Direct mail has long been an effective marketing tool for insurance companies and agents. Before the days of email and the Internet, it was the easiest way to touch a prospective customer. Now that spam overwhelms our email inboxes, direct mail can be seen as a way to break through the clutter. In fact, a recent study by InfoTrends shows that in 2005, 114 billion pieces of direct mail were sent in North America.
Sounds like a good argument for direct mail, right? Well, the news isn't all good. The same InfoTrends study also shows that while respondents prefer direct mail, only 31 percent say the direct mail they receive contains useful content.
So how can you develop great direct mail content that consumers will find valuable? And how do you know which direct mail piece gets the best business results? Let's take a look at three steps agents should take to get more mileage from their direct mail marketing efforts.
An overall marketing campaign
One of the first mistakes an agent try-ing to market themselves makes is to keep distinct silos for their marketing efforts -- a direct mail campaign, an email campaign, a Web campaign, etc. -- with little or no tie-in between them. Instead, you need to link all of these efforts together.
First, create a clear and consistent message across all media so that prospective customers receive the same message from your direct mail campaign, your Web site, your brochures, and your emails.
Take this one step further by executing campaigns that span several media. For example, if you send out a direct mail piece on term life insurance, include a Web address where prospects can learn more about their options. Or the Web address could drive prospects to an online registration page where they can enter a contest by filling out your form.
The key here is to not think in terms of individual marketing buckets, but rather to create an overall marketing plan across multiple marketing channels or media and have each tactic support that plan and reinforce the other tactics you're using.
Get personal
So you've purchased a very focused mailing list to help you reach new prospects. In personalizing your direct mail piece, you probably print each recipient's name or add some other personalized touch. But does this really give each prospect the content that they want?
Chances are that once the prospect gets past the agent's name, the rest of the content is the same thing that thousands of other recipients are receiving. A prospect who is already buying health insurance from you and knows your company well may find that your general piece on life insurance is too basic. True, it's impossible to tailor each and every direct mail piece to exactly what the recipient wants, but today, you can create a more personalized experience than "Dear Kathy."
Since we're thinking beyond the direct mail piece and are now creating the overall marketing campaign, let's use that direct mail piece to drive prospects to their own personal, customized Web site. On the direct mail piece, each prospect should see a personalized Web address. Each direct mail recipient then heads to their own sites, where they are personally greeted. Your marketing system provides them with relevant content based on whether they are a first-time visitor, a frequent visitor, or a current customer, and can also tailor the content to different geographical areas and more.
Track them
Now that you're thinking about overall marketing and creating more personalized experiences for each of your target prospects, you need to start effectively tracking the results of your efforts. Now is the time to think about implementing technology that tracks your prospects and lets you tailor your outreach based on their behavior and history with your company.
Marketing automation and demand-generation technology can track all your leads from the first direct mail piece they receive all the way to a closed sale and beyond. The first thing this means is that you can truly create an individualized marketing experience for each prospect.
Let's say a prospect receives a new life insurance direct mail piece and goes online to her personalized Web site. Your system recognizes that they have visited your site several times in the past. Now you have a name to associate with that visitor and can build a prospect profile. You know which insurance products they have been researching and can provide them with content that caters to their preferences. When they show a high level of Web site activity, you can follow up with a phone call saying, "I see you're interested in term life insurance policies on our Web site. How can we help here?" And all this started with a well-designed and tracked direct mail piece.
What tracking also shows you is which marketing efforts have turned into actual sales and which haven't. Simply repeat the effective ones, then refine or kill the bad campaigns.
Direct mail shouldn't just be an item to check off of your marketing checklist. It should be just one carefully thoughtout piece of a complete campaign to provide each prospect with an individualized experience with your company.
Thor Johnson is senior vice president of marketing for Eloqua Corporation. For more information, visit www.eloqua.com.
