Marketing Resources – Walk The Line

You can’t afford to play the fool when it comes to your marketing resources. Your life insurance agency relies on it – it’s the blood that keeps the flesh warm. Take your insurance and financial marketing services to a new high by laying it on the win, mixing it up proper, and putting a spear through the heart of results.

Invest wisely or burn, baby, burn

Who needs a budget when you’re made out of money? Oh that’s right… you’re not – skin and bones just like the rest of us.

Before you start tossing paper planes in the air you should know which media type best tickles your client’s fancy. Do your research and pinpoint where your insurance and financial marketing services will have the most impact.

Pull a sample group to experiment your campaign on before releasing it into the wild. It will give you a better idea on what to expect should you move forward.

Before you pull the trigger, get a clear site on where you’re aiming. Otherwise you might as well build a nice, cozy little fire and toss your wallet into it. Make sense or should I bust out the marshmallows?

Don’t abandon your media post

You know the guy that tells the same joke over and over again until you want to claw your eyes out? In case you haven’t guessed, you DO NOT want to be that guy.

With their powers combined, social media giants allow you to post content on several profiles simultaneously. An admirable time saver but inadvertently a tad (yawn) boring – dare I say lazy?

A plethora of your followers likely run around on several of your networks, if not all of them – show them you’re not a one trick pony.

If you want to keep the action on all your marketing resources hot, you need to diversify amigo. If every one of your posts is identical you’ll come off sounding like a broken record.

Spin profits not parasites

When you start smelling almonds it’s time to cut it off at the knees. It may sound harsh but you have to treat your marketing resources the same way.

Marketing is meant to draw leads and increase profits – standard successful business stuff in case you were wondering.

Don’t let your efforts fall victim to a succubus. Track results on each campaign to see what’s working and what’s not – then trim the fat.

Wincing at the thought of another mundane analytics and reporting task to your day? Don’t fret my liege, most social media networks already provide an easy button for you to use.

Any marketing resource that doesn’t make it rain needs to hit the road.

Final thoughts…

No wise investment was ever made on a whim. You’ve worked too hard to drop your green on anything that doesn’t guarantee a return.

Be strategic but don’t bore yourself and others with the same old song and dance – Keep the fires burning by changing up your marketing resources routine once in a while.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. And if it is, you need to drop the hammer.

Wall Street Style Lead Management

The fat cats on Wall Street can teach you a thing or two about lead management. Your salesforce in the pit may be skilled at closing a deal, but that doesn’t mean diddly if you can’t get past a handshake – you have to be cutthroat quick, easy on the push, and ready to drop the hammer down.

Call dibs on your qualified leads

In the stock exchange, you sleep when you’re dead. When you get a tip on some hot stock you jump on it – or someone else surely will.

The same rules apply to lead management for your life insurance agency – for your life insurance agents to net the highest return, they need to establish contact faster than a hot knife through butter.

LeadResponseManagement.Org analyzed three years of data from InsideSales.com and your chances of touching base with a lead are reduced ten times within the first hour – six times if you’re looking to certify it.

Call while you know the consumer is interested if you want to double down on your conversion rates.

Don’t creep on referred leads

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know, am I right?

Save the breath of your silver-tongued life insurance agents for the leads with the most potential – and nothing gets your foot in the door like a nod from a mutual acquaintance.

Social referral platformers at Reppify released a study that a referral can increase your success rate on solicitation calls by up to fifty percent.

Cold calls have a success rate that matches their name – a two percent qualifying rate at the max. If we’re talking cash, that’s a mere two cents on the all mighty dollar – penny stocks.

You’re not the Wolf of Wall Street over here – don’t waste your time with pink sheets.

Leverage automated messages for a nice touch

A successful marketing campaign will cause a tidal wave of investors your way, and not every business has a sea of agents at their beck and call to handle the impact.

Don’t go whipping the interns for coverage just yet – there are other ways to keep prospects on the hook.

Stuck on a call while your other lines are blowing up? Set up your phone to send an automatic text message to missed callers that you’re tied up and toss in your e-mail address.

Automated confirmation messages issued upon receipt of data is a good coddling tool. It can provide enough reassurance to one lead while your life insurance agents bring it home on another.

Keep any automated follow ups brief though – it’s a tip of the hat, not a marriage proposal.

Final thoughts…

Lead management takes talent. Mismanaging opportunities is a quick way for your life insurance agency’s sales to make a short stop and take sudden drop.

Sales agents are neck and neck with ravenous competition all chomping at the bit for the next big score. Leads are the meat these urban carnivores feed on and you have to be an apex predator if you want to stay on top of the food chain.

Working in sales is not about a slap and tickle – if you don’t leave blood on the matt at the end of the day you’re not doing your job. Get after it.

Top Shelf Lead Generation

Good manners, impeccable timing, and a little charm aren’t just the mark of a gentleman — they are techniques that can be applied to any endeavor you may have in mind for your organization. Check your coat and remove your hat – learn how being cavalier can stimulate lead generation for your insurance and financial marketing services.

Man Up That Reputation

Your reputation on the street is key to generating leads. Do you have people that would vouch for you?

Word of mouth makes or breaks legends. A good review next to your name is always desirable – but you may not have successfully wooed everybody.

Leads with any real potential will look you up and down before they make a move so the proof is in the pudding.

If you get tagged as a bad boy, handle it with class. Don’t shy away from adversity – it builds character and the wisdom to know better moving forward.

Show you can handle even the harshest of criticisms with candor and you’ll have prospects breaking down the door to get a piece.

Appreciate the Good Times

If you want to get noticed, you have to learn how to make an impression. Even more important, you have to know when to make it.

The life of a social media post runs hard and fast – lasting only a few hours before it begins to lose its allure. You need to find out the time of day you’re most likely to turn heads.

In the dark about when your magic hour starts? Keep cool son… you’re not alone.

There are programs available that will analyze your social media audience and report back as to when your optimal post time is.

Why waste all those skills if there is no one around to appreciate it?

Lead the Show like a Rockstar

If you can’t work a room, sales isn’t your forte my friend.

The last time I checked, public speaking was still the number one fear over death. A figure who comes off as authoritative and confident enough to speak in front of complete strangers earns a great deal of respect.

You can’t help but get a little personal when it comes to talking insurance – what better way to earn someone’s trust than being able to look them eye to eye.

Thrilling as it is, speaking at insurance and financial marketing events isn’t just for vanity sake. Stepping up to the mic is a strategic way of sweeping up leads. At the very least, it’s another opportunity to make a new professional connection.

Final thoughts…

In the primitive days of lead generation, it was take what you can get any way you can get it – survival of the fittest… like cavemen fighting for control of the fire.

It’s no wonder consumers have grown so skeptical – it can be a challenge sorting the hustlers from the heroes.

In the highly competitive world of marketing insurance and financial services, it takes a tight game and a little finesse to stay on top now.

Chivalry isn’t dead, it’s just dormant. Be the one to revive it – dust your shoulder off and show the rest of the world what an alpha dog looks like.

Webinar: Expanding Your Business With Brightbox

Get Made With Email Marketing

Think email marketing is for the old country? Think again young blood. Email still has serious clout when it comes to consumer engagement. Master this tried and true method will have your life insurance agency holding all the cards.

3 Ways to Get Made with Email Marketing

1. Take it to the mattresses

The Cosa Nostra didn’t monopolize Vegas because they enjoyed the heat – oh no, taking over the desert was a guaranteed return on an investment.

A tightly run email marketing platform will do the same for you – minus the rapid gunfire.

Email generates three times the purchase power of social media platforms – seventeen percent higher on average for order value according to reports from eMarketer.

That’s an opportunity you can’t afford to lose out on. So pony up the dough and get some serious muscle behind your campaign.

2. Go for the jugular

Aim your sights at a specific target – it is life or death for your email marketing strategy. Too broad of a distribution list will kill your chances of a return.

Moore Market Intelligence and Wink, Inc. reported that annuity sales made history for first quarter sales – rising five percent from the previous year.

You want to get the jump on that deal? Market to the corner that’s odds-on to deliver – individuals in or near retirement with the income to make it happen.

An annuity marketing email isn’t going to appeal to a bunch fresh sprung college students – they’re just starting out, retirement isn’t at the top of their list of priorities.

Just like a cage salesman isn’t going to get far in a room full of lions, you’ll have the same luck if you’re trying to appeal to the wrong demographic for your product.

3. Don’t be Fredo

Michael took over the business because he had the smarts – Sonny was too impulsive and Fredo, well, we all know what happened to Fredo.

The quickest way for your email marketing to get dismissed is coming off like a butta’ gattz… a fool for those of you rusty on your Sicilian. So use your head and make sure your emails are intelligent and professional.

Grammar should be eloquent and no zany signatures or cutesy wallpaper backgrounds.

It helps to have a little class as well. Words like “sale” or “free” filter straight to junk mail. You’ll be stuck on the spam turnpike with cheap gimmicks like that.

Earn back the respect you deserve – be concise with your literature. You’re not writing a love letter so leave the gushy fillers out of it and get down to business.

Final thoughts…

Nothing is worse than a limp fish handshake. Do you want me to kiss it or you want me to shake it? Don’t let your email marketing leave the same impression.

Consumers are wary to motives that are all bark and no bite – they’ll turn their back on your council immediately if they sense you’re not genuine.

In this case, it actually pays to be a wise guy. Don’t take advantage of what email has to offer and your business may be sleeping with the fishes. Capiche?

Internet Marketing – Strong Like Bull

It is incredibly easy these days to get your spurs caught up in dirty business practices. Don’t let your life insurance agents fall victim to wicked vices. Make sure your organization’s internet marketing strategies are strapped in tight and ready for the good ride.

1. I like it a lot

Size really doesn’t matter… at least when we’re talking internet marketing strategies.

The quantity of “likes” a particular post gets has become the equivalent of a signature in your high school yearbook – a brief ego boost but ultimately just a bunch of jibber jabber.

You’re running a business, not a popularity contest. The whole point of marketing is to complete a conversion – generate real income. And unfortunately “likes” don’t pay the bills.

You want to draw individuals that are genuine to your cause, dedicated professionals who are going to help you build solid foundations and connections.

Followers that lack quality will inadvertently damage your message and your brand.

2. The real McCoy

When I say genuine, I mean genuine – over 83 million Facebook accounts are bogus.

Catfishing has become an alarming trend – people building several profiles so it appears they have more connections than they actually do. Change the user name and profile photo and it’s, like, a whole new you. But it’s not! It’s just weird – and deceitful.

This practice become so detrimental to companies that www.fakers.statuspeople.com was dedicated to filtering out the garbage.

Make sure your followers are the real deal, or at least human, and not just some twit with too much time on his or her hands.

While we’re at it, stop liking your own posts – it’s tacky. It’s the equivalent of making a joke then winking at your reflection and saying, “Good one.”

3. Don’t tread on #me

There has been a blatant abuse of the hash tag – it has mutated into a new form of digital marketing spam.

Many social media marketers are guilty of serial hash tagging – leaving a mine field of irrelevant and confusing connections.

Limit your hash tags to be directly relevant to your post – don’t just dump one on there because it’s trending. Even the all mighty Twitter suggests keeping it to two hash tags at the max.

If there are more hash tagged words than actual words in your post, you got serious issues partner.

4. So hot right now

Many internet marketers choose to blur the lines of business and pleasure. It is ok to incorporate personal information in marketing posts, just make sure it is appropriate to your message.

So let’s not make it all about you sweetheart. What are you promoting? Who are you promoting? Consumers want something that is valuable to them – they don’t want to hear about you all the time.

Is that photo of a macaroon next to your name brand sunglass producing anything worthwhile or are you just bored?

You want to come off as a respectable marketer, not a narcissist fishing for compliments.

Final thoughts…

Just because you can, should you? Consumers are begging you not to – and you should listen, bud!

Kicking up a bunch of dust only blinds you from seeing the bigger picture and stalls your chances of reaching a lucrative final destination.

Get off the bandwagon haus! The last thing you need is to be branded as a nuisance.

Don’t follow the herd, lead it.

Sales Automation – Your Inside Man

To pull off an epic heist you need precision timing, a talented crew, and the right tools for the project. Same goes for your life insurance agents on the sales front. Successful integration of sales automation into your business will have you laughing all the way to the bank.

Automate for Automatic Sales

Closing is a life insurance agent’s livelihood – they literally have to put their money where their mouth is. And the real talent, they prove their worth by delivering results.

Don’t let your team waste precious time getting tied up in tedious tasks when they could be finessing the angles on a prime deal, one that will actually pay off.

Implementing a sales automation system that captures and nurtures leads until they’re ripe for the picking can relieve your sales force of that burden.

Automation can track and follow up on consumer activity until a bankable opportunity presents itself – Every minute you can spare your team is one more minute you can give them getting own and dirty on the playing field.

Know Your Daily Forecast

In sales, you have to keep on your toes – one ear to the ground. And when things fail to go according to plan, as they often due in the industry, well… you have to improvise kid.

Playing it off the cuff is standard practice for the sales game, but your team should be prepared for whatever might come at them.

Sales automation systems can provide a daily forecast that will allow your life insurance agents a chance to glance at what they can expect what’s coming through the door – get their game straight for the day.

Sync a breakdown to hit their e-mail first thing in the morning and follow up with a link in a text message for easy access.

Visualize the Amount of Time You Can Save

Not everyone is MacGyver – Don’t send someone in to crack a safe with a piece of bubble game and a paper clip.

Not only should your data be updated consistently, but it should be easy to view and comprehend.

Visuals work best – colorful graphs, pie charts, etc.

Remember, you’re trying to save time. Leave the analytics and reporting to the brains at home base.

You just need to give your life insurance agents in the field brief snippets that will get them in and out with as little hassle as possible.

Final thoughts…

Selling isn’t all it’s glammed up to be… I’m teasing, glamourous isn’t exactly in the job description – you earn the money that you use to live on by the sweat of your brow. Decent, hard work but by no means a cake walk.

A lot of behind the scenes preparation goes into closing a successful deal. You want your life insurance agents trained and ready to tackle anything in their path.

Not sure where to get started? Check out CoPilot, a sales automation system aimed at assisting the needs of sales agents. It was designed by Autopilot, a marketing and CRM developer.

Find a sales automation system that fits your life insurance agency like a glove and watch as your flawless operation unfolds.

Quote Engines – The North Star

The North Star has helped guide seafarer’s for centuries, just as a quote engine can lead your life insurance agency to the land of time and closed deals. Make sure you’re teamed up with one that will usher your organization past jagged obstacles and sail you smoothly off into the sunset.

All Aboard the Quote Engine

If the crew on the Pequod knew what Ahab was really up to, they likely would have remained on the safety of the dock. Imagine all the grief they could have saved if there was a Yelp for salty sea captains.

Thankfully for us, you can find “yays or nays” on just about anything these days – that includes quote engines for health insurance.

According to a recent report conducted by marketing giant Mintel, eighty percent of online consumers check a producer’s reviews prior to proceeding with a purchase.

Poor rapport with the public and equally rickety reviews associated with a service you work with can hit your organization like a rogue wave. Make sure you’re using a quote engine that doesn’t make consumers sea sick.

Make Your Leads Stronger than the Current

Nothing is worse than working your line for hours thinking you have Moby Dick on the other end and all you pull up is an old boot.

Your underwriting team in the crow’s nest will tell you, disqualification features on coverage ranges from person to person. Individual policies can range from a dingy to a speed boat depending on who’s at the wheel.

Any product or policy that a client is guaranteed not to qualify for should be gutted from the quote engine search results. Yes, you have to bait the hook from time to time to attract leads but you don’t have to be slimy about it.

Be accurate and honest with consumers or you’ll struggle to keep your business and your profits above water.

Steer Those Leads Upstream

Ever been on sea life tour? It’s always when you’re looking starboard that some magnificent creature decides to do a double back flip port side.

You can waste hours peering through the periscope waiting for your white whale to appear, but doing so is only going to drive you slowly insane.

Use a quote engine to help steer your life insurance agents to where the big catch is so they’re not left treading water on what’s trending.

A system that can capture quality leads AND gauge consumer activity will get you and your mates ahead of the squall.

Wait until you see the whites of their eyes before you set your harpoon.

Final Thoughts…

Exploring the vast ocean of health insurance coverage is an overwhelming endeavor for most. Even the best agents could use a lighthouse to lead them out of the fog – a solid consolidation system can do just that.

Think of a quote engine as the first mate to your life insurance agents – one that will not only save your sales team valuable time but generate bankable leads.

You’ve worked too hard to let your life insurance agency get lost at sea – so all hands on deck (quit giggling sailor!) because no one wants to swab the deck alone.

The Furious Road of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is a high octane ride – your formula for success involves insightful ingenuity, relentless determination, and a little eccentricity. Do you have what it takes to make your mark as a coveted distribution partner and surpass the competition?

The 3 steps mapping out The Furious Road of Entrepreneurship are:

1. Risky business

Without the brave entrepreneurs of the world there would be no light bulb, no iPhone, no 351 cu in (5.8 L) 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT Coupe with a supercharger peeking out of the hood… oh sorry, I trailed off there a bit.

You get the point. Could you imagine Mad Max skirting around the desert on a pair of roller-skates?

Edison, Ford, and Jobs were all traveling a perilous avenue going at it on their own, but they weren’t completely reckless either. All of these pioneers were supplying a demand. Can you say the same about your enterprise?

You need to ensure that not only can you fulfill your client’s needs but that you know what those needs are.

To do that you need to get down and dirty… Investigate every corner of the industry – get knee deep in research until you’re sick of it. Otherwise, you’ll be driving blind in an unforgiving land.

2. Moxie by proxy

Advisors aren’t just looking for a delivery service these days. They want their distribution partner to help guide them through the thick of it like a trusted ally.

Instilling confidence in your clients that you can tear through the waste land and push their product out of the mud and into glory is a staple – but all talk and no results will make your business a dull boy.

So you need to ask yourself… Do you have the right vendor contacts? Do you have the ability to network and channel more business to your clients? Can you deliver on a deadline?

The best way to back up your business is with results. A distribution partner is no good if they can’t live up to the title.

3. Make your mark

You don’t have to be a mad genius to open shop, but you do need an angle that will set you apart from the rest of the herd.

According to research data from LIMRA and McKinsey & Co. approximately two-thirds of annuity business written and half of life insurance written was channeled through independent distribution.

That puts you neck and neck with a fierce band of heavy competition. So how do you rise above the hordes?

Keep in mind that being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean you have to bust the doors off the current industry block – perhaps some of the tried old methods don’t hold the same truth they once did and could simply use a little tweaking… food for thought.

However you begin your journey, you must find your niche or risk getting buried by the rabble.

Final thoughts…

We’ve all heard the phrase “if you put your mind to it you can do just about anything.” And we all know that isn’t entirely true… I mean, I wanted to be a ninja when I was a kid.

But it is that force of character, that nerve, that fierce confidence that will make you a competitive entrepreneur and more importantly, a highly sought after distribution partner for life insurance agencies.

Entrepreneurship isn’t for the faint of heart. Building a business from the ground up, what’s more making it thrive, is a humbling experience.

But if you have what it takes to see it through, then to the victor shall go the spoils.

Landing Pages of Plenty

If done right, landing pages are a highly lucrative and effective lead generation tool. Get it wrong and you won’t feel anything but the frost bite of a cold shoulder. Bask in the warm glow of success – certify your page is relevant, honest, appealing, and savory.

1. Wait, what?

Believe it or not, the top complaint amongst consumers is that most landing pages simply don’t make sense.

The last thing you want is blank stares, fingers on the jaw, and mutters of “I don’t get it” – like a kindergarten class studying a Jackson Pollock painting.

You’re trying to coax and lure those leads out of hiding, not confuse them until they duck out the back door in an attempt to escape your awkwardness.

The goal of your landing page is to generate viable potential clients that lead to a conversion. To reduce weaning out the riff raff, be concise – commit to one campaign goal.

2. Why I oughta

You are only as good as your word. And nothing could be truer when it comes to how you market, especially when it involves insurance and financial services.

Money and health – kind of big deals here for us mere mortals.

Your landing page must be upfront and deliver exactly what it’s putting on blast. Same goes for your hero shot – the main attraction. If I buy a ticket to see a zebra, I expect a zebra, not a donkey painted like the Hamburgler.

Don’t bamboozle the consumer. Not just because it’s annoying, which it is, but because it is a time wasting ruse that only prevents you from pursuing a bona fide sale.

And if you purposely use cheap tricks to draw in leads, well… there’s a name for folks like you.

3. Give it to me straight doc

If you want to sharpen your advertising edge further, you’re going to need to get to know your audience a little better.

Don’t worry, I’m not talking about brunch and a walk on the beach – leave that for date night. Just brush up on a few psychology basics to understand consumer triggers.

Jane E. Raymond, PhD, a professor of consumer psychology at the University of Wales in Bangor, stated, “Our research suggests that we actually process information in gulps. The brain goes out, grabs a bit of information, digests it, then grabs another bit.”

This makes timing and placement crucial elements. For example, Raymond explains that viewers respond more positively to images on the ride side with text on the left.

Raymond is also a huge proprietor of logos – which imprint brands on viewers more effectively than the written word.

Capture attention first by appealing to the aesthetic nature of the consumer – then pitch the details.

4. Oh you shouldn’t have

Costco doesn’t hand out free goodies simply because they know you like fresh Hot Pockets – they’re constructing the gingerbread house to your Hansel and Gretel.

Now of course no one is going to buy the cow when you’re giving the milk away for free, but a little sippy might just do the trick.

Once the consumer relinquishes their information via your landing page, reward them. Offer them a subscription to a newsletter to keep up to date or send links to special offers and promotions.

It’s pure and simple positive reinforcement.

Final thoughts…

If your business was an entry in an apple pie baking contest, your landing page would be that first delectable bite.

That initial taste should be warm, comforting, and absolutely irresistible to ignore.

Don’t let your hard work get chewed up and spit out.

With a little elbow grease, you can turn your operation into a well-oiled lead generating machine with a blue ribbon on your lapel to boot.