Insurance Sales Letters, Tips to Pump it Up

1. Determine what you want your advertising to achieve
oDefine what you want your advertisement's goal before you begin write anything. Do you want to generate inquiries (leads)? Do you want to get immediate orders, skipping the lead process? What action do you want prospective clients to take? How do you want them to respond? Put your goal in bold writing, attach it to your computer, and refer to it often as you develop your message. Everything you write should directly support this goal or get rid of it.
2. Determine how much response you reasonably could expect
Not every person, is going to respond to what you offer. What kind of response are you going to pull? Is it going to be 1/2%, 1%, or 3%? Remember that refining your mailing to the right agents to receive you ad will increase your Quality, it will not necessarily increase your Quantity. Never ever think that quantity outweighs quality. There always people that respond to everything and do nothing.
3. Determine how much your recruiting program will cost, and what a producing agent is worth.
An agent that responds and never produces business is not worth anything. Lets say a 1,000 piece mailing has a total cost of $600, and that this mailer produces 10 quality responses. Out of the responses 4 agents sign a contract, and 2 write substantial business. Over the next few years this production brings you $4,600 in overrides. If this is your history, how many agents do you want to mail right now? Remember a postcard is cheapest, but cheap can mean cheap response.. An envelope stuffed with pages plus a picture of the home office is expensive, and will lower your response. A "tri-fold" might give you you just enough space and options to get the attention of the right insurance agent at a reasonable price.
4. Know your clients, what a client wants wants, and what your competition offers Maybe you think every agent CAN use what you sell. But one targeted group of possible clients will be the most likely to be interested. Let these people know that you know who they are, it makes it much more personalized. "Of all the car sa;espeople in your area, your experience in closing sales has shown us you might be the new sales manager we are looking for." We see this form of personalization to way, way underused. Also. do not copy the advertising looks that your competitors are using. You want better results, than them and want some of their best clients to respond.
5. Appeal to the client's self-interest, not yours
Thus may sound sharp, but its true. At the point the agent receives your advertising piece, they really don't care to much about your company, about yourself, nor about your personal qualifications, or about that company expense paid trip to Hawaii. They are skeptical and not currently interested in that, so don't sideline their hard earned interest. They want to know what your product is going to directly do for them right now..




6. Make your advertising piece focus on the client's emotions.
Your sales piece should demonstrate the feeling your agent gets, while enjoying the benefits provided by your product. Hit their emotions hard so they want to start taking action now. Use REALISTIC true stories to draw agents into your message. Example: "Thomas Hopkins, a five year producer, from New York last year earned $44,000. Moving to us, in just the last six months his first year commissions have increased to over $9,000 monthly, and he has more clients and more free time." We see ad after ad promising big luxury trips, and unbelievable incomes. If the target agent is making $50,000 right now, doubling his income sounds fantastic to him. However, a gift card for a nice restaurant for he and his spouse might sound very appealing right bow..
7. Its not door #1, door #2, or door #3
You may write, rewrite, and rewrite again many times your recruiting piece to try to make it sound great. Remember though, your prospective agents will zoom through your piece and make a fast decision. Don't make you agent advertising sound like a plea offer, by giving them choices. Agents afraid of making the wrong choice end up with no choice made. You'll lose replies. The time to give choices is AFTER the agent responds, without the response tomorrow is gone..
8. Make it easy in your agent advertising piece for them to respond.
Don't force the person to call you. You will miss great clients, that Don't want to call, or are unable at that time to reach you. Make it convenient and comfortable for the client.. Offering phone, fax, email, website and mail back options gets them to take action.
9. Make the prospect your best offer right now.
Its now or probably never. The offer is the "deal" you're promoting (free information, special price, free bonus with order, etc.). It's the only reason people respond to your advertising copy. The stronger your offer the greater the response you'll get. Always include the best offer the producer could receive and of course why they need to act immediately. Example for Sales Marketer:: "A few master contracts are currently available to producers with a proven selling record. Find out today it you qualify".
10. Simplify Everything in your advertising.
Simple, clear copy is easy to read and understand. It propels your customer to the decision point with no hesitation. After you've written your copy, edit it for simplicity and clarity. With little practice, you will see how splitting a long sentence into 2 is easy. Use lots of 1 and 2 syllable words. Paragraphs should only be a few sentences. This is especially important when using tri-fold advertising pieces

I hope you have as much success using these tips as our company has.

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About the Author

Donald Yerke

Don Yerke is the marketing adviser at Agents Insurance Marketing USA, a firm he founded over 25 years ago. This is the premier firm in...