Lead generation for insurance agents has always been a challenge. Insurance leads have long been sought after by agents looking to gain new business and drive revenue.
One might think that when it comes to insurance lead generation, the best strategy would be to expand your client base in order to take on as many new policies as possible – and that’s certainly one route agencies can take.
In a hard market, however, an agency’s resources for insurance lead generation are often thinly stretched. It’s best to first assess how much effort your agency can expend toward netting new clients, and tailor your strategy appropriately.
While campaigns can be established to target certain niches of business, a more immediate way to cultivate insurance leads is to focus on upselling and cross-selling your client base, according to marketing experts Jason Walker, President of Agency Revolution, and Monika Baraket, the firm’s Vice President of Operations.
Rounding out accounts, they note, is key to maximizing the return on your existing customers. This method is particularly effective for those agencies with limited resources.
Strategy 1: Upsell & Cross-sell
“In a market where book expansion is prioritized over net new business, and cost efficiency and margin favor the expansion of wallet share over market share, using digital technology to upsell and cross-sell your client base is paramount,” says Walker.
Can you add a workers’ comp policy to a commercial GL policyholder? Could you secure the commercial auto policy for that same client?
Walker explains that in order to both upsell and cross-sell, you should use data, communication automation and a solid web experience to create a catered experience. Here’s how:
- Client and policy data that rests in a repository can be segmented to show agents which policies are currently in force, and what opportunities exist to increase share of written premium.
- Once you determine your segments, you can send e-mails and texts over the next several months to build rapport and educate the customer on your ability to insure them against additional exposures.
- First, communicate to your clients that as they grow while experiencing significant life events and/or business successes, they need to increase coverage of their existing policies to scale with that growth (i.e., upsell).
- Life-events segments may include adding a driver. Business success segments may include increasing vehicles in the commercial fleet.
- Second, communicate to your clients the importance of protecting net new assets with net new policies to round out their risk protection (i.e., cross-sell).
Personal and commercial lines clients are ideal candidates for life insurance and umbrella policies. Personal lines clients may need to add RV coverage, while commercial clients may need to add workers’ compensation and cyber liability protections.
“In your communications, you should build to a crescendo where the next action is to click a link that takes the client to a dedicated web page that requires the client to update their risk profile,” says Walker. This is best achieved through a form experience that gives you everything you need to know about their growth.
Your lead-capture form should include the type(s) of coverage the visitor is interested in, their name, phone number, and e-mail address. Have a “Thank You” page set up to greet the prospect once the form is completed.
Upon submission, your agency now has the opportunity to further service that client and gain additional revenue.
Baraket says that whether your goal is to upsell/cross-sell existing clients or pursue new customers, your agency needs to position itself as the preferred source of coverage for a specific risk (or multiple types of risks). This is accomplished in large part by two things: the online experience you provide, and the original content you create that reflects your expertise on a particular line of coverage.
Strategy 2: Target Niche Businesses
Previously, we covered how your agency’s web site has to deliver an intuitive, user-friendly experience that delights your clients. In much the same way, leveraging your web site is vital to the process of targeting niche businesses in your area – the second key strategy for insurance lead generation.
Is there a type of business in your area that would provide you more clients? Manufacturers? Coffee shops? Pizzerias? Car washes? Lawn-care companies?
Once you’ve determined which niche(s) you want to target, you’ll want to demonstrate to those prospects your risk-mitigation expertise on the exposures unique to that client set.
This is best accomplished through a series of “micro-experiences” you’ll create for the prospect.
The first step in this process is to create content that you’ll feature on your web site that highlights your agency’s knowledge of the prospect’s industry and the insurable exposures they face.
One essential element is a landing page optimized to appeal to a specific type of prospect. That page will feature regular blogs (which the agency creates) on the risks experienced in a specific industry, and recommendations on how best to mitigate those exposures.
This content helps convey to the prospect a sense of authority for your agency (remember, you’re positioning yourself as a knowledgeable, trusted coverage expert) and is extremely helpful in building trust with them over time.
Intimidated by the prospect of having to create that content? Don’t be. Walker explains that agents are using generative artificial intelligence (AI) for this purpose. By using an AI chatbot such as ChatGBT, agents can enter a prompt asking the site to write a narrative on the various types of insurable risk for coffee shops, for example.
The results won’t yield the final copy you’ll use, but it does provide a good start for the types of content that can be edited and used on an agency’s web site, in social posts, for radio advertising copy, and other purposes.
Walker and Baraket suggest posting those new blogs on the landing page “consistently” – meaning, at a regular cadence (once a week, once a month), depending on the amount of time you can devote to it. At the bottom of each new blog, be sure to include the lead-capture form described previously.
Maestro, Renaissance’s proprietary e-mail marketing tool, can take much of the work out of this process. Once we uncover opportunities for cross-selling and upselling based on analysis of the agency’s client data, our marketing experts provide insight on the types of clients you’d like to reach, create customized content for your agency’s marketing e-mails, and automate their delivery.
The result is a cost-efficient, effective way of empowering your agency to deliver sales messages to more clients in less time.
Automating and Follow-Up
Leveraging automated marketing e-mails is extremely important to reaching niche clients. Those marketing messages point back to the content on the dedicated landing page, where they can get in touch via the form.
Net new insurance leads generated from this process go into a funnel, and then action can be taken by the agency.
“You have to have a pipeline tool to nurture those leads. Follow-up and having a follow-through process are essential, otherwise it’s all wasted effort,” says Baraket, who notes that some agencies gather lots of data on a prospect and still neglect to reach out. “Don’t let prospects fall through the cracks.”
Direct mail, which is starting to become more popular again, is another option for an agency’s multidimensional campaign. Consider differentiating your agency by returning to more tactile means of outreach. “It can be more effective than you think,” says Walker.
Baraket adds that it’s important to keep in mind that “your online presence really does matter.” Cultivating positive Google reviews and utilizing a marketing automation platform, for example, make a significant difference in building credibility for your agency – which goes a long way in helping you make the sale.
