Not only have some states opened up the health insurance marketplace but there are 33 million newly unemployed people who are eligible to sign up for health insurance, even in states that don’t open up until Open Enrollment. As you know, sudden unemployment is a qualifying event, which enables people to sign up outside the open enrollment period. So are many other events, like pregnancy.
The number of jobless Americans is only expected to rise over the summer months and it will not be surprising if there are record numbers of pregnancies after lockdown. Open Enrollment is also only a few months away. Shoppers are researching what their health insurance options are now so it’s an especially important time for you to consider how to generate health insurance leads.
If you’re hoping that shoppers will come to you, you may be lucky enough to sell policies this way, but think of all the opportunities you’re missing by not actively seeking out health insurance leads. We have some ideas for you on how to get ahead despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
How to Generate Leads for Health Insurance
The sage advice used to be that it’s a numbers game and that you ought to put yourself in contact with as many people as possible. Join clubs, attend networking events. Hand out your business cards at every opportunity. Some successful insurance agents parked themselves at their local Starbucks, where they made it a point to be as social as possible and in turn offer free quotes. Everyone you meet knows more people, they said, but what about now that people are self-isolating to avoid the coronavirus? How is it possible to keep meeting new people when everyone is social-distancing?
Generating Leads Organically
We understand that things have changed. There are still ways you can generate leads organically, and more than ever that means creating traffic for your website. First, you’ll need to create a website, which doesn’t have to be a very difficult task at all. Next, you’ll need to create content. The more content you generate and the more traffic you bring to your website, the higher the chances that people will contact you for a quote.
In order to be most effective, you’ll want to use keywords and phrases in your content, which will bring consumers to the types of insurance you sell, like “individual health insurance,” “commercial health insurance” and “buy health insurance” as well “how to buy health insurance.”
Creating traffic for a website doesn’t happen overnight or after publishing one article. Articles often pick up traffic as they age, but only if you’re creating fresh content regularly, so don’t create a website and let it just sit and gather dust. Even if you decide to buy most of your leads, you should still invest some time in creating a web page that tells shoppers a little bit about you.
Health Insurance Leads
Organic traffic to your website alone will probably not yield enough business for your agency to survive so avoid placing your entire marketing budget in that project. You’ll want to set aside a substantial amount of money each month to buy health insurance leads.
You may spend anywhere between $7 to $10 per shared lead, which is very economical, especially if you consider how much you’d be spending to buy a potential client a cup of coffee at Starbucks. However, shared leads are also being approached by several agents too so your probability of closing the sale is lower than if you buy exclusive health insurance leads.
Exclusive insurance leads can cost over $25 per lead, but with these calls you’re not competing with other agents (or too many agents, if they shopped elsewhere). It makes sense that these leads cost more because there is little to no competition. The probability of making the sale is quite high.
Aged health insurance leads are the most cost effective leads you can buy. Most agents give up on a lead after a week or two, so you may even be the only agent reaching out to this customer if the lead is 30, 60 or 90 days old.
The lag in time doesn’t mean that the leads are not interested in buying anymore. Sometimes, customers pull back and stop answering their phones after the initial wave of interest from agents. Reaching out after the lead has “gone cold” could very well end in a sale. See if you can be the exclusive agent on a list of aged leads, and you may have an especially strong return on investment. But this is only advisable if you have an auto dialer and lots of patience.
On the other end of the spectrum, you can buy health insurance leads live transfer calls, which are expensive but often well worth it due to such a high close ratio. Because the shopper is transferred to you after speaking with a call center agent, they are poised to make a purchase and often will if approached correctly by the health insurance agent on the line. While live transfers are the priciest, they often yield the most successful results.
How to Get Health Insurance Leads
There are many insurance lead providers, but you should only work with an insurance technology company that has a strong health insurance lead program and some experience working with health agents. As with any kind of machine learning, the implemented technology gets smarter and more accurate over time, so you’re best off working with a company that has been around for a few years.
The right health insurance lead sources will also partner you with an account manager who will guide you on how to purchase health insurance leads and which combination of leads will suit your needs and budget. The best health insurance lead companies want you to succeed and will ensure that you’re credited for leads that come to you with the wrong information. They will also have good reviews and testimonials from their existing clients.
