Today I’m going to break down a new way to define your insurance prospect. We’ll segment your prospects into three categories, each with a specific marketing goal, that you can apply to all your marketing – from direct mail to social media.
Who Is An Insurance Prospect?
You’ve heard the terms that someone is a “hot” or “cold” lead before, right? The old definition went something like this:
- Cold Lead – Someone you’re trying to quote that didn’t ask you to call them. Cold calling or mass direct mail would be a good example here. You are blindly reaching out and hoping the person will respond.
- Warm Lead – Someone who requested a quote that you’re trying to contact. Maybe they filled out a form on your website, now they’re a warm lead and in your pipeline. You’re in the process of contacting and quoting this lead.
- Hot Lead – Someone you’ve quoted, who liked the price and seems like a great prospect. They’re HOT and should close fast.
These are the definitions I used to think of too. But today I want to change them up a bit and show you a NEW way o think about your prospects. Each group will have it’s own marketing goal to move them through the sales funnel. Here’s our new definitions:
Cold Leads
These are people who have NEVER heard of you or your agency. They are prospects because they live locally, BUT they don’t know you. If you’re a newer agent, then a LOT of people are going to be cold because they don’t know who you are or what you do.
Goal of Cold Leads: Awareness. You want your agency to become a well-known household name. You want to start showing up to these people! They might not be ready to get a quote just yet, but when the right trigger comes along, they will. A lot of cold prospect marketing is based on name recognition and branding.
Warm Leads
These are people who have heard of you but aren’t currently a client. They might be someone you’ve met through networking. They might have received a quote from your agency in the past. They might be a prior client who left for another company. Basically they are “aware” of what you offer (and who you are) but aren’t currently a client. You probably have these people gathered up on a list in some way – win backs, re-quotes, prospects, networking, etc.
Goal of Warm Leads: Quote them (or quote them again). You want to pull them back into your sales funnel for another round!
Hot Leads
No longer does “hot” mean they are ready to buy…these people have already bought! They are your current clients! If you think about it, it makes total sense. A truly hot prospect is a person who has signed the papers, given you the premium, and made the commitment. They are ready for the NEXT step.
Goal of Hot Leads: Multi-line & Referrals. In order to grow a mega agency, you need to have high retention and high value per customer. This is achieved through multi-lining. If they have auto only, you are constantly marketing for home or renters. If they have home and auto, you are constantly marketing for life insurance. And so on.
Key Strategy: A lot of the people who “like” your agency Facebook page will be current clients (hot leads). You don’t want to talk about getting “new” quotes only on your page, because a lot of these people reading are established long-term clients. You’ll see better results if you promote your referral rewards program and stress multi-line savings! (This is what our Mega Posts package focuses on.)
Does this segmentation make sense to you? Basically we are separating every local person in town into 3 categories. People who don’t know you (cold), people who know you, but don’t do business with you (warm), and current clients (hot). Each of these three groups has a goal and your marketing will always fall into one of these categories.
How Does This Apply To My Direct Mail Marketing?
Let’s try this segmentation strategy with direct mail.
- Cold Leads – They’ll get a simple postcard or letter on a consistent basis. You want them to start recognizing your name and face. They might not convert immediately but over time, you’ll warm them up.
- Warm Leads – You’ll be reaching out to these people around renewal dates to activate a new quote. They’ll get a different, more specific, postcard aimed at how you know them.
- Hot Leads – You might send a postcard or newsletter about your referral program to your clients every quarter. Or you might send postcards to your mono-line clients and follow up with a phone call.
How Does This Apply To My Facebook Marketing?
Now let’s use this segmentation strategy on Facebook marketing!
- Cold Leads – Here you’ll use Facebook ads to show up to people who have never heard of you before. So you’ll target local people with a “billboard” style ad. You’re focused on name recognition and your brand. You’ll keep marketing consistently to this group so they see you when they’re ready for a quote.
- Warm Leads – You’ll upload a list of old prospects or win backs and run Facebook ads to get them to re-quote. They already know you and you’re just trying to bring them back again.
- Hot Leads – You’ll consistently talk about your referral rewards program on your agency Facebook page. You might even boost some posts about it as well as reminders about multi-line savings. If you don’t have a lot of clients who “like” your page, you can run Facebook ads to generate more likes.
If this sounds like a lot of work, then you’re in the right place. We offer customized packages to get your agency marketing on Facebook in all of the ways listed above! Click here for details or call us at (501)547-8107 to get started today.
