It’s every producer’s dream to wake up to new leads in their inbox. Imagine coming into the office Monday morning with new warm prospects waiting for your call. All it takes is engaging in a couple of online strategies.

1) Google AdWords

One of the easiest ways to gain leads online is through Google AdWords, or ads on related websites. You only pay for these short ads when people click and arrive at your website. If your ad fails to attract new people to your website, then you won’t have to pay anything.

Two things make Google AdWords more effective than traditional advertising:

• Geo-targeting. With Google AdWords, you are able to choose how people will find you based on their location.
• Analytics. Do you know how many people read your postcard and responded to it? Probably not. With Google ads, you can see the number of people who saw your ad and clicked it—and with in-depth analytics, you can even see how many of them contacted you.

When you do it right, Google AdWords can bring leads to your agency week after week.

2) Blogging and SEO

This is one of the most effective long-term strategies for generating online leads. When you take advantage of the combination, you can rank at the top of a search engine results page—and because millions of insurance-related searches occur every month, accomplishing that increases the likelihood that prospects will click on your website when performing organic searches online.  

The best part about blogging and SEO? Once a blog gains traction and begins bringing you leads, it continues month after month without requiring much additional time or money.

Imagine a producer who is on duty 24/7 and does not need a salary. Now imagine a dozen of them with their own specialty markets. This is what your blog can do for you.

3) Social Media

Can you really get new business from social media? If you’re just posting "Get a quote," the answer is no. But if you treat it like a proper sales or marketing tool, it can become an integral part of your lead generation process.

One way to use social media is with ads, which work similarly to Google ads in that you can specify what types of people see them. If you want to attract only college grads or market to those in a specific industry, for example, you can.

Another way to use social media is by prospecting like you would offline. The trick is to find avenues with few barriers to one-on-one communication. Using Twitter and joining active LinkedIn groups are great ways to connect with people with little barriers.

Where to Begin

No one really wants to learn new techniques or add to their schedule, but in order to ensure success in this ever-changing marketplace, sometimes it’s necessary. These strategies can be time consuming at first, but once you have the experience and knowledge to make them run smoothly, you will

enjoy waking up to new leads in your inbox every week.

Here are a few tips to get started:

Start small. Too many agents who begin online marketing see everything they have to do and become overwhelmed. You can’t do it all right away, so take it one step at a time. Try one small AdWords campaign, or write your first 200-w

ord blog post.

Schedule and plan. The biggest hindrance to every business person’s ability to get more prospects—both online and in person—is time. Planning your first 30 minutes is something easy you can do this week.

Stay educated. It takes experience and knowledge for these strategies to actually work. Continually learning while you engage in these practices will bring you success.

Zachary Emly is a class instructor at inBuzz Group, which educates insurance agents and small business owners on how to take control of their digital marketing.