Effective Newspaper Ads

[Frank Stastny]

The only ad I have ever run that really worked was when an HMO was canceling everyone in a six county area outside of St. Louis. They sent out a letter in July of that year announcing the policies would be canceled Jan 1.

The ad I ran was short and sweet, well at least short. I only ran it in small town newspapers. A small ad but with big type.

Seniors, are you losing your insurance effective January 1?
Call us at 555.555.5555 we can let you know what your options are so there will not be any lapse in your coverage.

It was something like that. It was several years ago and I have slept since then.

The calls from the ad along with the people in my prospects database that I had talked to over the past 2.5 years who told me they had that HMO for their coverage enabled me to write $80,000 in Med Supp insurance during the month of August that year. September was a little under $60,000 and October was only around $45,000.

I have run ads since then but didn't have that "hook" and they really didn't get a very good response.

 

[mickeyma]

You may be better off showing a grid of term rates at selected ages for different amounts with the standard caveat:

This is unsuccessful. I was part of the Randy Murray group for several yrs. We put inserts in the newspaper and in the bills show a grid for ages 20-70 on 50,000, 100,000, 150,000 and 250,000. Response was less than 1 per 1,000. 50,000 in my paper in Los Angeles got me 40 responses. 8 sales @ $4,200 premium. Cost for printing and insertion $2,000.

Agents went broke which is why you no longer see the inserts.

 

[sunkist219]

Wow - sounds like a waste. Thanks for advising.