Marketing Strategies With Largest ROI

[LMGInsurance]

So, yesterday was my first day prospecting as an independent health and life agent. I focused yesterday on health although I plan to transition over into life sales since the health industry is slowly dwindling away. I did a mixture of premium and qualified leads and live transfers, as well as spent about two hours cold calling. I sold one health insurance policy. The sale was from a live transfer. I looked in my back office and the cost of the live transfer broke even with the commission so technically I didn't make any money yesterday. In fact, I lost money because I realized that my license in Maryland expired so I had to apply for a new license and pay the licensing fees for the deal to process. I'm in the process of setting up my website and social media accounts for my agency. I have outsourced this to a marketing company. Judging from what happened yesterday, I feel discouraged. So, I was wondering what marketing techniques have the largest ROI if you had to put them in order from largest ROI to lowest ROI. I started a list below in no particular order, feel free to add.

Please put in order from your personal experience. That way I can know where to focus my efforts.

Seminars
Aged Leads
Premium or Qualified Leads
Live Transfers
Cold Calling
Direct Mail Marketing
E-mail Marketing
Business Referral Partnerships
Client Referrals
Website Leads
Social Media Marketing
Community Service
Business Organizations (ie. Chamber of Commerce, BNI)
Local Marketing (ie. shopping cart signs, bus stop benches)
Affiliations (ie. Alumnae Networks, Fraternity/Sorority)
In-House Telemarketers
Door Knocking

Please tell me which ones have decent ROI on investment so I can develop my marketing plan so I can focus my efforts and not be running around willy-nilly everywhere like I am now and wasting money and time. Your input is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Mmeyers_DM]

I think you are on the right track! For us, email marketing and social media marketing prove to be top ROI producing channels.

Here are some stats from our company blog on email marketing and social media marketing:

Social Media

- 92% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses. (Social Media Examiner)

- By spending as little as 6 hours per week, over 66% of marketers see lead generation benefits with social media. (Social Media Examiner)

- 74% of marketers who spend 40+ hours using social media per week earn new business through their efforts. (Social Media Examiner)

Email Marketing

- 247 billion emails are sent every day. This equates to one email every 0.00000035 seconds. Email Marketing Reports)

- For every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return is $44.25. (emailexpert)

- When marketed through email, consumers spend 138% more than people who don’t receive email offers. (Convince and Convert)

 

[Chazm]

So, yesterday was my first day prospecting as an independent health and life agent. I focused yesterday on health although I plan to transition over into life sales since the health industry is slowly dwindling away. I did a mixture of premium and qualified leads and live transfers, as well as spent about two hours cold calling. I sold one health insurance policy. The sale was from a live transfer. I looked in my back office and the cost of the live transfer broke even with the commission so technically I didn't make any money yesterday. In fact, I lost money because I realized that my license in Maryland expired so I had to apply for a new license and pay the licensing fees for the deal to process. I'm in the process of setting up my website and social media accounts for my agency. I have outsourced this to a marketing company. Judging from what happened yesterday, I feel discouraged. So, I was wondering what marketing techniques have the largest ROI if you had to put them in order from largest ROI to lowest ROI. I started a list below in no particular order, feel free to add. Please put in order from your personal experience. That way I can know where to focus my efforts. Seminars Aged Leads Premium or Qualified Leads Live Transfers Cold Calling Direct Mail Marketing E-mail Marketing Business Referral Partnerships Client Referrals Website Leads Social Media Marketing Community Service Business Organizations (ie. Chamber of Commerce, BNI) Local Marketing (ie. shopping cart signs, bus stop benches) Affiliations (ie. Alumnae Networks, Fraternity/Sorority) In-House Telemarketers Door Knocking Please tell me which ones have decent ROI on investment so I can develop my marketing plan so I can focus my efforts and not be running around willy-nilly everywhere like I am now and wasting money and time. Your input is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

When you say health, do you mean ACA plans? Or Medicare supplements?
If it's the latter, then you most likely will make a nice ROI over the 6+ years the client is on the plan. Assuming you aren't captive and you keep in touch with the client.

One Med supp sale might next $250 FYC but you'll get that for at least 5 more years, or a total of $1500.

If it's an ACA plan, then God help your soul.

 

[DHK]

We need to subdivide that list. Not everything on that list should be measured in ROI (Return on Investment). That requires capital.

Some of these should be measured more on ROE (Return on Energy) and ROS (Return on Skills).

You see, if you're a skilled cold-caller, you can spend very little, use your skills and energy and get great results.

However, direct mail for seminar leads... you need good ad writing copy, attractive stationery, and a bunch of other stuff to make that work... all of which does not guarantee you a definitive result.

Please put in order from your personal experience. That way I can know where to focus my efforts.

Seminars (ROI & ROS - ad copy)
Aged Leads (ROS/ROE)
Premium or Qualified Leads (ROI - because they are promising they are "good" by some standard)
Live Transfers (ROI - same as above)
Cold Calling (ROS/ROE)
Direct Mail Marketing (ROI)
E-mail Marketing (ROI & ROS - ad copy)
Business Referral Partnerships (ROI, ROE, ROS - it takes all three AND time)
Client Referrals (ROS)
Website Leads (ROI, ROS - ad copy)
Social Media Marketing (eh... )
Community Service (eh... )
Business Organizations (ie. Chamber of Commerce, BNI) (eh... )
Local Marketing (ie. shopping cart signs, bus stop benches) (really? Well, I did read about things like this from Postema Marketing Group - doing this to get recognition, but did not directly relate to getting business.)
Affiliations (ie. Alumnae Networks, Fraternity/Sorority) (Uh... not unless you can get the chapter president or someone to 'endorse you'?)
In-House Telemarketers (ROI and ROS of THEIR skills)
Door Knocking (ROE & ROS)

Please tell me which ones have decent ROI on investment so I can develop my marketing plan so I can focus my efforts and not be running around willy-nilly everywhere like I am now and wasting money and time. Your input is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

The #1 source is getting client referrals. However, if you don't have the skills to make the asking comfortable for YOU as well as for them... then it won't work... for you.

Profiles Of Success - What It Takes To Be A Top Earner | InsuranceNewsNetMagazine.com

I'd recommend Sandy Schussel's Mastering Client Referrals mp3's for $37. It is the LEAST expensive and the MOST effective method to learn to ask for professional introductions.

https://sandyschussel.com/products/

But before you can ask clients for referrals... you have to GET clients. And since you're focusing more on "health but slowly transitioning to life" (I'd make that move faster than not)... I'm not sure how to help you there.

Here's the secret:
- What problems does a large market have, that you can help them solve with your most profitable products? Become a problem solver, not merely a product salesperson and you'll get more appointments and more people interested in who you are and what you do.

 

[MaxBerry]

Please put in order from your personal experience. That way I can know where to focus my efforts.

Seminars
Aged Leads
Premium or Qualified Leads
Live Transfers
Cold Calling
Direct Mail Marketing
E-mail Marketing
Business Referral Partnerships
Client Referrals
Website Leads
Social Media Marketing
Community Service
Business Organizations (ie. Chamber of Commerce, BNI)
Local Marketing (ie. shopping cart signs, bus stop benches)
Affiliations (ie. Alumnae Networks, Fraternity/Sorority)
In-House Telemarketers
Door Knocking

Please tell me which ones have decent ROI on investment so I can develop my marketing plan so I can focus my efforts and not be running around willy-nilly everywhere like I am now and wasting money and time. Your input is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

I'll give you my top 3 and an honorable mention lol this is from my experience when I was an agent and just what I know works for marketing insurance.

I'll start out with things NEVER to do. I guarantee someone is going to say "that worked well for me!" in my opinion these are useless in this highly saturated competitive space.

Never do:
1. Direct mail - I just believe unless your going to follow up on all those people you mailed it's extremely expensive.
CAVEAT: If you send personalized letters with great copywriting (not standard compliant junk lol) in a normal envelope introducing yourself with no carrier specific branding and follow up with phone calls that might work as it should only cost you some paper and stamps

2. Local marketing - what you describe as local marketing is billboard, shopping cart signs, and other "branding" unless your the top producer in your entire city and everyone knows you and you have a name to stand behind these pieces of branding are not going to drive people to call you, you have no clue who's seeing them so you can't track and call those people and no one cares when their picking up food from the store, just saying

3. I've never heard anyone have success door knocking for insurance, maybe I'm wrong.

BEST METHODS:

1. Business referral relationships: I used to cold call P/C guys to set up coffee to discuss a strategic partnership. Basically, life insurance is a pain to do yourself lots of long underwriting etc, share your book with me and we'll split the commissions

2. Social media - have to use social media, but more specifically you have to ask everyone you sell to share your page and like your page.

"Look John one thing I always talk to new clients about is the fact that my great service to you is what mainly helps me grow my business. People don't walk into my office and buy insurance like they buy a Big Mac at McDonalds haha I need good clients like you to help me get in front of other people to help, the easiest thing to do is like my Facebook page and share an article I posted the other day, could you do that today?"

If you really want to get creative, do some research on the people that post on your clients wall, then go to your client and say "Hey John I saw Jackie M posted on your wall and it looks like she would be a great client for me, how do you know her" "Oh you were friends since high school?, would you mind if i gave her a call just to see if she'd be willing to see if I can help her like I helped you"

That approach right there literally just came to me I love that early morning caffeine working! Someone test it and tell me if it works.

3. In-house telemarketers - Now, most people are going to say wth is this guy talking about. I own a call center so if you know how to utilize them correctly you will be successful.

Here's how NOT to use in house (or virtual at home) telemarketers

"Hey Mr. Prospect, I'm calling from Davidson insurance agency just wanted to see if you'd be interested in learning a little bit about how life insurance can help you protect BLAH BLAH BLAH BORING!"

THAT, is not going to work. You want to come in like a ninja. :big grin: Set up a referral website landing page that says something like "Pheonixinsurancematch.com" telling people the site matches them with the top agents in each city.

"Hey Mr. Prospect, I'm calling from Pheonix Insurance Match.com we actually help consumers get the best out of their insurance experience by Matching consumers who are interested with top 3 rated insurance agents in your city, they will call you and you can choose which one to work with, would you be interested in getting a new auto insurance quote or speaking to someone about protecting your family with life insurance?"

Get their information, and your the only guy that calls them...they think the other 2 guys must be flakes.

Legal, of course, compliant if your a captive agent...i have no clue, not at the agency I was at that guy was out for my head 24/7 haha

Ethical, I think yes, your not misleading about the product just about your connection to it, it's a ninja tactic that I should be selling I don't know why I'm giving this stuff away for free haha.


Honorable Mention: BNI

I was a member of BNI for all but 3 weeks, I was in the merchant processing category which was my first mistake. The only people that get leads in BNI consistently are the mortgage person, the commercial lender (a bank), the P/C guy (so if your a P/C guy DEFINITELY JOIN), the realtor, and SOMETIMES the life insurance person.

So p/c absolutely join, life insurance is a bit hard, your going to need to do one on ones and really get people to just give you names of people they know. Don't expect them to regularly go to people and say are you interested in life insurance I know a guy they won't and people aren't interested.


Sorry if that was long winded, let me know if anyone tries that social media tip or the in-house telemarketers tell me how it goes.

Happy Selling!

 

[Zaphat]

Thanks a lot for the thread here! It is very useful indeed. I can also add that everyone who wants to succeed in marketing has to monitor his campaigns. I can recommend you to look for Ringostat service. It allows you to monitor calls from different advertising channels and determine the best one for your needs. It is a very helpful solution