Agent’s Guide to Exclusive Life Insurance Leads and Others

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How are leads delivered to agents?

We use a dynamic lead delivery system that will automatically email your leads in real time as they are generated or via live transfer.

What we have found is many lead vendors in the insurance industry are not utilizing technology to maximize how quickly agents can receive their leads. For example, someone might try and sell you final expense leads from Facebook and they are manually emailing you the lead spread sheet every day.

This is a major problem because one of the biggest factors of success working any type of lead is speed to dial. You really need to push every lead vendor to send you the leads in real time. This type of delivery is possible for every type of lead with maybe the exception of direct mail.

In instances where lead vendors cannot deliver leads in real time, we allow them to utilize our proprietary lead management software which drastically improves the agent experience.

How dynamic lead delivery works?

As soon as the prospect says YES or clicks the submit button on the online lead form, that should trigger the lead to hit your inbox, CRM, or text alert.

This is accomplished using a lead management software that receives the lead and matches it to your profile which can be customized with many filters.

Below are some of the common filters you can setup to target the types of leads you want to purchase.

• Client age
• Zip code
• Birth month
• County
• Keyword lead was generated on
• Landing page lead was generated on
• time of day lead was generated
• full data or partial data
• Specific plan request
• Existence of phone number (some leads don’t have phone numbers and some agents don’t want to buy those, which is okay)
• Client only wants face-to-face meeting
• Client only wants to speak to an agent over the phone

As you can see, you have endless options for how you can filter the types of leads when using technology to generate and deliver in real time. This is extremely helpful if you’re selling life insurance over the phone or any other type of insurance over the phone.

What are exclusive life insurance leads?

Exclusive life insurance leads are leads that are only sold to you. Said another way, they are never sold to anyone other than the original buyer.

It’s common question many agents have and exclusive leads can come in the following types.

• Direct Mail
• Telemarketed
• Internet
• Facebook
• Other social platforms

What are the benefits of buying exclusive life insurance leads?

I’d like to hope this is self explanatory, but the biggest benefit of having an exclusive lead vs. a shared lead is less competition. Agents will often pay higher prices for exclusive leads because data shows they convert better or they just don’t want to deal with customers that have already spoken to someone.

Are the leads I’m buying exclusive?

YES, we only sell exclusive leads and they are never resold.

This is always such a sensitive topic for agents and we’re equally as sensitive.

Clearly we can’t control if a consumer fills out multiple forms or cards, but we can definitively tell you that once they respond to our campaign, they are never routed to anyone except you.

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How much do exclusive life insurance leads cost?

Exclusive life insurance lead costs vary based on the type of lead. Below are some ranges in cost that we have seen over the years for the various types of exclusive life leads.

• Fixed Cost Direct Mail: $40-$50 per lead
• Direct Mail Campaigns: Postage and 1st and 3rd class mail clearly contribute to the cost, but you can expect to buy exclusive direct mail campaigns in the ballpark of $475 per 1000 mailers. There are programs that advertise much less and in those cases you need to make sure you’re getting first class mail.
• Telemarketed: Exclusive telemarketed lead costs often vary by volume. For example, our lead costs start at $19 per lead with a 20 order minimum. We offer volume discounts which gets prices as low as $12 per lead. This is very common for any vendor that sells telemarketed leads. Other companies we have seen that offer these types of discounts are Lead Heroes and Quantum Lead Solutions.
• Facebook:We have found exclusive Facebook leads to be readily accessible around $20-$27 per lead based on the vendor and process. The biggest reason for the difference in price is the process in which the leads are generated. For example, are the leads generated through Facebook forms or custom landing pages with custom follow up process to further increase the lead quality

The other way to pay for leads is buy using an auction system.

Here’s how it works.

Step 1: Set up a profile and determine your criteria of the types of leads you are willing to purchase.
Step 2: Set up your maximum bid you are willing to pay for the leads that match your profile settings.
Step 3: Fund your account. For example, if the maximum price you are willing to pay is $20 per lead, fund your account with $400 and every time a lead hits the system and matches to your profile, your balance will reduce by the price you pay for that lead.
Step 4: Work your leads quickly, make sales, and keep your lead balance full to ensure you don’t experience delays in real time lead delivery.

Based on how much you define you are willing to pay, the system will compare all the buyers who match the same category and then automatically place that lead to the highest bidder.

Can you get a discount on exclusive life insurance leads if you are licensed in multiple states?

The number of states doesn’t by default qualify you for a discount, but it can certainly help and here’s why.

Having licenses in multiple states means your sales market is much larger. If you’re selling over the phone full time, the rule of thumb to follow is 20 leads per day per agent. This means you will be purchasing leads at a higher volume than say the local agent only working a couple zip codes.

Agents ask us all the time, “is it possible to buy life insurance leads in bulk”? And our answer is always the same, it depends.

If you are selling over the phone and require a larger amount of leads each week, then you definitely need to let your vendors know that you would like a discount for ordering bulk insurance leads.

If you’re buying leads for life insurance agents on your team, you should definitely leverage that volume to negotiate a discount.

Other ways to get discounts on leads

One of the other popular ways you can get discounts on leads is by working with an IMO that offers discount in exchange for your production commitments. We work with some select channel partners and can happily connect you with those who will offer lead discounts for contracted agents.  A good industry colleague of mine, David Duford consistently is keeping up with lead opportunities in the industry as well and may be able to help with discounted insurance leads.

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What is an exclusive life insurance leads aggregator?

Aggregators are marketing companies that specialize in selling insurance leads of all types.

For example, lead aggregator 1 builds relationships with the top 10 personal finance blogs and negotiates a way to put a quoting engine on their websites. When their website visitors complete a quote request form, the aggregator pays that website owner a per lead fee and turns around and sells the lead to you.

It’s not uncommon for some aggregators to have partnerships that are generating more than 2000 exclusive insurance leads per day. Some of the more common aggregators include Precise Leads, Cege Media, Excel Impact, and Inside Response. Of course there are many others, but those are some of the bigger players we have come across.

How do internet insurance leads work?

We love working internet leads as well. In fact, we own a couple other companies that solely focus on generating internet based life insurance leads, so we can tell you all about it!

But, you first need to understand the best way to work internet leads before shelling out your credit card to someone.

We find internet leads are best used in conjunction with a dialer system to ensure you can contact the lead within seconds or minutes of the prospect completing the online form.

If you do not contact quickly, the chances of making contact reduce by as much as 90%

We only feel comfortable selling internet leads to insurance agents and agencies that can show us they have the infrastructure to properly work the leads, otherwise you’ll be disappointed, and nobody wins.

If you’re interested in talking about an internet lead campaign, we can certainly have that discussion and help you get setup with the proper elements to maximize your results.

What is an internet lead?

An internet lead is the result of a prospect submitting a quote request or request for more information regarding insurance.

Examples of internet insurance leads include the following:

• Mortgage Protection
• Term life
• Whole life
• Indexed Universal Life
• Health Insurance
• Medicare Supplements
• Homeowners
• Auto Insurance
• Commercial Insurance
• Buy Sell Funding
• Key Man Funding
• Burial Insurance
• Deferred Compensation
• Executive Bonus Plans
• Tax-Free Retirement
• Foreign National Life Insurance

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Why agents believe internet leads suck? 😉

This is a great question!

The number one reason agents are not successful with internet leads is because they lack the correct process and infrastructure to properly work an internet lead.

Here’s what I mean.

The internet makes it easy to shop for anything online, so it’s not crazy to believe that maybe the person who filled out your form is also filling out another.

The key is how quickly are you attempting to connect with the lead as soon as you receive it?

If you’re not calling the lead within seconds of receiving it, you run a major risk of losing that opportunity to another agent working for a company with a well oiled machine designed to maximize their speed to dial.

The companies that win working internet leads have a process in place that dials the lead within seconds of the prospect hitting the submit button. From there, they have a work flow of touch points to keep reaching out to the client via calls, texts, and emails.

If you’re not setup to work internet leads correctly, then our suggestion is don’t waste your money.

You need to set yourself up for success, otherwise, you’ll fall into the category of agents that believe internet leads suck…and they definitely don’t!

Do insurance leads really work?

Yes!

Depending on what agency you’re working for, some do not utilize the power of leads and solely rely on natural networking your friends, family, and referrals.

We have hundreds of agents that purchase leads from us on a weekly basis because it provides them the foundation each week to have enough people to talk to.

Their goal is to have the conversation and from their they establish credibility and set appointments.
Leads aren’t for everyone, but some agents would rather not have to rely on selling to friends and family to get started selling insurance.

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How quickly will I receive my leads?

Lead delivery time depends on the area we are running the lead campaigns. In most cases leads are delivered within one week.

There might be instances where it takes longer due to competition or state laws, but we try our best to deliver within 7 days.

How to generate insurance leads online?

• Buy. The first way to generate insurance leads online is to simply buy them from other lead providers that have already built the foundation or have a process in place. This is the quickest way to generate insurance leads online. The other way would be to run your own google pay per click campaigns or utilize ads on social media platforms such as Facebook.
• Build. This is where you would need to decide what type of platform you want to build online to start building an audience and generating leads. Some of the ways you can generate insurance leads online is buy building a website, starting a blog, creating a YouTube channel, moderating a social media group, etc. The key here is you need to build something and stick to it. Find what you’re good at and focus there. For example, if you’re a great writer, then I would consider a blog or a social media group. If you’re a great speaker, then definitely consider a YouTube channel or video blog on social media.

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Are exclusive life insurance leads difficult to generate?

Developing exclusive insurance leads can take time, regardless if it’s a life, home, or auto lead. Below are some of the ways you can make your own insurance leads.

Create a custom direct mail piece

You can do this by working with a mail house and using their various templates to add your own messaging. From there, the mail house will help get your piece formatted correctly and coordinate shipping it out to your target market.

Start a blog

This is a great way to make your own leads, but it takes time. Blogging takes consistency and unless your patient, it’s probably not the best strategy for you. If you decide to start your own insurance blog, you’ll want to make sure you are collecting email address, communicating consistently, writing consistently, and utilizing a quote engine to allow your readers to request quotes directly from you.

You can learn more about running a successful insurance blog here.

Run paid internet campaigns

We always tell agents there are two ways to attack lead generation. First, you can build a process such as creating an online community or starting a blog as mentioned above. Second, you can start paid internet campaigns using google or social media accounts such as Facebook or Instagram. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily difficult to develop your own exclusive leads, but it’s usually not very cost effective and here’s why. If you have zero experience generating leads, then you’re going to have a rough learning curve which will take time away from selling and driving revenue to your business. Some agents can certainly manage their time, but most cannot. With that being the case, many agents will just end up working with someone who already knows how to setup and manage lead campaigns.

How to generate insurance leads on YouTube?

YouTube is the second largest search engine to google and a highly underutilized platform for insurance agents for lead generation.

What we suggest is building your personal brand on YouTube based on value. Make sure every video you create provide actionable takeaways for your viewers so you can begin to build your credibility.

The other thing about generating insurance leads on YouTube is that you need to have some knowledge of content marketing. Due to YouTube being a search engine, it’s imperative you’re taking the time to create a detailed description of your video using strategic keywords to help your videos show up in search.