Archive for the ‘Internet Marketing’ Category
Leveraging Technology to Work Less and Earn More
As an insurance agent, keep in mind that one of the most crucial factors to the success of your business is lead generation. This is the lifeblood for long term growth and profitability. The question for many agents is how do you find leads and develop a reliable source for potential new clients?
According to a comScore 2009 online survey, 63% of respondents went online for an auto insurance quote. In one month alone, there were 31 million searches connected to insurance quotes (Google keywords-July 2009). Given the impact of Internet online shopping and information compilation by consumers, it only makes sense that this percentage will keep expanding in coming years.
Using the Internet to acquire leads is a powerful tool for an agent. By harnessing the power of the Internet via an Online Lead Provider, you dramatically better the number of meaningful contacts with qualified prospects for your agency.
Here are a few tips to ensure developing a successful partnership with an online lead source:
- Real Time Leads – prospects that are actively requesting a quote.
- 24/7 Control of Leads – you should have the ability to manage your leads online. The ability to add and remove holds on leads and access to lead profiles for adjusting your filters and volumes maximizes your results. Receiving leads when you are not able to work them will only result in frustration for you and the clients.
- Lead Quality & Volume – critical issue; you want to use a lead provider like InsuranceLeads.com that has an excellent reputation for filtering the highest quality, volume leads.
- Oversold Leads – make sure your provider caps the number of times they sell a lead at 8 times; this is the industry standard. Most leads are not sold this many times, so you should ask your account representative for more precise information. Remember leads are also sold to your competition, so the fewer sells of each lead, the better you conversion will be.
- Liberal Credit Policy – bad leads will slip thorough no matter how vigilant the provider. Make sure your provider has a liberal, quick response, easy to use credit policy.
- Dedicated Account Reps – at critical times, it’s important to have a single point of contact that knows you and will provide excellent customer service.
- Utilize a Lead Management System- lead management systems help to automate the process of immediate response, follow up and keep you on track with your work flow. Combining AgencyIQ with your Insuranceleads.com leads will increase your close ratios over 20%! Quality leads and a quality follow up system make online leads work!
When you as an agent make the choice to use an Online Lead Provider, you are opening the door to taking your agency to the next level of performance. Teaming with a quality lead provider like InsuranceLeads.com and a lead management system like AgencyIQ, will provide you with powerful tools to automate client contacts.
AgencyIQ and InsuranceLeads.com have partnered together to create an informational webinar regarding the importance of technology in the insurance industry.
View the video: Learn the Benefits of Leveraging Technology to Work Less and Earn More.
QUALITY ONLINE LEADS + LEAD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM = HIGHER CLOSE RATIOS
WHO DAT?
Who dat….. if you are even faintly familiar with the NFL playoffs this year, you know that is the refrain of New Orleans Saints fans and their 2010 Super Bowl bound team. I’m writing this blog in advance of the game because for me, the real story is not who wins the game, the Saints or the Colts. The real story follows two different, but related story lines. The first story is the saga of the Manning family; Peyton- the older brother QB of the Colts and Super Bowl winner, Eli- little brother QB of the Giant and Super Bowl winner, and Archie- father and long time fan favorite of the Saints from 1971-82. Archie still resides in New Orleans and is actively involved in the community. What a dilemma for Archie….. does he cheer for his son Peyton or his long suffering Saints and the community who still reveres his sacrifices and spirit from his years leading the Saints.
The second story line is this amazing Saints team, lead by Drew Brees, their prolific passing QB. Drew is the identity of the Saints. He has provided the leadership, confidence and “anything is possible” attitude that’s been infectious not only with his teammates, but the entire New Orleans community. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Drew, along with a number of his teammates, returned to his ravaged city and actively participated in rebuilding. Drew’s leadership on the field and off serves as an inspiration to all who know him.
We have the examples of a father who was a city’s favorite son, the children that grew up in the community and still have ties, and a new QB who has caught the spirit of a city and is an inspiration of hope and achievement, much like a predecessor 35 years ago! So…… who wins here? EVERYONE!
Now stop and think about your leadership role…. your family, your business and in your community. What are you doing to inspire, help, motivate or improve the lives of those around you? Leadership does not mean always being in front or in the limelight, it can be as simple as providing a good example by your actions. Building these positive leadership qualities will lead to raised expectations and improved results in your personal life, business environment and community activities. So, when the question arises “Who dat?” will you be one of the first mentioned? I hope so….. the rewards are immense!
CYBER MONDAY RULES!!
The Missing Piece
If you have any doubts about the impact of the Internet on business, check out the sales racked up on Cyber Monday this year! It is estimated that sales could increase over 6% from 2008 levels to over $900 billion in 2009 according to online tracking company comScore Inc. according to an article in Monday’s Wall Street Journal Online November 30th,2009 (http://online.wsj.com/ ). This would represent a single day sales record for Internet sales…… in what most of us would consider a very challenging economic environment. I bet there are a number of managerial types walking around trying to figure out how much time their employees spent on the Internet today shopping instead of work related activities!!!
I think my point is obvious, more and more consumers are using the Internet to make purchases. This year over 96 million people shopped on the Internet on Cyber Monday up from 85 million last year. Cyber Monday only entered our lexicon in 2005!!!! Typically 5% of holiday shopping is done online, but this year could see up to 10% of all holiday shopping. Much of this frenzy is generated by online and email promotions by retail companies. Does that get you excited? Is does me!!!! If you aren’t using online, email and social marketing, you may be missing a huge potential client base that represents a tremendous opportunity to grow your business.
Internet marketing is the missing piece of the puzzle for 2010. Making the most of any lead means utilizing email marketing and a full CRM system to track all of your prospects. Let AgencyIQ assist you with maximizing your leads and growing your business!
Announcing New Lead Provider: HBW Leads!
Net-Lead is pleased to announce that we have completed integration of AgencyIQ with HBW Leads. We are excited to offer a seamless integration of their lead information into the AgencyIQ System which will help you to sell more business, faster.
HBW Leads was established in 2005 by insurance agents who brought their professional experience from their own insurance business to create the scripts and leads insurance agents want. The goal was to create exclusive telemarketed leads that are interested in receiving a comparison quote.
After modifying their scripts to achieve the best success for the insurance agent, HBW Leads established procedures and systems to record all calls and grade the caliber and accuracy of the lead to ensure the highest quality.
HBW Leads grew from serving its local area agents to serving agents across the country. Currently, HBW Leads is helping companies like Allstate, Farmers, State Farm, American Family Insurance and others grow their business. In addition, training is offered to customers to maximize the effectiveness of their leads. HBW Leads also offers peer mentorships to help guide active clients in the best way to utilize their leads.
Visit them online at www.hbwleads.com.
AgencyIQ Integration
If you subscribe to HBWLeads, follow these easy steps to set up the integration in AgencyIQ:
1. First, locate your AgencyIQ ID number by clicking on “my agency” in the upper-right of any AgencyIQ screen. Your Agency ID number will be the five digit number displayed large above your address information:
Locate Your AgencyIQ ID
2. Now, log into your HBW Leads account.
Click on Agent Login
Click [Setup Now
4. Find the link to add a new connection for AgencyIQ near the bottom of the “Export Connections” screen and click it.
Choose the AgencyIQ Option
5. Enter your AgencyIQ ID number (from step 1, above) in the blank provided, and choose “Auto” if you want all leads automatically sent to AgencyIQ or “Manual” if you want to select individual leads to send to AgencyIQ. Click “Save AgencyIQ Connection” to save your choices.
That’s all there is to it! If you would like additional assistance with setting up your connection, please call our offices at (877) 985-7400.
Is Twitter for Your Agency?
I have come to realize that twitter is highly addictive. I came home from work last Wednesday evening and decided to catch up on some tweets. When looked up I found that I had just spent two hours reading blogs and catching up on all the cool stuff going on with my peers. I could not believe that I had just “wasted” that time. Was it really wasted though? Really? No. I formulated three article ideas from this time and fashioned a new marketing idea for AgencyIQ. The time was a valuable stimulating experience that was sheer brain food when my body was craving my couch and my mind was sheer mush. That rejouvination could never be described as a waste of time.
As an insurance agent, I ask myself, can an agent bring value to their client base by Tweeting? We can tweet about things like updating our blog, newsletters, speaking engagements, and just generally retweeting valuable information that can enrich our client’s lives. That is always a good idea. For example, it is spring and just last week I picked up a magazine that caught my eye with an article about “Cleaning Your Windows Like A Professional”. Isn’t that what we can offer to our clients? Twitter allows us to do this in 140 characters or we can at least blog these wonderful pearls of wisdom then tweet them out to our community and increase our exposure and value to our community. What if an insurance agent can embead themselves into a client’s evening by adding value to their lives and thus become a communtiy influence? Twitter is a medium to make sure that we offer these tools in an easy, unobtrusive manner for our clients and I think that the agencies that embrace the technology will reep the benefits in the long run.
Let’s see what happens when I post this question to my Facebook (I have lots of agent friends) and just open the discussion to the public. What do you think? What experiences (positive and negative) have you had as an insurance agent with Twitter? Can’t wait to hear!
To Blog or Not To Blog…an Insurance Agent’s Dilemma.
Most insurance agents approach blogging with these thoughts:
“Great, something else to do.”
“What a pain.”
“I need someone technical to do that”
“GRRRRRRR…”
I can TOTALLY understand. I was told about two years ago to create a blog and I just flat out refused for a long time. Even my 15 yr. old would tell me that if I want more business online that I need to blog and get into social networking (I really need to hire him someday!). I finally decided that 2009 is my year to get my mind around reaching out to my clientele through the internet and I realized that blogging and social media is really very similar to the same things I do every day. They are just in electronic format.
I enjoy journaling. My business coach tells me to journal and all the business ownership conferences tell you to write down your vision for your business. I take notes at conferences and when I attend any educational opportunities. I take notes when I am on the phone with clients. I write emails over and over explaining insurance and what all the sections of a policy will cover. If you are like me, blogging is just doing all of this on the internet. When I realized this, I started pulling out my old journals and it encouraged me to start publicizing my writing for my clients benefit. When look at blogging from this perspective it makes sense and you realize that it really can be easy.
1. Do you answer the same questions over and over again every day? You can create a tag (label) in your blog specifically to link your entry with “education” and you can address these questions that you answer every day. Tag all auto insurance articles with the appropriate tag of “Auto Questions” and your clients will have a section to read about all their auto insurance questions online. Refer your prospects and clients to your website and they can find answers to their questions at their own convenience. Most agents would have 20 blog entries at minimum just from the questions most frequently asked.
2. Do you keep up with industry changes and information? This information is important for your clientele to keep informed about. State minimums for auto insurance changed last year in the state of Texas and it was important information for our clients when their coverage’s changed. A great idea is to send out a newsletter every month highlighting these changes as a resource for your prospects and clients to read and refer to their friends which will increase your agency’s exposure.
3. Announce changes in your office or any community involvement: Use your blog to update clients about changes going on in your office. Post notices about personnel changes, any speaking engagements, and community activities, changes in operations or changes in office hours. I have some agents that get their staff involved in 5K’s for charity and they post links to these online and post pictures. The activity builds community in your office, the blog adds to your connection between your office and your community. If you participate in your local chamber of commerce you can post your participation there and a lot of these businesses will link to you in return. This will increase your exposure in your community as well.
4. Don’t think that a blog has to be really long: Effective blog entries can be short and to the point. If you are updating announcements or making one brief point or linking to something of interest the entry should be short and sweet. Feel free to post articles (like this one) that are more lengthy, but even articles should be no more than 3-5 points of interest and easy to scan to get the highlights.
5. Attract more business to your agency: This is a no brainer and all of our goals. We all want more business. These days consumer’s shop for everything online. People research cameras and computers online before they buy them, we can check our kids grades online and shop for tickets to various events. The internet isn’t going anywhere. We need to access this market to generate business for our agencies as well. Agents are paying $15-$20 per lead that they receive from online lead sources but they see $500 and maybe 2 hours a week to invest into their own website as too much of an investment. Blogging is not “playing around on the computer”. Embrace the internet as a communication and marketing tool for your agents. I know MANY agents who are using social media, blogging and taking leads online who are writing over 30 policies a month just from online business. Your online presence isn’t going to be an option for long and to neglect the ability to generate business online will eventually cost your agency a lot of money because otherwise you will end up paying someone to do it for you.
Seriously consider blogging. It isn’t difficult and it’s an easy way to develop connections within your community. Once the set up of the blog is complete, the rest is just making two or three entries a week for consistency and keeping interest in your site. Consistency is the key in blogging and blogging is the key to reaching out online to your clients.
Twitter and the Insurance Agency..Common Problems and Solutions
The idea that Twitter is a valuable resource for your insurance agency is a debate that I see going on via facebook, blogs, and even in conferences that I attend. Let’s start from the basic’s and explore the pro’s and con’s of the newest social media explosion on the Internet.
What is Twitter: I like to describe Twitter as a blast text message. People sign up to receive your “tweets” and your message of no more than 140 characters is sent to the recipient. Twitter is also defined in many places as “micro-blogging”. To see a short video about twitter that is also wonderfully short..check out this video http://commoncraft.com/Twitter.
Sign up then proceed on stealth mode: Don’t start this project thinking that Twitter is the saving grace for your business within the first two weeks. We are all looking for that magic bullet, but everything takes work.
-Take a few days to a week and watch what other people are doing on the software.
-Learn the lingo, and acquire some connections that you would like to follow.
-Find people whose tweets inspire you, people who have something valuable to say.
-Locate some people in your networks or industry that have a following and see how they are working this marvel of social networking.
How to add followers: Define your audience you want to follow you. Is it local business owners, homeowners, auto owners, what zip codes, what clubs or organizations? This will be your beginning list of who to search out. Ask each person on their follow lists to follow you.
-Add your twitter address to any social media that you participate in, your emails, website, and look up your clients on twitter.
-Look up your local politicians, local businesses, your chamber of commerce and ask follow all their followers. Most people will follow you.
-Look up your clients and send out your twitter in your newsletter announcements
-Look up any local clubs, charity’s or networks for your target audience.
Add value to your tweets: No one wants spam in their email, twitter, or facebook, so we ask you not to contribute to it.
-Find interesting articles and post them on your twitter as resources. Shorten the URL by using http://bit.ly/?url=
-Find interesting blog’s and post them to your twitter.
-ReTweet information but acknowledge the source by putting RT:@sourcename before the tweet. For example, to retweet from AgencyIQ’s tweet..simply post “RT: @agencyiq” then your content.
-Make sure to tweet about updates to your blog postings or events going on in your office.
-reference your website in your posts occasionally.
-Thank people for following you and post a thank you for the ReTweets you are honored to have passed on.
-Remember your audience and tweet about things that they would want to check out.
Most importantly…this is a process. It isn’t something that you can make work for you in a month. You have to establish your audience, your credibility, and your voice. Have fun with it, post funny things but keep it clean, remember you are here to attract customers. Let your personality shine through, it will help to cut through the mundane on the internet and your business will succeed!
Demystifying Online Leads
Insurance Agents are constantly looking for new ways to open discussions with more prospects. The online lead frenzy has been taking over the marketplace for the last five years and is getting some mixed reviews. We have to realize though, as a consumer in general, every product is pitched as the saving grace for our all our problems. Online lead companies are no different in their advertising than any other company. It is our job as consumers to test their claims, see through them, and to come out the other side with a way to find the happy middle.
Lead companies will paint the picture that the leads are coming to the agent waiting with baited breath for an insurance quote that will rock their world. As insurance agents soon find out, this is not reality. Lead companies are also portraying that buying online leads cuts down on competition because the lead is only sold to a select number of agents. These are all very misleading to the actual world of how online leads work.
Online leads are submitted by the prospect requesting information online. Most of the time, the prospect will walk away from their computers and get on with their day. In their mind, it is your job to get the quotes to them. Second, leads can be sold to a variety of agents. You may be one of 8, and the only captive agent in your area, but ask the important questions of how many national insurance providers are also subscribing to that lead. These major companies have computer systems that send quotes immediately, a team of call center operators, and electronic auto responders to make contact with prospects. It is important to do your research and find out how many agents of various providers are competing in your area.
These national providers will have systems that send out a quote immediately that is very low and does not include factors of insurance score, credit history or much else. This is a teaser quote to get someone to call or email and give that company a fighting chance for the business. Even if the quote goes up, the prospect was drawn to their customer service portal for that all important “conversation”. Make sure you know your competition. Know how they work and know what their goals are, it will help you counter their offer and get in there and be a strong resource for your prospect. Take a different approach to reaching your prospects. A personal agent can be more persistent, available, an insurance educator, a client advocate, and provide the personal service that an insurance powerhouse can’t. Some people are tired of canned service and don’t want to work with a national powerhouse. Remember that every prospect is different. The close ratio on the national level is 10% and they are happy with those results. They will pursue the business differently and do not deliver the personal service that an individual agent can. Remember that their 10% close ratio leaves 90% of the business still out for the rest of the industry.
Finally, realize that the sales game has changed with online leads. Agents today have to use their prowess in the areas of marketing and connecting with agents when trying to reach these prospects. There is good money in these leads and strong close ratios. But agents have to have the right tools to compete in this area of the industry. Today’s technology provides us with tools like a lead management system to help provide us with the necessary equipment to be competitive. Look for automatic importing of leads (stop data entering those leads!), auto responders (remember get there fast, get there often), ability to assign the lead to various producers, ease of setting reminders for follow up and even the ability to keep your quotes and prospect documents in one place. These lead management tools are vital for keeping you consistent with keeping your follow up steady, storing all your leads in one paperless system, and keeping up with your investment. Stop just throwing that $12.00 lead in the trash after 30 days.
Get smart and look at what the powerhouses in insurance are doing. Do you have to be a powerhouse? Absolutely not! Deliver the ease of service, the quick responses, the continuous follow up, AND service and your clients will have the best of both worlds. Your referrals will soar and your business will see success like never before. Utilize these online leads with caution…remember to keep a level perspective, and sell away!
Writing Content for Your Auto Responders
You’ve heard it before: It’s all about the content!
Well, someone has to write that content, and that someone is you. Your mission is clear: For your auto responders to be successful, the content must be easy understand, impossible to ignore. How can you make it happen?
Create a relevant subject of your email: Create a subject line that practically guarantees your email will be opened. When writing your subject, keep in mind that people are scanning their inbox and you have to stand out. Very few readers actually sit down and work their way methodically through their emails. No, they are far more likely to reduce email time by simply running their eyes down the page. So, standing out is essential. Using words that catch people’s attention is vital, but you also need to project an honest idea of what is inside the email. The trick to doing this is to make an action statement or to ask a question. People want you to solve their problems, so by identifying the most common issues faced by your readers and asking them about it will help to draw them in. For example, you might ask your readers “Tired of paying high prices for minimum coverage and horrible service?” This implies that you have a better option and they will be more likely to click on your email.
User action verbs such as “protect”, “maximize”.
Tell your prospects what to do “get a quote”, “contact us”, “reply to this email”
Use adjectives like “low cost”, “easy”
Some great examples of subject lines are:
Protect your assets in this economy
Maximize your protection for your lifestyle
Be proactive about your financial security
Easy and painless insurance information without pushy sales
Next, establish rapport: Make the next section of your email personal. Use your prospect’s name and it will help you to make that connection. Keep in mind your business model and the image that you want your consumer’s to think of when they work with you. Keep your emails upbeat, active, and discuss the strengths of your agency.
Basic Website Pointers
Here are some basic notes about our upcoming webinar focusing on taking a good look at your website and gauging it’s effectiveness. Join us Tuesday March 24th at 11:00 CST and learn more details! Sign up online to reserve your spot!
Today’s internet agents have a lot of opportunities to reach out to clients. One of my goals as the VP of Operations here at AgencyIQ is to help agents harness the power of the internet to make their sales increase in bulk. Over the next few months AgencyIQ will be hosting various webinar’s to help you make the most out of your web presence and offer some additional ideas to jump start your online marketing. This month we are discussing reaching out with an effective website.
There are some key elements here to pay attention to. The first is understanding the three aspects of building a website:
Remember, utilize the internet to enhance the experience that you are offering to your clients and your marketing efforts will multiply!
