Timothy Schucker argues direct mail for insurance still reaches people at home, but high costs and long delays make it uncompetitive. Interested buyers go online instead of waiting for mailed materials, so you pay more to arrive late. It can still produce sales, just not profitably.
Are direct mail leads dead for insurance? The answer is yes and no. So the way I think about lead sources are pretty simple. Where are the people for direct mail? The question would be, are the people at their homes? Yes, duh. Obviously, they're still at their homes. Problem for direct mail is, number one, the costs are so freaking high, and number two, the delay. So if I'm someone who's genuinely interested in insurance, am I realistically going to wait for someone to send me something in the mail, fill it back out in the mail, wait four weeks for it to go back and insurance agent to get it, and an insurance agent to show up at my house and sell me insurance if I'm actually interested? No, I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to go online and buy it. So essentially, if you're buying direct mail leads, you're paying way more to be late to the party. Can you still make sales with direct mail? Obviously. Is it the best way to be profitable? Hell no.
