Interesting - very labor intensive. I can't really see myself sitting at the kitchen table taping tablets to 1,000 mailers. The 25% response is pure bs.
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I got a marketing packet one day I almost threw out. For some reason I went ahead and slit it open...good thing....It had a DOLLAR bill clipped to the letter.
So I took the dollar, briefly read the script and threw it out.
I'm gonna share this with you. I did a mktg stint one time that did generate a 30-40% response. I kept track so I know.
I bought these pink phone message cards and just filled in person full name, date, checked off the Please Call box,
And in the body i wrote: Re: your medicare/medigap coverage. Mailed it out.
Obviously this was aimed for the senior mkt. So they called....anxious, curious, BUt they CALLED! Then I went into my LTC spiel, or medigap if they didn't have one.
I also got a lot of irritated people, but I sold. Some better income folks too, surprisingly...like college profs, engineers. Novel approach. Been used well for mtrg protection too.
Interesting - very labor intensive. I can't really see myself sitting at the kitchen table taping tablets to 1,000 mailers. The 25% response is pure bs.
It depends on where you are mailing. I have two colleagues that mail regular letters to rural counties and get 10-12% response to a semi targeted list. Dimensional mail, aka Lumpy mail is well known to at least double response rates, so it is plausible.
A marketing company at BMW came in and hit the place up for a promotion that would make the dealership countless thousands. The pitch was mailing a key to thousands of people and if your key started the car you won it. So not only did this cost thousands of dollars but the car, according to MVA rules, MUST be given away. Keys aren't cheap either. Otherwise, what's stopping the dealership from mailing out 1,000 keys and none of them work. So the fine print also was anyone who came in with the key got entered into a lottery and they'd pull the winning ticket at the end of the day if no one's key worked. They obviously gave away a stripped down base 3 series.
The result was about 50 people came in with keys. Not one of them bought a car, the dealership was out countless thousands of dollars.
I've heard of guys who work the high end market mailing full size boat paddles to a targeted high net worth list. They opened with something like "don't be up the creek without a paddle". They say it works well. Dare to be different - unless you're in my area.
I'll share a quick idea I have seen work
Very successfully over and over again.
(Not my idea, one a colleague showed me).
Anyone who is old-skool, you probably
Know of this idea.
But it works, repeatedly well.
++ Place a creative, strange shaped object inside a #10 envelope (handwritten and handstamped), and segue into your letter using it.
The best idea I've seen -- that worked with
A minimum 25.2% response rate (based on phone
Calls received) was...
...an Alka-Seltzer in a #10 envelope.
Obviously, it was a very persuasive letter
With strong call to action. But it got opened!
Not tossed.
It began something like...
Dear First Name,
You are wondering why I'm including an Alka-Selzter taped to the top of this letter.
It's because many people in our county like yourself are in tremendous pain with their current homeowners insurance, and don't even realize it....
etc. etc.
---------------------
Remember: All ideas are good ideas.
They are even better when you adapt and apply them to
Your own audience and your own business.
Go for it.
I like the idea.
I've done ton of direct mail. I don't believe you will ever get a 25% response rate.
Surveys ALWAYS do good for me. Price increase letters have done well. Seminar invitations have done well. I may add an alka seltzer letter to my database.
I know a fellow who was trying to get a job interview. Sent resume's. Made phone calls. No results.
Then he bought a pair of old shoes. Took one shoe out of the box, left the other in. Mailed the box, with his resume', to the head of HR. Included this note.
"Just trying to get my foot in the door . . ."
He got an interview . . . and the job.
Advertising in any medium is competition for eyeballs. Doesn't matter if it is print, TV or websites. You want to capture the attention and create curiosity . . . at least enough to generate some kind of action.
Headlines & subject matter (email) are carefully crafted to grab attention and make you want to go further.
If you can grab their attention, make them laugh (or spur their curiosity) and then tie in your "grabber" with your product or service, you have a winner.
How many times have you seen an entertaining commercial, probably even laughed, but after the commercial was over you had no clue what the product or service was?
Back to the BMW marketing idea, it was probably insured. Same way they insure hole-in-ones at golf tourneys. Doesn't cost much, a few hundred dollars.
There is a difference. There is a HUGE chance no one is getting a hole in one. BMW had to give away a car. Insurnce doenst work when the outcome is guaranteed.
The bottom line is I haven't seen any clever marketing strategy replace hard work. Common sense tells me if anyone had designed a marketing technique that pulled crazy results where they just wrote mass amount of business then over time every agent in the country would be using that method.
Mailers that pull 10%? Why wouldn't anyone mail out 1,000 a week and get 100 leads and become rich? Of course people can't shut up when something pulls incredible results so it would spread around like wildfire and everyone would be using that method.
Last time I checked most agents are on a quarter of a tank waiting for their next check.
[quote=somarco;27129]Gimmicks work . . . but not always.
I know a fellow who was trying to get a job interview. Sent resume's. Made phone calls. No results.
Then he bought a pair of old shoes. Took one shoe out of the box, left the other in. Mailed the box, with his resume', to the head of HR. Included this note.
I've tried using direct mail for health campaigns and tracked the results. I attached a band-aid to the top of the letter, and used an opening headlining such as "Are your health insurance premiums starting to hurt....", and then I called to follow-up with every letter I sent out (50 a day for 3 months). This was a very time consuming process to hand write the addresses (that's what the "experts" said to do), sign at the bottom, and attach the band-aid on the letter. Two hours each day before 8am.
I tracked the results for 90 days by sending out the letters and making follow-up calls and then the next 90 days I didn't send out the letters and just called completely cold. The results, drum roll please...
The exact same appointment ratio.
That was enough to convince me on the value of an approach letter for a commodity product.
The bottom line is I haven't seen any clever marketing strategy replace hard work. Common sense tells me if anyone had designed a marketing technique that pulled crazy results where they just wrote mass amount of business then over time every agent in the country would be using that method.
Mailers that pull 10%? Why wouldn't anyone mail out 1,000 a week and get 100 leads and become rich? Of course people can't shut up when something pulls incredible results so it would spread around like wildfire and everyone would be using that method.
Last time I checked most agents are on a quarter of a tank waiting for their next check.
Well, for my friend, he is limited do to the small population of rural counties. The benefit to the high response is not that he can "get rich" but rather keep his marketing costs low.
Ok...I'll throw in a marketing plan I did a few times. What I did is I got a list of some of the High Dollar people in my area and some referrals from some clients. I was doing a seminar on retirement planing and stretch IRA's. So I send them all an invitation along with a $1 Lotto Scratch Ticket. On the invitation it told them what I was doing the seminar on and explained that there was a free meal and cocktail hour after. Attatched to the Lotto Ticket was a sticky note that said, " Unless you made your retirement with this ticket, you need to see how I can help you". I mailed out 250 invitations and had 2 evenings set up for the seminar. I expected about 40-50 to confirm total, instead I ended up having 35 on the first night and 48 on the next night for a total of 83 people. Now that is what I call success. All stayed for the Meet and Greet Cocktail hour after and I had booked appointments with 46 of them that night and had another 14 book appointments days after. I had solid appoints booked for the next 3 1/2 months and ended up with around 3.5million in assets for investments and 87K annual premium in Life and DI. Now granted this was not a cheap shindig...The total cost for mailiers, postage, Lotto, Meeting Room, Meal, and Cocktail hour tab was.......Drum Roll Please.......$5,234.53. However, I made a boat load of money off of those seminars. I have only done this twice because it is a very time consuming thing to do. Now I just have a once a year client seminar and tell them to bring a friend. Doesn't have the same affect but it gets new people introduced to me by respected happy clients, and that is the only thing that matters.
------------------------------------
Wayne B., CLU, ChFC, CFP
MDRT 5yr qualifier
I like the lotto ticket idea. I might have to use that one...
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"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Ronald Reagan
Tip: A 25.2% response on direct mail
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