Smart New York disability insurance brokers have been thinking ahead to 2022 since the third quarter wrapped up. However, that’s not always easy to do as so much has changed in the past year. If you’ve been focused on the day-to-day, treading water and focused on maintaining your book of business without growing, that’s completely understandable.
But it could be time, as the new year approaches, to take a step back and take inventory of how you can grow in 2022.
As a successful New York disability insurance broker, you understand that keeping your pipeline full of leads and using consultative selling to earn the trust of clients and prospects, are keys to success. But how can you generate leads to fill your pipeline in this ever-changing, fast-paced world?
First, let The DBL Center be your back-office staff for managing the details. Follow our expert marketing tips for New York disability insurance, ancillary benefits like dental, vision, and group life/AD&D, and voluntary worksite benefits like accident insurance.
Take Inventory and Understand Your Market
As we prepare to enter the new year, take an internal inventory of your sales and marketing strategies. What has worked in the past?
- What stopped working for your brokerage in 2020 and 2021?
- What new strategies and tactics that you’ve noticed could be deployed by your team?
- How can you use technology to continue building relationships with your target market?
Most importantly, are you clear on the make-up of your target market? Only when you understand your audience can you adopt the appropriate strategies to fill your pipeline with leads.
Choose One or Two Marketing Strategies and Focus on Them
The digital era brings marketing strategies and tactics that New York disability insurance brokers haven’t previously embraced. If you’ve relied on sales calls, face-to-face meetings, and in-person networking to grow your book of business, it’s time to start looking at one-to-many (rather than one-to-one) tactics that can save you time and yield faster results.
Possibilities for digital marketing include:
- Inbound marketing through blog posts and social media content
- Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Advertising through Google AdWords or paid social
- Email marketing campaigns for lead generation
- Webinars for one-to-many marketing
This can all seem overwhelming, especially if you haven’t done much digital marketing.
Choose one or two tactics that fit your company’s skillset, personality, brand and budget. Consider outsourcing some of these services if you don’t have the in-house staff to maintain momentum with content creation or don’t have the knowledge to spearhead a digital ad campaign on your own.
An outsourced digital marketing agency can deliver warm leads straight to your sales team, leaving your in-house brokers to seal the deal through consultative selling, white-glove service, and a deep understanding of the products.
Get Back to Basics with Follow-ups
It can take three to six months for a digital campaign to gain momentum, but you’ll want to be prepared when it does. Have a system to identify and follow-up on qualified leads.
When you do, consider your entire product line – not just New York disability insurance. The DBL Center works with preferred carriers to provide our clients with affordable options to upsell businesses on:
- Long-term disability coverage
- Group Life / AD&D
- Vision
- Dental
- Accident Insurance
- Critical Illness Coverage
You can save your clients money by bundling benefits, which can help them recruit and retain talent in today’s tight labor market. By making recommendations in a consultative capacity, you’ll become a valuable resource, working hand-in-hand with business owners and HR departments to help solve one of their biggest problems today: Keeping well-qualified employees happy.
Leverage Technology to Track Renewals and Cancellations
Of course, it costs less money to retain customers (and upsell additional employee benefits!) than it does to generate new leads and bring in new business. Both are equally important for business growth.
The DBL Center’s proprietary Broker Dashboard: Net Revenue Tracker gives you the tools you need to track renewals and cancellations, so you can stay in touch with your clients when they need you most.