Training Step 1

In this post, we’re going to start with the sexy part of any lead generation strategy…attracting new prospects.  We call this the Targeted Prospects Campaign of our 3 Essential Elements.

But first, we need to define who your prospects are.

The mistake I see most agents making today is a lack of focus when it comes to their marketing.  They think that the general public is their target market.  Or if they sell commercial lines products, they think that every business owner is their target market.

And while, they may have products to offer to the general pubic or every business owner,  the problem is that it makes it very difficult to match their marketing message to their prospects felt need or pain.

There’s an old marketing slogan that says there are “Riches in Niches”.  It’s the concept that “Specialists” always get a better response and make more money than “Generalists”.

Let me give you an example:  If you were a Landscape Contractor in Fort Myers, Florida, which message would be MOST compelling to you?

“Business owners can save up to 37% on their Commercial Insurance”? OR
“Fort Myers Landscape Contractors Can Save Up To 37% On Workers Comp Insurance”?

Now, the first one isn’t bad, but the second one is much, much better and will yield a much higher amount of leads because it is targeted and focused..

So, what I want you to do right now is apply some focus to your marketing strategy and think about who your dream clients are.  We’re going to aim for 1 or 2 niches to start off with.  Is it Landscape Contractors, Doctors, Dentists, High-end Homeowners,  People living in a particular zip code…or better yet a particular neighborhood, people who belong to a certain association or have a certain occupation?

Once you have a clear idea in your head of this dream client, make sure the niche also possesses most of the following characteristics:  a competitive product, higher premium/commission opportunity, good retention, low hassle to service, and easy to write.

This is not to say that that your niche has to have ALL of these things, but aim for most of them when selecting your niche.

Here’s what I want you to avoid.  We had one agent who wanted to target liability only personal auto policies.  He said he had a company that was ultra competitive with this market.  Average premium was $200.  See any problem with that?  His commission was going to be so low it would have not made it worth the effort, and made it nearly impossible to get the campaign to pay for itself (which we’ll talk about in just a moment).  So, keep these criteria in mind.

Now that we’ve identified your niches, we’re going to design a Targeted Prospects marketing campaign to go out and dominate this niche.  It’s going to harness the power of both Offline and Online marketing methods.  Offline is proactive (meaning we go to them), Online is passive (meaning we have to wait for them to come to us).

Both are required to maximize this powerful lead generating system.

In the next post, we’re going to be discussing the online component and our secret technique to get you to the first page of Google for your city guaranteed.  We handle setting up your traffic converting sales website and premium Search Engine Optimization (SEO) package for you as a Local Insurance Marketing member.  To say that online marketing is where the future is, is an understatement.  93% of people polled in a major metropolitan city said that they used Google when searching for local services and only 7% used the Yellow Pages.

The future is here, and your online agency presence is a critical piece of your lead generation plan.  Don’t miss the next post where we’ll show you our proprietary online marketing strategy that ensures you are positioned to capture more than your fair share of the local Internet leads pie.