A Reason to Call: How to Use Marketing Engagements to Uncover Policy Sales

• January 21, 2026

By Zach Petersen

The most successful independent insurance agents in the country repeat a similar sentiment when it comes to agency growth: “If my producers or I can simply start a conversation with anyone for any reason, we have the expertise and skills to create value. We just need a reason to call and we can turn it into sales or retention opportunities.”

Your existing customers expect upsells and cross-sells. If the agent-client relationship is properly nurtured, your recurring customers trust you to protect them from risk and make professional recommendations. Also, life changes present further opportunities to add or update coverage.

However, many agencies struggle with marketing because they aren’t sure what results they are hoping for. A good way to think of digital marketing campaigns is as a tool your agency uses to create simple conversations. For example:

• If someone comments on your social media post, send that person a direct message to thank them for their engagement and then offer them a quote. Their comment is your reason to call.
• If a contact clicks on your email marketing campaign, you know they have some level of interest in your services, even if they didn’t specifically request a quote from you. The engagement with the email is your reason to call.
• When an existing customer responds to your newsletter email to request a service or ask a question, you can review their policies to look for opportunities to upsell or cross-sell. Their service request is your reason to call.

If you and your producers are prepared to have simple conversations and pivot them into sales opportunities, the goal of all your digital marketing can simply be to generate engagement. Then you can use that engagement to start a conversation.

Not every marketing campaign will move prospects to the point of a quote request, but you can use your insurance expertise and sales skills to do that yourself, leveraging the marketing engagement as your reason to call.

Three marketing campaigns that contribute to an effective engagement strategy are:

1) Email marketing. There are surely policy sale opportunities hidden in your contact lists, but contacting the right person at the right time is nearly impossible with manual outbound calls. Email marketing allows you to reach thousands of contacts at once, while also remaining in frequent contact. When the timing is right for a prospect to request a quote, you’ll be in their inbox with an offer.

2) Reviews and customer feedback. When you request reviews and feedback from your current customers, you identify who is satisfied and who is not. You can use that feedback to start a crossselling conversation with happy customers or seek to improve the experience of unhappy customers, leading to increased retention.

3) Social media posts and boosts. Posting regularly on social media engages your current customers, which can lead to service and sales opportunities. Running a boosted post—think of this like an ad—can reach thousands of other online users in your community. Whenever a user comments on a post, reach out to say thank you and start a conversation.

Zach Petersen is director of customer success and partnerships at Lift Local. This article was originally published on the Trusted Choice^® blog.