Business attributed to Squid Insurance Marketing's Efforts

Case Study: Brooks Barbee

 

 

 

Q. When and why did you decide to shift the majority of your marketing efforts towards the Internet?

 

A.  I had used NetQuotes for the past couple of years, so I believed in the internet, but the quality of leads started to deteriorate. I saw your ad in one of the trade publications and it was appealing to me to have leads coming into my sites rather than to several agents. I am seeing a higher quality of lead and the leads calling me are the ones who are in need of insurance now!

 

Q. Why do you think so many insurance agencies are behind the curve when it comes to the Internet?

 

A. It is easy to continue doing the same thing you’ve been doing for years, it' human nature. For me, I was used to buying leads and familiar with the internet, but knew that I wasn’t using it to its full capacity.

 

Q. Are you having success with your new Internet marketing efforts?

 

A. The biggest success I see is my new business is coming from SEM and it's helping me to write new policies. I average about 3-4 new policies a week, just from new customers being directed to my website. My closing ratio on these leads is 55-60%, which is much higher than the leads i was purchasing.

 

Q. What do you think has made your Internet marketing program so successful?

 

A. SQUID INSURANCE MARKETING PARTNERING WITH ME! My CSR knows that every one of the calls that come in for new business is important, so they handle it quickly and effectively.

 

Q. Let’s talk about your website. How does it help you generate business?

 

A. When people visit the web looking for insurance, i can get listed or placed in front of them. Before i didn't have that ability to do so, and when they do click through to my site it gives them a call to action. That makes it a whole lot easier to for them to request a quote, find information, call, etc.

 

Q. How do you drive people to your Virtual Insurance Office?

 

A. In all my interactions with clients and prospects we always refer them to the website for more information about our agency and products we offer. We find this works well with those who are busy or are looking to research on their own. With our partnership with Squid, they drive traffic through their SEO work, automated email campaigns, and of course the search engine marketing.

 

Q. How do you use e-mail marketing to find new customers?

A. I started out doing a lot of sophisticated email campaigns and really liked being able to round out my accounts by creating campaigns to cross market personal lines products to my commercial clients. The system has many automated email campaign set up when you go live, such as holiday/birthday campaigns, renewal based email marketing, as well as the auto responders and associated follow up emails that go along with the web submissions. We have also created several campaigns in the Squid LM to marketing to my list of prospects i have gathered over the years.

 

Q. When a lead comes in what is your process?

We usually do the following: Most calls are first answered by my CSR who will ask a few questions to gauge what they are looking for and where they are in the sales process, are they looking to compare, buy in the future, etc. Once we have gathered the most important information i.e. contact name, email, phone number they can be reached at,  they are directed to me. About 75% of the time, we can determine their needs right away and close them on the first phone call. If it is a prospect that we didn't get to and they made it into voicemail or it was a web submission, we make it a priority to call them back the first day and give them follow up email. We will repeat this process for a few days till either we can start a dialog about their insurance needs or it is clear they have gone elsewhere. 

 

So in general how many interactions do you have with a prospect before you actually close?

As I mentioned if we get them in bound as a call, about 75% of the time I will know whether or not that customer is going to buy a policy from a brief conversation. If it was a call back from voicemail or a web submission, then usually at most 3 calls.

And how long does that usually cover?

The size of customers that I am attracting, they will buy $1000 policy from me, so typically 3-4 days.

If they are a larger account or commercial client, then after pricing and applications, that process would typically take a week to 10 days.

Wow that sounds like a lot!

You know the modern consumer has a lot of options available to them, and an ever increasing ability to find them. So I find that you have to stay on top of a prospect, particularly one generated from the internet.

  

Q. How has the Virtual Profit Center helped you improve your results?

 

A. Being able to track the all of our leads in one place, and of course through SEM and the higher quality of lead coming through to my website. Which was not something we really had before we signed on with Squid. 

 

Q. What do you think will happen to agencies that don’t move their focus to the Internet?

 

A. They are going to miss out on a lot of business and opportunities. I wouldn’t want to be one! You cannot afford to ignore the internet if you want to have a successful and growing agency! If used correctly, not only does it allow you to be where the modern consumer is but you can increase their involvement in the insurance buying process helping you to better serve you customers.