Crafting an Effective Direct Mail Message for Insurance Products

According to an Insurance Journal, direct mail is a necessary and powerful tool for marketers in the insurance industry. This is true because direct mail continuously gets better results than other marketing channels. An article written by Michelle B. Peel states - “Direct mail campaigns deliver better overall responses than digital channels”. 

So, how are savvy insurance professionals using the power of direct mail campaign companies to find new customers? And how are they reaching out to promote their insurance products? 

We’ve explored some ways to craft an effective direct mail message within the insurance industry and found some great tips that you can use to make direct mail marketing work for you. 

But first, what are your direct mail goals? 

Assuming you have already committed to personalising your direct mail campaigns, it’s time to develop a message for marketing your products. First, you will need to determine your goals. 

1.  Do you want to increase brand awareness for your insurance business? If you are marketing your products and services regularly, you will have an advantage over your passive competitors. 

2.  Are you focusing on one specific type of insurance such as homeowner’s insurance or life insurance? 

3.  Do you want to attract specific demographics for one or more of your offerings like bike insurance? 

You shouldn’t dive into crafting direct mail messages without knowing what you want to accomplish. You can also ask it from any of the direct mail marketing companies then you can concentrate on personalising it. You will also need to acquire from the campaign to achieve a positive ROI. 

Once you figure out this, let’s get to the topic at hand: personalization for the direct mail piece. 

Firstly, identify your target audience and then personalise: 

1. by name and gender

2.  by type of insurance offers - health, life, and car insurance marketing

3. by previous or past purchase history

4.  with PURLs

Tips to Create an Engaging Direct Mail Message 

Assuming your goal is to craft a message that makes an impression and resonates with your prospects and customers. When this happens, they are more likely to respond to your offerings. The first hurdle is to gain their attention so you don’t just create another piece of trash but deliver your message. 

Here are three things that you should implement when creating an effective direct mail message. 

1.    Keep it Emotional 

Emotion is the best way to connect with your audience and to keep it memorised. It’s important for your brand voice and marketing message to find ways to create an emotional appeal. Think how non-profits tug at your heartstrings to get you to donate, it works! Every insurance business has the capability of doing this and it's important to find why your actions matter for your customers. 

This is format agnostic and can apply to any marketing and brand message you deliver. 

However, if you do this with a postcard - use imagery rather than using just words because of limited space. When you are able to convey your message with images, it creates a great way to engage people. Avoid cliches, boasting, and arrogant messaging. People do not want to read it. For them, open, honest language is the best. 

2.    Testimonials 

Customers generally trust the opinion of others more than that of a business. Adding testimonials from reputable companies make your products more credible. The testimonial provides an unbiased opinion, that provides authenticity for potential prospects. People will take the time to read these if they are curious about other people’s experiences. 

3.    Stories 

People tend to connect more with stories. Most mailing companies in the USA consider themselves storytellers because that is what effective marketing and branding are all about. Marketing can’t make your products great, it can only paint a picture of what it is and how great they are. 

A cornerstone of an effective brand strategy is understanding your story and making an emotional connection with your audience, Using strategies such as building curiosity to help them be rewarded for taking the next step. 

These tips in combination will help you create a strategy for the best message to increase your direct mail response rates. 

One common messaging issue that organisations run into is that they have enough knowledge to provide about products but less information about what the audience is actually looking for. This makes it difficult to communicate effectively with prospects. 

To combat this, you can ask for feedback from people outside your organisation to see what they think of your direct mail message. This can come as an advisory group, an organisation, or a few customers and prospects that you use as a focus group. 

There’s a lot of knowledge you can gain by doing this. In many cases, you will find what you thought was a great message did not resonate with the audience or may create confusion. It’s better that you look upon the campaign before you mail rather than after the fact. 

Final Words 

Your direct mail message strategy is extremely important - it can make or break your campaigns. Spend more time constructing your messaging than you spend on design, In most cases, effective message creation takes longer than designing it. 

Personalization is one of the most important insurance marketing ideas you should add to your direct mail marketing strategy. It shows you know your audience well and takes their desires seriously. Whatever the type of insurance product you are selling via direct mail, an effective message with personalization provides an invaluable boost. 

Create your message with emotional appeal, add testimonials for credibility, leverage storytelling for authenticity, and see your direct mail response rate and conversions going up! Keep your direct mail campaigns as personalised as possible and mail them by availing print and mailing services. 

So are you ready to create direct mail messaging that resonates, is understood, remembered, and acted upon?  Give us a call or drop us a message and we would be glad to tackle your next project and bring you desired results.