Direct Mail and the Rate of Return

Not necessarily. My age range on the last two mailings were 55 to 80 yrs old, and I estimate 90% of my returns fell within the 60 to 70 age range. I have received no returns outside of 58 to 73. I plan to tightened up the range next time and expect a better return.

Wow, I think you will find a good % in that 60/70 but I have received over the years plenty of leads under 60 and over 70.
 
and one county to another can make a big difference, timing of when you send it, ie..i just dropped off 3k medicare mailers today, and the person before me dropped off 1255 medicare mailers, thankfully to a difft city... some people will fill out anything. some respond to a targeted mail piece with prices already in them, some respond to SS only pays 255... the key is volume to get accurate numbers.

I did the same medicare mail piece, same demographics, household income, home value, ages, and on a 1000 piece drop, only got 1 lead back. Told the guy it was a fluke, and that I would drop 500 more on my dime in the next county over, and he got back 6 leads on just 500. Large numbers is where you will get the consistency.

Living in coastal NC, if I mail to areas with high militairy retirees, those guys with those benefits don't seem to respond well to life, medicare, home/auto, you name it, because they do it all through USAA and tri-care, and aren't open to looking at other options. I tend to stay out of those counties
 
There's no such thing as a guaranteed response rate when dealing with Direct Mail lead companies; you will generally average anywhere from 7-20 percent depending on the list, mailer, month and other demographics.

In regards to companies that charge by the lead, there are a few. You may want to consider getting contracted with Lincoln Heritage insurance company, as they charge a set rate per lead (I believe it's around $20 for mailer leads and $30 for TV leads).

Also, they don't charge you upfront for those leads, but I believe the expectation is that you will place some if not all of the business that you write (from their leads of course) with them - I'm not sure on that one, so may want to check that out first.

In my opinion you should just continue doing your own mailings, as this allows you to have more control over the company or companies you use, list, message, mailer (color, size, graphics etc.), timing, and demographics.

The secret, however, is to consistently send out these mailers every week or month, test and track your results and then re-investing your profits and "scale up" or "ramp up" on the volume of the mailings once you find campaign that is yielding you the best results.

Who in this World is getting a 7-20% return/close rate or whatever with direct mail?

I smell TROLL
:laugh::swoon::twitchy::goofy:
 
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