An Atlanta commercial insurance broker stuck on referral-only growth
An Atlanta, Georgia-based commercial insurance brokerage specializing in property, casualty, professional liability, and cyber coverage for mid-market businesses across the Southeast. Founded in 2011 with 14 producers and $42 million in annual premium volume. The brokerage had grown reliably on referral and relationship-driven business, but new commercial accounts had plateaued at 45 to 50 per year for 4 consecutive years. The managing partners wanted to add inbound and outbound channels alongside the existing referral motion.
Why the brokerage had no inbound or outbound pipeline
Three structural gaps blocked growth beyond referrals. First, the brokerage had no marketing infrastructure: the website was a basic 5-page brochure site with no industry-specific content, no risk content, and no clear way for prospects to engage. Second, there was no account based marketing or systematic outbound process, so producers spent their time servicing existing accounts rather than building new pipeline. Third, the brokerage had no online quoting or risk assessment tooling, so prospective clients could not get any sense of pricing or coverage fit without scheduling a meeting first.
What we built across content, ABM, and tooling
We launched a content authority program covering commercial property risk topics, cyber insurance for Southeast businesses, professional liability for service firms, workers compensation cost management, and risk management frameworks for mid-market employers. We published 64 long-form pieces over the engagement, each co-authored or reviewed by senior brokers and structured for AI search citation. We launched an account based marketing program targeting 280 named accounts across 7 verticals (technology, healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, hospitality, construction, and logistics) with custom landing pages, multi-touch outbound sequences, and producer-led LinkedIn outreach. We launched paid LinkedIn campaigns targeting CFOs, controllers, and operations leaders at mid-market companies in Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, and North and South Carolina. On the software side, our engineering team built a custom risk assessment tool that gave prospects a 12-minute self-service evaluation of their current coverage gaps, with results that became the conversation opener for new producer meetings. The tool captured 184 qualified leads over the engagement.
Thirteen-month results across accounts, premium, and AI citations
By month 13, the brokerage closed 218 new commercial accounts, up from 47 in the previous year. Annual premium volume grew by approximately $38 million from the new account additions. The risk assessment tool captured 184 qualified leads, with approximately 31% converting to paying accounts. ABM engagement rate across the 280 named accounts reached 42%, with 87 accounts reaching the first-meeting stage. Monthly AI search citations grew from zero to 184 across the 5 major answer engines, with the brokerage becoming a frequently cited source on commercial insurance topics in Southeast queries. The brokerage added 4 producers during the engagement, funded by the new account volume.
How the brokerage moved beyond referral dependency
Before the engagement, the brokerage depended entirely on referrals and was rarely the first call for new commercial buyers. By month 13, the brokerage had a sustainable inbound and outbound motion alongside its referral business, with new account origination distributed across all 3 channels. The managing partners described the engagement as the first time the brokerage had grown without depending on adding new producers as the only growth lever.