FE Mailer I Created With Results

[Rearden]

I'm attaching the FE mailer some of you may remember I discussed using back in March or April this year for your review and free usage.

Results from it were around a 3:1 ROI. Goal was 5:1 ROI.

The goal of the piece was to drive high-quality leads to call a free 24 hour recorded hotline to learn more about how my burial insurance programs worked, in order to eliminate tire kickers and so on.

However, I still had to door-knock some of the leads, as opposed to setting appointments via the telephone, as many did not pick up the phone.

Would I do it again? Maaaaybe. I definitely needed to drop closer to 10,000 pieces (only did 3000 total) before getting a real comfortable idea on the true viability of the direct mail piece.

I think with some tweaks (perhaps tweaking some of the body copy... making the headline bigger... and shortening the recorded message down (was around 9 to 11 minutes in length -- and YES, people did listen to the WHOLE THING and leave a message), it might be possible to hit 5:1 ROI over a large sample and roll it out.

That was where the strength of the piece was -- if you could set appointments with highly qualified people (as they listened to the whole message and voluntarily left their information), you could potentially spend all your time with highly qualified folks, and close a lot more volume.

But right now I'm sticking with BRM generics, as those are tried and true and work consistently.

 

[sellingdog]

Good stuff Dave. Thanks for sharing. Did you do the recording yourself?

 

[Rearden]

Yes -- you could probably hire a professional voice-over off of fiverr.com for $30-$50 to do the script.

PS: I could post the recording script up if someone's interested.

 

[Mattschmidt]

Thanks for the update Dave

 

[theinsuranceman]

I'm attaching the FE mailer some of you may remember I discussed using back in March or April this year for your review and free usage.

Results from it were around a 3:1 ROI. Goal was 5:1 ROI.

The goal of the piece was to drive high-quality leads to call a free 24 hour recorded hotline to learn more about how my burial insurance programs worked, in order to eliminate tire kickers and so on.

However, I still had to door-knock some of the leads, as opposed to setting appointments via the telephone, as many did not pick up the phone.

Would I do it again? Maaaaybe. I definitely needed to drop closer to 10,000 pieces (only did 3000 total) before getting a real comfortable idea on the true viability of the direct mail piece.

I think with some tweaks (perhaps tweaking some of the body copy... making the headline bigger... and shortening the recorded message down (was around 9 to 11 minutes in length -- and YES, people did listen to the WHOLE THING and leave a message), it might be possible to hit 5:1 ROI over a large sample and roll it out.

That was where the strength of the piece was -- if you could set appointments with highly qualified people (as they listened to the whole message and voluntarily left their information), you could potentially spend all your time with highly qualified folks, and close a lot more volume.

But right now I'm sticking with BRM generics, as those are tried and true and work consistently.

Great info Dave! Do you remember how many calls you received from the 3000 pc. drop? Closing %? Were a higher % of the callers unhealthy compoared to the generic DM pieces? Bank draft sales vs money order/debit card sales? Thanks in advance.

 

[Mark]

Thanks for sharing this with us!

 

[Rearden]

Good questions.

1) I think 15-20 calls; most had some level of interest. Some would listen to the message and hang up. We'd call behind those asking for an appointment and most wouldn't set.
2) I closed something like 33% to 40% of leads.
3) I forget the list parameters I used; I'm sure I could dig it up if I was motivated. I think I dropped to 60-75 year olds with no income filter.
4) It was more or less your typical FE market -- I did nail a huge whale ($200+ Monthly AP) and did a few smaller $30-$40 apps.
5) I WILL say on second thought, while you had a few folks living in projects, I did see people who on the surface have done OK.
6) Typical FE environ as far as payments -- a few money orders, bank drafts, some had no bank account, others just had direct express. Personally, not enough information to arrive at any sort of distinction.
7) Some people had health issues, but not a bunch of people dying on the vine.

The results as far as closing percentage and interest level were on par with a VB campaign.

PS: One thing I would definitely do differently is sell the appointment without qualifying on the phone (maybe just qualify for checking accounts) and see and close them in person.

Reason is I explain everything on the pre-recorded message, and the assumption is they're interested if they just spent the last 11 minutes listening to me describe life insurance.

The way I approached it was to do however I wanted to do it, versus staying disciplined with one approach. I set unqualified appointments, pre-qualed hard over the phoned, without a one-track approach.

I would have probably gotten superior results that way if I just sold the appointment hard; especially if I was a more advanced agent and could sell annuities, or if I was prepared to sell things like cancer insurance or grandchild insurance.

 

[xrac]

I think that is an excellent mailer. However, I will make two suggestions. I think I would consider highlighting no salesperson will answer and no obligation.

No matter what we do I do not think we can illiminate a high percentage of door knocking due to both caller ID and cell phones. My wife and I are very selective about the calls we take. Good luck on getting us to answer unless it is a local call without any identification.

 

[SportsNut]

Good info.

I'd agree that the recording was too long and too detailed. Studies say that people call any advertisement for the purpose of eliminating it, not for the purpose of wanting to buy the product. So the longer that the message is the more likely it is that you give them that 'one rough spot' of info that will cause them to discount the offer and hang up. Conversely a shorter more leading recording leaving much more to the imagination may have produced more leads; [conjecutre].

What might be a good idea is to remail this same exact list several times, especially the ones that you received responses from. Afterall they had an interest in the benefits once... in fact I would mail those folks once a month or so, forever, or until you sell them, and maybe as you mentioned, different products too.

Again, all good info that you've provided; a good experiment and case study with your results. Thanks.

 

[xrac]

Good info.

I'd agree that the recording was too long and too detailed. Studies say that people call any advertisement for the purpose of eliminating it, not for the purpose of wanting to buy the product. So the longer that the message is the more likely it is that you give them that 'one rough spot' of info that will cause them to discount the offer and hang up. Conversely a shorter more leading recording leaving much more to the imagination may have produced more leads; [conjecutre].

What might be a good idea is to remail this same exact list several times, especially the ones that you received responses from. Afterall they had an interest in the benefits once... in fact I would mail those folks once a month or so, forever, or until you sell them, and maybe as you mentioned, different products too.

Again, all good info that you've provided; a good experiment and case study with your results. Thanks.

Sports nut is correct. Shorter is better than longer. You do not want to provide too much information.