Annuity Marketing

[joshril]

I have been some work with annuities and I have been trying to get a good marketing system in place. I wanted to see what y'alls opinion of a direct mail campaign would be? One of the companies I work with has provided me some averages and I wanted to see how realistic these results appear to be. Keep in mind a moderate to high closing ability and product knowledge.

5000 mailers per month to a target market (affluent seniors 65+)
1% response=50 quality leads per month
50 leads=3 sales per month
36 sales per year at industry average of $37,000 per sale=$1,332,000 in premium
Average commission of 7%=$93,240 gross
Marketing costs of $1200 monthly so total net income of $78,840 from annuity sales.

How realistic are these numbers? A good marketing piece could return close to 1% on a mailer. This company is not offering to do this mailing for me so that is not their catch, they just want you to sell their product.

What do y'all think?

 

[Mr. Bill]

Well, I for one, would be really curious to learn whether this works. What "company" are you talking about?

 

[joshril]

Well, I for one, would be really curious to learn whether this works. What "company" are you talking about?

It's basically an FMO that is giving this advice. I am appointed through them with most of the top annuity companies. I am seriously thinking about dumping some money in this. Although the average annuity case is in the high 30's, if you ran across a big one, it would pay for itself pretty quickly.

 

[Mr. Bill]

Back to the numbers - I have yet to find a mailhouse that is willing to mail 5,000 pieces at less than their cost to mail - what's going on here? Is there a subsidy somewhere?

 

[senior-advisor-indiana]

Yeah $1200 seems like a pretty good discount. But anyway, I think that you should do better than 3 sales out of 50 leads if they are in fact annuity leads (and they are good leads since they are so cheap). My average annuity case is about 60K so I think it would definetly work in my favor. Then again the average might drop since it is basically a cold call. Most of my sales come through current clients. I would definetly like to know how it turns out.

I recieved like 7 leads from a 200 piece mailing from life sales. None of them turned out to be much of anything. Some of the people were broke.

 

[joshril]

Yeah $1200 seems like a pretty good discount. But anyway, I think that you should do better than 3 sales out of 50 leads if they are in fact annuity leads (and they are good leads since they are so cheap). My average annuity case is about 60K so I think it would definetly work in my favor. Then again the average might drop since it is basically a cold call. Most of my sales come through current clients. I would definetly like to know how it turns out.

I recieved like 7 leads from a 200 piece mailing from life sales. None of them turned out to be much of anything. Some of the people were broke.

Sorry... It looks to be closer to $1500 and they are postcards. I am thinking it was an old bit of info I was looking over. I am very seriously looking to try the direct mail campaign for a year and see how it works... Nice tax write off worst case scenario.

I'm thinking it's at least a break even thing. Out of 60,000 mailers over the course of a year, you would think something would hit.

 

[senior-advisor-indiana]

Yeah you should at worst make your money back. All you need is maybe 3 big annuities.

 

[Newby]

I have been some work with annuities and I have been trying to get a good marketing system in place. I wanted to see what y'alls opinion of a direct mail campaign would be? One of the companies I work with has provided me some averages and I wanted to see how realistic these results appear to be. Keep in mind a moderate to high closing ability and product knowledge.

5000 mailers per month to a target market (affluent seniors 65+)
1% response=50 quality leads per month
50 leads=3 sales per month
36 sales per year at industry average of $37,000 per sale=$1,332,000 in premium
Average commission of 7%=$93,240 gross
Marketing costs of $1200 monthly so total net income of $78,840 from annuity sales.

How realistic are these numbers? A good marketing piece could return close to 1% on a mailer. This company is not offering to do this mailing for me so that is not their catch, they just want you to sell their product.

What do y'all think?

I find most direct mail gets about 1/2% response and that is if there is a postage paid reply card. How will yours respond? Phone call? Web Site?

I think seminars are the best way to sell annuities. I am not speaking from annuity sales experience. But I have done seminars for funeral preplanning/final expense and have been AMAZED at the response and sales from it. I have also sat in on a Naylor Annuity seminar and it had very good response.

Can you just commit to 90-days worth of mailers to measure the success?

 

[maxreferrals]

I
5000 mailers per month to a target market (affluent seniors 65+)
1% response=50 quality leads per month
50 leads=3 sales per month
36 sales per year at industry average of $37,000 per sale=$1,332,000 in premium
Average commission of 7%=$93,240 gross
Marketing costs of $1200 monthly so total net income of $78,840 from annuity sales.

Above is the key component in this when it comes to seminars.

++ Key: Work on strategies to schedule more appointments AT the seminar.

 

[joshril]

I find most direct mail gets about 1/2% response and that is if there is a postage paid reply card. How will yours respond? Phone call? Web Site?

I think seminars are the best way to sell annuities. I am not speaking from annuity sales experience. But I have done seminars for funeral preplanning/final expense and have been AMAZED at the response and sales from it. I have also sat in on a Naylor Annuity seminar and it had very good response.

Can you just commit to 90-days worth of mailers to measure the success?

What type of cost would you anticipate for an annuity seminar? Do you think people will actually come?