15 Medicare Leads Generation Tactics - Sell More Medicare This Year

So you’re looking for creative new ways to generate Medicare leads for agents, or for yourself. In an industry where everything feels like a numbers game, sometimes you need that little extra edge over the competition in order to improve your Medicare close rate, boost revenue, and get a few extra sales where possible.

At Digital Market Media, we specialize in Medicare Insurance lead generation. After 10+ years in business, generating millions of dollars in revenue for our clients in a number of ways, we know a thing or two about effective lead generation strategies.

We created this guide to help agents and business owners learn the 15 Best Ways to Generate More Medicare Insurance Leads outside of Open Enrollment. Before we get started, let’s outline the types of Medicare leads this guide and its strategies are geared towards.

Medicare Leads Generation

There are many different types of Medicare leads out there. In this guide, we will break down each of them and further explore how to generate more, focusing on:

• Better lead quality and
• Lower CPA for you

While examining:

• Medicare Direct Mail Leads Generation
• Email Marketing For Medicare
• Medicare Live Transfers
• Medicare Advantage Live Transfers

Medicare Supplement Leads

When trying to generate more Medicare supplement leads, agents usually experience higher closing rates over other types of Medicare leads. These supplement leads easily allow agents to capitalize on the 10,000+ Americans who move into the Medicare category daily.

The best Medicare Supplement leads generation strategies focus on quality rather than quantity. This allows your agents to focus on closing, rather than cold calling and relatively cold outreach. In this guide, we will explain how to generate high-quality Medicare Supplement leads on a regular basis.

For these the lead filters include:

• Age
• Location
• Time of day
• Preexisting medical conditions
• Medicare enrollment for Part A/B
• Income
• Interest level
• & more…

Medicare Advantage Leads

Medicare advantage lead generation requires lead programs based on price, appointment ratios, and return percentages to determine which programs are most fully supported. The advantage program is a premier lead generation program for agent distribution.

Many programs allow you to select exclusive leads which are given to your company and your company only. Understanding which Medicare Advantage leads are the best and how to generate them on your own can be extremely helpful for your agents and your business.

Free Medicare Leads

There is really no such thing as a free lead. You may not be paying for it in terms of actual dollars, but time, care, and a great deal of energy needs to go into any lead in order to nurture them into a client.

However, for agents who don’t have the budget to buy Medicare leads, we do have a few tips in this guide that can help you generate (almost) free Medicare leads for your agency.

15 Best Ways to Generate Medicare Leads

If you are looking to increase lead generation outside of open enrollment, there are still plenty of ways, some more lucrative than others. Let’s take a look at the 15 Best Ways to Generate More Medicare Leads in 2021.

1. Live Transfer Medicare Leads

Live transfer leads are the best and most effective way to get Medicare leads because they have a low CPA. These leads are also well qualified, leading to a high closing rate. Lastly, transferring hot leads in real time maximizes your agents’ time, by allowing them to focus on the most sales driven part of the process - closing.

Live transfer Medicare leads are not just any old calls either, only people who are pre-screened and pre-qualified and interested ever get transferred to your agents, which makes them more likely to close. The process for pre-qualification screens for critical illnesses like:

• Cancer
• Heart Attack
• Stroke
• Heart Disease
• COPD
• And more…

On top of that, these are some of the best Medicare leads on the market because good Medicare insurance leads companies will always work with your agency to maximize efficiency, call schedules, pre-requisites and more.

Lastly, the CPA on live transfer Medicare leads is surprisingly low, making them a great investment once you begin to see results on the back end.

More information: Medicare Supplement Live Transfer Leads: A Buyer's Guide

2. Pay Per Call Medicare Supplement Leads

With a pay per call system, you can also just pay for calls, which are transferred to your agents. This is similar to live transfer leads in the sense that they are sent to agents directly, who can choose their preferred hours, etc...

However, the key difference is that they are not as warm or educated as the live transfer leads, but still very high-quality. For pay per call Medicare leads, your agents will be required to take a bit more time on the educating side, and will likely have a few extra phone calls in the sales process before closing a lead.

But, as long as you make your priority working with a Medicare lead generation specialist that focuses on the quality of the leads they send you, there should be no problem converting them into sales - with proper training.

More information: Medicare Pay Per Call Leads

3. Use Facebook to Generate Medicare Leads

Facebook can be used in a handful of ways to generate Medicare leads. Facebook groups dedicated to Medicare questions, elderly activities, even health topics make for excellent areas for generating leads.

Also, there is always the option of running Facebook ad campaigns, which are almost always profitable, even if you do not manage them effectively.

However, depending on your demographic targeting, this can leave a bit of a bad taste in people’s mouths, and potentially give your firm a shady reputation. Be sure that if you go this route for Medicare lead generation that you make the focus of your campaign around education and becoming a resource, rather than trying to sell Medicare supplements right away to people who don’t know you from a hole in the wall.

4. Turning 65 Database for Medicare Leads

If you are targeting a key age group, you can purchase lists and use databases of people who are turning 65 to make your own lists of targeted leads. This is a great method, as age is an important qualifier for Medicare leads, but is more time consuming and demanding than live transfers which are able to effectively generate the same qualifications for age parameters, plus additional ones that make the process very efficient.

One of the advantages of targeting turning 65 leads for Medicare is that you can purchase lists of people in their late 50’s and early 60’s as well, giving you time to work with them, educate them, and establish touch points prior to their need for supplements. This allows you the opportunity to be their go-to resource when the time comes if you do it right.

5. Generate High-Quality Content On Your Site

A more methodical and long term process for generating Medicare leads is to create high-quality content for your website, which serves as a lead magnet, and can, therefore, generate emails and other follow up leads.

With this Medicare lead generation strategy, your goal should be to present yourself and your agency as an authority figure in your industry. This develops trust and awareness, which over time can lead to a snowball effect of website traffic and organic leads constantly being generated every month.  

This is a highly effective method, but it should not be your main way of generating Medicare leads, as it is a long term strategy that can take years to develop into something profitable.

6. Network With Seniors At Events

Networking with seniors at events is a more traditional and reliable way to generate Medicare Supplement leads.

A few quick ideas that have performed well for us in the past are:

• Targeting fitness and health centers
• Events targeting those near retirement
• Retirement planning luncheons
• Insurance hosted events
• Empty nester events
• Local community groups

There are virtually infinite ways to generate Medicare leads by networking with seniors in the local area. The importance is to focus your efforts on building a relationship, focusing on awareness and education first.

This builds trust over time, leading to organic outreach from potential leads, and can even lead to referrals, which is one of the best ways to generate free Medicare leads.

The important thing with events is to make sure that your agents:

• Are engaged
• Bring educational resources
• Collect contact information
• Follow up with leads
• Conduct them on a regular basis

If you just plan on giving this a single try, without really putting in the effort to make sure that it becomes a regular part of your lead generation strategy, then you are probably wasting your time.

However, if you make a consistent effort over time to build up your networking event calendar, it can slowly build into one of the main pieces to your Medicare lead generation strategy puzzle.

7. Direct Mail Medicare Advantage Leads Generation

You can use direct mail to generate Medicare Advantage leads and Medicare Supplement leads. These leads have a slightly higher CPA than other lead gen strategies, but it is a great way to supplement the leads you generate.

Direct mail is more effective with a higher ROI compared to paid ads and works most effectively in conjunction with other marketing methods.

The most important thing when targeting direct mail Medicare leads is to remember to once again stay focused on education and introduction. Fortunately, most companies that handle this type of lead generation have years of experience and can point you in the best direction to get started working on an effective direct mail strategy for generating Medicare leads.

8. Purchase Medicare Sales Leads Call Lists

If the idea of generating your own lists seems too time-consuming, it is possible to purchase pre-made call lists. These can be very fruitful if you choose the right company. CPA stays relatively low, but your agents will need to spend more time on the phone with less qualified and non-interested leads when compared with live transfer Medicare leads. It is a give and take situation.

Many companies sell Medicare lead call lists to multiple clients. If you do choose to purchase a call list, you should be sure to do so from a firm which provides “exclusive leads”, meaning that they are exclusively yours, and not sold or re-sold to any other agent or agency.

Another similar thing you can do is purchase what are called aged leads. These are simply leads that have been contacted in the past, or that have been sitting on an exclusive call list for a long time, who are still considered to be qualified, but who have not yet purchased Medicare supplements.

This can also be an effective Medicare lead generation strategy if you purchase from the right provider and have well trained and dedicated agents.

9. Medicare leads Generation by Email Marketing

This method should always be a supplemental lead source, not your primary lead source. Believe it or not, the number of seniors using email has increased to over 48% since 2000 which means more seniors are looking for answers and help online.

There are a few tactics you should apply to make the most of your Medicare email marketing campaigns:

• Use font large enough that it can be read by those who have difficulty seeing
• Make sure navigation on the email and website is easy and simple
• Use age-appropriate pictures
• Create follow up landing pages targeting seniors specifically
• Create retargeting campaigns for people who bounce
• Make sure your leads are targeted and exclusive
• Optimize subject lines and content
• Use a email management platform

If you apply these tactics to your email marketing campaigns for Medicare lead generation, you should have a relatively high success rate. Much like with many other marketing efforts, your long term success and improvement on your CPA and closing rates depends on constant optimization.

Even the slightest tweaks to subject lines and links, etc… can make a massive difference on open rates. That is why it is so important to use a platform like MailChimp to manage your email campaigns, in order to segment your audiences and constantly improve your ROI on your Medicare email leads.

10. Establish Partnerships With Other Insurance Agents

In the life insurance industry, we have to look out for each other. Establishing partnerships is a mutually beneficial way to generate Medicare leads for free over time. You can, for example, exchange final expense leads from one partner for Medicare leads.

Again, this is a solid supplemental strategy that generates very highly qualified Medicare leads, but takes years to develop. Even then, it should always be used as a supplemental way to generate leads, not primary.

Over time, you will run into dozens, even hundreds of agents who sell similar products. While you may not be able to get your leads interested in your product offerings, you may be able to point them in the right direction and get them in contact with someone who can help them.

This has a dual effect, it makes the agent you recommended them to more likely to send Medicare leads your way for free, and it also leaves a professional impression on the lead you spoke with. This reputation is priceless in our industry and is your best selling tool.

11. Telemarketing Medicare Leads

Despite the bad wrap that telemarketing gets (we all hate it), telemarketing Medicare leads still have a decent ROI in some cases. Once again, the important thing is to make sure that you choose a company that focuses on quality and quantity in this case, as even with quality leads, telemarketing is a numbers game.

It will take more of your agents time to go through the list of leads who are not nearly as hot or qualified as those generated via other methods. Live transfer leads are by far more effective, and if you have it in your budget, you should try other methods prior to choosing telemarketing Medicare leads.

This is another supplemental lead generation strategy that should always be a part of your machine, but never your main source.

12. Exclusive Medicare Leads

There are many companies that re-sell lists of Medicare leads time and time again, meaning the list you purchase has probably already been passed along to a dozen other agencies.

This makes them relatively ineffective and hardly ever provides a good ROI or low CPA. When purchasing any type of Medicare lead, you should always try to get exclusive ones, otherwise, you risk wasting time and money calling people who already have a solution to their problem, or who are sick of being contacted.

What is great about buying exclusive Medicare leads is that because they are only yours, you can let them age if necessary. Sitting on leads for a few years if they are exclusive is still better than purchasing shared leads.

13. Hone in On Non-Turning 65 Medicare Leads

By the time someone is turning 65, they likely have already been targeted for Medicare Supplements, or already have a solution to their problems.

This isn’t to say that you should not focus on calling this type of lead, as they will still be one of your largest client demographics more often than not. But instead, you should begin building a Medicare lead generation strategy that focuses on establishing touch points before the age of 65.

Begin planting the seed with 60 to 64-year-olds so that when they reach 65, you already have a semi-warm relationship with them and they think of your agency as a solution.

More information: Generate & Close More Turning 65 Medicare Leads [Complete Guide]

14. Cold Calling Isn’t Dead

Cold calling is still a good way to generate leads, especially if you do not have the budget for these other types of paid Medicare leads and need as many free Medicare leads as you can get.

There’s no shame in it, we all started out there. Just be sure that when cold calling, you give your agents the best chance to succeed. There are a few ways you can maximize your cold calling Medicare lead generation efforts:

• Create a dedicated cold calling team
• Only transfer to agents when the lead is warm
• Be consistent and persistent
• Call at peak hours of the day
• Follow up with leads
• Purchase call lists or start near semi-qualified leads

Sure, you may be cold calling, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t effective, or that you cannot make an effective cold calling strategy to generate more Medicare leads over time. The important thing is to remember that the only thing that is not scalable as a business owner or as an agent is your time. 

So, you want to constantly look for ways to free your time for higher ROI tasks like closing leads and utilize either your own team or resources to do a majority of the cold outreach for you. If this isn’t possible because of money, you should at least spend time constantly refining your processes to make them more efficient.

15. Ask Existing Clients for Medicare Lead Referrals

Referrals are the key to really building and scaling an effective insurance agency. Consider that every client or prospect you have ever spoken to likely knows at least one person who is interested or has a need for Medicare or Medicare supplements.

Studies indicate that 91% of customers would give referrals, but only 11% of them are asked. These additional referrals result in follow up appointments 80% of the time.

Sure, you hear it all the time, “referrals this, referrals that”, but seriously, you need to be focusing on them. This is why building a relationship is the most important tip you can use to generate more Medicare leads. They may never purchase a thing from you, but if they trust you and know you are well-educated on the subject and helpful, they will be far more likely to give you a referral.

What is the Best Way to Get More Medicare Insurance Leads? 

While all of these methods are useful, the best way to get more Medicare insurance leads is to capitalize upon live transfer Medicare leads. These are more expensive when compared to most of the other strategies on this list, but they more than make up for this in terms of lead quality, closing rates, exclusivity, and time savings for agents.

Live transfer leads are pre-qualified based on:

• Medical history
• Income
• Supplement needs
• Current retirement options
• Current healthcare options
• Interest level
• And more…

Timing really is everything, and this type of lead allows your agents to maximize their time on a daily basis, focusing on only the most qualified, warmest, and ready to buy leads.

With live transfer Medicare insurance leads, contact ratios go up by an average of 900% if the leads are connected to an agent within 5 minutes of being generated. These leads convert 22% more often compared to other methods.

How Can I Sell More Medicare Supplements?

Generating more leads is not the only thing you must succeed at in order to scale your agency. Closing leads is still the most important part of the process. So, here are a few quick tips to help you sell more Medicare Supplements and close more Medicare Insurance Leads.

1. Think of the long term

Your agents need to consider that making 2 calls versus 1 increases the chance of getting to a prospect by 87%. On top of that, most people who never purchase anything from you are excellent sources of free Medicare leads in terms of referrals.

2. Be patient and respectful

Know that 50% of people who request information will make a purchase, but they won’t do it for 3 months, so patience is key. To go along with this, your agents should conduct a rigorous, yet tentative follow up strategy.

3. Keep following up

The average agent only attempts to reach prospects twice and then stops. However, 2% of sales are made through the first contact, 3% through the second, 5% through the third, 10% through the fourth, and a total of 80% through the fifth. Medicare insurance leads for agents need to be contacted at least 6-12 times.

Ready to Buy Medicare Leads?

Are you ready to get started purchasing Medicare insurance leads? At Digital Market Media, we offer only the most exclusive and high-quality leads for Medicare.

With over 10+ years of experience, a US based team, complete compliance with TCPA and DNC, extremely focused leadership, and experience on every side of the insurance spectrum, we offer our clients comprehensive Medicare lead generation services.

Give us a call today and speak with one of our representatives to learn more about how it works, what you can expect from us, price per lead and more.

For answers to your questions online, check out the following resources:

• About Us 
• Why Live Transfer Leads?