Exclusivefocus Spring 2013 - National Association of Professional ...

piece away before opening the envelope.
Avoid company-approved mailings
and co-op opportunities. For the most
part, these mail pieces are designed and
witten to drive business to the company,
not necessarily to your agency. Therefore,
your objective should be to create a
piece that makes the customer think your
agency offers something that they’re not
going to get through another agency.
Maybe it’s the quote that you’ve included
in your mailer, or the the superior customer
service that comes with being a
customer of your agency. The biggest
reason you want to avoid co-op mailings
is because of their cookie cutter appearance
– they almost always look like
junk mail and are filled with disclaimers.
Have you ever noticed the fine print at
the bottom of a co-op letter Most of it
goes along with footnotes in the text of
the letter and deals with exclusions, legal
notices, etc. While they may be wellmeaning,
but they look like one thing – a
junk mail advertisement.
As a recipient of these one-size-fits-all
insurance mailings, I am disappointed by
the lack of originality in them. Unfortunately,
these mailings reveal something
about the agents who send them out. I
know an Allstate customer who – because
of the mass agent firings in recent
years – has three different Allstate agents
and all of them send him the same bland
letter on his birthday. He doesn’t even
open them anymore because the letters
are the same every year.
This same problem happens when
multiple agents solicit the same Zip Code
using company-approved mail pieces. In
instances like this, it is common for prospects
to receive the exact same solicitation
from each agent. There is absolutely
NOTHING personal about form letters
that look like advertisements. Many recipients
simply throw them away, wasting
the agent’s hard-earned marketing
dollars.
Co-op mailings often include your signature
in the closing of the letter. At some
point, you signed a camera card allowing
the company to digitize your signature
and use it on various documents, including
co-op mailings. Unfortunately, it looks
like a digitized signature and it’s blatantly
obvious that you didn’t sign the letter. A
properly targeted direct mail campaign
includes letters that are actually signed by
you. Your actual signature on a letter says
a lot about you. It says that the content of
the letter is something that is specifically
meant for the recipient. It also says to the
people receiving the mailing that they are
important to you.
The time it takes to sign each letter
in blue ink is a good investment of your
time because it tells the prospect that
what they’re reading is personal. A real
blue-ink signature will never be confused
with the artificial black-ink signature
found on co-op form letters.
I know there are those who will disagree,
but I don’t recommend using bulk
mail or putting postage on envelopes
with a postal machine. Instead, use a
first-class stamp. Does this make your
mailing more expensive Yes, it does, but
it significantly increases the likelihood
of the envelope being opened. I would
much prefer having each of my individually
stamped envelopes opened and pay
the associated postage than save a few
dollars and have 6 out of 10 envelopes
thrown away unopened. At that rate, you
would have to nearly double the number
of letters in your mailing – significantly
increasing your postage costs – to get the
same response as your first-class mailing.
I call this working smarter, not harder.
Do you know the difference between
First-Class Mail, Express Mail, Priority
Mail, Certified Mail and Registered
Mail Many people don’t and that can be
used to your benefit. With all of the options
available when you go to the post
office, it can be easy for people to confuse
First-Class Mail with Priority Mail
and mistakenly believe that anything
sent first-class is special or otherwise important.
If you put a stamp on a letter
and drop it in the mail it will be sent via
First-Class Mail. There is nothing that
says you can’t include the words “First-
Class Mail” on the face of the envelope.
Since it’s going to go first-class whether
you specify so or not, I recommend you
invest in a self-inking red stamp that says
“First-Class Mail” and that you stamp it
on the envelope to the left of the address
of the recipient. Why Because it looks
more important, and since many people
associate “First-Class” with something
above and beyond normal mail, their first
inclination is to open the envelope when
they receive it.
One final trick is to include a photo of
something that belongs to the customer
on the envelope. I used to take photos of
contractors’ work trucks when I was out
and about and would send them a letter
about commercial auto insurance. In the
lower left corner of the envelope I would
print the photo on the envelope along
with a line of text that read, “Important
Information Enclosed.” This increased
the amount of time it took to print the
envelopes, but after setting up a special
template, all I had to do was drop the
photo into the template and hit print.
If you’re sending a mailing about homeowners
insurance, many county assessment
websites include photos of houses
on the parcel’s webpage. It is almost
guaranteed that when someone receives
a letter with a photo of their house or vehicle
on the front of the envelope they
will open the letter – you can’t get more
personal than this!
Hopefully, you will now agree that
what many consider to be one of the
worst ways to advertise may actually
be one of the best, especially if you put
some thought into who your prospects
are, what your envelope and letter look
like and the timing of when you send it.
Targeted direct mail is more complicated
than just stuffing envelopes and sending
out mass mailings. Finding the right target
audience and sending personalized
and meaningful correspondence to them
at a time when they are most likely to
act on it, will open the door to increased
sales. Then, when they respond to your
letter – and you will be pleasantly surprised
at how many will – make sure that
when all is said and done, you have taken
every opportunity to cross-sell every line
of insurance they need and you’ll be well
on your way to growing your book! Ef
Scott Brodbeck is a Microsoft Certified
Systems Engineer and a Master Certified
Novell Engineer who is also a former
EA and IA. Currently he develops technical
marketing tools and provides marketing
consulting services specializing in the profitable
growth of insurance agencies. He can be
reached via email at scott@scottbrodbeck.
36 — Exclusivefocus Spring 2013