Insurance Lead Generation Ideas To Increase Sales Effectiveness

You've probably never thought about it, but you probably live in the best era to sell anything. Insurance is no exception. 

With the number of lead generation tools, tested strategies, and mind-blowing technology available, you have never been this spoiled for choice.

Just look around, or better yet, find an agent from the sixties; they owe you a story.

Even more shocking than the infinite number of possibilities is the number of agents who are oblivious to the insane wealth of lead generation opportunities out there.

That's what this article was created to address. By the end of this piece, you will :

• Be grateful you get to sell insurance in 2022
• Have actionable lead generation tips at your fingertips
• Appreciate the technological advances in insurance
• Have a better perspective of selling insurance in 2022
• Be Itching to put a few of these tips in practice

Why Do You Need A Consistent Influx of Leads

The list of reasons why you need a never-ending supply of leads is endless itself. In insurance, the more leads and prospects,  the merrier. 

A consistent influx of leads results in:

• More Referrals

A higher number of leads lead to a higher number of referrals. Also, operating on a larger scale increases the credibility and outreach of your brand.

• More Conversions

Conversions are a game of numbers. If you get one conversion for every fifty leads, scaling up your number of leads results in a higher number of customers.

• Better Profitability

A higher number of leads eventually washes up as gains in your bottom line. More leads and conversions lead to a profitable enterprise.

• Cheaper To Serve

The economies of scale also apply to lead generation too. It may be hard to believe, but in some instances marketing to a thousand people may be often cheaper than marketing to twenty people.

How Insurance Lead Generation Builds A Reliable Pipeline

Now that you've seen the essence of having an endless supply of leads, what's left is answering the "How?"

Well, to do this you have to develop a reliable pipeline using a strategy called lead generation.

Insurance lead generation enables you to create a marketing funnel that pulls prospects in and leads them down a product discovery journey.

At each stage, they're met with marketing that speaks to their pain points until they eventually reach the end of the pipeline where they convert and become recurring customers.

An effective lead generation creates a never-ending pipeline that brings prospects and leads to your business and convinces them to become long-serving and loyal customers.

Lead Generation Ideas

Lead generation in insurance doesn't have to be as complex as it seems. The following tips and best practices are probably the last lead generation ideas you'll ever have to read!

1.Build An Insurance Lead Generation Pipeline

Effective lead generation in insurance often requires that one breaks away from the popular pray and spray marketing strategy to embrace a more targeted and sustainable strategy. 

To create an effective strategy for your lead generation, you have to develop a strategy that guides your buyer throughout their entire journey which includes:

• Awareness
• Consideration 
• Decision

A reliable lead generation pipeline:

• Has the entire customer journey mapped out in the beginning
• Treats each lead according to where they are in the sales pipeline
• Segments target audiences and treat no two customers the same
• Optimize your marketing for where your target audience is on the pipeline

2. SEO

You've probably heard enough about search engine optimization to write a book. If you haven't, it's quite the honor to introduce it. 

To understand SEO, you need to appreciate that if you're ever going to meet a large section of your customers, it's probably on the internet, which is just french for Google (or Bing).

SEO is an inbound marketing strategy where you tailor the content that you put out for more than your audiences. You also go further and tailor it to search engines.

This way, you're aiming for that first page of Google. Not only that, but with SEO, you're also aiming to:

• Cater your content to keywords your prospects are searching for
• Increasing the visibility of your website on search engines
• Increase your search engine rankings

Apart from benefiting from 71% of all search traffic clicks on the first page, SEO has lots of advantages including:

• Creating brand awareness for your business
• Cost savings due to its inbound nature
• Exposes your business to high-quality leads

3. PPC

Paid advertising existed in the sixties. However, what they had doesn't even come close to the number of leads you can develop with an effective pay-per-click strategy.

For one, they didn't have the internet or Facebook, which was arguably good for everything else but advertising.

Pay-per-click is a type of digital marketing where you pay for visibility on a website. You pay for keywords, which are words that your prospect is likely to search, e.g., "car insurance."

Once a client types these words, your advert comes up. However, there's a catch. You only pay whenever your insurance leads click on your advert.

Some of the popular pay per click platforms include:

• Google Adwords- the king of PPC
• Bidevertiser- Great for cheap keywords
• Revcontent- Content advertising
• Adroll- Great for retargeting

A few actionable tips and best practices that will come in handy in your PPC strategy include:

• Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

For the best results in marketing, try advertising on as many PPC platforms as possible. Each platform has something to offer. Don't be afraid of diversifying; there's life beyond Google AdWords.

• Customize Your Ads For Your Target Audience

The importance of target audience customization cannot be emphasized further. Try and ensure that your PPC ads are customized in terms of location, preferences, target audience, and search terms.

• Track Your Ad Campaigns

You're probably very busy, and it's easy for your ad campaign to  slip to the back of your mind.  Thankfully, there's a lot of software tools that will help you track the progress of your ad campaigns with notifications for any occurrences.

4. Google Adwords

Does getting your insurance page to that first page of Google through search engine optimization sound like a pain in the ass? Well, that's probably because it is.

Think about it. You still have to fight millions of stiff competition for keywords and battle with search engine algorithms only to get done and start again because Google changed its policies.

If you can't reach the first page of Google, why not buy it instead. This is where Google Adwords or Google ads come in.

In PPC, you get to pay Google to put your contact information, website link, and directions to your physical office on the first page of Google for specific keywords. Google Adwords is just the PPC option for Google.

If you choose to go down the PPC route for your insurance lead generation, these cost-saving tips will act as a road map:

• Leverage Long-tail keywords

In PPC, long-tail keywords are often overlooked for short-tail keywords. However, long-tail keywords are cheaper, more targeted, and as effective at lead generation.

• Heard About Pay Per Conversion?

Pay per conversion is a new Google feature that allows you to pay once your prospect or lead has converted. This allows you to save on cost and add precision to your targeting.

• Embrace Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are an often overlooked aspect of PPC. They go a long way in helping you save costs.

One of the best ways to explain it is to assume you're selling men's shoes. If you add "for women" as a negative keyword, you avoid paying for all prospects searching for women's shoes.

5. Facebook/Instagram

Facebook and social media are turning out to be digital marketing juggernauts, a trend that is set to continue as millennials take over.

Facebook and Instagram may be the best place to reach out to insurance leads as an agent, especially if you're eyeing a younger demographic.

There are several ways to bell the Facebook or Instagram advertising cat. This includes:

• Using an influencer to reach out to your leads
• Using the Facebook pay-per-click option
• Developing video and visual ads for Facebook

If you decide to go with visual and video advertising, some of the few actionable tips include:

• Optimize Your Post Timing

When marketing on Facebook, timing is everything. If you post at midnight, you're less likely to convert even in the mornings when your prospects would be awake.

• Keep An Eye on Your Analytics

An excellent best practice that is easiest to apply is to keep tabs on your analytics. Apart from aiding you to make informed decisions, strategies such as Split and A/B testing come in handy.

•  Use a Professional Profile Picture

Your profile picture says a lot about your business. If you're a solo agent, you can consider going with high-quality close-ups. All in all, you'll never go wrong with simplicity.

• Optimize For Mobile

You'd be surprised at the number of Facebook posts that leave out the mobile experience. Always have the mobile user in mind for any visual or graphic marketing you undertake.

6. Content Marketing

At the heart of effective insurance lead generation is content marketing. The reality is that a majority of the population who need insurance don't know anything about insurance.

In the sixties, options outside of the library were limited.

Nowadays, most turn to the internet for information. As we've established, this means a Google search.

 This is where content marketing comes in. In content marketing, you provide relevant and consistent content to attract and retain an audience- it's that simple.

Through your content marketing, you aim to:

• Establish your brand as a thought leader or referral point
• Inform your audience about the product you bring to the market
• Generate leads and conversions
• Reach out to new audiences

Content marketing is a comprehensive strategy that brings together blogs, whitepapers, e-books, newsletters, and even social media posts.

Whichever path or paths (highly advisable) you take, there are best practices in content marketing that remain constant. They include:

• Personalization Goes A Long Way

Using "Hey Jane" instead of "Hey" may be the difference between a struggling insurance agent and one who's literally drowning in leads and conversions.

71% of customers say that they only engage with personalized content, which is reason enough for you to embrace personalization as a strategy in your content marketing.

• Ensure That Your Content Has A Defined Goal

Before you set out for content marketing, ensure that you're familiar with your goal in the first place. 

Are you marketing for lead generation, customer retention, or better yet, just raising awareness about your product? 

• Customer Centricity is The Name Of The Game

In all types of marketing, there's always a temptation to make everything about your product, enterprise, or practice. Content marketing is no exception.

Where does this leave your target audience and customers?

Consider revolving your content around your customer. An excellent way to do this is to discover their pain points and frustrations and present your product as a way to alleviate these pain points.

7. Chatbots

If you're looking for lead generation and conversion, chatbots can be a great addition to an inactive website and a dead lead generation campaign.

As you're about to see, chatbots have utility beyond customer service and can be a great bridge between you and your insurance leads.

Chatbots can help:

• Replace Forms

The hate online users have for forms is up there right next to six-figure money-making ads. Chatbots give you the opportunity to bring your forms to life.

You can have your chatbot collect data in place of a form, which more members of your audiences will be open to.

• Segment Your Audiences

The information that your web users feed your chatbots can help you segment your target audiences. This makes personalization and targeted advertising less of a hassle.

• Build Relationships

Chatbots are great at providing a reliable first point of contact with your target audience. Your chatbots provide your prospective leads instant feedback that they can always rely on.

8. Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels for B2B and B2C sales. The statistics alone are out of this world.

• Email marketing generates $42 for each dollar spent, a 4200% ROI
• Emails sent by independent workers have the highest open rates
• 4 out of 5 marketers said they'll give up social media over email marketing

Given the scalability that email marketing comes with, together with the fact that you can run a campaign from your couch, makes email a very viable marketing opportunity.

A few best practices for an effective email campaign include:

• Get Personal

It's in email marketing where personalization comes to life. Did you know that emails with personalized subject lines are 22% more likely to be opened? Well, one more reason to embrace personalization.

• Timing is Everything

It's easy to underestimate the effect of the time you send your emails. You could consider sending most of your emails at six in the morning, where open rates are highest. Alternative post-work hours like 7-10 are also effective.

• Keep it Concise

Writing lengthy emails is one of the easiest ways to end up on a prospect's spam list. An excellent strategy to use is customer-centricity which will ensure you run out of things to write.