So as you may have seen, we recently opened an independent insurance agency...from SCRATCH.
If you’ve done that, then you know how daunting a project it can be!
I want to share all the details on this agency as it grows so you can see what’s working for us and what isn’t.
Now since we don’t have an established book of business to work from, we’re having to try a little bit of everything. I’ll be talking about ALL of these strategies as we go…
But today a few words about Internet Leads.
Insurance Internet Leads: Love ’em Or Hate ’em
When we had our agency a few years ago, we were very successful with internet leads. But is the market still the same? We’ll find out!
John started with InsuranceQuotes.com. He is purchasing around six Home leads per day.
So far, the results are mixed. Here are some of the things we’ve seen:
- Some of the leads have NO idea what they are signing up for! Several people have mentioned clicking on pop up ads that promised a discount, filling out a form, but not really being in the market for new insurance. Hmmm….
- You’re going to get long term shoppers. With home leads, you get a lot of people who are looking at buying a home. He’s had several quotes that will be great business (and say they are going with us) but they don’t close for well over a month when the home loan closes. This can make it hard to really track your conversion rates when they’re months out.
- Home leads don’t always mean they currently own a home. They could be shopping for a home, building a home, considering a home one day, own a mobile home, you name it.
- That said…even with the challenges, there are still good clients searching for insurance!
How To Make Internet Leads Work Best
Here are some of the things John is doing while working internet leads:
- Be FAST. You can’t sit on an internet lead. Set up your schedule so you have INSTANT notification when a new lead comes in.
- John likes to quickly look up the details on the lead to see how legit it is. Is it a real address? Is it a mobile home? Just a quick overview. He looks up the address on the county tax records to see if they’re the current owner and get a picture of the property.
- Then he CALLS the lead before running a quote. He’ll ask a few quick questions to qualify them – How is their roof? Do they own the home now? When are they looking to switch? Would they like to quote the auto also for the best discount?
- This initial call helps you be first and lets you know what you’re working with. Many times you’ll know if it’s junk and they don’t actually want a quote and can quickly move on. Plus you establish a relationship with the lead before anyone else.
- Even if he doesn’t talk to them, he’ll go ahead and run the quote and email it out. If it looks competitive, he’ll also print it out and mail a copy. (He had someone call back two days later just because of the mailed copy.)
You Must Be Obsessive About Lead Credit Policies
All lead companies are going to have a lead credit policy of some kind. Read it closely and be OBSESSIVE about turning in your bad leads for credits!
Why? Because you’ll waste a ton of money if you don’t.
He returns leads who have bad contact information, are rude on the phone and say they didn’t want a quote after all, or if they don’t actually own a home and aren’t looking to buy one. Several have said they wanted auto quotes, not home, but if you’re buying HOME leads…that’s what you should get!
If his lead credit is denied, he’ll call the company and ask for them to review it. (Most credits are initially approved or denied by a computer, not an actual person.)
This is an important part of making profit with internet leads. It’s annoying and time consuming, but you’ll blow through tons of wasted money if you don’t pay attention and ask for credits when they are needed.
Results?
I feel like it’s too early to have a clear picture of our long term internet lead strategy, but so far I feel like it’s a great start! He has made several sales and seen good response. I’m eager to see how well they convert over a several week follow up process.
We’re currently budgeting around $600 per month for Home leads.
I feel like this is a “necessary evil” for a scratch agency on some level. It’s not our overall lead generation strategy, but it’s one piece of the puzzle and helps us create consistent activity. It’s better then sitting around waiting for the phone to ring!
Keep following the blog for more updates on our internet lead and other marketing strategies!