Connecting with your prospects and customers at the right moment and the through right channel is key to any business. And social media is proving to fulfill this role for businesses across all industries. The insurance industry is certainly no exception.

According to LIMRA, the world’s largest association of life insurance and financial services companies, discovered that 93% of life insurance companies had social media programs in place. As independent agents we need to start participating and embracing this medium of marketing.

You can already begin to see captive agents and some independent agents pushing one carrier and one product. It’s usually the most expensive life insurance product out there or it’s the cheapest by offering preferred plus underwriting on a 10-year term. I personally disagree with this approach as its either taking advantage of clients by going after the highest commission or selling on price.

Either way is short-sited. Life insurance is an emotional sale. Success occurs when you connect the sale to a specific emotional event that your client has experienced or someone they know, has experienced.

Those of us that are independent brokers, represent several carriers to best fit our customers’ needs and budget to their goals. This should be our basic message. However, simply posting and imparting a message is not enough to convert social media users into qualified leads.

To do that we need to add credibility. The best way – linking your message to your personal website and/or social media business page. Legacy is partnering with Agent Quote Inc to bring better tools for the field and the ability to have your own Microsite for lead generation.

Linking your Facebook posts and/or your Facebook page to your own website will blow out your competition. Historically, life insurance carriers aren’t known as being an industry that emotionally connects and interacts with consumers very well. They try but often fall short using more life insurance speak instead of simple situations people can truly relate too.

Yet, life insurance covers very emotional events in a person’s life. Social media is a powerful tool to create these customer connections and to engage with consumers on a more personal level. In order for those connections to begin you have to be participating. Sending out one message here and there is not going to cut it. You need to be regularly engaged by posting at least weekly if not daily.

Talk about your day – tell short stories about the people you met and the reason why they chose your solution for life insurance coverage. It can be a simple as “…met with a guy today who just lost his sister to lymphoma. She was only 31 years old with two young children. Her work site insurance was nowhere near enough to cover all the current and future expenses.”

Consumers talk about life events on social media. They may share on Facebook news about a new baby, new home, or someone that’s ill or just passed. They post pictures on Instagram of a graduation or wedding. Adding content through social media posting directing them to your site for a free quote equals lead generation.

When done correctly, social media marketing can establish your brands, which is you by the way, reputation as being customer focused, reputable, and trustworthy – all important factors for consumers when deciding which competitor will win their policy.

This will be the future of lead generation providing a cost-effective method to talk with more people. Direct mail is getting more expensive and returns continue to drop. We just had the largest postal increase in years take effect.

A successful campaign these days is .7% to 1% and some areas it’s .5% to .8%. Those numbers are still okay as the sales you’ll make will off-set lead cost, provided you have a livable commission schedule. I personally feel direct mail marketing will be a supplement to our over-all marketing for lead generation.

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