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Tips for Finding Medicare Leads

Lead Generation
Aug 16, 2022
7
minute read
Nectar Team
Tips for Finding Medicare Leads

If you consider the experience of a professional fish catcher, a good week of work entails a steady stream of fish in the boat and maybe a whopper in the mix, as well. It then comes down to throwing back some of those fish but hanging onto the ones you'll get paid for. If you're an insurance agent, something about this scenario is reeling you in right now. Pun intended.

The life of a Medicare insurance agent might parallel that of an angler when you consider that finding leads is a lot like fishing. You're going to find some good prospects and some unworthy ones. The key to making a successful career out of selling Medicare Supplement policies involves always having enough people in your pipeline.

You might discover that finding quality leads results from experience. The bounty arrives when you know exactly what methods yield the best prospects and what sources you should probably avoid. Yet, both new and seasoned agents should constantly investigate a number of places to find potential customers. Like savvy fisherfolk, the rewards come when you cast your net over the greatest surface area in the most productive waters.

Here are some of the best places to look for Medicare leads.

Where To Find the Best Medicare Leads

In the Medicare Supplement sales world, your motivation should be driven by a few hard facts. The bulk of your target market must make a decision as they approach age 65. They'll need astute guidance on that decision around that time, and you can position yourself as the expert to guide them. But first, you'll need prospects to engage. Here's where to look.

1. Retirement seminars

Have you ever had a client describe their dream retirement scenario? It might not include the bevy of financial decisions your customer has to make. So, a fertile crop of leads could be had by organizing an informational retirement seminar covering many topics of interest. Along with navigating Medicare waters, you might also team up with a financial advisor to sponsor an event that covers retirement accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s.

A gathering of this nature helps simultaneously connect you with many qualified prospects. Ask invitees to bring a friend or family member, and you're likely adding to your prospect count. To gauge the seminar's effectiveness, you'll want to closely track return on investment (ROI) because renting space and serving refreshments requires a cash outlay. A laudable ROI may have you hosting quarterly events rather than annual ones.

2. List purchases

You have to think compiling a list of qualified Medicare supplement prospects shouldn't be all that difficult. After all, it's simply a matter of a provider targeting birthdates in your geographical location — and then hoping you're among the first agents to contact these prospects. Odds are that a lot of these folks have retirement on their mind well before they turn 65, so don't hesitate to contact them a year in advance to create a pipeline.

With Medicare Supplement and Medicare Advantage sales, timing is certainly of the essence. A vast majority of pre-retirees will have questions. If you make a great first impression and have good answers, these prospects hold promise. A casual phone call about the pending life milestone could be all you need. And you may witness a stronger sense of urgency in this market than among the life or property and casualty insurance crowd.

3. Web pages

Everyone uses a computer or smartphone these days. So, the fact that you need some kind of business web presence isn't in question. The more relevant question is how much information you want to supply on your website. Too little content might have a prospect moving on to the next local agent's site. Too much information might dissuade a prospect from picking up the phone to call you. Look for a happy balance and monitor your results.

Keep in mind that a website won't do much good unless prospects find it. With so much traffic on the internet, search engine optimization (SEO) rules the business website world right now. SEO techniques help put your website on the first page of Google search results for prospects in your geographic area. If you're going to rely heavily on web leads, SEO emphasis is a must.

4. Social media

Business websites and social media go hand in hand when you're concocting an online marketing strategy. Ideally, while you're meeting with qualified prospects, these mediums work in the background. Ideally, Facebook and Instagram should trigger inbound calls from Medicare policy prospects. Using these platforms amounts to a no-brainer because setup is simple and a passive business page won't cost you anything in most cases.  

With Medicare sales, understand the demographic makeup of the people that visit each site you plan to use. Apps like Facebook draw more pre-retiree daily active users than platforms like Snapchat or Instagram. While you might want to sow some seeds across all these social media, concentrate any paid marketing campaigns in spaces that draw the most people aged 64 or older.

5. Referral networking

Folks approaching retirement age will likely need to consult with a few different professionals. The first person in line might be a financial consultant tasked with the transfer of a group retirement plan to an individual retirement plan. With health insurance a top priority, insurance agents might also warrant an early stop. In either case, an agreement between you and a financial advisor could have you trading off referrals.

You could have a person-to-person arrangement with an accountant also, and formal referral groups are a great place to meet these kinds of peers. Look for referral groups that include small business owners in your market. Typically, these organizations have one slot for Medicare insurance agents, and any referrals coming into the group get dispatched directly to that agent. If you're that person, you'll need to reciprocate with plumbers, attorneys, retailers, etc.

6. Banner advertising

Newspapers once populated kitchen tables, work lunchrooms, and office waiting areas, but demand for print versions declined by more than half between 2016 and 2021. As digital subscriptions increase, online banner advertising is the likely choice to replace newspaper column ads you might have leveraged in the past. Banner ads flash or scroll across a host's landing page. Emphasizing Medicare in this space may help drive inbound inquiries.

Since you'll pay to place your name at the top of a newspaper's digital pages, analyzing results will help determine whether the investment bears fruit. You can use a metric like a click-through rate to see how many viewers click on your ad to obtain more information on Medicare insurance services. Click-throughs on ads steer prospects directly to your website. From there, measure conversions to see how many sales you've made from prospects' engagement with your banner ad.

7. Benefits brokers

If Medicare Supplement and Advantage policies already fill your niche, find a cohort that might not offer those options. Often, small boutique benefits consultancies do not have Medicare specialists on staff. Yet, for pre-retiree populations in larger companies, retirement and Medicare questions get directed to human resources personnel. You can add value for brokers and HR personnel by contacting returning employees who have Medicare concerns.

Finding these types of benefit firms requires a subtle telephone or in-person approach. In all likelihood, large consultancies with a national reach will have dedicated Medicare agents in house or a team to which they outsource business. There's always a chance you could become an outlet for a larger brokerage business, but finding local family-owned agencies should present better opportunities. Typically, these smaller agencies have a few people juggling many responsibilities, so Medicare policies may be a line they're willing to farm out.    

8. Real-time leads

The ideal Medicare lead-generating system would walk hot prospects right to your office doorstep. We're not sure that option exists right now, but real-time lead providers do the next best thing. Real-time prospects have shown real-time interest in Medicare policies. At that point, a representative of the lead provider contacts the prospect immediately. The potential customer can then choose to talk to a Medicare agent at that very moment.

You have two significant advantages when talking to a real-time lead. Primarily, they have no objection to discussing Medicare policy options at that point, since that's the reason for the search in the first place. Secondly, when prospects agree to speak to an agent immediately, the odds of a sale increase dramatically. Wait 24 hours or more, and your chances of closing the deal become considerably slimmer.

Take the Next Step

You can put all these practices into play, and some will take longer to bear fruit than others. While you're waiting for some of them to develop leads for you, Nectar can supply you with high-quality, to keep the pipeline full and the revenue flowing. Our proprietary algorithms help weed out the nibblers and put a few solid customers in your book. Contact us today for more information.

This article reflects the features of Nectar as of the date of publication. Features are subject to change at any time. This article is meant for informational purposes only, it is not a guarantee that using Nectar will help you achieve specific business or financial results and is not intended to serve as the sole recommendation for any business financial decisions.

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