Leads are the life-blood of this industry, without them an agent is inconsistent with his success at best. Sure, they wanted an update to the changes happening to Medicare but helping them save $50 a month on their Medicare Supplement isn't bad either. Newer agents might want to work with a mailer that directly mentions life insurance, because most often newer agents aren't that proficient in repelling a prospect's objections – especially one's like, "I don't need life insurance," or "I already have life insurance." We saw both positive and negative reviews about them – what lead provider doesn't have a spotless record? If the agent is earning a fraction of the commission they could be earning, that will mean less money coming back to them to not only replenish the marketing coffers, but to allow the agent (and possibly their family) to live day to day on that income.There are three reasons why an agent takes a lower contract:Agents not only need fair contracts to help them navigate this challenging landscape in insurance sales, but they also need access to leads at an affordable price that doesn't gouge the agent while enriching the FMO/IMO. Delivering direct mail leads with creativity, outstanding service and higher response rates. Ask any agent that's successful and they'll tell you that you need two things to consistently succeed in this business; consistent lead flow, and consistent following-up with those leads (hopefully at least 6-8 times).The last variable that we will touch upon lightly, because it's very complex and best reserved for its own post, is the contracts an agent has. Only by trying both types can you find out what works best for you.Even the form the prospect has to fill out can determine how many leads you get back. Where we talked about the use of territories by direct mail houses to keep area response up from being over-saturated, we also see agents (even in our telemarketing lead business) not order consistently to keep themselves busy and to also ascertain the true response rate for a given area.You never know if another agent recently mailed there, how consumers interact around holidays, or whether you just got a bad week – if you don't mail consistently. The costs of direct mailings are high and there is a certain skill level required to pull off a great campaign. Since insurance leads are a tremendous part of an agent's marketing budget, more so than quoting tools, CRM's or dialers, we decided to review the top direct mail marketing companies, so insurance agents can be more successful with their prospecting efforts. Our specialty is in the Medicare market.

Here's 8 variables that could greatly affect your mailings besides adjusting for the area and age of the prospect as covered above:In the direct mail insurance world, for the most part, there are 3 types of direct mail to choose from:There are more types of mailers like surveys, where the prospect fills it out and mails it back in, but for the most part, these three types of mailers are the most common types used.

With regards to return postage, most mail houses have standard or third class return, but can have first class returns which, of course, they will charge you a premium for.Majority of agents should be fine with standard rates going out, because if they're mailing consistently (which we will talk more about), then their only delay from getting their leads will be with the first order. Simply login, run the counts, specify the mailer and you'll soon have your campaign sent out within a matter of days.

And even if they produced one, a larger mail house will probably be submitting thousands more in your area, so the chances of actually seeing your mail order itemized on the form would be nil.Nothing can be more infuriating than finding a mail house that you're ready to use, come to find out that you can't use them because their policy is anti-competitive. RGI's direct mail leads are backed by our data-driven in-house consumer databases and proprietary, enhanced data modeling practices. Having leads come back first class can knock 1-3 days off with what it takes for Standard to come back.

One large notable is they don't have territories, everything's on a first come first served basis. Prices below represent their base price range.Just like the above CPL program, we also noticed prices fluctuated depending on what IMO/FMO you are contracted with or with what filters or lead types you selected. Considering the longevity, a direct mail lead has compared to other types of leads, we feel standard return is probably the best way to go.If you're looking to fill out your lead flow until you start getting leads in, try either getting the list from the mail house you mailed to (that will cost you extra) – and start door knocking them after 2 weeks mailing out and say after introducing yourself, "We recently mailed you a card, you might not have gotten it yet but I was in the area and wanted to know if I could come in and talk." Maybe mediocre returns combined with mediocre prices makes for mediocre buzz.Need-a-Lead is built for the agent catering to the senior market. They require a signed NDA before sharing anything with you (like pricing or samples). The amount of mail that goes undelivered due to poor quality lists not being updated or refreshed weekly ranges from 5%-20% depending on the market you're targeting. In 2003, we launched the Leads Direct … © Copyright 2015 Lead Heroes.

As we will see in the next variable, looking vague and "official" can be a way of getting more lead responses.Perhaps one of the most debated, rightly so, variable on our list. Get on the list to find out when our new lead offering goes live.

Maybe you’ve tried a few. They have a ton of different insurance lead types to choose from – and also a ton of non-insurance industries they also serve. We recommend choosing a mailer that only asks the information you need – some have spots to put the age, spouse name, spouse's age, whether they smoke, and a phone number in addition to spots for their name.Having a phone number is definitely helpful, but asking for ages, smoking status or plan names is asking your mailer to qualify for you. All Rights Reserved. Their CPL program is only for Final Expense life insurance, and they have some good reviews we've noticed.RGI is a direct mail house suited for larger agencies and IMOs.