Cost of mailings.

[wilkin]

I just did this very thing. I ran 14,000 inserts twice for $1,600 including the printing. I already had my own business reply account and paid for the returns (about $1.50 each.)

I did it on pre-need funeral insurance. I recieved 16 replies. MOST of the replies have been the poorest of the poor and the sickest of the sick.

I've made three sales from it so far paying about $2,000. I have one more lead (husband and wife good ages good health) that I count on about 80% that I will close within 60-days. I have about 3-more that I give a 30% possibility to.

I don't consuder this campaign a success. I have had much better results with direct mail and seminars. I will do this again and tweek my insert to try for better results.

Are you located in a city, small town or rural area? Don't you think this affects your return rate? I have been thinking of doing an insert for final expense. I've heard of agents using inserts with great success, especially when they show monthly premiums. I like the fact that you get the replies fast and can follow up while still fresh in their mind. Did you design your own or was it provided by a company?
Thanks,
Bill

 

[Newby]

Are you located in a city, small town or rural area? Don't you think this affects your return rate? I have been thinking of doing an insert for final expense. I've heard of agents using inserts with great success, especially when they show monthly premiums. I like the fact that you get the replies fast and can follow up while still fresh in their mind. Did you design your own or was it provided by a company?
Thanks,
Bill

The town I did it in is a pretty small town with a lot of rual area in the county. 14,000 was the entire newspaper circulation. I think the attractiveness of the offer affects the rate of the return more than anything.

I always design my own ads. I created it in Publisher and the newspaper that did the printing recreated it and they did a few small layout changes that looked good. I did two-sided full color with a built-in perferated reply card that was postage-prepaid.

I think inserts with prices would be very effective if you have a low price-point to advertise. I have never been comfortable upselling though. I have always liked to hit people with the highest price first and be able to come down by lowering the item quoted or lengthing the payments. I'm not sure if that will work in insurance (notice the name Newby.)

I have had the best success mailing direct mail and calling behind it. I also did a seminar in this same town last year where I only mailed 300 invitations and got 26 people to attend from that mailing. I sold 16 preplan policies within the next eight days. I consider that a great success.

I tried a 2nd seminar in the fall and mailed 350 invites and only got 2-replies. Canceled the seminar and sold one of the two. Sometimes I think it is just the luck of your timing.

One thing is for sure. If you copy what someone else is already doing successfully it should also work for you. Sometime I try to recreate the wheel and it already rolls just fine.

 

[somarco]

How do the lead companies do it for $350 especially since they do the return mailing too?

One way is by putting multiple offers in the same envelope. Another is only mailing 700 pieces rather than the promised 1000.

 

[NHB_MMA]

Bulk mail is much cheaper, but, it also has a much lower open rate. When I get bulk mail at home, I throw it out, unopened. You saved a few pennies in postage, but you'll find your response rate will decrease as well.

To me, you have 2 choices. Use postcards, which carry a message and don't have to be opened, or, use stamps and make the letters look a bit more personal by at least using a stamp rather than metered mail.

Bingo!....IMHO.

 

[Newby]

An idea that I think is worth trying is to have a general introductory letter from your agency (short and sweet) and have about 5-postage paid reply cards in it. Each reply card will be for a different product (long-term care, final expense, term life, etc.) Each reply card will have to be very visual and colorful and tell people what it is presenting with just a glance.

The idea is: without a lot of reading one of the items may catch their attention. Have a free gift just for requesting a no-obligation quote (free gas card $10)

The printer I use has cardstock scraps all the time that are close to the shape of a dollar bill. I get thousands of these free from them. I print my own replys on my color laser printer. So I have very very little expense in the cards. Why not have 5-chances with one stamp?