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Agency Acceleration Lab is the podcast for insurance agents and agency owners who want to scale smarter, not harder.
Hosted by Alex Branning, each episode breaks down real growth strategies, marketing systems, and client retention frameworks that help you attract better clients, increase lifetime value, and build a more predictable agency.
If you're serious about building a high-performance insurance business, you're in the right place.
Agency Acceleration Lab Episode 7
How to Attract High Net Worth Clients Using Content with Tracy Lownesberry
Alex Branning:
Hey guys, I'm here with Tracy Lownesberry, who is finding high-intent, high net worth individuals using content. Tracy Lownesberry, tell us about the Annuity Giants playbook that you're running for your clients.
Tracy Lownesberry:
Sure. Yeah. So what we decided a long time ago was that instead of using the kind of sales approach to selling, we were going to use the education approach to selling, right? So, you know, I don't know if anybody knows of BNI, Business Networking International, but their slogan is givers gain. And so we kind of took that and ran with it, and we're like, hey, we're just going to give a ton of content. We're going to give a ton of education. We're going to almost look at it agnostically. Even though, you know, I'm a huge annuity advocate, we're going to look at it agnostically, and that's going to bring in people. And the types of people it brings in, we found out over time, are people who like to read, and they like to research. And normally, it's associated with a little bit higher net worth. So it's worked out super well for us.
Alex Branning:
Yeah, that's awesome. So when you had the problem, the problem was I want to use online marketing to bring in the right type of people for annuities. What were the different things that you tried before landing on the ebook?
Tracy Lownesberry:
Yeah, yeah. So like everybody else, you know, we've pretty much done it all. The only thing I haven't done is I haven't hosted a TV show or hosted a podcast, but pretty much everything else, like we've run TV ads, we've run billboards, we've run local marketing events where they're paid or free or senior events. We've bought leads from a lead vendor and all sorts of different lead vendors all the way from the cheapest possible and then just hit the phones, all the way up to 400 500 bucks a lead and then hopefully it brings in higher quality, and then all the way to events like seminars and workshops where, you know, the ROI on them is pretty far in the future, and that's a big upfront cost. So the problem with that I saw with each one of them was that it seemed like the advertisement that was being done didn't quite fit what I wanted. It was always super general advertising, and I'm like, listen, I'm an annuity guy. I want to do annuity stuff. And then the stuff that was annuity specific was just like bait and switch or kind of misleading. There was always something off, and I try to have a really high moral compass with that stuff, so I wanted to be really specific. You know, I even rebranded my website to only be annuity stuff. It's like, I want people to know I'm the annuity guy. This is what you're going to talk to me about. So I tried all that stuff and just decided, I'm going to kind of control the quality based off of what I feel consumers want. And that really came down to the experience that I had in the industry, working with 1000 plus annuities every single year and just seeing what people actually care about.
Alex Branning:
I love that. So you've been doing this for a long time. What are you seeing, where is the cost per lead, and then we'll talk about conversions, but what is the cost per lead that you expect for yourself with educational content? Because in my mind, I'm thinking educational content does bring in really high quality, but I've also seen a pretty high cost per lead. What are you seeing?
Tracy Lownesberry:
Definitely. So when we first started with it, our goal, and this is kind of a funny one, our goal was if we could be below 500, which seems crazy, but that's kind of what I was paying, and it wasn't even an appointment, it was just the lead. So I'm like, okay, if I can be below 500, then I'm winning, and I'm controlling the quality. And so we started doing it, and it was like 200 something a lead, and I was like, man, this is way better than I thought. Then we started changing the content over time, and we actually went a couple different directions, and one of the directions we went, which I decided to move away from, was kind of going back to that general sense. And, you know, our cost per lead was getting down to like 15 20 bucks, but the problem with that is that now all of a sudden you have this time issue. I don't have the time to work through all those people, and how many of them are actually going to be good opportunities. So we kind of found the sweet spot, and the sweet spot definitely, depending on timing and what's going on in the world and all that, is going to be somewhere between like the 50 to 100 range for that type of lead cost. And then our big push is not about the lead but how many appointments we can get out of it. So then we set up our kind of like lead to appointment workflow, which is, you know, I'm still going to gather the lead info, but I'm always going to prompt them to book a meeting on my calendar automatically, right? So we want to get about one in three, one in four to book, and then hopefully between me and staff making some phone calls, we can get about 50 percent of a book with hopefully around a 50 to 70 percent show rate, and that allows us to not waste as much time and money and be really specific with our marketing.
Alex Branning:
Nice. So you're averaging, if I'm doing the math in my head correctly, 50 to 100 bucks a lead, give or take, one in four show up, so you're averaging 200 to 400 per appointment for an annuity. What do you see from your prospects in terms of how much of the content they consume, and then when you do talk to those folks, what is the closing rate?
Tracy Lownesberry:
Yeah, so we offer kind of like an ebook, but we also offer a physical copy of a book too, and it's actually interesting once you get them on the call. So for us, you have to actually show up to the meeting to get a copy of the book. Probably like one in five, one in six, once you do your job, they don't really care about the book as much, so you actually save some costs there if you approach that appropriately and you educate, educate, educate. They're like, okay, well, what's this next step. So for us, our goal is that we're getting roughly a cost per acquisition of about 1000. That's where we like to be. Now, the thing about an annuity lead or annuity opportunity is that it could be significantly higher than that, and you're still really good ROI. But you're also probably not going to close business in your first 30 to 60 days. You're probably going to be beyond that because the process can be a little bit longer, and refining your process is super important as well.
Alex Branning:
How long did it take you to figure this out?
Tracy Lownesberry:
I would say within about six months I knew it was replicatable, and after about a year things really started to optimize, and then we made more improvements from there.
Alex Branning:
Where should someone start?
Tracy Lownesberry:
Knowledge first. You have to pursue knowledge and understanding first. Then systems. Build a system that walks the client through a smooth journey. Then build your marketing around that system.
Alex Branning:
How did you determine your content?
Tracy Lownesberry:
Agnostic education. Not pro or anti. Just neutral, helpful content that lets people learn without feeling sold to.
Alex Branning:
How much testing did it take?
Tracy Lownesberry:
Thousands of iterations. Small tweaks, big changes, everything. And sometimes ads don’t convert directly but still contribute to the final result, so you can’t shut things off too early.
Alex Branning:
Is there a shortcut?
Tracy Lownesberry:
Yes. Plug into something proven first, then make it your own over time. Starting from scratch is expensive and slow.
Alex Branning:
I love it. If anybody has questions for Tracy Lownesberry, go to TheAnnuityGiants.com and check out his program. For those of you listening, we created a playbook that walks through what Tracy Lownesberry described. Go download it at agencyacceleration.ai. Thanks, Tracy Lownesberry.
Tracy Lownesberry:
Thank you.
Alex Branning:
Thanks for watching. Please take notes. Please take action and subscribe. You will not get any value unless you implement it in your business. Please share this episode if you got value from it, and I’ll see you online.