Insurance is an industry that has unique needs when it comes to sales and marketing. Agents and brokers are not only trying to get new customers, but also retain existing customers year after year. That’s why, when looking for the best CRM software for insurance agents, it’s important to look for software that:
- Keeps all your lead and customer data in one place, in an easy-to-use format
- Handles repetitive administrative work, freeing up your time to focus on selling, re-selling, and upselling policies
- Automatically handles predictable outreach like policy renewal reminders
- Makes it easy to see which leads and customers are the top priority for your personal attention
First, let’s take a quick look at what CRM software is and what it can do. Then we’ll go over the top software options available today.
What is CRM software for insurance agents?
At the very least, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software organizes all your contact data in one place and makes it easy to sort prospects and customers, tag hot leads for follow-up, and keep track of outreach.
These days, CRM software is often paired with other sales and marketing features such as:
- Email marketing
- Text messaging
- Sales and marketing automation
- Sales pipeline tracking
- Appointment scheduling
- Quotes and contracts
- Invoicing and payments
- Reports and analytics
A CRM paired with these other features to create an “all-in-one” sales and marketing software package is ideal for insurance agencies because it allows you to do almost everything you need in one software application. This reduces the hassle of switching between different systems and reduces the likelihood of errors due to entering customer information into multiple systems.
For this analysis, we’ve focused on “CRM+” software solutions that give insurance agencies a lot of bang for their buck, along with some more traditional CRM systems.
What can CRM for insurance do?
The best all-in-one CRM software systems enable insurance agents to easily manage routine—yet important—tasks such as:
- Automatic lead follow-up
- Lead segmentation
- Sales stage tracking
- Customer onboarding
- Policy renewal alerts
- Open enrollment reminders
- Birthday & holiday emails
- Insurance upsell campaigns
- Referral requests
Now let’s dive into the top software packages that can help you keep better track of your leads, automate repetitive tasks, save time and grow faster.
The 6 best CRM software for insurance agents
For this evaluation, we looked at which software packages had the most features, best ease of use, and the best price given the number of features offered.
1. Keap
Keap’s insurance CRM is a robust all-in-one solution that is also extremely user friendly and comes with nice perks like free data migration, phone support for all paid plans, and even expert coaching. It even comes with a free business phone number. You can easily move back and forth between the desktop and mobile app versions, so you have all your information when you’re on the road for networking events and meetings.
Keap earned the number one spot on this list because of the sheer number of features for the price, which makes it a great value for your money. The fact that it’s also easy to use and is constantly being updated sweetens the deal.
| Strengths & Weaknesses | Notable Features | Plans & Pricing |
|---|---|---|
|
| Annual & monthly pricing available: Pro $169/mo Max $249/mo For agencies just starting out, there’s a free version with limited features. |
2. Thryv
Thryv is another solid all-in-one solution. It lacks some of the features Keap has, like sales pipeline, a business phone line, and the copywriting tool. However, it does have a fairly unique feature where it will list your business across its 61 online listing partners, such as Google Business, Apple, Bing, Foursquare, etc. The top tier includes branding and website services. But as you’ll see from the pricing, you pay a lot more for those features.
| Strengths & Weaknesses | Notable Features | Plans & Pricing |
|---|---|---|
|
| Plus $199/mo Premium $350/mo Unlimited $499/mo |
3. Ontraport
Like Keap and Thryv, Ontraport is a pretty solid all-in-one solution. However, it is geared more towards online businesses that don’t need 1:1 selling features like appointments and quotes. Keap is more geared towards service-based businesses like insurance.
| Strengths & Weaknesses | Notable Features | Plans & Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| The Plus plan includes:
| Basic $79/mo Plus $147/mo Pro $297/mo Enterprise $497/mo |
4. Zoho
Zoho has CRM, email marketing, and sales management features, but lacks some important features, most notably marketing automation. The price is low, but you’ll have to layer on other software to make up for the features not included with Zoho.
| Strengths & Weaknesses | Notable Features | Plans & Pricing |
|---|---|---|
|
| $23/mo/user |
5. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a more specialized tool, focusing on CRM and sales pipeline. You’d need to add on other software to get all the features an insurance agency needs, like automations, email marketing, text marketing, quotes, etc.
| Strengths & Weaknesses | Notable Features | Plans & Pricing |
|---|---|---|
|
| Professional $59/mo/user Enterprise $119/mo/user |
6. Salesforce
As one of the most well-known CRM systems, we feel compelled to include Salesforce on this list.
But it’s not ideal for most insurance agents, and here’s why:
Unlike the all-in-one solutions that offer many features in one package, Salesforce focuses on doing one thing very well: CRM. It’s typically used by larger companies that need a very robust CRM and don’t mind layering on other software because they have an IT team to manage everything. So while it may make sense for a large insurance organization, it’s probably not a good solution for single-agent offices.
The price point is low because it’s just a CRM; be sure to take into account the cost of all the other software you’d need to add on top of it.
| Strengths & Weaknesses | Notable Features | Plans & Pricing |
|---|---|---|
|
| Essentials $25/mo/user Professional $75/mo/user |
How to choose the best CRM for your insurance agency
When evaluating software for your insurance agency, consider the following:
- How will an all-in-one solution allow us to eliminate other software, and how much money will that save?
- How many users do we need, and will that increase the price of the software?
- What routine tasks can we automate to free up valuable staff time?
- How can we use that time to do the important growth things we don’t usually have time for?
- What kind of customer support do we need? Are we fine with just chat/email support, or is phone support important?
If you’re ready to try out the best CRM software for insurance agents, start a 14-day free trial of Keap now. There’s no credit card required, and you get to test drive the Pro version, which has a ton of features.
Leveraging software like Keap can free up your time to do what you do best: Building relationships with people and selling policies.
