Close Close
Sign In
Newsletters
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
Podcast Center Video Center Webcasts Resource Center Events
About ThinkAdvisor Contact Us Advertise With Us Asset & Logo Licensing Sitemap Terms of Service Privacy Policy Copyright © 2024 ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ThinkAdvisor

Life Health > Running Your Business > Marketing and Lead Generation

50 best ways to generate leads: 1-10

By LifeHealthPro Staff

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

10. Revive stale leads.

Calling back old leads can be awkward and uncomfortable. Sometimes “old” feels eerily similar to “cold.” Try my 5+5+5 method:

Step One: Every day (and I mean every day – this is a discipline) write 5 handwritten notes to old leads. Just reintroduce and reconnect, and keep it brief. At the end of the note write, “I’ll call you in the next few days to check in and see if there are needs I can help you with.”

Step Two: Wait 5 days. Of course, each of those days will be spent sending 5 more handwritten notes.

Step Three: Make 5 calls to the people you wrote notes to 5 days ago. It will no longer be a cold call – you will have reintroduced yourself. You’ll be amazed at how many people say, “I’m glad you called!”

5 notes + 5 days + 5 phone calls. And you’ll change someone’s world.

— Jeff Shore, sales expert, author, speaker & executive coach, Shore Consulting

9. Use Facebook to draw prospects.

I really enjoy Facebook! It’s fun and informative. My goal is to have as many friends as possible. I post on average once or twice a day, and I enjoy reading my friends posts. Most of my posts are personal. I try to make my posts sassy, upbeat, and fun. I give opinions, but in a tolerant, non-inflammatory way. About 15-20% of the time, I will post a link to an LTCi article or a blog, along with comments about why the item posted illustrates the need for LTCi ownership. In this way, I hope to plant a subliminal desire for LTCi ownership, and establish myself as an expert in LTCi. When they are ready for LTCi help, Facebook friends approach me. When this happens, the result is often a high-quality prospect and an appreciative client.

—Honey Leveen, LUTCF, CLTC, LTCP, The Queen of Long-Term Care Insurance

s

8. Buy traffic, not leads.

Buying leads … what a nightmare! While buying leads is still quite profitable if done right, buying traffic is much more profitable and controllable. Media buying is all the rage, and if done correctly and tested thoroughly one can generate a lead at a cost of around $8. And they convert. Finding traffic sources is actually quite easy, and setting up a campaign is even easier. The first campaign I ran was with advertising.com’s “AdLearn.” I spent $500 in 3 days and generated $1800 in commissionable target. Not quite the numbers I had hoped for, but we continued to refine our website landing page to optimize conversions and have dramatically increased our ROI. Since trying media buying in early 2013, it is now 1/4 of our total business.

— Nic West, Director of Business Development, www.TrustedQuote.com

7. Find a niche.

This worked very well for me in 2013. Niche down and use social media outreach. For example, pick a niche like “Skydivers” and write a helpful article on your website about getting life insurance as a skydiver. Nothing salesly — just make it a resource page with a quote request form and phone number prominent. Then put together a spreadsheet of every blog, forum, Facebook and Twitter account geared toward skydivers and ask them to share your article to their readers. Wait 2–3 months and do it again to those who didn’t respond or didn’t share. Rinse, repeat.

— Jeff Root, Owner, www.selltermlife.com

s

6. Harness the power of a picture.

Visuals work great online and are very “shareable” in social media. We developed an infographic on the “High Economic Costs of Smoking” including the increased costs of life insurance. The result? Over 1,100 “ likes” on Facebook, including shares from government-sponsored smoking cessation programs, and increased traffic and brand awareness to our site. 

— Liran Hirschkorn, Founder, BestLifeQuote.com

5. Prompt your referral source.

I have found much better success when I feed names to my referral source rather than asking for names.  Last week I met with a client who I know through my kids’ school. Rather than ask him who he knows at school, I brought a copy of the school directory and asked him which dads he knows well.  He scanned his kids’ classes and checked off about a dozen names.  This is much more effective than asking him who he knows, which often results in, “Good question, David.  Let me give that some thought and I’ll get back to you.”

LinkedIn is a good tool for the same purpose.  Before a client meeting I will spend some time reviewing my client’s LinkedIn connections and then present him with a list of 15-20 people who I think I want to meet.  I then ask him to check those who would likely grant me a meeting based on his recommendation.  Again, this leads to greater success than asking him to think up the names himself.

— David M. Johnson, CLU, Associate General Agent, The Johnson Financial Group

s4. Be smart about seminars.

My favorite method of generating leads is to hold monthly private client dinner seminars. I invite a few clients to a seminar at an upper-end steakhouse and “allow” them to bring a guest. Although this is not unique, it is the way that I position it which has made them so successful. I constantly gather referrals from clients so I always have names to work with. Here are the steps that I follow in a client meeting to get their friends’ names:

  1. I discuss how worried I am about the economy and ask if they would be interested in attending a seminar where I will explain why. (They always are!)
  2. I get the client to agree that, as a result of working with me, they have peace of mind financially.
  3. I get them to agree that they probably have friends who don’t have the same peace of mind because they don’t know me.
  4. I get them to realize that they may not even know this since they don’t typically talk finances with their friends.
  5. I get them to agree that, if they did know their friends were worried, they would definitely refer them to me.
  6. I then suggest that we brainstorm and come up with a list of friends whom they care enough about to invite to a future seminar.

Here is the kicker though; I am not asking for their friend’s contact information. I am simply creating a master list of names so that, as I schedule these seminars, I will have an idea as to how many friends they care enough about to invite. When it comes time to hold a seminar, I invite my client and send them several extra invitations so they can invite their friends. It works great!

— Anthony A. Saccaro, ChFC, President, Providence Financial & Insurance Services

3. Stay top-of-mind.

Prepare passive marketing to always steer prospects your way when they are “ready to buy” (just like when you’re ready to buy a car, you notice all those billboards and car commercials you ignored before). This means being top-of-mind with an established reputation through content marketing, social media, blogging, press releases, and social proof. This can extend beyond your own copy — many top agencies make a habit of commenting on national news stories simply to get their name in the paper.

— Stephen D. Forman, Senior Vice President, Long Term Care Associates, Inc.

d

2. Grab your Google Places free listing.

It could be the best five minutes you’ll ever spend getting your business listed on Google Places. You’ll be found when folks search online. There’s no cost for the listing. Be certain to spend the time to provide comprehensive information and use keywords focused on the products you offer. That information is more important than your name. Think about what people are searching for when positioning yourself.

—Jesse Slome, president, Insuranceexpos.com

­­­­­­­­­­­­

1. Get 10 leads in 30 days from 60 minutes of work.

Film an interesting three-minute video on a subject that your ideal client might be searching for online. Nothing fancy needed.  Just be you. The same day, write a 2–3 page article with some awesome content pertaining to the video subject — something so good that they want to share it. Then, create a simple one-page “squeeze page” where any visitors can opt-in to get the report you created.  Finally, post the video to YouTube make sure to put that specific URL link of the squeeze page in the description of the YouTube video so visitors can get the report. Then watch the leads come in. If your video title and description are solid, this will work every time. And the best news is it can be evergreen, meaning always working whether you are or not.

—Joe Simonds, Digital Marketing Maverick, Advisor Internet Marketing

For more lead generation tips, visit www.LifeHealthPro.com/50best

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.