No matter how successful your insurance company is now, there's always room for improvement. Examining how your company creates and nurtures health insurance leads, as well as what can be done to enhance and optimize that process is one way to achieve that.
Below, we go over effective lead-generation tactics to help you acquire health insurance leads, including tips for making the most out of small group health insurance prospecting.
10 Tips for Generating Health Insurance Leads
1. Pick Up the Phone
As every insurance agent knows too well, phone calls come with the territory.
Although cold calling might not be your preferred method of generating health insurance leads, it’s still an effective method. It just takes a bit of practice to learn how to overcome common objections over the phone and further refine your skills.
Ensure you have a plan ready before you pick up the phone, though. For the best results, don’t try to rush each lead right to a sale. A little patience, empathy, and authenticity can help you position yourself as a trusted advisor by building trust with your prospects.
2. Use Email Marketing
Email marketing can be one of your top marketing tools for generating new health insurance leads, as it is one of the most effective methods for reaching prospects and following up with existing clients.
For example, with email marketing automation tools, it’s possible to automatically send your leads nurture emails at regular intervals to keep them engaged and keep your brand top of mind as the open enrollment period approaches.
3. Leverage Referrals
Often dismissed, one of the most effective methods for generating new health insurance leads for agents is the use of referrals.
A single referral from a satisfied health insurance client can change the trajectory of your insurance business. Not only will your insurance products and services be recommended to new employees, but each one will present an opportunity for new referrals, boosting your health insurance lead generation.
The development of a long-term relationship with a business can provide exponential opportunities for networking and referrals – resulting in a surge of sales and commissions.
Consider designing a rewards program for referrals that lead to a sale, but make sure you are in compliance with state and federal regulations when creating any referral rewards promotions.
4. Update Your Website
Your competitors are always just a quick search away. Your agency is always just a quick search away, too. What will help you stand out is your website design; it must be sleek, user-friendly, easy to navigate, aesthetically pleasing, and operate as modern websites should.Not every competitor will prioritize their website, so doing so will give you one extra advantage over them.
5. Prospect on Social Media
It’s no secret that social media is extremely important to businesses. This is especially true when it comes to insurance agencies and brokerages. You need to have your social media profile set up where your clients happen to be and easy to follow through with doing business with you.
While you can find prospects across many social media platforms, LinkedIn is a good starting point, as many professionals seeking health insurance are there.
However, you can’t just set and forget a social media presence. You need to build and maintain an effective and engaging profile, no matter which platform you decide to use. Delivering useful content and helping followers learn more about your company routinely will drive more traffic to your website and, ultimately, generate more health insurance leads.
6. Network With Professionals and Potential Clients
Another easy way to generate new leads is by attending networking events or friendly get-togethers.
Keep in mind that no rule says you can only sell insurance to people you meet at professional events, even though that’s where you’ll more than likely find the most health insurance leads. You never know when a conversation with someone you just met at a neighborhood barbecue can turn into a potential sales opportunity.
7. Re-Engage With Leads Who Didn’t Buy Last Year
Just because someone might not have bought insurance from you last year doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to sell to them. A new year means potentially new insurance needs.
The adage that you must “contact someone seven times before they buy from you” highlights the need for one quality to be highly successful in selling health insurance: persistence. While most of your competitors are unlikely to go through with each of those seven calls, your persistence might very well pay off.
8. Try SMS Text Message Marketing
If you have your prospects’ mobile numbers, consider crafting an SMS text message marketing campaign to help nurture leads.
In tandem with an email marketing campaign, text message marketing can help you see how effective your outreach tactics are and help you refine your marketing efforts.
If you decide to move in this direction, you do need to make it easy for leads to opt out in case they don’t enjoy that kind of communication. The last thing you want to do is make your approach seem invasive or break any laws regarding privacy.
9. Invest in Content
Blog articles, e-books, infographics, case studies, guides, and checklists can all help your business improve its SEO rankings and increase its discoverability by business owners or employees.
Beyond that, digital content is easily shared over email newsletters and social networks. By investing in content marketing initiatives, your company can deliver more value to clients and leads alike while establishing your brand as a leader in your category.
10. Consider Acquiring Small Group Health Insurance Leads
Tapping into the small business health insurance market might seem like a challenge at first, as larger companies were mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to provide healthcare coverage to their employees and may already have a strong relationship with a broker. Small businesses (under 50 employees or 99 in certain states), on the other hand, were exempt from the mandate, and many have opted not to provide those benefits.
However, the ACA has created the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) for small businesses that wish to offer health and dental coverage to their staff members. This presents new opportunities and benefits for both you and smaller businesses.
By leveraging this program for your insurance company, you can expect the following benefits:
- More health insurance leads
- More client and employee trust
- Year-round sales opportunities
- Sales across multiple states
- Varied commission structures
Take Your Prospecting Efforts To New Heights
One of the most effective tactics that we outlined here is phone prospecting. While there are a lot of challenges that can go into cold calling, following up, etc., we’ve got you covered to boost your health insurance lead generation!
To learn more about how you can make the most out of your lead gen efforts over the phone, check out our phone prospecting checklist today!
