6 effective ways to get free life insurance leads

Key takeaways

• Turn your existing clients into advocates by building a referral program with enticing rewards
• Offer free quotes and helpful information about life insurance to attract hesitant leads who don’t fully understand the value of your products
• Refine your brand and online reputation on social media and in business directories to stand out to people in your target market

For life insurance agents, the search for new leads never ends. With an ever-growing, frequently updated contact list of potential customers, you can market to endless prospects and earn sales commissions on every win. The best news is, you don’t have to invest thousands of dollars in paid ads, direct mail, or lead vendors to get high-quality leads. Some of the best lead generation strategies don’t cost a cent or require any tedious and often unproductive cold calling. 

From target-rich markets like expecting or new parents to young, single people who may not see the need for life insurance to older people who may think it’s too expensive, potential customers are everywhere if you know how to identify and reach them. Here are six simple and effective ways to get free life insurance leads.

1. Build a referral program

When you sign on a new customer, they’re unlikely to need your services again until their policy comes up for renewal. However, they may have friends and family members who need life insurance. When you create a referral program that rewards people who successfully refer customers to your life insurance business, you can get more sales leads while turning your past clients into your biggest advocates.

The rewards you offer can be simple as long as they’re enticing. For example, you can give referrers gift cards or cash back on their next month’s life insurance premium if you win a sale (and get commission). However, if you want to get a better return on investment from your referral program, you can always offer rewards in exchange for several referrals rather than just one.

2. Connect with business owners on social media

Compared to auto, home, and health insurance, life insurance is often viewed by consumers as an unnecessary expense. In fact, 86% of Generation Z—and at least 70% of millennials, Generation X, and baby boomers—are hesitant to buy life insurance products. 

But even though many individuals are unlikely to be active shoppers, life insurance policies can be attractive workplace perks that many companies like to offer. Networking with local business leaders can help you win a massive sale of policies for an entire team or firm.

LinkedIn and Facebook are two social media platforms you can use to reach professional leads. By viewing users’ job positions on their profiles, you can identify and connect with decision makers, such as business owners and HR managers, who have a final say in the insurance company their business selects. If you want to target specific types of companies, like small and medium-sized businesses with at least 50 employees, make sure to browse their company’s LinkedIn page too.

Once you figure out who you need to reach out to, send a friendly message inviting them to speak in real time over a phone call or video chat. Be sure to personalize your message with your prospect’s name and company name—and focus on asking questions that uncover their needs during your call. The more you know about your leads, the better targeted your marketing efforts and life insurance sales pitch will be later on.

3. Offer free life insurance quotes

The majority of consumers view life insurance as at least three times more expensive than it really is. When you offer free life insurance quotes in exchange for a phone number or email address, you can quickly win interested leads while correcting misconceptions about the products you sell.

Offering free quotes isn’t just an effective way to get free life insurance leads. It’s also a simple opportunity to learn more about your potential customer. To get an accurate quote, your leads may be willing to submit extra details like their age, gender, weight, marital status, and the amount of coverage they’re looking for. You can use this information to personalize your future conversations and cater your life insurance marketing materials to different customer needs.

To reach a niche audience, like new or expecting parents, you can promote your free life insurance quotes using web pages that are catered to their specific needs.

4. Create valuable content for potential customers

Confusing information is the biggest deterrent to policy purchases in the insurance industry. An IBM study found that 46% of millennials don’t understand policy specifics, while others don’t even know why they need life insurance.

Content marketing can help your target market understand the complexities of life insurance—but you don’t always have to give it away for free. Instead, you can create webinars, whitepapers, and other forms of downloadable content that potential customers can get access to in exchange for their contact information. Your content can answer your target audience’s questions about life insurance, or you can provide related resources for financial planning, aging in place, and similar topics.

Use search engine optimization practices—like adding relevant keywords to your content and links to other pages on your site—to ensure your content reaches searchers on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines. Targeting niche or long-tail keywords, such as “life insurance for veterans” and “what life insurance covers,” can help you reach specific audience members.

When you create a single piece of content marketing, you can use it to get quality life insurance leads for years to come. This is especially the case if you create evergreen content that remains relevant to consumers for a long period of time.

5. Refine your brand

If you’re not getting the volume of free insurance leads you want with your marketing efforts, you may need to refine your brand. Your brand elements—which can range from your logo and fonts to your brand personality—can significantly impact the number of people who trust you as an insurance salesperson. For example, if you’re displaying your name differently on every marketing channel you use, it can be difficult to determine if you’re a legitimate agent.

Create guidelines that outline how your brand should look and feel. For example, a life insurance company could establish an educational, supportive personality and use the color blue (which signifies security) in its marketing materials to build a trustworthy brand. This will create more brand consistency so that your insurance company appears more established and becomes more memorable for your potential leads.

6. Shape your reputation on business directories

Much like your brand, your online reputation can deeply affect the number of contacts you get from your lead generation efforts. The majority (93%) of people trust online reviews, which means unmanaged critical reviews can have a negative impact on your brand. While positive reviews can enhance your online reputation, you still have room to impress more potential customers by responding to every client and showing that you take feedback seriously.

To attract even more clients and put your customer service on display, claim your listings on business directories and write professional and timely responses to customer reviews. For example, on Yelp, after you claim your business page, you can respond directly to reviews or send a private message. You’ll get real-time notifications when people leave reviews on your page so you can respond swiftly.

As you claim new business directory pages, you can also update your business information and upload high-quality pictures. This will help you stand out to life insurance shoppers when they search for businesses like yours and peruse your profile.

Less spending, more good leads

Free life insurance lead generation can be just as effective as any paid tactics you use. You can successfully generate new leads with minimal expense by setting up an enticing referral program, creating helpful content, and offering free quotes for your products. 

When you’re ready to expand your outreach, consider using social media to connect with corporate decision-makers who may be interested in expanding or changing their benefits packages to include your life insurance products.

Your online reputation can also affect how many free life insurance leads you generate. If you want your target audience to trust you enough to give you their contact information, you need to keep your brand consistent across all your marketing channels and stay attentive to online reviews.

As you implement these lead generation strategies, read about more digital marketing strategies you can use to attract potential customers and win more sales for your life insurance company.