By Jeffrey Dobkin
How To Increase your Response from Direct Mail Letters, Guaranteed.
Increasing response from letters and direct mail is actually very easy:
Offer a FREE Booklet, then ask people to call you for it.
The lead-generation value of your FREE Booklet is exceptionally high.
There is one caveat, though: you need a great booklet title. Well, you actually need a G-R-E-A-T booklet title. Let me explain.
Offering a FREE Booklet with a Good Title generates a good response to your mailing.
Offering a FREE Booklet with a Great title generates a Great response.
Offering a Free Booklet with a G-R-E-A-T title generates a G-R-E-A-T response to your mailing.
Get it? It’s the title that makes people call.
The only value of offering a FREE Booklet is in making someone call you. And that’s done with the inspirational booklet title and its value of making the reader pick up the phone. Frankly, the rest of the booklet isn’t as important, because 100% of the booklet’s goal has been satisfied – you’ve spoken with the reader. It generated a phone call from an interested party.
Here’s My Simple Formula for Creating Highly Responsive Booklet Titles —
I personally use this formula to come up with highly responsive booklet titles:
“The Jeff Dobkin 100-to-1 Rule!”
I use the same formula to create GREAT Booklet titles, GREAT Ad headlines, GREAT PR headlines, and the first line of pretty much every letter I write. It’s the “Jeff Dobkin 100-to-1 Rule”: Write 100 titles, then go back and pick out your best one.
If you make your free booklet title sound so, so very interesting that everyone simply needs to get it, your phone calls will increase. More people will call to get your booklet, and you’ll get to speak with more people. The objective of your letter – to get calls – is fulfilled. Success.
Hey, I didn’t say you’d like the 100-to-1 Rule, I just said the formula would work well for creating G-R-E-A-T booklet titles.
By the way, this formula “The 100-to-1 Rule,” can be found in my book, UNcommon Marketing Techniques. You do own a copy of my book, don’t you? What? What th… well… immediately go buy one. Just kidding. You don’t have to buy my books. Just send the money.
Anyhow, that’s the formula. Simple, isn’t it? Read the full 100-to-1 Rule article here.
Part II · A Great Insurance Sales Technique to generate phone calls: offer a free Quote.
Best Weapon: The “Specific Coverage Quote.”
In the insurance industry – and this actually applies to most every industry – one of the best ways to increase phone calls and drive people to the phone to call you is to offer a FREE Quote.
I know, I know… everyone offers a free quote, especially in the insurance industry.
Here’s the difference, and it’s a crucial one: the response you get – in both quantity and quality of calls – depends solely on how you present your offer to quote. Yes, it’s the 100-to-1 Rule all over again. A simple offer to “Let us quote your insurance needs.” doesn’t work anymore, does it. No, it doesn’t. This is where credibility (from the first article in this set) comes back into play.
Right now, insurance rates are exceptionally volatile. And as always, people are looking to save money – especially on something they can’t see and don’t perceive they need – like insurance. You’re already familiar with that, aren’t you? Yea, me too. Sigh…
Premiums keep going up, up and… up. Yet certain insurance policies are getting cheaper – because the coverage they offer is more specific into the tiny niche they serve. So you may be able to quote a specific tightly targeted policy or insurance with a very narrow coverage band with an extremely low rate.
Here’s an example of the way to quote a lower cost for insurance. This works really well in direct mail. Send a direct mail letter that offers a lesser cost for a policy with more specific coverage. This isn’t a new insurance sales idea, it’s simply a better way to offer savings to your clients. You just can’t say “…we can save you money” — every insurance pitch starts out that way. Make your offer based on the new insurance that’s now available in a “Specific Coverage Quote!” It will generate more phone calls.
This “Specific Coverage Quote” is the basis for one of the highest performing insurance sales letters we offer in our Awesome Insurance Sales Letter Series. Did I mention these letters are available for purchase for an immediate download by clicking here! Oh, sorry… I wasn’t sure if I did…
New Specific Coverage Quotes
You clients will find the specific coverage quote a reasonable rationale for rates to go down! It’s an effective way to have customers call to request a quote. Here’s an example:
Suppose one of your clients purchased a small boat and needs insurance. Now you can offer him savings on specific “small boat insurance,” or “inland boat insurance,” or “winter-rate boating insurance.” Draft a letter with that particular small boat insurance theme. Now buy a mailing list of all the small boat owners in that marina, and all the surrounding area docks and mail to all the small boat owners.
State in your letter “New lower rates are now available specifically for owners of small boats under 28 feet! So call now and…” It’s a solid-performing reason to generate a call.
It’s similar to Allstate’s auto insurance for people who have had no accidents, or State Farm’s rate for people who drive fewer miles. It makes a plausible reason to get a lower rate and for people to call. People will pick up the phone to check if they qualify for the new lower rate.
And now a brief word from our sponsor. These free insurance sales tips are brought to you by Jeffrey Dobkin. To see a free sample letter, you can find one here: Awesome Insurance Sales Letter Series. To those agencies that have purchased this letter series, thank you – we appreciate your support. To purchase these letters and make your phone ring, click here!
Recap of our Insurance Marketing Strategies
In the past few articles you’ve learned how to make make your audience open your insurance sales letter, and
· 2. how to create high credibility and become a trusted provider. You’ve learned
· 3. the sole purpose of your letter and entire direct mail piece has shifted from trying to sell insurance to
· 4. to making the reader call. If you don’t remember anything else from this site, remember this: Generating a phone call is now the ONLY objective of your sales letter. Your letter doesn’t sell anything – it just makes your phone ring. Once your phone rings, the letter worked perfectly, and its job is over. Now it’s your turn.
Through the previous articles on this site you’ve learned
· 5. making a great FREE offer in your letter gives readers a compelling reason to call you. And that one of the best offers you can make is for
· 6. a FREE Booklet (with an unusually GREAT title,) or
· 7. call for a new quote as their rates may have gone down with the new specific coverage you now offer. Using these specific marketing strategies and direct mail techniques definitely will make your phone ring.
Part III — How to tell when your letter campaign is successful
Simple — Your mailing package was successful when your phone rang.
Your envelope teaser copy made them open the envelope, then they fell so head over heels in love with your compelling FREE booklet title that they just had to have it. And it made sense the way you said the new specific insurance coverage they can now get may make their insurance rates go down. So… they called for a quote. Success. Total Success! No, no no… don’t thank me with a simple nod of your head and a stealthy smile, I take cash, too!
The true measure of success is when your phone rings. The more calls, the greater your success.
The success of the calls you receive is measured by how many appointments you made or how many sales you closed. Those are call objectives, and you can learn how to handle this successfully in other areas of this website. You can get to these areas FREE by email invitation. To sign up for our email mailing list – and receive our very occasional emails and invitations to other areas of our website, please click here. Thanks.
Did I mention? Our sales strategy works everywhere…
Kindly notice while this article is about selling insurance it really doesn’t matter what you’re selling. What you’re selling isn’t at all important – at least not to the success of your mailing. Whatever products you’re selling is secondary to the strategy of a successful mailing campaign: generating a phone call.
Our marketing strategy, to generate phone calls, is particularly effective in the insurance industry where sales are long-term and based on a personal relationship, credibility and trust.
It’s the marketing strategy I use for all my clients. It’s a little different than most other marketers. That’s why when I write a sales letter for a client, I don’t have to be an expert in every product in my client’s portfolio. I just need to make his phone ring. Then HE can sell his products
New Article: How to Handle the Phone Calls. Click Here to Continue Reading…
Need your own phone to ring? You might like our series of Awesome Insurance Sales Letters. This package of 26 letters all have one single objective: to make your phone ring. And they work really, really well. Click this link to see a FREE SAMPLE LETTER.
Bio, Jeffrey Dobkin
Jeff Dobkin will now take your questions: 610-642-1000 rings on his desk. No, seriously – call him up if you have questions. If you’re having trouble generating sales leads and need people to CALL YOU, Jeffrey Dobkin is pretty darn good at getting your phone to ring. Dobkin has written 5 books on successful marketing methods including the cult classic, How To Market a Product for Under $500, and now offers a series of his own personally written and designed and incredibly effective insurance sales letters. Want to know more? Click here.
Joining our email list is easy: click here to sign up, or click here for more information or to see ourFREE SPAM email policy. Call with questions: 610-642-1000 – this number rings directly on Dobkin’s desk. Your call is always welcome.