Figuring out how to prospect for insurance leads doesn’t have to be overly complex. Many of the tried-and-true marketing techniques used across industries also work for insurance prospecting.
But insurance agents can’t be everywhere at once and excel at every lead generation strategy. The right prospecting techniques for insurance agents depend largely on knowing where your audience is; LinkedIn might be a better fit than TikTok for finding property & casualty insurance prospects, for example. Once you figure out where your target audience is spending their time online, you need to create your profile and provide something that your audience values, whether that’s informative content or a targeted pitch that addresses a core need.
So, if you’re stuck on how to prospect for insurance leads, consider the following 10 prospecting techniques for insurance agents. These are divided into half inbound and half outbound marketing techniques, which you can experiment with to see what works for your audience. Odds are, a mix of these ideas will help you draw in more prospects.
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How to Prospect for Insurance Leads With Inbound Marketing
If you want to know how to prospect for insurance leads in a way that drives long-term growth, you likely need to do inbound marketing.
“Inbound marketing is a business methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them,” explains Hubspot. The co-founder of Hubspot is considered to have coined the term “inbound marketing,” as Kuno Creative notes.
In other words, inbound marketing is more about getting customers to come to you naturally and asking for your products/services, rather than you pitching them directly. While inbound marketing can take time to work, getting prospects organically interested in your brand can help create stronger leads. You can also build up a stream of leads without having to prospect every day; someone today might find a blog post you wrote a year ago, for instance, click on it, follow your CTA, and (if you have Wheelhouse) fill out an online application for insurance.
Five ways to prospect for insurance leads through inbound marketing include:
#1 Start an SEO-Friendly Blog
Blogging can be a great prospecting technique for insurance agents. Potential customers can learn from you, become aware of your brand, and ultimately get in touch to learn more. Blog posts can be valuable in their own right, but ideally, you can also focus on search engine optimization (SEO) to get people to read your blog. That means doing things like adding phrases (i.e., keywords) to your blog posts that your audience might search for.
#2 Guest Post on Other Blogs/Sites
SEO-friendly blogs can help you draw in an audience of insurance prospects, but you may also want to try to attract audiences elsewhere. Guest posting articles on other sites, such as that of a software vendor your clients use or a news publication they read, can help you get in front of new prospects who can then become aware of your insurance brand. These guest posting sites can get you exposure to audiences that you might not have been able to get in front of otherwise.
#3 Share Social Media Content
Social media can be another good inbound marketing channel when used in a way that adds value to prospects. Don’t just share content that promotes your insurance offerings. Share business advice, helpful articles from other sites, work/life balance tips, or anything else that you think will organically draw in prospects. Think about what would bring value to you as a customer, and then provide that to your own clients.
#4 Launch a YouTube Channel
A smartphone is all you need.
Launching a YouTube channel and creating informative videos, similar to how you might create blog posts that your audience finds valuable, can help solve how to prospect for insurance leads. While you might think of YouTube or other video platforms as something used for entertainment by younger generations, all types of people browse YouTube for all types of purposes. For example, one-third of Baby Boomers “use YouTube to learn about a product or service,” finds a Google survey. (Google owns YouTube.)
These videos don’t have to be overly complex. You could do interview-style clips where you chat with other business owners about their goals, briefly film yourself talking about how to get the most out of insurance policies, share some behind-the-scenes looks at your business travel, etc.
“It may seem like an unnecessary expense saved for the major insurers with million-dollar budgets, but it’s quite the opposite. With a savvy video marketing strategy guiding the way, you can build videos that engage your audience and showcase your insurance agency’s unique advantages,” notes Boosted, an online video creation platform.
#5 Host Events
Hosting events, whether that’s an in-person conference or an online webinar, can be a great way to capture leads. You don’t have to push your products, but by drawing people to your event with topics they find helpful, you can get wide exposure for your brand. You may even be able to directly add new leads by asking webinar attendees when they sign up if they want to be added to your email marketing list.
How to Prospect for Insurance Leads With Outbound Marketing
Outbound marketing sometimes gets a bad rap compared with inbound marketing, but it still can be useful for those wondering how to prospect for insurance leads.
Outbound marketing involves proactively reaching out to consumers to get them interested in a product.
Marketo
Not everyone will naturally come across your inbound marketing efforts, so to reach a wider pool of prospects, you can try to reach people directly through outbound marketing. That said, you don’t have to throw money blindly at ads and other outbound marketing tactics. Focus on what works well to not only draw in more prospects but also find high-quality leads who become insurance customers.
Five more prospecting techniques for insurance agents to consider, following an outbound marketing approach, include the following:
#6 Conduct Cold Outreach
Cold email outreach and cold calling are the top two most effective outbound marketing tactics, according to a survey by Databox, an analytics software company. Just try not to come across as spam.
Identify prospects who are truly a good fit, and find ways to make your cold outreach stand out. For example, you might look at a prospect’s LinkedIn profile. Then mention in a cold email some connection point you have, such as if you used to live in the same area so that your message doesn’t look like it was copied and pasted.
#7 Create Social Media Ads
Social media can work well for both inbound and outbound marketing. If you want to expand your reach as you try to solve how to prospect for insurance leads, social media ads can help you get in front of specific demographics. That way, if you’re selling commercial insurance policies, for example, you can better target executives in a buying position for these policies, rather than, say, those in entry-level roles.
#8 Run Search Ads
While some people consider search ads somewhat of an inbound marketing tactic, these ads can be outbound in the sense that you’re putting your name directly in front of prospects while they’re conducting a search. Semantics aside, search ads can be a key part of how to prospect for insurance leads, as you can essentially jump the line on search engines to reach people you want to sell to.
For example, you might run search ads to get to the top of Google results for a term like “business insurance in Cleveland” if you’re trying to reach business owners in that area. You can then set up the search ad to click through to a page that you think will hook that prospect. A landing page that explains how you serve business owners in Cleveland (or whatever applies to your target audience) could then help you convert those leads into customers. The Wheelhouse platform can help you set up landing pages and provide quoting capabilities.
#9 Network at Events
Aside from hosting your own events, you can also prospect for insurance leads by attending other events where you network with attendees. You don’t have to be overly salesy, but by having direct conversations with, say, other business owners, you can potentially start relationships with new leads. Even a conversation that only touches the surface of business can be a good starting point if you then exchange contact info or connect on LinkedIn to keep the customer journey moving forward.
#10 Ask for Referrals
Some referrals are inbound, where existing customers send new leads your way. When you ask customers for referrals, those are generally considered to be outbound.
“These referrals are the ones you are uncomfortable asking for. This is the type of referral you often read about in books or online articles that discuss ‘how to ask for referrals’,” notes Rocket Referrals.
While inbound leads might be more comfortable and easier to convert, getting inbound leads isn’t always in your control. So, if you want to solve how to prospect for more insurance leads, sometimes you need to ask for referrals directly. If you have good relationships with existing customers, ask them if they know of anyone who might need your services. Or, you could ask other people in your network, even friends and family, for recommendations on who to reach out to.
Start Prospecting for Insurance Leads
These 10 prospecting techniques for insurance agents can help you find more leads, not just to fill out your leads database but to actually get prospects that you can convert to customers. Everyone differs though in terms of what techniques work for them, based on factors like your own marketing skills and your clientele. So, get out there and try these prospecting techniques and see what helps your insurance agency pull in more prospects.