Direct Mail Vs Buying Leads

[musicmesa]

Ok - I am sure there is a Lot of posts around this topic, but I have to ask - Why pay for response card leads (I did that once) when you can target mail them yourself?

If the Lead company gets $20 - ? per lead from an agent - why not just send out yourself?

Internet leads are a sham - Have to be - I created an online Auto Quote with Geico, and had 20 Agents sending me quotes from5 other companies - And still got them 6 months later!

I think I am going with direct mail response as ONE of my prospecting avenues -- Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[GreenSky]

I've had great success using direct mail for Medicare.

I've had just the opposite with life insurance. Ask any honest DM company if they have had a good experience with mailing for life insurance and you'll get the same answer.

I've sent out somewhere between 5-8,000 mail pieces for life insurance without result.

But if you can figure out a way to do this with a good ROI, please let me know.

Rick

 

[Mark]

A lot of people dont want to take the gamble of getting no cards back or just a few. I dont blame them. Right now the avg for F.E. is about 1/2 of 1%.


Back in the day agent were getting over 4% to 5% return and stamps cost a lot less.

 

[Todd King]

A lot of people dont want to take the gamble of getting no cards back or just a few. I dont blame them. Right now the avg for F.E. is about 1/2 of 1%.


Back in the day agent were getting over 4% to 5% return and stamps cost a lot less.

I'm not sure where you're getting your %'s from, but it should be more like 1% for FE, not .05%.

(Unless you are solely speaking about the Atlanta area, then it makes sense).

 

[Mark]

I'm not sure where you're getting your %'s from, but it should be more like 1% for FE, not .05%.

I dont want to over shoot the numbers and this is the national avg from polling many agents.


Some locations can be better and some can be worse.


Do you make you own card or do you use the $255 type card? Who are you mailing to also.

I know the better the list, the better the response.

 

[GreenSky]

You are both assuming he's speaking about FE. I assume he is speaking about "traditional" insurance.

Rick

 

[Todd King]

You are both assuming he's speaking about FE. I assume he is speaking about "traditional" insurance.

Rick

You are probably correct.

 

[Mark]

Does not really matter what type he is talking about.

He is still taking a gambe of not getting any cards back or making a profit off the mailing.

He can just pay per card and not risk it, if he is scared to try it.

 

[tlmarketing]

I used to do a lot of direct mail for life insurance all over the country....the 1/2 of 1% is pretty accurate, sometimes better, sometimes worse.

1x mailings do not work well in my experience...the key is to be repetitive....pick a visual theme...vary the message from mailer to mailer, but keep the visual theme so that consumer will recognize you eventually.....I used to use Post Card Mania for mailings.

 

[VolAgent]

This is the same guy who is considering Genworth, Mass Mutual and NYL.

I can't think of a worst prospecting method than direct mail for their products. If you did nothing, at least you'd save the money spent on mailers.

You want to sell those products, it is cold calling businesses, door knocking nice neighborhoods, developing COIs and working your warm market.

MM and NYL in particular are sold on a "value" basis. Your typical shopper is looking for "cheap" not quality and value. Maybe you could try it for LTC with Genworth, who knows, you might succeed.