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August 10, 2016 at 04:30 AM
Life insurance agents should be marketing online because that’s where potential customers are spending their time and getting their information.
According to a LIMRA report, 85 percent of consumers research life insurance online before purchasing a policy, and close to 50 percent of the people who bought life insurance in 2015 did so online or over the phone.
That’s a massive opportunity that most agents are missing out on… and that trend just keeps growing.
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The evidence of this is powerful. In 2016, some agents have as many as one or two conversations an hour from online inquiries, compared to the one or two conversations per day that they had just a few years ago.
The internet has changed the way in which we do business. You have a golden opportunity to make the most of it.
Building a marketing mindset
Shortly after I got my life insurance license, I learned what is now the old-school way of prospecting. I talked to my friends and family, networked with anyone and everyone, cold-called for several hours a day, and asked my clients for referrals. Using such exhausting prospecting methods, it’s no wonder why so many of the life insurance agents I started out with quit within three years.
See also: 4 tips for cold-calling confidence
To make my life insurance business work online, I learned I had to change my mindset and let go of some of the outdated strategies that were ingrained in me during those early days.
Mindset Shift No. 1: Online marketing can take the place of all of that old-school prospecting.
Right now, you might feel as though you don’t know enough about online marketing for this to be true in your business, but that will change quickly.
Prospecting — whether you’re doing it online or offline — isn’t something that comes naturally for most people. You have to learn and implement a whole new set of skills.
Educating yourself on the digital marketing strategies and implementing what you learn IS the new prospecting… and that’s where the shift in your mindset needs to happen.
See also:
Why the insurance industry needs digital marketing
This educational process is part of your prospecting efforts, not as taking away from your prospecting time. Don’t worry about ‘being productive’ here — going through the process to really learn online marketing is just as productive as cold calling a list of prospects that three other agents also just bought… in fact, it’s much, much more productive.
Remember: that focused effort is much more effective than relying on natural talent.
