Insurance Leads - Is Internet Insurance Lead Marketing Right for Your Agency?
AgentInsider® serves insurance agencies of all shapes and sizes. We work with over 8,500 agencies and are known for being the most flexible insurance lead service in the industry. Some of our customers buy hundreds of insurance leads a day, while others buy only a handful each month. Rural, suburban, big city - we have them all. Captive, independent, big name carrier to small - they're here.
But that doesn't mean that Internet insurance lead marketing is right for every agency. Here are some questions that every agency should ask themselves before signing-up for any insurance lead service:
Who'll be Responsible for the Insurance Leads?
The first step to making an insurance lead program successful is assigning one person in your office who will be responsible for managing the program and ensuring that the insurance leads are worked in a manner that will maximize your success.
It doesn't matter who that person is (it could be you, a producer in your office, the office manager, etc.), but unless you have the capacity to assign someone to manage your Internet insurance leads program, you risk letting leads fall through the cracks.
How to Make an Insurance Lead Program a Success
The faster you contact an insurance lead, the better off you are. So unless you can put a process in place that ensures that each insurance lead receives the attention it deserves, Internet insurance lead marketing may not be a good fit for your agency right now.
Agencies that get the most success out of our insurance leads program put together a process whereby each lead is handled as though that consumer just walked through their door.
Many captive agency carriers offer tools that help their agents better manage insurance leads and decrease the time it takes to put together a quick quote and respond to each consumers request as quickly as possible. If your carrier doesn't offer an insurance lead management tool or if you're looking for a more robust solution, there are many companies who specialize in software and systems designed specifically to help agents get the most out of Internet insurance leads. Independent agents should also consider using a comparative rater which can drastically reduce the time it takes to respond to consumer requests.
AgentInsider® allows agents to automatically send their insurance leads through to several of these lead management and comparative rating solutions. Check out our Partners page for a complete list.
Do you Have a Competitive Product?
What's important here is not that you have the lowest price for every risk, but that you have a product that provides a good value when compared to other options that the consumer may be considering. Keep in mind that most insurance lead providers allow you to geo-target and choose which type of consumers you want to be matched with. This gives you the opportunity to eliminate certain consumers where you are least competitive (such as non-standard consumers).
However, as consumers become more and more insurance savvy and the comparison shopping experience gets easier, most consumers with whom you will speak with will be comparing your quote with other options. If your primary carrier has recently taken a significant rate increase in your area, it may make sense to hold off on insurance leads until your carrier's competitive position improves.
How Will You Judge Your Insurance Lead Success?
A very important factor for being successful with Internet insurance leads is determining in advance how you will define success. Agents expecting to close 50% of the online insurance leads they purchase will quickly find that goal to be unattainable from any insurance leads provider. Agents who set realistic goals and allot a reasonable amount of time to learn the best way to close online insurance leads will soon find that the AgentInsider® Lead Program is a great way to profitably grow your business.
If you have any questions about how to manage your AgentInsider® account or would like to sign up for the Lead Program, please contact our Client Services Team at clientservices@agentinsider.com or call us at 866-892-4080.
