2021 Updates from SBS: Carrier Releases, Blog Posts, Rate Adjustments

The most common question we’re asked from new agents in the senior insurance market is, “do you have any leads?” While we do not offer “free leads” (they are never good leads anyway!), we will suggest different ways to effectively obtain leads to increase your business. 

Purchase Leads Through Lists or Direct Mailers 

Some agents still use direct mailers or call lists to find new clients and Senior Benefit Services has worked with a few third party companies that offer this. Check out what we have used to create potential leads:   

• Heartland Financial – email: custserv@hfgappsleads.com 
• Kramer Direct – www.kramerdirect.com    
• List Shack – www.listshack.com  
• Need a Lead – www.needalead.com 
• Melissa Data – http://www.melissadata.com/dm/index.htm – not a direct mailer, but you can obtain lists here.  

At one time Medicare Supplement direct mailers worked great for most agents, including our agents out in the field, generating an average return of about 4%. However, the market is not responding the same as before and most mailers are currently generating a less than 1% return. This low return rate is not all bad for agents that work these leads and are comfortable with cold calling the list of clients who were mailed cards in addition to following up on the warmer leads of cards that were returned.  

If you are not sure about purchasing leads on your own, Senior Benefit Services does offer a lead program for our Producing Partners – agents that actively write business with our FMO. Check out the details here. 

Don’t worry, if you are looking for other alternatives, we have more advice to give! 

Regularly Email Your Clients

A newer method to stay in front of your potential clients is by email. You might be critical of this type of outreach, asking how do I obtain a list of people to email? All agents must start somewhere, so begin by emailing your existing clients or leads (even though it might be a handful of people). You can slowly increase the number of recipients a couple of ways:  

• Email capture – This technic of obtaining emails can be done by having a signup sheet available on your website. Some websites offer a pop-up feature that is immediately in the client’s face when they visit your website, or you can have a simple, “sign up for our newsletters here” available on the front page of your website. Another effective way to build an email newsletter list is through a link in your individual email signature that is connected to the same email capture on your website.  
• Ask everyone for their email – Even if you do not sell the client a policy if you have someone in front of you, ask them for their email address as a way to stay in contact with your business and for them to receive useful information and updates. To successfully build your list, asking everyone, every time for their email address is a great way to start.

Now that you are building an email contact list you might think of how to send all these emails. We do not recommend personally sending out a handful of emails from your own individual email account like Gmail, iCloud, or Yahoo. To make emails easier we suggest you use an email service to send your “eblasts.” Below are a couple of our favorites: 

• Robly 
• Constant Contact 
• MailChimp 
• AWeber 

Every “eblast” service is different. We suggest that you pick a service that is right for your business whether that’s price, ease, or customer support. Make sure to research different eblast companies before committing to one. By using a specialized service to send mass emails you protect the reputation of your “real” email address.  This keeps your individually sent emails out of spam and junk mail folders!  

Finally, you are probably curious about what content you add to your eblasts. Since marketing might not come naturally to you here are some content ideas you can add to your eblasts: 

• About your business – What’s going on with your business to engage with your audience. 
• Information on products you have available – Keep this section very generic, for example, “How Home Health Care Can Benefit You!” or “Do You Have The Lowest Medicare Supplement Rate?”.   
• It doesn’t have to be about insurance! – Think outside the box and share social activities happening in your area, places that you recommend visiting, or even a favorite recipe, quote, or fun facts. This section is also engaging and makes your eblasts more entertaining for clients and more personal.  

Regular emails to your clients through the year helps with client retention and now your contact information is always at your client’s fingertips.  

Utilize Your Website 

More and more Baby Boomers are using technology to contact a business or services. A website, especially one that is constantly updated, gives your business credibility. Your website is great place to house generic Medicare resources for your clients, along with an easy way for your clients to reach out to you without picking up the phone. If you do not have a website, but would like to start somewhere here are a few website builder suggestions for you:  

• SquareSpace 
• Wix 
• Shopify 
• Weebly 
• Carrd – one page website 
• Or Find a local company who builds websites! 

Similar to the eblast services provided in the last section, all website builders are different, so you want to find the best option for you. We also encourage you to double check with your eblast services since some of those companies might offer a landing page to house information about your company.

Incorporating Social Media

We mentioned this a few times before, but now more then ever people are utilizing social media platforms to connect with businesses. We highly recommend you build a company page to connect with your clients online. This can be through platforms like: 

• Facebook 
• Instagram 
• Twitter 
• LinkedIn 

Like your website, social media pages look best when they are updated and utilized frequently. Ideally this is every day but your pages should be updated at least, a couple times each week. Once again when it comes to your content you can connect with your audience with different topics such as: 

• Medicare 
• Sharing links to informative articles/videos 
• Approved carrier marketing pieces or sharing a carrier’s post 
• Generic product advertisements – if marketing pieces are not approved 
• Photos of what is going on at your business  

Your content is meant to be engaging but more importantly, you’re staying in front of your potential audience and existing clients so they know to go to you first when it comes to their insurance needs.

Facebook is one social media company that has mastered consumer outreach. You can “boost” any of your posts for a couple extra dollars and Facebook will make sure that post will appear in front of new group of people that might be interested in your business. Or, go one step further, with advertisements on Facebook. Advertising can be more expensive than a “boost,” but you can customize your advertisement pieces, along with your preferred audience demographic that you want to reach. You can learn more about Facebook advertising here.  

The Most Effective Way to Obtain Leads

Drum Roll Please…… The most effective way to obtain leads is… Referrals! The best way to bring in new cliental is to simply ask for referrals with clients that are in front of you now. We could go on for pages about the importance of referrals but for now we will leave you with our previous blog post: Want More Leads? This article will dive deeper into referrals and the best ways to find new clients.

Final Thoughts

There is more than one way to find new clients and increase your earning potential. The key is not put all your eggs in one basket and to utilize multiple avenues for reaching out to new clients to let them know you are available to help with their insurance needs.  

Have questions about anything in this blog post today?

Contact The Marketing Department at Senior Benefit Services

800-924-4SBS

Marketing@SrBenefit.com.

Message from Our Company President

Welcome to 2021

I think that we can all agree that everyone has been looking forward to 2021 and ready to put 2020 in the history books.  For many in our industry, this past year put up several roadblocks that reduced opportunities to make sales.  As well numerous insurance advisors were put behind the proverbial “Technology 8 Ball”.  Much of their initial time was spent trying to get caught up on how to use carriers eApps and how to start conducting meetings and sales calls via video conferencing.

With over 30 years’ experience in the senior insurance market, I can tell you that I have never seen such an amazing dedication by agents to embrace technology.  With what we have experienced during 2020 and will continue to do so for a part of 2021 the one thing that I am sure of… “business will never return to the old way of doing things”.  We will need to continue to grow with technology and meet with retirees in the manner they feel the most comfortable with.  When I think back on how my grandfather and father did business, they would have never embraced a way that did not put the consumer in front of them.  Whether it was in the office or the kitchen table, that human contact helped form the bond that would allow them to build a business where client persistency remained at top levels.

Does this mean that we will no longer be meeting our clients face to face ever again?  Of course not!  What it does mean is that if you have clients or prospective clients who are high risk (health wise) or simply do not feel comfortable getting around people they don’t know well, then you better have a ‘Plan B’ already prepared.  This past year has shown us that crazy things that we never planned for can happen, so let’s all make sure that we have a diversified business model in place that allows us to keep being successful.

Sometimes I feel that too many organizations provide lip service and say, “We value your business.” Don’t get me wrong, we do value the business you place with us, but as a long-standing family-owned company, we put even more emphasis in the relationships that we get to build with you.

 

Best of luck in 2021!!!!

David Kurtz

President of Senior Benefit Services, Inc.