I have been some work with annuities and I have been trying to get a good marketing system in place. I wanted to see what y'alls opinion of a direct mail campaign would be? One of the companies I work with has provided me some averages and I wanted to see how realistic these results appear to be. Keep in mind a moderate to high closing ability and product knowledge.
5000 mailers per month to a target market (affluent seniors 65+)
1% response=50 quality leads per month
50 leads=3 sales per month
36 sales per year at industry average of $37,000 per sale=$1,332,000 in premium
Average commission of 7%=$93,240 gross
Marketing costs of $1200 monthly so total net income of $78,840 from annuity sales.
How realistic are these numbers? A good marketing piece could return close to 1% on a mailer. This company is not offering to do this mailing for me so that is not their catch, they just want you to sell their product.
Well, I for one, would be really curious to learn whether this works. What "company" are you talking about?
It's basically an FMO that is giving this advice. I am appointed through them with most of the top annuity companies. I am seriously thinking about dumping some money in this. Although the average annuity case is in the high 30's, if you ran across a big one, it would pay for itself pretty quickly.
Back to the numbers - I have yet to find a mailhouse that is willing to mail 5,000 pieces at less than their cost to mail - what's going on here? Is there a subsidy somewhere?
Yeah $1200 seems like a pretty good discount. But anyway, I think that you should do better than 3 sales out of 50 leads if they are in fact annuity leads (and they are good leads since they are so cheap). My average annuity case is about 60K so I think it would definetly work in my favor. Then again the average might drop since it is basically a cold call. Most of my sales come through current clients. I would definetly like to know how it turns out.
I recieved like 7 leads from a 200 piece mailing from life sales. None of them turned out to be much of anything. Some of the people were broke.
Yeah $1200 seems like a pretty good discount. But anyway, I think that you should do better than 3 sales out of 50 leads if they are in fact annuity leads (and they are good leads since they are so cheap). My average annuity case is about 60K so I think it would definetly work in my favor. Then again the average might drop since it is basically a cold call. Most of my sales come through current clients. I would definetly like to know how it turns out.
I recieved like 7 leads from a 200 piece mailing from life sales. None of them turned out to be much of anything. Some of the people were broke.
Sorry... It looks to be closer to $1500 and they are postcards. I am thinking it was an old bit of info I was looking over. I am very seriously looking to try the direct mail campaign for a year and see how it works... Nice tax write off worst case scenario.
I'm thinking it's at least a break even thing. Out of 60,000 mailers over the course of a year, you would think something would hit.
I have been some work with annuities and I have been trying to get a good marketing system in place. I wanted to see what y'alls opinion of a direct mail campaign would be? One of the companies I work with has provided me some averages and I wanted to see how realistic these results appear to be. Keep in mind a moderate to high closing ability and product knowledge.
5000 mailers per month to a target market (affluent seniors 65+)
1% response=50 quality leads per month
50 leads=3 sales per month
36 sales per year at industry average of $37,000 per sale=$1,332,000 in premium
Average commission of 7%=$93,240 gross
Marketing costs of $1200 monthly so total net income of $78,840 from annuity sales.
How realistic are these numbers? A good marketing piece could return close to 1% on a mailer. This company is not offering to do this mailing for me so that is not their catch, they just want you to sell their product.
What do y'all think?
I find most direct mail gets about 1/2% response and that is if there is a postage paid reply card. How will yours respond? Phone call? Web Site?
I think seminars are the best way to sell annuities. I am not speaking from annuity sales experience. But I have done seminars for funeral preplanning/final expense and have been AMAZED at the response and sales from it. I have also sat in on a Naylor Annuity seminar and it had very good response.
Can you just commit to 90-days worth of mailers to measure the success?
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5000 mailers per month to a target market (affluent seniors 65+)
1% response=50 quality leads per month [COLOR=red]50 leads=3 sales per month[/COLOR]
36 sales per year at industry average of $37,000 per sale=$1,332,000 in premium
Average commission of 7%=$93,240 gross
Marketing costs of $1200 monthly so total net income of $78,840 from annuity sales.
Above is the key component in this when it comes to seminars.
++ Key: Work on strategies to schedule more appointments AT the seminar.
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I find most direct mail gets about 1/2% response and that is if there is a postage paid reply card. How will yours respond? Phone call? Web Site?
I think seminars are the best way to sell annuities. I am not speaking from annuity sales experience. But I have done seminars for funeral preplanning/final expense and have been AMAZED at the response and sales from it. I have also sat in on a Naylor Annuity seminar and it had very good response.
Can you just commit to 90-days worth of mailers to measure the success?
What type of cost would you anticipate for an annuity seminar? Do you think people will actually come?
What type of cost would you anticipate for an annuity seminar? Do you think people will actually come?
You need to spend about $1,500 on a mailing and $10 to $15 each for dinner. You will need high quality handouts (pocket folders, business cards, litature etc.)
Yes. Many people will reply to and attend seminars that will not reply to any other form of advertising. I used to not believe it. But I have proven to myself that it is a very good way to reach many people.
So on a 5000 person mailing, in your opinion, how many people will I get in my seminar? I am thinking about discussing reducing taxes in the seminar if I decide to go that route.
So on a 5000 person mailing, in your opinion, how many people will I get in my seminar? I am thinking about discussing reducing taxes in the seminar if I decide to go that route.
I don't know the response from a bought list. I mail much lower number of invites to a "house" list. I only mail 500 invitations to people between age 50 to 70 who have had the funeral of a family member with our funeral home within the last 5-years.
Out of that 500 between 15 to 30 will attend. Another 10 to 15 will request the info but can't make the seminar.
But with a cold list you will need to mail a lot more invitations.
If you are selling annuities, you could approach a local funeral home about doing a joint seminar. They could present funeral preplanning and you could present annuities. They fill the room, you buy the meals. Just a thought.
I don't know the response from a bought list. I mail much lower number of invites to a "house" list. I only mail 500 invitations to people between age 50 to 70 who have had the funeral of a family member with our funeral home within the last 5-years.
Out of that 500 between 15 to 30 will attend. Another 10 to 15 will request the info but can't make the seminar.
But with a cold list you will need to mail a lot more invitations.
If you are selling annuities, you could approach a local funeral home about doing a joint seminar. They could present funeral preplanning and you could present annuities. They fill the room, you buy the meals. Just a thought.
With you being in the funeral business would you find this type of arrangement sufficient if an insurance professional approached you?
I am averaging around 1.6% response rate for my seminar mailings. When you factor the cost of mailings, materials, and food each seminar I run averages about $2,000 in cost.
Indaville, are you mailing to a warm list or what? That just sounds like a really cheap price everything included, and a huge response rate! Do tell.
For each mailing we do we have three programs. So each mailing is usually around $3k-4k, then another $800-1,200 for dinner, plus some money for materials and I have an average of $2,000 per program in cost. We average around 6,000 pieces per mailing. The response rate is high due to us using popular restaurants and a nice invitation.
So How About Them Plate LIckers? When the people call in, do you do a pre-screening to assess where they're coming from? I haven't done seminars in quite a while but am getting ready to ramp it up. I've heard from some folks that they really try to pre-screen before hand. Any ideas?
Annuity Marketing
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