Internet Tire Kickers

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

10 leads a day (not visitors) right off the bat is very good. I wasn't as fortunate.

 

[somarco]

If only 20 of them get approved hey I am ok with that.

Cuts down on the referral business.

 

[ABC]

Cuts down on the referral business.

Not really. I have never had a large amount of referrals from online clients. Now there has been clients from online which did give me a lot of referrals. Its the same situation almost every time. The client lives in a rural community and the local agent/broker is not getting them the best deal. Next thing I know I am writing 5 policies from the same area. Its usually a combination of price reduction and better benefit sales.
I do have a steady stream of referrals coming in but it could always be better.

When it comes to actually 10 leads a day the reason I think I can pull this (mon-fri) is because I have been on the web now 8 years. So my domain names & websites have been indexed in all the search engines. This has a huge impact on natural rankings. Now combine SEO & PPC with this I think I can capture a lot of leads. Right now I have an average of 18 unique IP addresses a day. Of that only 2 are submititing for info. My bounce rate right now is 80%+. This is why I am redevloping the web site to reduce my bounce rate. Bounce rate is when a person comes to the site and leaves after viewing the first page. So if I can get about 40 visitors a day and my bounce rate is 70% I should be in the ball park of 10 leads a day.

 

[motoxxx]

I think that when people get a few calls as well as email directly from their agent they feel like they have to be more honest and that there is someone they have to answer to. Having that connection with the client is important for them so that they have someone that they can go to if they need help, and it helps you maintain your client base and elevate their trust in you.

 

[SkyTower]

I just stopped accepting leads from ProspectZone, I am trying another generator but trying to figure out a more hands on marketing strategy. Or perhaps one with a better ROI

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

Well...the quality of your leads can't go anywhere but up!

 

[MikeLevy]

"I wonder where 4freequotes gets their traffic"

That would be nice to know.

Quantcast tracks that, albeit not perfectly. See the "audience also visits section" to the right. That will give you some insight.

4freequotes.com - Quantcast Audience Profile
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

First, it's so easy to dig up a bunch of places to request a quote from on Google, it's no surprise Internet leads are full of tire kickers. In just a few minutes, I can find 10 sites to get insurance quotes from. There's very little commitment on the part of the prospect, which encourages them to go price shopping.

Now, add to the mix the fact that lead generators usually get paid per lead. Their incentive is to get as many leads through their door as possible because more leads = more money for them.

This leads agents with three choices:

1. Try to play the volume game, responding to as many internet leads as possible as fast as possible.
2. Create your own leads.
3. Track down the lead providers with the best leads through expensive trial and error.

The standard rule for lead generation online is to make it as easy as possible for a prospect to request a quote. While that makes for good usability, I have a feeling it makes for bad leads and tire kickers.

For those of you focusing on Internet leads, what do you think are things you (or a lead generator) can do on a website to improve the quality of each lead? Do you think providing more educational content improves the lead? Making your request-a-quote more complicated so the prospect has to work a little bit?

Thanks,

Aaron

With our leads we find its a bell curve of seriousness. The top 20% are the ones you have the best chance of selling. The bottom 20% are like ghosts, you wonder why they even bothered to fill out the form. They middle 60% is a free-for-all. A good salesman can push some of these into the top 20%, the rest will fall into the bottom. Fortunately, you don't have to sell them all to make a good return on your investment, but your time is valuable and you don't want to be wading through scores of bad leads to produce a sale, even if you can buy them cheap.

As for form complexity, that is a double-edged sword. Too easy and they are not as serious. Too hard and you chase away the busy, successful, people who don't have 15 minutes to fill out a form or who aren't comfortable with entering too much confidential information online. Make the form too long and hard and you get "hard up" prospects without a job and a lot of time on their hands!

Lastly, you are right about volume. Lead generators make money on volume. There is no denying that. But volume has to come from a source. Knowing the source can give you some insight to quality. When it comes to figuring out the source of a websites traffic always check http://www.quantcast.com and examine what the audience also visits and searches for. It's not perfect but it can give you some valuable information.

Likewise, check the traffic sources of their affiliate programs if they have an affiliate program using the same method.

In my opinion, an affiliate program is a red flag. Any source of traffic that uses incentive's is a red flag. I'm not saying that these programs are all bad, but many are and you need to be careful when the red flags are raised

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

why would I contact someone who's using a hotmail account like some 16 year old

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

why would I contact someone who's using a hotmail account like some 16 year old

A hip 16 year old wouldn't be caught dead with a hotmail account man...gmail (on your iPhone) is where it's at!

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

Chris is a Mega Life rep, if I'm not mistaken.

Do you sell leads now Chris?