Anyone Do a Lot of Direct Mail and Want a Better Response Rate?

[Josh]

A good friend of mine works for a company that analyzes data. A project they're launching soon is taking a look at your responses to direct mail vs non-responders and matches it up against a massive database that includes a bunch of information about folks and then translates that into creating a list of people that are most likely to respond to mailings in the future. They're looking for test data on this now so if anyone is doing a lot of direct mail and can easily access this info please shoot me a message or an email ([email protected]) and I'll get you in touch with them.

If you knew that half of the lists you were mailing you were never getting a response from, you could double your response rate by focusing on the most likely buyers. Of course that's not a guarantee and the numbers have yet to be seen, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't a significant improvement. They're not looking to charge anything for this, mostly looking to work with some data and get a feel for how much better the response rates get.

 

[vtecvick]

I don't do direct mail but I want to start sometime soon

 

[senior-advisor-indiana]

A good friend of mine works for a company that analyzes data. A project they're launching soon is taking a look at your responses to direct mail vs non-responders and matches it up against a massive database that includes a bunch of information about folks and then translates that into creating a list of people that are most likely to respond to mailings in the future. They're looking for test data on this now so if anyone is doing a lot of direct mail and can easily access this info please shoot me a message or an email ([email protected]) and I'll get you in touch with them.

If you knew that half of the lists you were mailing you were never getting a response from, you could double your response rate by focusing on the most likely buyers. Of course that's not a guarantee and the numbers have yet to be seen, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't a significant improvement. They're not looking to charge anything for this, mostly looking to work with some data and get a feel for how much better the response rates get.

If only it were that easy. I worked with a place that supposedly did the same thing. My response re ate went down drastically. To be honest I only dropped 1k but I was dropping a couple times a month with other sources and getting 8 times the response rate...

 

[Josh]

If only it were that easy. I worked with a place that supposedly did the same thing. My response re ate went down drastically. To be honest I only dropped 1k but I was dropping a couple times a month with other sources and getting 8 times the response rate...

Were they actually running analytics based on your response rate from earlier lists and identifying exactly what criteria of the responders made them more likely to respond?

It's possible they were doing the same thing, but I think it's almost impossible they were using this much data and science with it.

 

[senior-advisor-indiana]

Were they actually running analytics based on your response rate from earlier lists and identifying exactly what criteria of the responders made them more likely to respond?

It's possible they were doing the same thing, but I think it's almost impossible they were using this much data and science with it.

They were using data based off their experience. They mailed to the same demo I did but at a much higher volume. Seems like a scam to me. It didn't work.

 

[Josh]

They were using data based off their experience. They mailed to the same demo I did but at a much higher volume. Seems like a scam to me. It didn't work.

This would be much more in depth. Take the list of folks mailed, match it up with other info about them, tell the software which ones responded and see if there are enough common themes to predict the response rate. Might not be as useful on products as universal as Medicare, but tough to say without trying. The biggest problem I've had so far on this is that it seems most mail shops don't want to give out the list to the agent after they did the mail.

 

[Newby]

A good friend of mine works for a company that analyzes data. A project they're launching soon is taking a look at your responses to direct mail vs non-responders and matches it up against a massive database that includes a bunch of information about folks and then translates that into creating a list of people that are most likely to respond to mailings in the future. They're looking for test data on this now so if anyone is doing a lot of direct mail and can easily access this info please shoot me a message or an email ([email protected]) and I'll get you in touch with them.

If you knew that half of the lists you were mailing you were never getting a response from, you could double your response rate by focusing on the most likely buyers. Of course that's not a guarantee and the numbers have yet to be seen, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't a significant improvement. They're not looking to charge anything for this, mostly looking to work with some data and get a feel for how much better the response rates get.

Sounds interesting Josh. But they also have to remember that the top responders may not be the same thing as the top buyers. It would be nice to have the buyers analyzed.

 

[Josh]

Sounds interesting Josh. But they also have to remember that the top responders may not be the same thing as the top buyers. It would be nice to have the buyers analyzed.

It could run both ways, that's exactly the idea behind this. The key thing is to take the list of everyone pitched and then take the ones that bought and/or responded to find the common thread and use better data to get better responses. Of course it's possible that with all this done there is no connection, but that's why I'm looking for folks doing mail so wet can see if it's predictable.

 

[senior-advisor-indiana]

It could run both ways, that's exactly the idea behind this. The key thing is to take the list of everyone pitched and then take the ones that bought and/or responded to find the common thread and use better data to get better responses. Of course it's possible that with all this done there is no connection, but that's why I'm looking for folks doing mail so wet can see if it's predictable.

It sounds like a great idea but it won't work. People resond at different times for various reasons. They buy for different reasons too. If they just got their increase letter you have a solid chance of selling them. Those same people may have threw the card away the month before. It just ain't that easy.
What an agent needs to do is make their own targeted list. That is the best way to get the best possible prospects.

 

[Josh]

It sounds like a great idea but it won't work. People resond at different times for various reasons. They buy for different reasons too. If they just got their increase letter you have a solid chance of selling them. Those same people may have threw the card away the month before. It just ain't that easy.
What an agent needs to do is make their own targeted list. That is the best way to get the best possible prospects.

While I can appreciate your skepticism, I'm positive it works. I doubt it works with all lines, but I'm sure this type of analytics works. It's very easy to say it's happenstance and of course this isn't taking into account their current carrier and rate increases, but it's entirely possible there are trends if they're actually measured and tested. When Medicare, maybe it's happenstance, with final expense, maybe it's more predictable. No way too know for sure unless it's tested. Coincidentally, they're only interested in testing this platform right now, not even selling it unless it is viable.