Converting Website Visitors Into Clients
Contributed by Brandon Cruz
Agent's Sales Journal
December 2003/ January 2004
- Rapid Response Brings New Clients
- Give Clients a Reason to Visit You Often
- Fine Tune The Marketing Campaign
So, you've developed a new insurance agency Website, and it's attracting prospective clients through the Internet. Now how can you convert them to take action?
Converting site visitors into clients isn't easy, and it does require a strategy. But it has at least one important advantage over traditional selling: By checking out your Website, the client has initiated contact with you.
Certainly, opening a phone call to prospects by letting them know you're following up on their online visit is a better ice-breaker than any you could use while contacting leads from a cold-call list. It also allows you to ease into the conversation by asking for feedback about the Website. Posing questions such as, "Were you able to find the information you were looking for?" or "How did you land on my site?" may create a greater comfort level than launching into an immediate sales pitch and should yield valuable information that can be used to optimize the Website in the future.
Gather Info and Respond Quickly
Perhaps the most important tactic agents can use to keep the dialogue alive is to respond to the prospect quickly. A fast response time requires that the prospects provide some contact information on the Website, and that the information gets immediately emailed to you. Therefore, it's important to include data-capture and conversion points throughout the Website. I recommend prompting visitors to provide only as much information as needed for a follow-up call: Name, ZIP code, email address and phone number, for example. Asking for more information than that, such as street address and personal data, can intimidate prospects before they convert and is usually best saved for later in the sales or application process.
While most consumers have been conditioned to expect slow responses - or none at all - from companies they contact on the Web, the Internet's potential for instant communication between agent and client is a fantastic selling tool. Agents who respond to Web inquiries immediately have a much higher conversion rate than agents who wait even a couple of days.
If you can't call while the client is still online, make a note of the time of day of his or her conversion time and call back at that time the next day. Consumers tend to have fairly established Web surfing habits, so if someone is conducting personal business online during his or her lunch hour today, he or she may be amenable to fielding a phone call and getting back on the Website at the same time tomorrow.
Using An Agency Website as an Online Brochure
If you are able to follow up right away, not only will you wow prospects, you also will be able to use your Website as a real-time discussion guide. Walk the prospect through the key pages and useful insurance articles on the site - and use online information to help answer their questions.
For example, show prospects the different lines of insurance and different plans your agency offers. If the site has a "quote engine" that allows users to compare plan details side-by-side, guide them through plans that might make sense for their needs.
Even better, if a site offers an online application and the prospect is ready to buy, walk him or her through the insurance application. Doing so offers several benefits:
- Convenience - The client doesn't have to wait for a personal visit from the agent, or for forms to arrive in the mail, to apply.
- Accuracy - Because the form is automated - and you're there to answer questions - online applications tend to yield cleaner data and require less follow-up than paper forms.
- Speed - The application can be forwarded electronically from agent to carrier, so the policy can be underwritten faster.
- Cost - Transferring documents online eliminates the need to pay for postage and mailing.
Once a Website is functioning as an online brochure, ready to convert visitors, keeping it up-to-date can create significant cost savings, eliminating the need for printing and mailing hard-copy marketing materials year after year.
After the Sale
A well-designed Internet presence will continue to provide sales benefits long after the prospect becomes a client. Especially if the site is linked to your agency's contact management software, it should also function as a client-retention tool. Use client data you've collected through the site to create mass emails - such as electronic client newsletters - or to target messages toward specific client groups. For example, it's easy to notify clients who have purchased only health insurance about the other lines you carry, provide updates when policies are up for renewal or use date-of-birth data to email birthday greetings.
You can also create "automatic drip marketing campaigns," - email messages complete with health insurance quotes automatically sent to leads two weeks, six months or a year after they've converted, to remind them you're still interested in their business.
From the opportunity for near instantaneous contact to the ease of capturing client data, a well-designed Website can dramatically streamline any agency's efforts in converting online visitors and managing client relationships. But remember that a prospect's visit to a site is just the beginning. The initial follow-up and how you leverage the site after that will decide whether the prospect converts and becomes a client.
Brandon Cruz is president, chief technology officer and cofounder of Norvax, Inc. Based in Chicago, Norvax develops Web content management and client relationship tools for insurance agents and providers to generate more sales through the Internet.
The company's products include: Agent SiteBuilder, a Web-based software program that helps agents develop an effective Internet presence; Agent SiteLever ®, a browser- based content management application that lets insurance agents easily update and maintain their Websites; and Agent QuoteBuilder, an instant online quote engine that allows clients to compare and review plans side by side.
For more information, visit www.norvax.com, or contact the company at info@norvax.com, 866-4-NORVAX (866-466-7829) or 312-226-0027
