I am a new insurance agent. What tools are available to help me market myself online?

Question

I am a new insurance agent. What tools are available to help me market myself online?

Answer 1

Well, the first thing I would do is create a presence for yourself.

People (besides your direct family) don't want to be anyone's first customer.  When you are starting out this is always tough.  So what I would do is...

1) Get a 'Smart' Cell Phone. Get a minimal cheap Data Plan.  You can use a POP3 connection to connect to your email server and notify you that a new email has come in.  At first you need to react fast to any inquiry.

2) Get a regular Phone line you can fax from. You will answer calls from it and also forward it when you are out of the office to your cell.  I got one from AT&T that has Voice Mail, unlimited long distance, call forwarding, three way calling for less that $30 dollars a month.

3) Get an Email address, you can get free ones (from Yahoo Google) if your agency doesn't have one.

4) Get a WEBSITE.  You have an immediate feeling of establishment when you have a website.  You can direct people to it to get updates, they can find your office, email and phone numbers etc from the website.  Also, many Insurance Agents don't have them yet, and if they do it is their Agency, not the agent themselves.  I did a quick search and there are several vendors.  I like this one called MyAdvisorOnline.com.  It is easy to set up, they have a package right now for $19.99, it has a blog section, some calculators, is personalized, and they even have other revenue opportunities for you.  Also, they offer a low cost of entry Email marketing campaign, that would be useful for letting your customers know you are now in the business.

5) Market yourself, send all your customers your contact info, email, website address.  It is true that family and friends are always the first place to start. But then you have expand out, hopefully you get lots of referrals.  Remember, the hardest part about referrals is asking for one.

Anyway, it can get discouraging when you start out, but if you are dedicated and willing to be available for you customers, you will quickly build a customer base and you'll be off and running.

Cheers!

Answer 2

There are several ways you can market yourself online.  

The first and easiest way and is not so much marketing yourself but giving people to market yourself too, would be to buy leads.  There are many insurance lead services online.  This is kind of the fast track to using the Internet for your business.  Try insureme.com, netquote.com, elquote.com, ileads.com, the list go's on and on.  Being new in the business its very important for you to build your book of business  (repeat cleints).  Buying leads is the fastest way to do it.

You can also buy consumer lists online to do mailings or the "dreaded" cold calling.

To actually market yourself can be done lots of ways; you can start your own webpage, I've found by doing this as an agent i get in the position of more marketing the webpage instead of me.  You could put a link on your business cards. You can start a blog.  You can do mass emailing, this is cheap as compared to direct mail, your response rate is lower and the prospect is usually not as qualified though.

I've found that the best ways to market yourself in this industry is the same way they did it 100 years ago.  Get out and meet people.  Let people know what you do.   Anyway you can use the Internet to help you do this would be worth a try.

Good Luck

Answer 3

Are you an independent agent or captive?

There are a lot of FMO's/Wholesalers who will offer you websites, mailers etc for signing up under them. You could try calling around and seeing who offers up something interesting.

Example Gameplan, Dunhill Marketing, Legacy Marketing Group, Safe Harbor etc.

You can find them on the net or in most trade pubs like Broker World or Agents Sales Journal.

Answer 4

Before you sell insurance online or in person, you must know your product.

Before you sell online, be sure to check all the states insurance laws, regarding licensing. Do you have to be licensed in the state from where the applicant applies? I'm sure the answer to that question is "yes". Each state has different policy provisions, and you would have to be familiar with all states in which you sold insurance.

On the other hand, you could apply for employment with an insurance telemarketing company, and all those details would already be worked out.

Best wishes. God bless.

Answer 5

hi am too doing  life insurance. first u pls contact your friends and relatives. they will give references

Answer 6

Join insurance agents chat rooms such as www.insurance-forum.net

Everything is there.