To thrive in an increasingly competitive industry, more and more insurance agencies are using modern technology to increase their effectiveness.

Telephonic sales channels are growing rapidly in the insurance space. More consumers prefer to communicate over the phone rather than in-person when buying insurance. Whether you have an existing call center or you are considering creating a new sales arm, the decision for that channel to be in-house or outsourced can be difficult. Consider the following factors to decide which makes more sense for your business.

For marketing campaigns to be successful, insurance agencies need to employ targeted tactics for attracting viable leads. Traditional marketing can be hugely expensive and too broad-reaching to engage the right prospects. Social media activity without strategy can feel like wasted efforts with no return. Understandably, your message can easily get lost in the shuffle of a crowded marketing space. How do you get your message in front of the right people?

Are you getting the most out of your agency’s website? Your website can be a powerful leads generator and a billboard for your business that attracts new insurance prospects. But it can also become an albatross of an investment if prospects can’t find the information they're looking or don’t know how to interact with you. To optimize your website’s impact on your business, follow these steps to improve lead conversion.

Over the past four years, the insurance industry has undergone major shifts from the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Insurance carriers—like Aetna and UnitedHealth Group—are opting out of the ACA marketplace in a number of states, citing financial losses. Younger demographics—who typically use less healthcare services than older patients—are choosing to risk paying out-of-pocket expenses versus paying for health insurance.

Many agents start their careers with a phone and an empty desk—smiling and dialing their way through a list of cold-call contacts.

Open enrollment is the most hectic time of the year for health insurance agents. So how does one cut through the noise and efficiently market their brand to shore up sales during this period? Below are three digital marketing tactics aimed at reaching more prospective clients and increasing your sales throughout open enrollment and beyond.

In April, UnitedHealthcare announced its plan to exit 26 of its 34 healthcare exchanges beginning in 2017. To many, this didn’t come as a surprise, as the insurer had been warning since late last year that the exchanges were a risky investment. (To date, Aetna, the nation’s third-largest health insurance provider, Humana, the fifth largest health insurance company in the U.S., and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina have also pulled subsidized health plans from select states—citing financial losses as the primary driver.)

Efficiency drives business. Without a system in place that allows and nurtures efficiency, a business is going to spend excess time on tasks that should be routinely, or in some cases, automatically done. A system that is inefficient is also a system that results in a loss of opportunity in sales and unnecessary operating expense.

Efficient management of leads, whether inbound or outbound, is key to maximizing your agency’s multi-channel distribution model. In part one of the series, we discussed inbound leads and team member profiles. Here, we dive into effective lead management and outbound (dialer) strategies to help your agency maximize close rates.