Ok. All Leads Are Created Equal; or Are They?
- Thread starter SrSvcs
- Start date
4theloveoffe
Expert
- 69
I hate getting p.o. box leads with no phone number. What a waste! Ugh
- 1,206
If your in a fixed cost program that is a freeby
- 1,900
Income filters are a best guess. I have never found filtering by income to be terribly accurate.
- 1,206
Look at income filters as how honest they are. .. the data is pulled from sources where they have listed their income. If they lie you will get leads from them.
I have ran leads of 25k and up and had people that made the usual 800/month.
Also ran 0-50k and come across millionaires.
- 200
We call that a lead credit
- 16,880
You are exactly right. Years ago we used to buy RL Polk directories. They had a very small section listing the highest annual income families in the city. One of my family members was listed there. He was a drywall hanger.
I doubt the lists have gotten much more accurate.
4theloveoffe
Expert
- 69
SRL and LH sell them full price....
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SRL and LH don't...
- 5,260
Direct mail lead choice is one variable among many important variables.
An agent needs to consider variables such as:
-Where will he market (rural vs. urban vs. suburban)?
-What income filter will he use ($0-$50k or $15k-$60k)?
-Will he do an age filter (50-85, or 58-76, etc.)?
Of the variables above, age filter is most critical to me, namely out of convenience. Working a 58-76 group is better for daytime hours versus a younger market where more kitchen table after-hours presentations will take place.
For myself and recommendations to my agents, income filters aren't nearly as important as the market one targets. My most consistent, most successful agents work smaller town/rural markets by a large margin, so that's what I work on replicating.
As far as the body copy of the direct mail piece, I have eased up on that, but still think a lead saying life insurance in a less-misleading context will bring in a better quality response than a generic purposely set up to read more like a "Mutual of Obama" plan.
Nevertheless, body copy matters, and does have an impact on the quality of response. To say it doesn't make a difference ignores the basic rules of marketing that all other marketers in other industries know exist. What is said and in the context of how something is stated will garner different reactions and responses out of people.
I used a lead piece several months ago with life insurance on the first line that referenced "benefit" in the place of "state-regulated." The piece also did not mention affordability.
A lot of the response back was weak; they were genuinely under the impression it was Mutual of Obama offering free burial insurance. They sent the card in because of the wording being unique, and most had already taken care of their life insurance well enough not to need replacement.
Point is, for me, the generic cards solicit a more confused and misleading response than more specific lead cards. Upon pre-qualifying them, they more often have no reason to purchase any insurance as they are content with what they have, or I cannot offer any sort of unique advantage over their existing coverage.
That doesn't mean I won't make sales off of them. Nor does it mean you won't have your fair-share of morons replying to the mailers stating life insurance in the body copy of the lead.
I prefer to take the road of least resistance that provides me less obstacles to make sales, and puts me in front of more people who sent a card in because they want to affordably pay for final expenses with a burial insurance plan.
With that said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you perform well consistently with generic cards, more power to you.
An agent needs to consider variables such as:
-Where will he market (rural vs. urban vs. suburban)?
-What income filter will he use ($0-$50k or $15k-$60k)?
-Will he do an age filter (50-85, or 58-76, etc.)?
Of the variables above, age filter is most critical to me, namely out of convenience. Working a 58-76 group is better for daytime hours versus a younger market where more kitchen table after-hours presentations will take place.
For myself and recommendations to my agents, income filters aren't nearly as important as the market one targets. My most consistent, most successful agents work smaller town/rural markets by a large margin, so that's what I work on replicating.
As far as the body copy of the direct mail piece, I have eased up on that, but still think a lead saying life insurance in a less-misleading context will bring in a better quality response than a generic purposely set up to read more like a "Mutual of Obama" plan.
Nevertheless, body copy matters, and does have an impact on the quality of response. To say it doesn't make a difference ignores the basic rules of marketing that all other marketers in other industries know exist. What is said and in the context of how something is stated will garner different reactions and responses out of people.
I used a lead piece several months ago with life insurance on the first line that referenced "benefit" in the place of "state-regulated." The piece also did not mention affordability.
A lot of the response back was weak; they were genuinely under the impression it was Mutual of Obama offering free burial insurance. They sent the card in because of the wording being unique, and most had already taken care of their life insurance well enough not to need replacement.
Point is, for me, the generic cards solicit a more confused and misleading response than more specific lead cards. Upon pre-qualifying them, they more often have no reason to purchase any insurance as they are content with what they have, or I cannot offer any sort of unique advantage over their existing coverage.
That doesn't mean I won't make sales off of them. Nor does it mean you won't have your fair-share of morons replying to the mailers stating life insurance in the body copy of the lead.
I prefer to take the road of least resistance that provides me less obstacles to make sales, and puts me in front of more people who sent a card in because they want to affordably pay for final expenses with a burial insurance plan.
With that said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you perform well consistently with generic cards, more power to you.
There's no question many of the people who respond to generic leads have life ins. I've always worked leads that say life ins. But upon working a few hundred "green" card e-64s I noticed many advantages . Almost every single lead remembered filling the card out. I'd say 75% had insurance vs 35-40% with "life ins" leads. And many people who had ins just took it out recently thus it was ripe for replacement .Another pleasant surprise is it had a $10-$60k income range which allowed me to work densely populated area with much higher quality incomes. The main benefit was I got a lot of leads near each other. The downside is many more people than the "life ins" lead didn't know why they filled it out. Thats were salesmanship comes in. All any lead does is get you in front of someone . You must sell it . Another downside is the backlash of "this card is deceiving ". I easily defuse that by pointing to the small writing at the bottom of the screen that says"this is not affiliated with any govt program". Another downside is I find fewer cards put their # down .
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