Agent & Advisor Stuff

Insurance Leads – Where To Buy Them

Today I want to cover a polarizing issue among agents — shared insurance leads.

In recent years I’ve worked with many providers and have gotten a pretty good system in place to help my clients pull in a positive return with shared leads.

I mentioned the topic is polarizing because finding a combination of decent sources and working them in the right manner is the key to making them work.

Most comments you’ll find online about lead companies is pretty harsh.  This is understandable.  If you spend your marketing dollars and don’t have success few will actually blame themselves for failure even though that is the case more often than not.

You’ll be hard pressed to find a lot of positive reviews out there because…well….agents having success don’t really want to have any more competition.

So, this weekend I was talking to a buddy I’ve worked with in recent years that lives just a bit north of me in The Woodlands.

His name is Kevin Howard and it pains me to say that he can run circles around me when it comes to Internet leads.  He is absolutely fanatical about testing and measuring everything he does and it really pays off.

He told me about a website he’s been working on that I think is a great resource at InsuranceLeadReviews.com.  The site features over 18 real insurance lead review profile pages and he said he’s got more coming.

I really like what he also did with the comparison chart on the front page.  He has things broken down by line and also throws in some tips and promos.

It’s a really cool implementation and I think every agent should check it out.  There is nothing to buy and no sign up required so it’s free as it gets.  If you have a moment, please let me know what you think.

Robert

A Few Recommended Resources For Agents

Well I got a bit off track with a side project but I’m back and hope to be keeping a regular schedule. That said, this site is basically a personal journal of things I want to get written down (much of it for my own use) so there might be an erratic pace to my posting from time to time.

While talking with other agents I find myself mentioning and recommending other sites and organizations so I figured I’d keep a log of for everyone that may stumble upon this site as well.

Here are a few I’ve recommended over the past few weeks.

Insurance-Forums.net – This is the biggest agent forum on the web and it is packed with tons of info. Sadly I’m much more of a lurker but I’ve always had intentions to get more active. Some topics need to be taken with a grain of salt. While there is good info to be found there is also quite a bit of negativity. Be skeptical and take it for what it is…a web forum. I don’t have much activity there because I’ve been busy running my business. I love the resource but do preface that with the notion that hanging out on web forums can be very counterproductive to your business.

InsuranceLeads101.com – This is Courtney’s side project site detailing his experiences building an agency with internet leads being a major source of business.  This guy has built a very strong Farmers agency and has tons of first-hand experience.

ThinkAdvisor.com – Formerly ProducersWeb, ThinkAdvisor is a nice resource for life and health agents as well as financial pros.

AutoInsuranceLeadsReview.com – This is a newer site a buddy of mine (hat tip Mark) actually mentioned to me. He knows one of the guys, Sam Neely, who helped make it and they are big in P&C, specifically auto. Pretty slick, I’m a sucker for side by side comparisons.

LifeInsuranceLeads.com – I talked with a guy working on this one a few weeks ago. They currently have a life insurance lead recommendation service but are working on an exclusive and post in marketplace for life pros. Sounds like it’s going to be pretty cool. I like the niche approach.

That will do it for now. I’ve got a lot more to get written down and will probably update this post. If anyone reading this wants to add a resource just leave a comment.

Thanks!

Rob

Senior Insurance Sales List Guide

Marketing insurance and financial products to the senior market can be a challenge for newcomers.  While the older generations are certainly warming up to technology, it is important to utilize traditional and comfortable outlets to reach a broad section of the market.

To do this I like to utilize marketing lists which can be used for both direct mail and cold calling (if scrubbed against the DNC).  Mail and phone are both channels that perform well with seniors due in large part because they have more time to read the mail, talk on the phone and take in-person appointments.

Regardless of how a marketing sales list is used I wanted to write this short guide for those of you looking to buy list for a specific senior product.

For starters I suggest testing multiple list providers.  Some will have rigid filters and fields and others will offer a lot more flexibility.  Most of them will have similar data from various sources, much of which is aggregated public data and data from credit reporting agencies.

What is important is the accuracy of the data which is most often related to when it was collected.  Look for an accuracy guarantee of at least 90% or higher.

When buying a list I like to get as many fields as possible for cross promoting, custom filtering and for informational talking points.  Most list providers will offer the primary filtered fields along with name, gender, postal info and carrier route at a minimum.  Additional non-filtered fields that may or may not be offered can include age, date of birth, homeowner/renter, length at residence, marital status, children (age), dwelling size, home value, income, net worth, number of vehicles,  and household size.  There are actually many other fields that vary across list providers but these are all typically in the service’s master file.

Senior Product Filters for Sales Lists

This list offers some of my preferred filters for senior market products.  I created it as a base starting point to narrow the audience.  You can filter additional fields to narrow down your ideal prospect even more.

Final Expense

Age: 60-80
Income: Under $75,000

Medicare

Age: 64-80
Income: $20,000 to $90,000

Notes: Marketing regulations prohibit cold calling for Medicare Advantage products so if you can get a lower cost for a list without phone numbers go for it.  If you plan to sell Medicare supplement products or promote alternative products first you may want to elect to keep the phone numbers.

T65

Date of Birth: Turning 65 birth date ranging 3 months before and after your send data (Tight Targeting)
Age: 64-65 (Broad Targeting)
Income: Less Than $100,000

Annuity

Age: 45-70
Income: More Than $50,000

Long Term Care

Age: 45-70
Income: More Than $40,000
Marital Status: Married

Again, these are just personal suggestions.  Feel free to tweak or add your own filters to meet your preferences.  I hope it helps you.

For those of you that might need a bit more info before jumping into senior products and marketing sources you can find some good info to get you on your way here, here, here and here.