How to Collect, Convert and Retain Insurance Leads
To run a successful insurance business, you need to have a system in place to generate leads and then convert them into customers.
It doesn’t end there either as once you’ve converted them into customers, you need to ensure you’re retaining them long-term.
This can be a lot of work, but thankfully there are some great tools and strategies out there that can help.
In this article, we’ll show you how to collect, convert and retain insurance leads so that you can grow your insurance business and reach your main KPIs.
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How to Collect Insurance Leads
Finding and collecting solid leads is one of the hardest parts of running a successful insurance company.
It doesn’t matter how good your services and expertise are, without any leads your insurance business is never going to get off the ground.
A lot of insurance agents spend copious amounts of time and resources coming up with ways to source new leads that have a strong potential of converting into customers and with so many lead collection methods out there, it can be tricky to decide which ones are worth the time and effort.
So what are some of the best ways to collect insurance leads in an insurance industry that’s already crowded?
Customer Referrals
Your company’s current customers could be an untapped goldmine of potential leads.
The fact is that industries such as insurance benefit greatly from real-world customer reviews and referrals.
People are often much more likely to trust an insurance company that has been recommended by a friend or that is well-reviewed online.
Encouraging existing customers to refer you to a friend therefore can help you to capture new leads that have a strong potential of converting into customers.
The best way to benefit from customer referrals is by starting a referral network that offers discounts or other benefits as an incentive to send new customers your way.
Always ask your customers for referrals straight away, don’t wait too long and risk them forgetting about the quality of service you provided. Similarly, don’t be afraid to ask them twice if you’re worried that they’ve forgotten to complete their referral.
Make sure you’re conducting your referral request via the right platform for the individual customer. Always check their communication references and introduce them to your referral program via text, email, phone, or in-person.
Have a Great Website
Building a great website is crucial if you want to target and capture online leads.
Your website is your online storefront and will be the first thing that many potential customers see when they discover you online.
If you find that your website isn’t capturing as many new leads as you would like then it may be time for a redesign.
Redesigning your website can help to make it secure, engaging, and informative for potential customers.
The top things to include in the design of your website include:
- Easy navigation
- Modern and clean visuals
- Mobile optimization
- Contact details
- Calls to action on every page
Improve Your Digital Marketing
A strong digital marketing strategy can do wonders for your lead collection.
Everything from your social media platforms to on-site blogs and SEO goes towards creating a digital marketing strategy that captures and converts leads.
Social media platforms are no longer just a place to post holiday photos or reconnect with old friends. Many platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, are now major marketplaces for businesses to promote and sell their services to potential customers.
Check out our guides on Instagram Marketing for Insurance Agents and Facebook Marketing for Insurance Agents.
Boosting the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of your website can do wonders for your ability to capture new leads.
If your website is appearing in the search results for relevant search terms (e.g. business insurance providers) then you’ll be driving more traffic, and therefore more leads, to your business.
An on-site blog can have multiple benefits, not only will it help to boost your search rankings but it can also enable you to develop a relationship with your audience.
Creating blog posts about relevant topics will position you as an industry leader and encourage users to think that you are reliable and trustworthy.
Leads Lists
As we’ve established, generating and collecting new leads that have serious potential can be difficult which is why some businesses opt to purchase lead lists.
Lead lists feature lists of people who are allegedly already interested in your product or service and all you have to do is reach out to them.
Buying leads can save you a lot of time but it’s crucial that you source them from a respected seller and that you purchase a list targeted to your industry.
When actioned correctly lead lists can provide you with access to a large database of potential customers, all you need to do is convert them.
Email Marketing
Email marketing for insurance agents is still one of the best marketing strategies out there and can be a great way of collecting new leads for your insurance business.
For every $1 invested in email marketing, businesses can expect an average of $36 in return, a whopping 3600% ROI (return on investment).
You’ll need to start by building your email list so ensure you’re encouraging sign-ups at every available opportunity from when people land on your website to via your social media platforms.
You can then approach potential leads via their email inboxes with newsletters, company updates, and special deals and promotions to help encourage new leads.
Get Listed on Review Sites
When potential customers are researching your company online it may not always be your website that they land on. Instead, they may find themselves on review sites looking for impartial information about your insurance business.
If your company isn’t receiving reviews on these websites, you could be missing out on many potential leads.
Create optimized listings on reputable websites and encourage your previous and existing customers to leave a review of your business.
Good, legitimate reviews add social proof to your insurance business and will help convince users of your service offering.
Pro tip: Use CrankWheel’s post-session redirect feature to direct your customers automatically to your review forms. The way it works is that you set the redirect page in your CrankWheel dashboard and once you stop the session, the screen share automatically redirects to the page you set. You can also set multiple redirect pages and select the right one during the meeting.
How to Convert Insurance Leads
Once you’ve collected your insurance leads, you need to figure out how you can ensure that they will convert into paying customers.
Not every lead will respond to your conversion tactics in the same way and you’ll need to tailor your approach to ensure you’re converting as many leads as possible.
Below we’ve listed some of the main steps you can take to ensure you’re not losing leads that have the potential to convert.
Lead Scoring
Lead scoring is a process that allows you to determine how likely a lead is to convert and how valuable it will be for your business.
After all, you don’t want to spend your time and effort trying to convert low-value leads and ignore the leads that could bring major pending potential.
With lead scoring, you’ll give each individual lead a score, based on how likely they are to become a customer and how valuable that custom would be to your insurance business.
You can create your own lead scoring system or there are various tools on the market that will score your leads for you.
Once you’ve given each lead a score you can determine the best next steps. For example, you may invite high-scoring leads to a networking event or send out a free gift to them whereas low-scoring leads may be approached through your email marketing or via social media.
Respond to Leads Quickly
With so much competition, especially online, you need to ensure you’re responding to leads as quickly as possible.
If a potential customer feels that you’ve taken too long to get back to them, and we’re talking anywhere over 10 minutes here, then chances are they’re going to find an alternative company that responds quickly to their insurance needs.
The key to responding to leads quickly is ensuring your agents have access to the right tools to ensure no leads fall through the cracks.
Setting up an instant alert system will ensure your agents are alerted every time a new lead arrives.
You can also send automated confirmation emails to potential customers once they have made an initial query to begin your communication process.
Map Your Customers Journey
Understanding at what point in their customer journey your leads are at is essential if you want to target them with the right tactics to convert them into customers.
Mapping your customer’s journey gives you invaluable insight into how close they are to converting and you can target your approach accordingly.
For example, if a customer has already familiarised themselves with your policies, approaching them with policy information is a waste of time. Instead, creating a bespoke policy for their needs would give you a better chance of converting them.
When mapping your customer’s journey there are five key stages that they will fall into:
- Awareness
- Engagement
- Evaluation
- Purchase
- Post-purchase
If you know which stage your lead is at, you can determine the best way to communicate with them.
Close the Sale
Just because you’ve determined a lead to be high-value, doesn’t mean they are ready to convert straight away. In fact, some leads may take some time to make their way through the full journey and finally convert.
Leads will arrive at different stages. Some will be ready to convert there and then whilst others will be in the research phase and not planning to make a purchase for a while.
The key with longer-time leads is to keep communication open and ensure you are there at every step of the journey, so that when the lead is ready to convert you can close the sale.
Often that communication will be done remotely, either via video calls or email. Check out this article on the importance of screen sharing on remote sales calls as a technique to help you seal the deal.
Whether that communication is done remotely, via video calls or email, over the phone or even in person at company events, it’s the key to closing the sale for leads that may take slightly longer to convert.
It’s easy to spend time collecting and nurturing leads but then fail to close the final sale, making all of your work so far pointless.
Never presume that a conversion is a done deal until it is. Instead, keep building your relationship with the potential customer right up until the moment they’ve signed on the dotted line.
Many agents will spend time nurturing a lead and once it looks like they’re ready to convert, will move on to the next, thinking the first is complete.
Don’t make this mistake. Always nurture your lead right through to the point of conversion.
How to Retain Insurance Leads
Growing the revenue of your insurance business isn’t all about capturing new leads.
Retaining your existing customer base can have just as much impact on your profit margins as targeting new business.
In order to retain your insurance leads, you need to be keeping your customers happy and be offering a level of service that they simply can’t get anywhere else.
So, how can you make sure you’re retaining your leads once you’ve converted them into customers?
Understand Your Customers
You can’t even start to think about retaining your customers if you don’t understand them.
It’s your job to know everything about your customer base. From what products and services they’re interested in, to how they consume marketing materials and their preferred communication methods.
It’s a good idea to categorize your customers into different groups. For example, you could split your customer base up based on their primary concern e.g. price, policy rewards, and length of the policy.
By understanding your customers you can then target them in the right way. After all, there’s no point in targeting an existing customer with new deals via email if they prefer to be contacted by phone.
Customer Service
Offering great customer service is the foundation of any successful customer retention strategy, especially in the insurance industry.
If a customer has a good experience dealing with your company, whether it’s an initial query before they make a purchase or help to solve a problem when they come to make a claim, they’ll remember. They’ll also be sure to remember if their experience is terrible.
You simply can’t nurture a strong relationship with your customers if you aren’t putting the effort into providing them with the best service possible.
Think carefully about how you deliver your customer service. It’s not a one size fits all approach instead, you’ll likely need to offer multiple communication channels.
These can include live chat services, social media messaging, and a direct telephone number, all of which should provide customers with the opportunity to speak directly to a member of your team.
Providing excellent customer service is a sure-fire way to ensure your customers stick around and you retain your leads.
Personalize Your Services
One of the best ways to retain your insurance leads is to offer each customer personalized service.
Whilst that might sound like a lot of work, it can go a long way to helping you stand out from the competition and ensure your customers aren’t tempted to go elsewhere.
Personalizing your services to your customers isn’t just about offering them the price they want.
Take the time at every touchpoint to understand exactly what your customers are looking for in an insurance provider and do everything you can to offer them this. This can be anything from a specific policy timeframe to no claims discounts.
Take your personalization a step further by ensuring every touchpoint is personalized to your individual customers such as addressing them by their first name in all correspondence and ensuring they only receive relevant marketing materials.
Schedule Checkpoints
If you’re serious about retaining your leads then you need to prove to customers that your service doesn’t stop once you’ve closed the deal.
Scheduling regular checkpoints with your customers is a great way to make sure you’re staying at the front of their minds.
Regular correspondence with your customers will help to keep you at the top of the list, above your competitors, should your customers be thinking about shopping around for a new insurance deal.
Be Proactive
Once a lead has converted into a customer, it’s easy to think that your job is done. But just because they were happy with the deal and premium you agreed to when you closed the sale, doesn’t mean they aren’t going to want to change it at some point.
People’s circumstances change all the time and your customers are no different.
Whether they want to bring down their monthly costs, change their excess amount or add a policy member, the initial deal isn’t always going to work for them.
Proactively offering your customers the chance to alter their policies is a great way to retain them.
Similarly, if you need to make a change, for example, your prices are going up, proactively let your customers know and help them to find the right deal for them, rather than waiting for the price increase to hit.
Provide Rewards
Everyone loves a reward and insurance customers are no different.
Each time your customer renews their policy, reward them. Depending on your budget and the value you place on the individual customer, this could be anything from money off other services to a restaurant gift card.
Your customers will love receiving an additional extra simply for renewing their policy and keeping their custom with you and rewards are a great incentive to help you retain as many leads as possible.
When issuing rewards it’s not just about what you can afford, think carefully about what that customer would likely appreciate.
In Conclusion
A massive part of building a successful insurance business is capturing, converting, and retaining leads.
The tips in this article can all be implemented to help you attract and retain customers that will stick with your business for years to come.