Internet Insurance Leads and Agent Misconceptions

PBMN3GDE84CB

In the pre-Internet days (before 1996 or so), agents used off-line insurance lead generation such as post cards, 3-fold mailers, telemarketers, seminars, etc. While these insurance lead generation methods still work (when one has mastered the correct way to do them), the Internet is a less expensive insurance lead generation system.  I recall speaking to the person who ran the long term care lead generation system for Acasia and he told me that it was being disbanded due to high cost.  He said that once the cost exceeded $28 per lead, it become unprofitable.  The Internet delivers insurance leads for far less money and that’s why the Internet is the most cost effective method for insurance lead generation.  However, there is some trade-off of effectiveness as I explain.

Unlike direct mail where you target the people who will receive your mailer, anyone can see your ad on the Internet.  You have no control over the quality of leads you get.  That does not mean your leads will be of lower quality–it means that your insurance leads will have a greater dispersion.  Let me illustrate. We run an insurance lead generation system and one insurance agent, Charles Wood in Texas,  met his largest client worth over $200,000,000, from our system.  Other agents complain that the leads are of low quality.  When using the Internet, your insurance leads will be better and worse than when you use targeted direct mail. You will also need to tolerate bogus leads as explained below.

Let’s say that you run your offer on a web site controlled by another party. In fact, you are forced to do that unless you have a way to put up 1000 web sites.  You agree to pay the web site owner per insurance lead sent to you.  It turns out this web site owner is not the most honest person so he hires a high school kid to take the telephone white pages and enter the names, addresses and phone numbers of people from the white pages. These are real people so the insurance lead information is accurate.  The problem is when you call, the prospect says “I did not fill put that form!”

So the low cost of Internet insurance leads is offset by a greater dispersion of rich and poor respondents as well as a greater number of bogus insurance leads.  As long as you understand that, you will not be unhappy as you can still earn a 1000% return ($1000 for every 100$ invested) and be flush with insurance leads.