter personally addressed to them. It has a unique cartoon at the top that I design myself using clip art.

I really don't ask for referrals. My clients call me and tell me about a friend or relative that they have told to contact me. At the bottom of each communication I send them I add a PS asking if they know anyone who I can help with their insurance needs to please give them my phone number.

A very large percentage of my current business is strictly those kind of referrals.

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 02:58 am Post Subject:

The above post shown as "Guest" is from me. Sorry about that. I will pay more attention to making sure I am logged in from now on. Other boards usually let you know when you go to post a message.

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 03:51 am Post Subject:

I am not an agent but I'm very involved with the insurance agency. I have helped promote many insurance agents since 2003. Leads have been the best results for most agents. Howver, some agents really hate to make calls or call on potential clients, even if the client is searching for insurance. Direct mail works the second best for most agents. However, this has to be studied hard as well. Send the ads to the wrong target base and you can suffer. Advertising in newspapers, bill boards and other offline means seem to get the lowest results. Yellow pages, industry specific, targeted websites seem to work pretty good. I think each agent should find out what is comfortable for them. This is the only way one can become a top producer. Regarding the leads above, don't buy cheap leads or massive amounts of leads. These leads seem to have the least amount of results.

P.S. I am in need of some P/C agents in AZ., TX., AR., KS. and MN interested in a lead program. Must be a licensed agent to help my customers.

Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 05:48 pm Post Subject: Marketing tool for all your leads

Agency IQ takes leads from any provider or your own web site and parses them instantly. (Of course you can manually inpt leads as well such as refferals).
It Sends autoresponders and drip emails untill you reach your lead, tracks the leads and much more.

They offer A free two week trial and they take no billing info up front.

Its worth a look.


[www.agencyiq.net]

See the demos ...[http://www.net-lead.net/longdemo1.html]

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 07:19 am Post Subject: Thanks for coming!

Hi lisar1208,

Your post has been shifted to the following page in order to try out a better user-response:
http://www.ampminsure.org/insuranceagents/ho-leads.html
Regards,
Lakemen

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 05:47 pm Post Subject:

You are right about newspaper ads, they get very expensive and only serve as a source of getting name recognition if you have a big budget, they don't generate many incoming calls at all.

I have had better advertising results by using some of the small free papers that have free 10-20 word ads and craigslist.

I did have fairly good luck with pole signs but you have to be very carefull when placing those, most towns and cities have ordinances restricting or outright banning of them and I agree that they can ugly a place up, but I was supprised by the results I got when placing them in rural areas at stop signs coming into larger highways.

I also had moderate sucess with take ones, but not in the way I thought I would. I did not get many customers from the brochures themselves but they were great conversation starters when I took them into a business asking to place them..

Lead calling and direct mail still seem the best.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 07:31 pm Post Subject:

With direct mailing what would you say your results are? I have been using that and have not been successful.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 11:07 pm Post Subject:

I have best results with direct mail in rural areas. They dont seem to be as bombarded with junk mail and advertisements as those in urban areas. You might have to drive a little bit further to get to them though...

This has been especially true in the seniors market.

Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 08:12 pm Post Subject: Marketing for maximum ROI - Acceptable cost for new customer

Hey guys,
You all seem like agents that are growing your businesses aggressively and trying multiple avenues to grow your client base.

I have a question or two about internet leads and what works best for you.

THIS IS NOT A SALES PITCH TO ANYONE HERE. I'm really trying to get to the bottom of a question I'm pursuing regarding the value of internet leads for insurance agents.

We have a very happy insurance client right now. She had been buying leads from insureme.com and prospectzone.com. She was converting approximately 30 leads for every 500 she purchased. So the average resulting cost per customer was around $200. Not so great when you consider that the average yearly premium revenue is between $200 and $300. (However, it's possible that 50% or more of clients renew each year.)

We created a branded landing page with her agency's info and started running PPC campaigns on the major three search engines. (Google, MSN, and Yahoo) So far she is thrilled with the results for a few reasons:

1. There is 100% relevancy for the lead. It started with her PPC display ad and was consistent all the way through to the follow up call. (vs originating the lead at some comparison engine or non-branded site and then getting the hand off to the agent.)

2. The "exclusive" leads really are 100% exclusive. Her sales team used to get a lot of "I've been called 10 times already today and only filled out one form. Take me off your list!!"

3. The leads we have generated for her are converting a lot better to customers. This is resulting in a much lower CPS (Cost Per Sale) and a sales staff that is happier to do their job. (Getting rejected 470 times out of 500 is kind of demoralizing.)

SO HERE'S THE QUESTION: One can have the above "fantastic" results for a marketing program but if the cost of acquiring a new customer is not reasonable in relation to the revenue from that client then there's no point in performing the marketing activities. So....what's a reasonable Cost Per Sale?

I.e. If your annual premium revenue is $200-$300 is $80 too much to acquire a new customer? (I'm not talking about click costs or lead prices. I'm talking about the actual, eventual cost of getting that customer on board)

I'd love to get some insight into this. We want to take our hard won insight into the insurance vertical and serve an aggressively growing firm from each state but I'm really curious as to what's a universally acceptable ratio for new customer acquisition costs in relation to revenue.

If there is someone here who actually spends money on advertising and is willing to call me with their feedback I'll give them some search engine marketing advice for free in exchange for their insight.
[Mark at 800-928-0326 x 1] Lead Equity.com - President