Insurance Direct Mail

A direct mail lead generation program for insurance agencies and agents/brokers

We build custom direct mail campaigns and long-term programs for insurance agencies and agents/brokers that sell Personal and/or Business insurance.

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Why Direct Mail?

As an insurance agent, broker or consultant, you know there are plenty of ways to generate leads for your business. Maybe you’ve tried a few.

But when it comes to targeting a specific audience and generating a measurable response, nothing beats direct mail.

This is particularly true in the insurance industry where you can target your message to those most likely to benefit from your products or services.

Let us help you develop an insurance direct mail campaign and start generating a consistent flow of new leads.

Know your audience and objective.

How you approach your direct mail program will depend on your audience and the product or products you want to promote.

Target your existing customers

If you have an agency with multiple insurance products, you might want to use direct mail to connect with your existing customer base to cross-sell additional products.  If nothing else, this is a good way to maintain good customer relationships.

Remember, your current customers already know you, like you and presumably would be open to obtaining more coverage from you. So, don’t overlook them.

Target new prospects

When you are reaching out to new prospects, you can approach it in one of two ways:

• If you are selling a single product (like Final Expense or Turning 65 Medicare), then your mailing will be product focused.
• If you are selling multiple products (a difficult task, by the way), focus on the value of umbrella coverage.

So, where do we get started?

This may seem strange, but we like to start at the end. We like to look at how people will respond to your mailings – what they will experience when they take action.

Let’s begin by looking at the various ways people can respond:

They can respond by

• Mail (using a reply card or reply envelope)
• Phone – (using local or toll-free number)
• Landing Page (with the optional use of a QR code)

You may not want to use all three, but in general, the more options you provide, the better your response.  

Let’s take a closer look:

Reply Mail – this may seem a little old-school, but it still works – especially if your targeting older people.  There’s a setup involved and leads come back to you a little slower.

Phone – always a good option, but not everyone wants to get on the line with a sales person. Also, you may want to consider a phone service to provide 24/7 phone coverage.

Landing Page – this is the go-to approach for many people today (but not everyone). Requires a separate setup and hosting, but leads come in quickly and easily.

Which type of mailer should you use?

Easily the most common question we get. Here’s what we think.

We like letter packages – a simple #10 envelope with a letter and a reply card. It can be personalized and it gives the reader an easy way to respond by mail.

If you don’t want to use reply mail, you can drop the reply card or you can replace it with a similar card the promotes your message.

The letter package can vary in other ways as well. You could use a larger envelope (6×9), a two-page letter or a different type of insert (flyer, brochure).

What about a postcard?  We like postcards too – for the right situation.  Postcards introduce a more visual approach than a letter (which is good), but personalization doesn’t work as well.

And if you want to use a reply card, a postcard doesn’t work. You would need to create a double postcard.

If you run an agency and you want to send out multiple mailers over the course of the year (to both customers and prospects), then well-branded postcard would make sense.

But as a direct response mailer – where the primary goal is to get a response – we most often recommend a letter package.

If you’re unconvinced, we’d be open to running an A/B split test of a letter package vs. a postcard.

Don’t forget the mailing list.

It is probably the most important factor here.

But finding the right list (there are thousands of them) is less about the list itself, and much more about your targeting. By that, we mean what is your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)?

Ask most agents, and they would have a pretty good idea of who to target. 

But once you sit down and try to pin down the details – the right age, the right income, the right home value, etc. – you begin to see there is some wiggle room in this process.

We always recommend segmenting your list into logical groups – and then testing those segments against each other. It might take some time, but eventually, you will be able to see which segments perform better.

Setting up your mailing schedule.

If you’re running any type of lead generation program, you want consistency. You want to avoid those peaks and valleys that come with single campaigns.

You run a single campaign and generate a good number of leads, and then you wait some time before you run another campaign.  Problem is you have big gaps in your lead flow.

A better approach is to create a weekly or monthly mailing program to ensure that you have a steady flow of leads coming in.

Note, you are not mailing to the same people over and over again. You have a supply of prospects (we call it your universe), and then you mail small quantities from that universe over an extended period – until you run out.

The beauty of this approach is that once have a predictable response rate, you can figure out how many leads you need per week or per month – and do the math to determine your mailing quantities.

Letter package variations

Direct mail letter packages come with a variety of specifications that can be adapted to your needs.

Every package has to have an envelope and a letter. After that, the choice is yours. Understand that additional elements and some variations will add to your costs.

Let’s look at your options …

Envelopes – we like the #10 standard envelope, but you can also go with a larger 6×9 inch envelope. There are other sizes as well, but these are the two most popular.

Windows – all envelopes can come with a window or no window. Windows allow you to personalize an inside piece and position to show the window. If you don’t use a window, your only personalization will be on the envelope, unless you want to pay extra to personalize on two pieces.

Letters – we typically use one-page and two-page letters (front and back). The length is determined by the complexity of the product and offer. Some letters can go longer – even much longer – but those are usually reserved for order generation programs.

Inserts – if you want to use reply mail, the reply postcard or reply envelope would be considered an insert. But the insert could also be a single panel card, a brochure, a flyer or any other promotional piece.

Personalization – as discussed above, we can provide a personalized letter or other component as part of our standard package. This personalized would typically include the address block (for mailing) and a personalized salutation (Dear John). But you can add other personalized elements into the letter if want. Generally, if you want to personalize more than one element in the mailing package, you will pay more because it will require a match-check process to be sure right piece stay together.

Postage – we normally recommend Standard Mail postage (bulk mail), but if delivery time is critical, we would push for First Class Mail.  The cost difference between the two is about 15 cents, but the delivery times varies from a few days to two weeks or more.

Lead magnet options

When your prospects request “more information,” what do they actually get?  

What does your follow-up look like? A phone call, a brochure, an information kit, a whitepaper or some other type of informational guide?

More importantly, what were your prospects expecting when they responded?  We think it’s important to be upfront and specific about what they will get as follow up if they respond.

You can maximize your response with the development of a so-called lead magnet that provides useful information on the topic related to your product or service.  

For example, a simple Q&A piece that answers some key questions about Medicare and social security would be an effective lead magnet for a Medicare supplement plan.

Across all marketing channels – direct mail and digital – the right lead magnet can bring you more leads and conversions.

Lead follow-up options

No matter how many leads you get, you know that not all of them will convert into a customer.  

So, what do you do to follow up with those leads?  Do you just keep calling them?  Do you send them another letter?  Or do you just let them slip through the cracks?

We suggest two actions – a drip email campaign and a periodic follow-up postcard.

Drip email can be set up so that you are sending these prospects a new email message on a consistent basis.  The best part of drip email is that you can pre-schedule it and have it run on auto-pilot.  If this interests you, call us.

A follow-up postcard can be something very simple and cost-effective.  You just want to keep your name in front of these prospects.  You can print a large supply and mail them out on a pre-arranged schedule.  But remember, you are only mailing to people who had responded to your earlier mailing.

Let’s talk

When you’re ready to discuss a project or request a quote, contact Bob McCarthy at 508-473-8643 or bob@mccarthyandking.com.