Life insurance can be a difficult sell. After all, who wants to spend time thinking about their own mortality? But it can also be a responsible and worthwhile investment for those who want to take care of their loved ones after they’re gone. As an insurance marketer, your job is to find ways to make your product and service more appealing and useful to your customers. Direct mail can help. Here are seven can’t-miss life insurance direct mail marketing tips you can begin using today.

 

1. Personalize Your Direct Mail Marketing Campaigns

 

life insurance marketingOf all the insurance marketing ideas you could implement, personalization is among the most effective. Marketing execs see a 20% increase in sales when they personalize their marketing campaigns. Plus, insurance consumers demand it. They expect personalization. When they don’t get it, they’ll look elsewhere for their insurance needs. If that’s not enough proof, research shows that approximately 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that gives them a personalized experience. In fact, you can add their name alone for a 135% response rate increase.

 

Life insurance direct mail marketing is perfectly suited for a personalized shopping experience. After all, it’s a very personal product. When consumers see you catering to their specific needs, they’ll be much more likely to choose your company when they need life insurance. So whether you’re making an offer, sending a timely message, quoting a price, or making a recommendation, direct mail personalization provides better results than treating someone like just another customer.

 

2. Pay Attention to Data Hygiene and List Management

 

Your life insurance direct mail marketing campaigns are only as good as the contact information you put into them. To achieve the best results possible, make sure your data hygiene and list management tactics are in order. This means you have to get rid of duplicate (aka dupes) and bad addresses and strive for clean data that’s free from errors. This doesn’t mean you’ll have a perfect list for every mailing, but if you keep your data clean on an ongoing basis, you’ll see better results.

 

3. Automate Your Direct Mail Marketing Campaigns

 

automated marketingDirect mail campaigns receive 5x more engagement when a customer triggers the action of sending the mailing. As a result, it gives you a better chance to reach the right customer at the right time. In the life insurance industry, there are many ways to automate your direct mail messages.

 

Here are a few you can use:

 

  • Basic communication. It may sound routine, but “basic” communication is the foundation of all your marketing efforts. Think monthly payment reminders, birthday greetings, scheduled account updates, and more. These encounters help to build a connection between you and your customers. They show that you’re dedicated to meeting their needs.
  • Insurance knowledge. Content marketing is best suited for digital delivery, but consider sending valuable pieces of information to your customers via direct mail. Determine what that content is, then give them something they’ll be happy to receive—and keep. In the life insurance industry, this could be any type of informational “handout” that serves to educate and sell.
  • Handwritten thank-you notes. What says thank you better than a handwritten note? You can trigger (automate) thank-you notes based on a customer’s action, such as buying an insurance policy. The fact that they’re handwritten makes it all the better.

 

4. Consider Direct Mail Timing

 

You may think of direct mail as a Monday through Saturday option—per the USPS delivery schedule. But if you limit your thinking (yes limit it) you’ll likely notice better results. Let’s talk about direct mail timing. Generally, the best days for your direct mail to arrive in mailboxes is Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Schedule your campaigns for delivery on these days and you’ll probably see better results. That’s primarily because people are more distracted on the other days. Mondays—well, you know how Mondays are. Fridays and Saturdays are weekend days where most people have other obligations. They’re more likely to ignore your mailing. Your best bet is a mid-week arrival time.

 

Of course, you may be thinking: “That sounds great, but how can I make this happen?” It all starts with a strong postal logistics strategy. The best marketing services provider can help you plan, create, schedule, print, and deliver your life insurance direct mail marketing campaigns. Contact MSP to talk about the possibilities for your insurance business.

 

5. Adopt Multichannel/Omnichannel Marketing Methods

 

what is omnichannel marketingWhy only use one marketing channel when you can use them all? By combining your digital and direct mail marketing efforts into a multichannel campaign, you raise your customers’ lifetime value by 30%. Plus, more than 50% of customers say they want insurance companies to offer a mobile marketing experience. You may know how important multichannel marketing is, but do you have a strategy in place? Most marketers don’t.

 

As a smart insurance marketer, you can offer your customers a varied marketing experience from engagement to claims by adding direct mail to your digital efforts. Additionally, as long as you’re using multiple channels, why not take it to another, more effective level? It’s called omnichannel marketing.

 

Multichannel is good, but omnichannel is even better. In this case, all your marketing channels are working cohesively. This provides the ultimate, integrated consumer experience. So no matter how your customers are interacting with your insurance business, all the channels will be in sync with one another. This ensures that you’re not only reaching your customers where they are, you’re also reaching them at the right time with the right information.

 

Learn more: What is Omnichannel Marketing?

 

6. Get Creative with Your Direct Mail to Boost Results

 

There are close to 800 life insurance companies in the U.S. That means you’ll need to put your best foot forward when you’re marketing your business. A great way to achieve that is to get creative with your direct mail. If you don’t have a way to catch consumer’s attention and keep it, they’ll turn to another provider. Luckily, you’re not limited with direct mail. Here are some creative options to try when you want to boost your direct mail results:

 

  • Video direct mailers. You watch TV, right? And you probably watch videos on YouTube. Why wouldn’t your customers absolutely love a video if it showed up in their mailbox as part of a direct mail piece? Target your audience by the type of insurance you’re selling and send them a video mailer that not only tells them, but also shows them, why they need a specific type of insurance coverage.
  • Dimensional direct mail. If you get a box or tube in the mail, you can’t open it fast enough. Consider speaking to your customers with just such a piece of direct mail. After all, dimensional direct mail has an almost perfect open rate.
  • Direct mail sequencing. Don’t be fooled into thinking direct mail is a “one and done” deal. Sure, you may see results after one mailing, but you’re more likely to experience your best results if you buy into the “Seven Times Factor.” This is an old rule that says you need to see an ad seven times before you buy what’s offered. That works well in the life insurance industry because the typical sales cycle can take months to complete.
  • Augmented reality mail. AR tech is estimated to generate over $80 billion in revenue by 2021 and insurance providers are already in on the action. Use AR to enhance your direct mail with digital content. You can explain insurance plans, complement ad campaigns, and increase brand awareness. Just remember: make it easy, worthwhile, and fun.

 

Life Insurance Direct Mail Marketing Case Study

 

To illustrate how you can make life insurance direct mail marketing more creative (and thus more interesting), here’s an example of a successful campaign. Country Financial has been selling life insurance since 1925. In a direct mail campaign targeting 30,000 auto/property insurance customers between the ages of 35 and 55, they used a mailer that looked like a large seed packet. A window envelope on the mailer showed “growing money” art with five pennies inside that served as starter seeds for retirement savings. The CTA within inspired recipients to schedule a meeting with a financial advisor to plan for their retirement. This resulted in the sale of more than 2,100 new life insurance policies.

 

7. Analyze Your Direct Mail Results

 

life insurance marketingWhether you produce 2,100 new policies from a campaign or not, you’ll never know which ones worked and which ones didn’t if you don’t take the time to analyze them. A solid life insurance direct mail marketing strategy doesn’t feature hunches and guesses and stuff. Rather, it pays (literally) to use data to make informed decisions. You can analyze every aspect of a direct mail campaign using a revolutionary new software called Direct Mail Panorama.

 

This is a game-changing solution that allows you to streamline and manage your high-volume direct mail campaigns like never before. As its name suggests, you’ll get a “panoramic” view of all your direct mail metrics so you can improve upon each campaign.

 

With life insurance, you can pay particular attention to direct mail marketing metrics like response rate and the number of policies sold. How many people responded to your mailer? How many new policies did you sell as a result of the direct mail piece? The more questions you ask and the more answers you get, the better off your next campaign will be.

 

Start Your Life Insurance Direct Mail Marketing Campaign Today

 

Now that you’re armed with these can’t-miss life insurance direct mail marketing tips, you’re ready to sell life insurance policies like never before. Apply one or more of these principles and see how they work for your insurance business. It helps to have some expert guidance along the way, so reach out to an MSP representative who will talk to you about your direct mail marketing goals. Contact us to get started today.

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