Annuity Leads

Direct mail marketing is effective for generating annuity leads. But it only works if you do it RIGHT and there are many more ways to do it incorrectly and waste a lot of cash. Adhere to the following and you can generate a very sustainable flow of annuity leads at a reasonable cost.

First of all, your mail marketing should happen continuously, e.g. send some mailers each week. That way, you will have a continuous stream of annuity leads and you can follow up in a timely manner.

Next, make sure you get the right list. The “sweet spot” of fixed annuity buyers are people age 55 to 65, mostly female in middle-income neighborhoods (see Gallup Research study of annuity owners). You can easily rent a list of these prospects (the SRDS catalog at our local library is a directory of every list you can rent) .

Third, select the right format for the annuity lead direct mail piece. For annuity leads, we have tested both post cards and letters in envelopes.  In this case, the postcards did equally well and are less expensive that items in envelopes, so use the postcards.

Fourth, get the message right.  The message will be wrong if you sit back and think about what appeals to your prospects.  There is no way you really understand that.  The only way to find out is to ask a handful of prospects.  The question is not “what do you like about annuities?”  (Notice how product centered that question is and grows from your point of view)? The correct question to generate annuity leads is “what’s important to you about your money?”

As people start to answer, write down what they say.  Then dig deeper:

What else is important?
What would you rank second?
You said safety was important.  What do you need to give up to get it?

Only by asking these questions and really digging will you understand what matters to your annuity prospects.  Now, based on what they say, create at least 15 headlines for your mailers.  These might be:

“How to Get the Safety You want Without Sacrificing Return”
“How to Earn more Interest While you Pay IRS Less”
“How to Have a 2nd Social Security Check”

After you compose the titles, select your best and then use six of the others as bullet points:

“How to Get the Safety You want Without Sacrificing Return”

• Bullet point 1
• Bullet point 2
• Bullet point 3
• etc.

Here’s an alternate format

Fifth, make a non-intimidating offer such as a free booklet, free report, free quote, etc.  Every direct mail piece should have some form of tangible, unambiguous benefit for the customer that addresses their question, ”What’s in it for the me?”

There are many things you can do to make direct mail annuity lead generation plan work. By using these tips, though, you will be off to a good start and a continuous flow of annuity leads.

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