Building a Life Insurance Website

afrey1143

New Member
2
Hello all! This is my first post, but I am a long time reader.

A post caught my eye about agents building their own website to drum up life insurance leads. And it seems like forum members here have a much more positive perspective of using your own website for leads, as opposed to purchasing them. I have spent over $1,000 on purchasing leads, with very limited success. I have no problem using my income to build my business, but I'm not seeing the ROI that I would like to!

That being said I would like to hear from some of you who have built their own website. What would you recommend doing, what would you avoid?

Obviously bringing traffic to your site in key. Whats your process after that? If you don't have a quote generator built in, are people willing to send you their info to receive a quote later?
 
Hello all! This is my first post, but I am a long time reader.

A post caught my eye about agents building their own website to drum up life insurance leads. And it seems like forum members here have a much more positive perspective of using your own website for leads, as opposed to purchasing them. I have spent over $1,000 on purchasing leads, with very limited success. I have no problem using my income to build my business, but I'm not seeing the ROI that I would like to!

That being said I would like to hear from some of you who have built their own website. What would you recommend doing, what would you avoid?

Obviously bringing traffic to your site in key. Whats your process after that? If you don't have a quote generator built in, are people willing to send you their info to receive a quote later?

Reach out to Jeff Root (jroot).
 
I'm a fan of building instead of buying leads.

Build a high converting website (most agent's websites are pretty but don't convert visitors into leads very well) and pick up some very teachable internet marketing skills and with a little commitment, it's doable.

Avoid promoting anything you don't own - like those $50-$60/mo website services. Avoid the $500 custom website services (you get what you pay for). Avoid anyone who tries to sell you social media, email marketing, SEO packages for "a low price of $300/mo".

Do invest in a custom website with instant quotes. Do make the commitment you're going to learn to market it - it's easier than you think.

Check out WP Life Insurance - a service I just launched.
 
Thanks for the insider information! Are there any good websites you could send me the link to? I would like to see what a successful site looks like.

So you believe that generating quotes right on the website is an absolute must. I'm assuming this is a general quote? Otherwise how do you take in to consideration medical underwriting?

Learning how to market a website instead of myself is an interesting concept I'll have to look further into.
 
I'm a fan of building instead of buying leads.

Build a high converting website (most agent's websites are pretty but don't convert visitors into leads very well) and pick up some very teachable internet marketing skills and with a little commitment, it's doable.

Avoid promoting anything you don't own - like those $50-$60/mo website services. Avoid the $500 custom website services (you get what you pay for). Avoid anyone who tries to sell you social media, email marketing, SEO packages for "a low price of $300/mo".

Do invest in a custom website with instant quotes. Do make the commitment you're going to learn to market it - it's easier than you think.
By way of my street cred, I've been doing agent websites for over 15 years. I've been on the top of the second page for the term 'term life insurance' in the past, and I've maintained top rankings for a decade (not just gotten top rankings, actually maintained them for that period of time). I've spoken at international SEO conferences and financial digital conferences to banks and insurers on how to market online. I've had days where I made 5 sales/day, and average weeks of 2 sales/day everyday, all of leads from my site. I don't know anyone else in the industry who's done all of that. But I quit doing agent websites years ago and only do my own stuff now. My one website powers leads for 4 brokers today.

That being said, everything jroot said is true. Actually not just true, it's just about exactly what I tell brokers who ask me how I do what I do. The reason that's so relevant is that you won't hear what he just told you anywhere else. Conversions are the only thing that matters, make sure your website 'asks for the sale'. Asking for the sale in this industry means free quotes in exchange for their contact info. Social media doesn't create sales. Google is the portal to the internet, its where everyone goes, so if you want traffic, you have to go to Google. So, what jroot said.

I can't find an example of jroot's websites, but based on what he posted above, I would suggest that it's likely the websites they sell will do the job he's saying - convert leads. And I would further opine that $2800 is actually a decent price for such a website for someone that doesn't know what they're doing. Go pay the $2800, get one of their websites, and at least you're dealing with someone who understands its about lead gen, not looking pretty. It's not worth $2800 of your time to figure out how to create a website that converts - seriously, you won't be able to do it this year or next probably. You'll save $2800 and have no leads.

Here's a few comments though.
First, the website converts. it doesn't create traffic. That's google. And for $2800, I don't think you're likely to get Google rankings.

So, Google rankings. 2 words. Local search. All you need to know to start. OK, 2 more words. Long tail. Local search and long tail - start learning those two things with respect to google marketing and you will get traffic - and then you have a website that converts traffic in to leads. Forget trying to rank on 'term life insurance'. Put it right out of your mind. Stick to local search and long tail.

Secondly, I mentioned that you need to ask for the sale, and that asking for the sale means giving away free quotes. I can remember the good old days when quotes alone were enough to seperate you from the herd. Not today. So start with Compulife quotes on your website but then spend some time thinking up some creative ways to 'ask for the sale' (where a sale = conversion to a lead). Maybe you can offer something else that will entice people to type their name and phone number in to your website? Actually, I know you can. You'll have to do some thinking, and then you'll have to do some testing.

So, drop $2800 on jroot. learn long tail and local search. Try offering different things to see what convinces people to give you their name and phone number.

Next step, once you have the lead you have to drip call. Call immediately. Not in 5 minutes, NOW. And then call later tonite. THen call tommorrow. And 2 days from now. then next week, then in two weeks, then in one month and then in 90 days. You waste sales if you don't do this. Then after you've connected, you have to followup in the same fashion.

There are two other ways to drip on these leads as well. Second way is via email. I am not an expert on that, but I've spoken to brokers who are. This is an area I am working towards (building new inhouse software to do this). Third, drip by SMS text. That's bleeding edge s*** right there. Again, we're not doing it yet but I'm hoping to be live and automated by end of year. People under 40 and many under 50 never answer their phone. Drop a text on them, you'll increase your connection rates. One of my brokers took 6 of our leads that he couldn't reach and blew a text at them. 2 responded. That's huge. So if you're working these internet leads and not connecting , try throwing a text at them, even manually.

Last point on internet leads. Even my brokers who are doing this full time occassionally complain about bad leads. Like, I called 10 people and 6 were bad. That's kinda depressing. Really? I just gave you 4 good leads and you're bitching? Don't sweat the bad leads - you're dialing for dollars. You can look at it like you're getting 60% crap leads, or you can look at it like you're getting 40% excellent leads that convert to sales at about a rate of 15%.

Now if you want to get really depressed or motivated, I'll leave you with this. Years ago when I did websites, one of my clients got on the front page of yahoo news for a story on life insurance quotes. The traffic was running 3 quotes a second from my servers for 3 days straight. i spoke to them later, he told me they dug out of that mess for 9 months straight, and still ended up wasting leads. What a life!
 
Good stuff Water. But..."Call immediately. Not in 5 minutes, NOW. And then call later tonite. THen call tommorrow. And 2 days from now"

Just to clear something up...I presume that you're not advocating somebody call their prospect 4 times in 2 days, unless they can not reach them. Is that right?

Skip Carlisle
Best Cheapest Lowest Cost Most Affordable Term Insurance Rates And Quotes Inc.
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Service Since 1947
 
I'm a fan of building instead of buying leads.

Build a high converting website (most agent's websites are pretty but don't convert visitors into leads very well) and pick up some very teachable internet marketing skills and with a little commitment, it's doable.

Avoid promoting anything you don't own - like those $50-$60/mo website services. Avoid the $500 custom website services (you get what you pay for). Avoid anyone who tries to sell you social media, email marketing, SEO packages for "a low price of $300/mo".

Do invest in a custom website with instant quotes. Do make the commitment you're going to learn to market it - it's easier than you think.

Check out WP Life Insurance - a service I just launched.

Any discounts for forum members? I am actually am thinking of doing a site to get local life leads.
 
Good stuff Water. But..."Call immediately. Not in 5 minutes, NOW. And then call later tonite. THen call tommorrow. And 2 days from now"

Just to clear something up...I presume that you're not advocating somebody call their prospect 4 times in 2 days, unless they can not reach them. Is that right?

Skip Carlisle
Best Cheapest Lowest Cost Most Affordable Term Insurance Rates And Quotes Inc.
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Service Since 1947

I would typically call 3 times in the first two days. Once when the lead comes in, once in the evening, and then once the next day. After that I back it off to a couple of days or so. Yes, that's if I don't reach them.

I always leave a voicemail message when I call.
 
Agree 100% with WW - Local + long tail - that's all you need to know when it comes to marketing your site. Lots of courses online can teach these.

Any discounts for forum members? I am actually am thinking of doing a site to get local life leads.

Yes. I've met a lot of great people from this forum (in person, by phone, by email) and I'd be happy to. I'll post in the offer sections next week with a discount. If you want to take action now, shoot me a PM and I'll send you one.
 
I would typically call 3 times in the first two days. Once when the lead comes in, once in the evening, and then once the next day. After that I back it off to a couple of days or so. Yes, that's if I don't reach them.

I always leave a voicemail message when I call.

Are you calling to sell over the phone, or are you primarily selling face to face?
 
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