Goal:
I live in a pretty heavily populated city - right between Baltimore and Wash DC. There are thousands of businesses within a short distance from my house.
I think health insurance is a top concern for most people. Most people, if they knew they could better their situation without getting burned would jump on the chance. But that's not what we see - we talk to people day in and day out who we could save a significant amount of money yet choose to stay with what they have.
Why? Fear. Fear of....a lot of stuff - mainly fear that if they switch they'll regret it. With no established name, no reputation and no local presence you're fighting an uphill battle. You can use any marketing tactic you like but it's not gonna build up your name in the community and you are doing nothing to make this business easier for you down the road.
So while most agents are waiting for the next lead to hit their in-box someone one street away is looking for health insurance and don't know they exist. The bottom line is you can buy as many leads as you want - get used to it - you'll be buying them 5 years from now. Referrals from some random deal you closed online will be few and far between.
So my marketing plan is a heavy local focus by:
- Telemarketing local businesses
- Flyers put out in local businesses
- Door hangers for residential
- PPC campaign run locally
- Sponsoring local events
- Ads in local publications
Notice I have no included things like radio or local TV ads. From the research I've done so far those methods are very expensive with low return.
There's a cumulative effect with local marketing and it takes time and patience. Most agents will give up on a local marketing campaign before it ever gets a chance to get off the ground. They think they'll gonna slap out 100 flyers and their phone's gonna ring. Ummmm, no.
Telemarketing Local Businesses
- I use MCS's auto-dialer CRM (click my link on the right for Marketing Campaign Solutions) and now use an exclusive HSA pitch which works well for small biz owners. I can generate 3 solid HSA leads per hour with is a lot.
- I shoot all my leads an instant email and also mail a letter the next day. The letter goes a long way to establish professionalism and legitimacy. It separates me from some "glorified telemarketer agent"
If you're gonna mail a letter don't make it an infomercial and don't beg for business. Stay away from phrases like "I've been trying to reach you" which makes you sound unsuccessful and desperate.
- I wait around three days to call back which makes sure they got the letter. At that time I ascertain level of interest, qualify then set either a physical or web appointment.
Flyers in Local Businesses
When I was new in the business I put out around 1,000 flyers per week - now that I'm off the ground I just put them out when I'm out and about however in the spring I'm going to look into paying someone to put them in businesses.
I used to highlight my website and generate leads but a lot of business owners are not web savvy nor are they going to go online and type in their personal information. I switched to promoting my phone number instead with very good results.
Flyer: http://www.savefile.com/files/1387989
For new agents who really don't want to telemarket and are buying a few leads but not enough to really write a lot of business, print off some flyers and hit the streets. Heck, put on jeans and a shit and just leave 'em with the person behind the counter if you don't want to confront the owner.
Your question:
"But what will the return be?"
My answer:
"Better then the return you'll get sitting in your office staring at your computer."
Doorhangers for Residential
I haven't done these actually in over a year since to be honest, it's tiring to walk up and down townhouse steps for 2 hours - it's like being on a stair master for 2 hours straight and you have to get out 1,000 to see the return.
That being said, if you're new they're cheap - 3 cents a pop at http://doorhangers.com
If you really hate the idea of telemarketing or don't have a lot of money then this very well might be the way to get you off the ground. You'll need a lot of townhouse communities - they do not work in single family home areas since it takes too long to put 'em out.
I slap up 200 per hour in townhomes and it's one deal per 1,000 placed. So 2 hours a day or 10 hours a week is one deal. To be frank, that's a lot of effort for one deal however the cost is $30, your effort is free and the average commission on a deal is $700. So that's $700 for 10 hrs of work and can be done early in the morning so it doesn't distract from your day.
PPC Campaign Run Locally.
I'm running a local pay-per-click campaign with nice results. I'm on the first page with 3 to 5th placement for health insurance quotes keyword at around $7+ per click and a 3 to 1 click to quote request ratio.
That means an exclusive lead is costing me just over $20 which I'll take. I'll keep the campaign going as long as it doesn't cost me more than $200 for a deal - which right now it's looking like about $140 for a deal.
My campaign is local - which means your IP address needs to be in a certain radius of my house for my ad to appear. Again, only going after local business.
Sponsoring Local Events
I've sponsored events before and have been successful each time. However, I always defaulted back into buying leads with the "why should I be out here" concept. That's the wrong concept and had I continued sponsoring local events over the past few years I absolutely would have a name in the community by now.
Also, sitting in your house on the phone all day honestly is boring as shit.
So basically I'm trying to brand myself locally - which is just barely starting to work. A marketing exec told me a couple of years ago that the average person needs to see your name at least 8 times before it registers.
No comments:
Post a Comment