Marketing strategies have to keep up with consumer habits, and for insurance sales, that means creating a strong online presence that will attract qualified leads you can convert to sales. Online insurance marketing has the potential to generate more leads and increase sales, but your success will depend on your understanding of your marketing options and expectations, the types of leads generated, and how well you manage those leads to close the sale.
Take advantage of the different types of online insurance marketing, and consider the return on investment of leads and sources. Closing online leads may require taking a new approach, but the payoff will be worth your time and effort. The competitive nature of insurance sales demands that you evolve along with the market and adjust your strategies and processes along the way, but effective online marketing can help you do that. Drive sales and expand your business exponentially by embracing online marketing.
Types of Online Insurance Marketing
There are different ways to approach online marketing in the insurance arena. Explore the following types of online insurance marketing and consider the value in advertising through search marketing, social media, content marketing and email marketing. If you don’t take advantage of these opportunities to attract prospects and sell more insurance, your competitors will.
Give your business the chance to grow with these types of online marketing channels:
Search Marketing
Paid Search Marketing
Also known as Pay Per Click (PPC), paid search marketing targets specific keywords or phrases that prospects in your market would be searching for when looking for insurance options. Google Adwords and Bing Ads run search marketing that only charge you when customers take action and click to visit your website.
How does it work? You might want to target someone searching for “family health insurance plan.” You can bid on this key phrase in order to have your ad show up on the first page of Google. The customer only needs to click on your ad to visit your website.
Are the leads worth it? Leads generated by search campaigns are generally highly qualified if you’ve done your research and found the most relevant keywords or phrases to target.
Search Engine Optimization
A form of search marketing that does not involve paying for ads, SEO is the process of optimizing your site so that it shows up organically when certain terms or phrases are searched for. You can increase your web traffic and leads through local SEO and position yourself online with custom content geared toward your most desired prospects.
Social Media
Social media is an important tool used by brokers to build their brand and capture the attention of new and existing customers.
Organic Social Media
Capitalize on the popularity of sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to establish a friendly rapport with prospects and clients. The more often your business is on their minds, the more likely they will refer to you with any insurance coverage questions or needs. Build a following by posting useful, relevant content that will appeal to your target audience and help drive prospects to your website.
Social Media Ads
Social Media ads include boosting posts and creating sponsored content across multiple platforms. These paid ads allow you to target specific demographics or psychographics that fall within your typical customer profile. Why are social media ads more effective than organic posts? These ads will reach people who are not already connected to you, giving you the chance to reach previously untapped potential clients.
Content Marketing
Content marketing involves building custom, dynamic content on your website through blogs, whitepapers, guides, ebooks, videos, webinars, infographics, and more. By creating useful insurance resources for potential and existing clients, you are building your reputation as a trusted industry leader. Content can be shared through social media and promoted advertisements, but will also drive organic search traffic to your website.
Guides and whitepapers can be used as lead generation tools, requiring a prospect to fill out basic contact information to receive them. Having this information will give you the opportunity to track their progress through the sales funnel and follow up with them.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is an effective way to provide useful information to potential customers and stay in touch with current clients to encourage ancillary product sales, as well as referral business. You can share your content through these emails and provide a call-to-action to entice them to contact you with any needs they may have.
As you try these online marketing ideas, evaluate your success regularly to determine which strategies are generating the best leads and which processes need to be improved.
A Look at Leads
Make sure your marketing efforts are getting the results you want:
- Track leads and sources to help determine where your marketing dollars are best spent, and which areas you should improve or spend less time or money on.
- Determine the acceptable cost-per-lead (CPL). If you spend $100 to get 10 leads, your CPL is $10. If you close on 4 of those 10 leads, your cost per sale is $25. Evaluate your return on investment and plan your marketing budget and plans accordingly.
The “Hot” Lead
Selling to online leads should be a priority. These “hot” leads require an immediate response since the likelihood they have reached out to multiple brokers is high. Research shows that approximately 50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first. Don’t let your competitor get the sale simply because they replied to an inquiry before you had a chance to.
Understanding your lead is essential. Know where each lead came from and what type of insurance solution they are looking for. Start the conversation with relevant information to convey how invested you are in helping them find the right coverage. For instance, if your lead is interested in Medicare products, talking about small group insurance will surely have them questioning your ability to help them find what they need. On the other hand, if you are prepared in advance of your call to speak to that prospect about family plans available and the benefits they might appreciate, the prospect will feel confident in your knowledge and expertise.
Leads will only drive sales if you respond to them appropriately, but it can be easy to neglect leads during busy days, especially during hectic open enrollment periods. Look for ways to customize your response to leads and improve your response time by using innovative online tools with auto-response technology.
Improve Your Online Marketing Process
As you explore online insurance marketing tools and processes, you will likely enjoy some successes and face a few failures along the way. The best way to evaluate your efforts is to track the data and look at the numbers:
- How many people did your ad reach? How many people clicked on it?
- Out of those who clicked on the ad, how many were converted to sales?
- How many leads were contacted? How quickly were they contacted?
- What went wrong with the leads that did not convert to sales? Were they looking for a solution you do not offer?
These are just a few questions that can be answered by tracking the source of leads and their progress through the sales cycle. Understanding why a lead didn’t turn into a sale will help you make adjustments and improvements. If your click-through rate is low, you may not be reaching your intended demographic or haven’t created a clear call-to-action for them to follow. If you find site visitors are increasing, but the leads are not converting to sales, take a look at your landing page. Is the page clear and easy to navigate?
Make sure your website landing page is not crowded with too much information. Instead, make sure it looks professional, allows easy access to contact you through email, text, or click to call buttons, and has a user-friendly form that works seamlessly on desktop and mobile devices.
The Benefits of Online Marketing for Insurance Sales
If you haven’t already embraced online insurance marketing, now is the time to find cost-effective ways to generate leads and sell more insurance. In today’s market, online marketing is an essential tool in expanding your business and increasing sales. Take advantage of opportunities to reach qualified leads with search engine, social media, email, and content marketing.
