Val Pak Advertising or Any other that worked for you

[curve_1]

Hi! I have an independent agency at Feasterville, PA. We also do Auto tags, title transfers, registrations etc. I am thinking about advertising with Val Pack (they send letters with coupons from different business to households. Actually, most of these businesses are Restaurants, Auto Services & Home Improvement services. However I am thinking about doing a coupon for Auto tag deal, like $15 off. They send out 10,000 letters in 1 zip code. Did anyone tried anything like that before? Does it work? I have heard that most of this envelopes are going to trash. I need your opinion. Any other advise on successful advertising would be helpful.
Thank You

[SFOInsuranceLady]

Hi Curve,
I'm not sure what the mind-set is like in PA, but out here in CA, most of the Val-Pak stuff is treated like trash.
It may or may not work. But if you are going to cold-call, you would be best to send out a "personal" letter to neighbors in your area by using a mailing service or bulk mail. You may also want to visit some of your local dealerships and introduce yourself and your business and start gaining referrals that way, and possibly offer the discount through a "referral" program. You would probably have to make more than one trip - the more they see your face, the more they will remember you. This works for us....just a thought.

[d's insurance store]

ValPak is primarily a 'coupon discount' media...meaning that the kinds of merchants who are most successful are those you've described...merchant's who can offer a discount for services. The broad theory is that people will use the discount to discover the merchant and then be so impressed, they'll return at later times to spend 'full price' money for goods or services.

You're proposing that sort of discount for tag services in your state. I have no idea how much you make on DMV type services, but if the giveaway amounts to your total revenue, then what you're saying is that you'll pay $15 or so for each person that comes into your office, hoping that the exposure will allow you to offer an insurance quote and thus potentially acquire a new client.

The success or failure of ValPak is largely determined by the marketing area. Some populations are very receptive to coupon discounting, while others are not. Yes, when you go into one of their mailers, you're buying 10,000 blue envelopes, and the vast majority of those get dumped immediately. So, you have to set your expectations that of the total mailing, maybe only about a thousand of those get looked at, and of that number, maybe only a couple of hundred will take the time to look at your ad listing, and of those, maybe only 50 might be in the market for renewing their tags, and of those maybe only 10 show up at your door, and of those, maybe only 2 or 3 will be receptive to a quote. In my older days, I would try ValPak with the typical 'Low Rates, Great Service, Free Quote' kind of insert and in many instances, I would get absolutely NOTHING from it.

In my area, there used to be lots of insurance inserts...health and P&C. For health, it was the typical grid listing with various ages and rates and coverages. Lately, not even the health carriers themselves are going into ValPak, so I guess the returns are greatly diminished. One of my P&C carriers had in the past consistantly inserted for their lead program, with an 800 number call that would be a shared cost lead with the agency that received the call. Now, even that carrier has dropped out of ValPak, presumably because of the low response.

Many of the merchants who consistantly advertise, your pizza, oil change, house cleaning, restaurants often say that the type of customer receptive to coming in will only come in when the discount coupon is in hand, and have no interest in paying full price for the good or service.

So, that's my observation...your milage may vary. If every advertising dollar is critical, then maybe you don't want to spend the $400-500 for a ValPak insert. Discussed on this forum are a number of recent postings lamenting the fact that traditional forms of client acquisition media just aren't performing as they once did...ie, direct mail, yellow pages, newpaper inserts. No one has been able to suggest a sure fire way to rip the client from their current carrier and into your office in the present environment. The catch phrases are 'internet' and 'referrals' and the tried and true stone drag cold calling.

There just don't seem to be the magic bullet that you're seeking.

Sorry.

[adbox]

How I feel about valpacks: They take took much time to sort through, and they clutter my mailbox, and I almost lost my power bill because the mailman wrapped-it-up in one.

[etimer]

In 1984 I tried a go with ValPak advertising. Don't do it. You will most assuredly waste your money. Like others have said, discount pizza coupons, etc. may work in ValPak but not insurance advertising. If you are wanting to do brand or product advertising, I do not think ValPak will do it.

[thefactory]

Val Pak is a low cost marketing tool that works under the old direct marketing methodology - send out a bunch to everyone and hope for a reply. The concept should be taget the market. Out of the 10,000 people Val Pak is mailing to maybe 100 are really potential customers. Find and market to the 100. Who is your customer? Do they have 3 cars and a boat? Are they 40-55 in age? are they females or males, married, single or divorced? Any kids and if so are they young children or High School? Self employed or corporate climbers? Income level?

Once you can answer these questions there is a list that can get very close to whatever your perfect customer looks like. Get the list, put together an excellent offer that really benefits the consumer. If you are selling home owners insurance will you go out to thier home and video the inside of the house for them and keep the video in thier file and update it every year so if the house burns down you have what you need to take care of the client. Find a benefit that makes you better than the agent down the street. If you can't offer something better then you are selling on price and if you are selling on price you will lose your margins which means you will be working harder for less and slowly lose your market share till you are selling your office furniture to pay the rent.

Marketing is 40% the list you market too, 40% the offer and 20% the design. The problem is everyone puts 80% into the design 20% into the list and the offer is "here I am - use me cause I'm here".

2009 will be a big year for the smart marketer. For the rest it will be the worst year ever. It's not hard to do - just be committed and follow through.

The bottom line is Val Pak will allow you to reach 10,000 people for cheap. Val Pak will not allow you to grow your insurance practice with higher profits and loyal clients.

[d's insurance store]

Ahhhh, the benefit! How to look different from any and all other insurance agents/agencies...

Your's is an interesting idea, but I would offer an opinion that only a very few numbers of prospective clients would find that enough of a benefit to move into a new home/auto/personal lines situation in the current market environment.

Speaking only for myself, I started my career as a high touch, over the top, servicing agent in personal lines...you know...giving out my home phone number..call anytime, birthday cards, holiday cards, pre renewal thank you letters, cancellation letters, added value items (Kelly Blue Book before internet, referrals to other professionals, sometimes even picking up premium checks at client's home, house calls at point of sale). At that point in my career, I was a captive agent. Always in the back of my mind, I thought that IF I ever left the world of captives and went independent, then all of this extra service would allow me to capture the majority of my book in the transition. Well, the time came to leave, my business plan forecast that I would take 25% of my clients...a percentage that many deemed conservative given my reputation for service. Well, when the dust settled, less than 3% migrated into my new agency. Me, bitter and cynical? Nawwwww.

So, please pardon my less than enthusiastic embracing of your video idea.

Over the years, I've offered annual reviews, but over the past 5 years or so, the majority of my clients don't have the time, and view an unsolicited call from their insurance broker as something close to an invitation to a root canal.

I just don't think that the marketplace for personal lines coverage cares about anything more than price and claim handling at the point of loss. I struggle with ways to make the phone ring without pouring money down a rathole, and for the life of me, in my market, I just can't crack the code. Internet? OK, I'm there in search engines locally with occassional clicks, but no real volume. Direct mail? Dead medium. Yellow Pages...I was in with a medium ad for years, then phone traffic dropped off. I'm no longer in with a display ad and the phones ring with the same frequency without an ad as they did with an ad. Go figure. Val Pak, well I've already offered my comments in an earlier post.

The times, they are a-changing. And if it were easy, everybody would be doing it...