View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2005/06/17/56264.htm
InsWeb has announced that it will launch a new agent lead generation program this summer called AgentInsider.
AgentInsider will provide leads generated by consumers who have visited the InsWeb Web site in search of an insurance quote and assistance from local agents. Comprehensive consumer data is delivered to agents in real-time.
“For the past 18 months, InsWeb has been distributing high quality leads to agents via a third party,” said Will Phelps, vice president of the InsWeb Agency Network. “With the introduction of AgentInsider, agents will now be signing up and receiving leads directly from our marketplace.
“The unique functionality of AgentInsider provides a more efficient, cost-effective alternative to direct mail, telemarketing, referral and other traditional methods agents have used in the past to develop consumer leads,” Phelps said. “The new program also levels the playing field for individual agents as they compete with insurance companies spending hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising each year.”
According to Phelps, the AgentInsider program will enable agents to set the price they are willing to pay for leads. “AgentInsider represents the next phase in the evolution of the Internet as a new business development tool for agents,” Phelps said.
According to InsWeb surveys, 79 percent of agents use some form of lead generation service in their marketing; over 51 percent process between 50 and 250 leads per month and 93 percent are looking for immediate delivery of leads.
At the same time, more and more consumers are going online to gather and compare insurance quotes from various carriers. Most of these consumers are over 30 years old, college graduates and homeowners, with 10 or more years’ driving experience.
“More consumers start the insurance shopping process online before they finalize the sale with agents in their local community,” Phelps said. “In fact, over $4 million consumers will start one of InsWeb’s insurance applications this year.”
InsWeb plans to expand their local agent lead program to include life, health and other lines of insurance in future generations of AgentInsider.
To register for this program, agents visit: www.agentinsider.com. Once registered, they will be able to bid for consumer leads geographically by Zip code, line of business – auto and homeowners insurance – and quantity.