4 Ways to Generate Leads that Aren't Client Referrals

Learn how to get more leads in your sales pipeline effectively.

For many health and life insurance agencies, growth is the goal. However, we often hear that one of the top challenges insurance agencies face is lead generation.

Many agents are already utilizing client referrals—and those are highly effective! While referrals are a powerful lead source, it shouldn’t be the only way you generate leads. Here are four other ways insurance agencies can generate leads that aren’t client referrals.

1. Paid Media Advertising

Sales and marketing should work hand-in-hand. Marketing generates and nurtures leads, and then passes them on to sales for conversion. Some highly effective forms of digital marketing include: 

• Paid online advertising, also known as paid media
• Content marketing 
• Organic social media marketing 
• Email marketing

While all forms of digital marketing are great lead generators for insurance agencies, we’re going to focus on an efficient driver of highly-qualified leads in this blog: paid media advertising.

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Types of Paid Media Ads:

There are a few different types of paid ads that are relevant to lead generation for insurance agencies. 

Paid Search Ads: These ads are run on search engines through Google Ads (pictured below), Bing Ads, and more. When a user searches for “best insurance agency,” for example, you can “bid” on that phrase (also known as a keyword), and pay to have your agency placed at the top of search results, above competitors and other results.

Display Ads: Display (banner) ads are created with a static or animated image, URL, and accompanying copy. You may see these on webpages in banner locations, sidebars, or within the page’s copy. Upon clicking a display ad, users are taken to its corresponding landing page. 

Pro tip: Use the remarketing feature in your display ad campaigns to get your agency in front of people who have recently visited your website but didn’t complete a conversion.

Social Media Ads: You can also run ads on social media platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. These advertisements are integrated into the user’s feeds so that they appear as regular posts. Note: Each platform has their own types of ads and specifications.

Local Service Ads (LSAs): LSAs are a great way to reach customers on a local level. These are location-based ads run on Google that follow a “pay-per-lead” model, meaning that you only get charged if a user contacts you through your LSA.

Most of the above advertising methods follow a pay-per-click model. This means that advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. Essentially, it’s a way to bring high-quality visits to your site, rather than competing to earn visits organically.

Pro tip: Use branded content, like articles, podcasts, videos, and more, to grab your target audience’s attention, build awareness, and provide value. This is a smart way to advertise your brand without being overly promotional.

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If you want to start a paid advertising campaign, here is a brief, five-step outline of the process:

• Create an ad for social media or search
• Design a landing page for the viewer to “land” on once they click your ad
• Set a budget for the ad
• Select your targeted audience (based on gender, age, location, profession, etc.)
• Run the ad and watch the leads pour in!

Pro tip: A landing page is where you’d put your customizable AgencyBloc lead form to capture your visitors’ information and have the chance to convert them to clients. This can be the homepage, testimonials page, or a page with gated content, for example. Make sure your lead form is optimized for conversion.

2. Professional Partnerships

Developing mutually-beneficial partnerships with other professionals is another great tactic to generate leads without spending tons of time searching for them. 

For example, as an insurance agency, you can partner with a wealth management company. Then, when they have clients in need of your services that fit your criteria, they can send them your way. You can do the same when you have a client who needs their services and fits their criteria.

Networking is a great way to build these partnerships. It allows you to connect with like-minded individuals who could be assets down the road. You can do this by: 

• Attending tradeshows
• Giving presentations
• Joining local associations 
• Attending local industry meetings
• Attending national industry conferences

These partnerships don’t have to be solely within your own industry as a life and health insurance agent. You also want to branch out and meet other professionals in adjacent or completely different industries like property & casualty (P&C) insurance, financial services, healthcare, real estate, and more.

3. Lead Purchasing

Sometimes, your lead generation strategy as an insurance agent may include buying leads from a vendor. If you choose this route, be sure to carefully vet the vendor you’re buying from – you want to ensure the leads you’re buying are worthwhile; otherwise, it can be a waste of your time and money. 

Look at the vendor’s different lead types and levels to decide what’s best for you – these allow you to find the right fit for your budget while not compromising quality. Buying leads this way is significantly different than buying a list of cold leads, as cold leads have potentially never heard of you and may not even be in the market for insurance.

If you have an agency management system (AMS), check to see which lead generation companies they’ve integrated or partnered with. AgencyBloc integrates directly with a variety of lead vendors and has a Zapier integration. Additionally, AgencyBloc has an Open API, which can allow you to connect with more third-party vendors, like lead vendors. This enables you to seamlessly bring the leads you buy from those vendors into our AMS. Plus, you can set up automated workflows to alert you when new leads come in so you can follow up instantly.

4. Host Q&A Sessions

Informational sessions about life and health insurance can give you a chance to earn your prospects’ trust, get your name out there, and meet with a large group of your ideal clientele face-to-face. For example, you could visit a retirement home during Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) to answer resident questions and potentially earn their business.

When you host these sessions, come prepared with a professional presentation and business cards. These free, pre-designed templates can help you create assets that make an impact:

• Business Card Templates
• PowerPoint Templates for Your Next Presentation

You will also want to bring pamphlets, carrier-specific handouts, and a folder for attendees to put all of these in.

Optimize Lead Management With AgencyBloc

By incorporating different methods into your lead generation strategy, you’re more likely to increase the number of leads you’re bringing into your book of business. 

Keep in mind that regardless of how you acquire leads, you need to court your prospects and give them the attention they need – which is where lead nurturing comes in. With AgencyBloc’s Automated Workflow, you can nurture your lead from prospect to client and stay top-of-mind with consistent, valuable communication. 

In addition, you can also track your most profitable lead sources through the Dashboard Analytics feature to make informed decisions on where to focus your resources. Then, once leads are in your funnel, you can utilize AgencyBloc’s Sales Pipeline to manage the sales process and improve your chances of conversion. These are just some of the features that our robust, industry-specific AMS has to help your insurance agency thrive.

This blog was originally published on January 10, 2017, and has been most recently updated and republished on September 27, 2022.

Posted by Allison Babberl on Wednesday, September 28, 2022 in Lead & Sales Management