Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:48 pm Post subject: Marketing tool for all your leads
Agency IQ takes leads from any provider or your own web site and parses them instantly. (Of course you can manually inpt leads as well such as refferals).
It Sends autoresponders and drip emails untill you reach your lead, tracks the leads and much more.
They offer A free two week trial and they take no billing info up front.
Its worth a look.
[www.agencyiq.net]
See the demos ...[http://www.net-lead.net/longdemo1.html]
You are right about newspaper ads, they get very expensive and only serve as a source of getting name recognition if you have a big budget, they don't generate many incoming calls at all.
I have had better advertising results by using some of the small free papers that have free 10-20 word ads and craigslist.
I did have fairly good luck with pole signs but you have to be very carefull when placing those, most towns and cities have ordinances restricting or outright banning of them and I agree that they can ugly a place up, but I was supprised by the results I got when placing them in rural areas at stop signs coming into larger highways.
I also had moderate sucess with take ones, but not in the way I thought I would. I did not get many customers from the brochures themselves but they were great conversation starters when I took them into a business asking to place them..
I have best results with direct mail in rural areas. They dont seem to be as bombarded with junk mail and advertisements as those in urban areas. You might have to drive a little bit further to get to them though...
This has been especially true in the seniors market.
Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 8:12 pm Post subject: Marketing for maximum ROI - Acceptable cost for new customer
Hey guys,
You all seem like agents that are growing your businesses aggressively and trying multiple avenues to grow your client base.
I have a question or two about internet leads and what works best for you.
THIS IS NOT A SALES PITCH TO ANYONE HERE. I'm really trying to get to the bottom of a question I'm pursuing regarding the value of internet leads for insurance agents.
We have a very happy insurance client right now. She had been buying leads from insureme.com and prospectzone.com. She was converting approximately 30 leads for every 500 she purchased. So the average resulting cost per customer was around $200. Not so great when you consider that the average yearly premium revenue is between $200 and $300. (However, it's possible that 50% or more of clients renew each year.)
We created a branded landing page with her agency's info and started running PPC campaigns on the major three search engines. (Google, MSN, and Yahoo) So far she is thrilled with the results for a few reasons:
1. There is 100% relevancy for the lead. It started with her PPC display ad and was consistent all the way through to the follow up call. (vs originating the lead at some comparison engine or non-branded site and then getting the hand off to the agent.)
2. The "exclusive" leads really are 100% exclusive. Her sales team used to get a lot of "I've been called 10 times already today and only filled out one form. Take me off your list!!"
3. The leads we have generated for her are converting a lot better to customers. This is resulting in a much lower CPS (Cost Per Sale) and a sales staff that is happier to do their job. (Getting rejected 470 times out of 500 is kind of demoralizing.)
SO HERE'S THE QUESTION: One can have the above "fantastic" results for a marketing program but if the cost of acquiring a new customer is not reasonable in relation to the revenue from that client then there's no point in performing the marketing activities. So....what's a reasonable Cost Per Sale?
I.e. If your annual premium revenue is $200-$300 is $80 too much to acquire a new customer? (I'm not talking about click costs or lead prices. I'm talking about the actual, eventual cost of getting that customer on board)
I'd love to get some insight into this. We want to take our hard won insight into the insurance vertical and serve an aggressively growing firm from each state but I'm really curious as to what's a universally acceptable ratio for new customer acquisition costs in relation to revenue.
If there is someone here who actually spends money on advertising and is willing to call me with their feedback I'll give them some search engine marketing advice for free in exchange for their insight.
[Mark at 800-928-0326 x 1] Lead Equity.com - President _________________ Register Now to have your Insurance queries solved.
She was converting approximately 30 leads for every 500 she purchased. So the average resulting cost per customer was around $200. Not so great when you consider that the average yearly premium revenue is between $200 and $300.
Are you telling us that this agent called 470 so called "leads" with no positive results and continued to do business with the lead company?
On a two minute phone call, this would mean 940 minutes or almost 16 hours of wasted time and at a minimum value of $80 per hour, that's
$1,280.00 down the drain. This is where most agents make a mistake, they don't count their time. So the cost per customer was much more than $200.
I don't quite understand how you arrived at the "average yearly premium revenue" of $200-$300. Are you referring to P & C insurance?
Quote:
One can have the above "fantastic" results for a marketing program but if the cost of acquiring a new customer is not reasonable in relation to the revenue from that client then there's no point in performing the marketing activities. So....what's a reasonable Cost Per Sale?
If an agent or agency is spending more than 10-15% of commission income in obtaining a new customer, he/she is probably having trouble paying the rent.
The commissions on life and health insurance are greater than those of P&C insurance, so we could spend a little more on "quality" life and/or health leads.
The problem is that there are so many "sign up", "survey", "give us your opinion" forms on the internet, the quality of these leads, to me, is very poor.
If more lead companies would just be up-front and honest about the situation - "Have You Reviewed Your Life Insurance Program Within The Past Two Years? If not, it's probably out of date. If you would like to take advantage of a free, no obligation insurance review by a licensed, professional insurance agent in your hometown, please complete the following short form and we will have an agent call you at your convenience."
Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 5:51 pm Post subject: @Insurance Maze
Quote:
Are you telling us that this agent called 470 so called "leads" with no positive results and continued to do business with the lead company?
On a two minute phone call, this would mean 940 minutes or almost 16 hours of wasted time and at a minimum value of $80 per hour, that's
$1,280.00 down the drain. This is where most agents make a mistake, they don't count their time. So the cost per customer was much more than $200.
Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying. What's more they spent around $4,000 for those leads to convert just 30 of them. Awful, awful, awful! And that doesn't even account for their time as you suggested. Understandably they are much more pleased with the results they're getting from us but that's not that resounding of an endorsement given what their previous experience was.
Quote:
I don't quite understand how you arrived at the "average yearly premium revenue" of $200-$300. Are you referring to P & C insurance?
No. These are Health leads. The agent may not be giving us a clear picture of the real revenue. It only matters to us from the aspect of helping to make sure that the agent is getting a decent ROI for their advertising dollars. It could be more.
Quote:
The problem is that there are so many "sign up", "survey", "give us your opinion" forms on the internet, the quality of these leads, to me, is very poor.
If more lead companies would just be up-front and honest about the situation - "Have You Reviewed Your Life Insurance Program Within The Past Two Years? If not, it's probably out of date. If you would like to take advantage of a free, no obligation insurance review by a licensed, professional insurance agent in your hometown, please complete the following short form and we will have an agent call you at your convenience."
That's great insight. I agree with you that there needs to be differentiation and this is a great way to do. If one is saying what everyone else is then the results are going to be subpar at best.
We promote all sorts of stuff on the internet ethically and effectively. Our modus operandi is to make sure that there is an immediate, response accountable (meaning that there is a measurable positive response for every marketing action), positive ROI for what we do.
We have found that the quality of the opportunity generated is significantly higher when the provider (agent in this case) is controlling their traffic to their own branded page and making sure that the messaging (sales pitch) is aligned with their values and service to their clients.
Thanks for the insight on the percentages for acquiring new clients. Please, anyone else please sound off. I'd like to hear more!
That's great insight. I agree with you that there needs to be differentiation and this is a great way to do. If one is saying what everyone else is then the results are going to be subpar at best.
You will have to excuse me, but you gave me a political response.
Does this mean that your company will be the first company to offer insurance agents quality leads from people who have responded in some way to the need for or desire to review their insurance programs?
I'm interested to find out how what Lead Equity had written is not an advertisement. You may not have meant for it to be, but it came out as such to me.
I prefer sponsorship events. We sponsor at least one event every month that includes our name in the event. Along with the event comes extras that are given out to the participants or attendees to the events. With this we get more eyes seeing our name which will increase the calls. We keep our name out as well with radio campaigns and small newspaper ads. We make calls to as many leads as we can to increase our hit count. I am also hitting the road as much as possible to cold/warm call as many commercial accounts as possible. This is all in a P&C world. I came from the advertising industry and you must spend money to make money. The trick is spending it wisely. In our area referrals are huge and there is no downside to asking everytime you talk to a client which we do.
I'm interested to find out how what Lead Equity had written is not an advertisement. You may not have meant for it to be, but it came out as such to me.
Of course, it's an advertisement. I have ordered many leads over the internet, but basically they are all the same.
Lead generators gather, sell and share the same information.
I'm with you, asking for referrals is the best source of insurance leads and I have seen none better.
I agree that referrals are the best source for insurance leads.
I am a P&C agent and we are big on referrals.
we have participated in a few different lead sources via the internet and have not had much success
You will have to excuse me, but you gave me a political response.
Does this mean that your company will be the first company to offer insurance agents quality leads from people who have responded in some way to the need for or desire to review their insurance programs?
I'm sorry. I just talk too much for my own good. Let me try to give you a real response.
I guess I just agreed with your assessment that the generic sales pitch that lead generators give to visitors/searchers doesn't create a high-quality lead for agents. That's all. I thought the more honest approach you recommended would be different and perhaps lead to a better experience for both the prospect and the agent.
We aren't really doing lead programs like a normal lead company. We're actually creating landing pages for our client that have their specific sales pitch (value proposition). That allows them to be more authentic. I think that's a big part of their experience being better.
Quote:
I'm interested to find out how what Lead Equity had written is not an advertisement. You may not have meant for it to be, but it came out as such to me.
Sorry about that. I can see that. It does sound like I'm really patting myself on the back. We're not a insurance lead company and we're actually not able to take on new customers right now anyways. Once we get down to brass tacks with our current insurance customer and can determine the cost of new customer acquisition is reasonable then we're are considering approaching a few more agencies. I don't think we can do that yet.
I could have made my post a whole lot shorter by asking: We are helping an agent market their business. What is an acceptable cost of sale ration/percentage as a general rule?
Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 4:03 pm Post subject: Normal lead company
Quote:
I would really like to know more about your description of a 'normal lead Co.'
What I mean by that is: We are not a company that generates leads from affiliates, generic lead generation sites, or by purchasing any leads wholesale and then reselling to individual agents and brokerages.
Currently we're working on a flat fee for our insurance customer. We create landing pages for PPC (and email) that are branded with our customer's logo, images, value-proposition, and contact info. We then drive traffic directly that client owned page.
So the differences between what we're doing and what a company like insureme.com does is that we are working for a flat fee and driving traffic directly to the client owned and branded conversion/landing page. (in short)
What's an ongoing challenge, though, is making sure that the cost of a new lead converts to a customer acquisition cost that is acceptable. What's the point of paying any amount for a quality lead if it doesn't convert to a customer that you can make money on. That's what I'm trying to find a benchmark for. (i.e. If a lead costs $12 to generate and you convert 1 out of every ten leads then your customer acquisition cost is $120. That seems high to me.)
