Generating leads in the insurance market as a beginner
Getting insurance leads can be extremely easy sometimes. A friend of a friend will usually need some form of insurance, so if you’re well connected, you’ll have something to work on.
But not always.
And even if you rely on a large network of acquaintances, that source of leads will run dry at some point.
So it’s important to create funnels through which people that need insurance end up on your doorstep. Consistently
How can you do it?
Let’s find out.
What is a lead?
Before studying complex funnels and marketing strategies, it’s important to cover the basics.
What even is a lead?
The specific may differ from company to company, but in general, a lead is a contact that shows some form of interest towards your products. It’s also sometimes referred to as a “prospect”. So for example, if an acquaintance contacts you saying that they need car insurance, that’s a lead. If someone gives you an email address of a new homeowner that was looking to insure their house, that’s also a lead.
A crucial thing to keep in mind is that leads aren’t guaranteed to sign a contract with you. That’s why converting leads into happy customers is a numbers game. The more consistent leads you get, the higher your conversion rate, and the better off your business is.
So how can you generate a lot of leads?
Creating a funnel
The first thing you’ll need to generate more leads is a funnel. A funnel is basically a set of steps that your audience members need to take in order to buy from you. We’re not going to explore the later steps of the funnel, such as when you need to convince a prospect about the merits of your product, or when you need to sign a contract.
But it’s important to keep those things in mind when improving your lead generation. When you know exactly who your ideal buyer persona is, and what type of people respond best to your product, you can target the right people with your lead generation efforts.
With a funnel idea ready, it’s time to focus on the first step – getting leads. Note that this article will mostly be focused on generating leads online, since it’s the medium we have the most experience with.
Every funnel has an entry point – where people give their information to you. In the online world, this can mean:
- A social media page.
- A contact form.
- A pop-up.
- A contact page.
The ways potential customers end up on these pages include:
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Social Media
- Google Ads
- Email marketing
But you won’t generate leads if people just end up on your funnel’s entry point. That’s why the key to generating leads is to offer value to potential customers. Whether that means educating them about finance, highlighting your insurance’s benefits, or offering free consultancy. All of these (and more) are valuable ways to engage audiences and convert regular people into leads.
SEO for insurance lead generation
SEO doesn’t provide results in the short term. However, if done right, it can guarantee a sustainable source of leads in the long term. It’s a very complicated process, and you’ll probably need to read up about it more if you want to implement it in your business.
But here are the basics of how implementing SEO on your site should work:
- Identify topics that you can provide information on. For example, if you’re specialized in car insurance, these topics would include financial advice for purchasing a car, the law behind car insurances, and similar topics.
- Research the keywords people use to get information about those topics. These could be queries like “how much does car insurance cost”, “where to get car insurance”, or “different types of car insurance”. You need an app like Ubersuggest or Ahrefs to find out the keywords people use.
- Write valuable articles with those keywords in mind. Make sure you feature the keyword in the title, body, and meta-data of your articles. Sprinkle some multimedia here and there.
- Promote those articles with a strong link building campaign. This means convincing sites from your niche to link back to your articles.
Again, that’s a huge oversimplification of the process. But if you manage to improve the SEO of your site, you’ll get more traffic. In turn, you can convert that traffic into leads. To pull it off, you need to offer even more value to your audience in exchange for their email address/contact information.
A simple contact form on your site will do as well, but it won’t provide the same CTR (Click Through Ratio).
If all of this seems too complicated, you can use other people’s sites that are successful with SEO. The easiest way to do that is to create an affiliate marketing program. Other sites can sign-up to it, and promote your insurance services for you.
Insurance leads on social media?
Social media is another medium to promote your insurance services. However, just signing-up for an Instagram account won’t make a huge difference in your lead generation. To succeed in social media, especially considering how saturated it is today, you need to do something original.
Approach finance and insurance from a different angle, or try to find a different audience for your products. Whatever you do, for success on social media in insurance lead generation, you’ll need to stand out.
Once you figure out a content formula that’s not out there, here’s what you can do to grow your platform:
- Invest in paid ads on social media. You can use paid ads to promote a lead generation campaign, or just to grow your page with post boosts.
- Interact with your audience often, and genuinely.
- Join communities of people that might be interested in your niche, or signal that they need insurance.
- Collaborate with other pages to run giveaways, profile takeovers, or simple partnerships.
Unless you can pump a lot of money in ads, social media is also a long-term option. Organic SMM won’t fill your inbox in a matter of weeks.
Google ads and insurance leads
Success on Google Ads depends on figuring out the right targeting, and bidding strategy for the keywords you’re after. It’s a fine process that might take a while to perfect, so if you’re not ready to learn the ins and outs of Google Ads, you might want to consider hiring a PPC agency.
If you want to do it yourself, here’s a short rundown of how it works:
- Identify the keywords people use to learn more about your products. Compared to the educational keywords used for SEO, Google Ads work best for more general keywords like “car insurance”, “best home insurance”, or “life insurance quote”. Google has its own research tool for this, the Keyword Planner.
- Create landing pages on your site for people that Google those keywords. Follow copy and sales best practices when formulating these pages.
- Create Google Ads campaigns for these keywords. Remember that specificity and A/B testing help improve PPC campaigns, so consider creating Ad groups for each keyword. That way you can test different messages, colors, and even bids for particular queries.
- Optimize your campaign. Google Ads is pretty competitive, so you’ll need to constantly improve your campaign to stay on top.
Google Ads can be more expensive than the other methods at your disposal, but it will provide more immediate results.
Insurance lead generation through email marketing
A good email marketing campaign might not be the best standalone way to generate leads. But it works amazingly well in combination with the other strategies. It complements them by generating business leads from the audience members that are interested in your products, but not ready to interact with you more.
It’s also one of the best ways to rewarm leads that haven’t converted in the past, but could be convinced to give your insurances a second chance.
So here’s how to improve your email marketing efforts for lead generation:
- Start an email list if you don’t already have one. Tools like MailChimp are affordable and extremely helpful to manage mailing lists.
- Communicate with your list consistently. Whether that’s once a week, or once a month, it’s important to be consistent in your email communication.
- Don’t spam people! Send valuable information only.
- Work on your headline. The subject of an email is the most important factor to whether or not it gets opened.
In conclusion
Generating leads in the insurance market as a beginner can seem like an impossible task. There are a lot of avenues for promotion, and a lot of things to learn to utilize these channels to the maximum.
From the strategies we’ve shown today, we hope you can find one that works best with your business, and helps you take your lead generation efforts to the next level.
If you’re new to the world of digital marketing, don’t forget to check the guide on digital marketing for insurance agents.