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Agency Acceleration Lab is the podcast for insurance agents and agency owners who want to scale smarter, not harder.
Hosted by Alex Branning, each episode breaks down real growth strategies, marketing systems, and client retention frameworks that help you attract better clients, increase lifetime value, and build a more predictable agency.
If you're serious about building a high-performance insurance business, you're in the right place.
Alex Branning
Hey, what's up guys? Welcome to the lab. Today I got Andrew from Essential Engine joining us. We're talking about direct mail marketing. And Andrew's been in the industry for gosh, how long have you been in direct mail, Andrew?
Andrew Saksa
Over a decade and I've been in the financial services business, whether it's working with insurance agents or financial advisors, now as a former financial advisor, for over thirty five years. Yeah it's crazy when you think about it how fast time goes.
Alex Branning
Nice. Well, one of the things that I love about direct mail marketing is that I am skipping the gatekeeper when I send a gift or a package or some form of direct mail to my target recipient. And for those of you that are in the direct to consumer space, mail is one of the most powerful ways to get the right person's attention. Andrew, what are some of the benefits that you've seen from insurance agents that are using direct mail? What are some of the things they can expect when they start using it as a marketing method?
Andrew Saksa
Yeah, great question. And again Alex, thank you so much for having me as a guest on your podcast. I'm a huge fan of yours so very excited for the opportunity. So let's talk about it. Why does direct mail work so well in 2026 in the age of AI and everything else? The reason why direct mail is such a powerful tool is — let's face it — when you send something like a magazine, it's not a postcard, it's not a newsletter, it's not a flyer. So when a client actually receives it they're going to see it for what it is. You truly are giving them a gift or an item of value. So unlike that postcard, that newsletter, that flyer, the magic of this is it really does march from that mailbox past the dreaded trash can onto the coffee table. And then shelf life. Let's face it, every time you're going and reaching for that remote, you're looking back at this beautiful magazine with all these wonderful things. So it's the shelf life of staying top of mind and present ahead of your competition for four to six weeks, unlike everything else. That's the number one reason why today in 2026 this is such a powerful tool for agents.
Alex Branning
I love it. One of the other things that I look at for direct mail is yes, it definitely gets past the dreaded trash can and there's no promotions tab in the mailbox. It all shows up at the same spot. There's no call screening on a mailbox, it gets delivered right to the person, and then you have their attention. And that's something that's really hard to buy in this economy — you have their attention. They're going to look at this thing. They're going to read it. Now I'm holding up a magazine that you sent. I knew this was coming but I still was like, wait, what's this magazine in my mailbox for? So I opened it up and I was like, cool, it's Andrew's. And so it caught my attention with all the noise around. And then what I did Andrew — and again I knew this was from you so I was expecting it, it's probably going to be even better when they're not expecting it — but I knew it was coming and I was like, I kind of want to read what's going on in this magazine. And whether you send a magazine — now for me personally with Agent CRM, we're B2B, so we have to use some fun creative methods. We use Mailbox Power to send direct mail and we're going to be incorporating some magazine marketing as well. But what we do with direct mail marketing is we like to send gifts. Now if you are in the commercial space or group benefits and listening, I recommend a multifaceted direct mail approach depending on who you're marketing to. But when you are dealing with consumers you don't usually have a gatekeeper — it just ends up on the mail table, the catch-all table that they have. But for businesses, a lot of times secretaries are reading things. It's hard to get past that gatekeeper. But if it comes in a little box and it's a package, that sucker's getting opened. And so I use that to get to the right person when I need to talk to someone. It's a great tool. And it's a great tool to use to welcome people. Like I like to send a little welcome card from Agent CRM to new clients who sign up with the photos of the team on the back so they can get to know us and start to put a face to the names that they work with. Did you have another note on that Andrew?
Andrew Saksa
I sure do. Yeah absolutely. So I'll share a little story. Your idea of when you bring somebody on board, giving them a gift and having that gift be personalized but also have the opportunity for you to be top of mind is so important. And I'll share a story about a gentleman by the name of Larry Goldberg. Larry Goldberg was the very first agent at Banker's Life to actually make the President's Circle in three years. It was a huge accomplishment. Nobody had even been close to that. And when they brought Larry up on stage they said, Larry, what was the key to your success? How'd you do it? It took your previous record holder five years. You did it in three. What was the magic? What'd you do? He said, every single time I opened up a new account I gave them my magazine. Every single new account, they had my package and they had my magazine. And all I ever asked them was, hey, do me a favor — when you have a neighbor or friend or family member that's also looking for somebody to work with, just give them my magazine. It's all I ever asked. Just give them my magazine. It was the number one key to Larry's success to make that President's Circle. So it's exactly what you're talking about Alex. What do you do post-sale not only to solidify the sale but strengthen the relationship — not just with the existing client, but with both halves of that household, their friends, their family, their neighbors. That's why you can use a tool like ours as a way to stay connected with your client not just at the time of sale but post-time of sale. And that's so important with AEP.
Alex Branning
Yeah absolutely. You know, one of the things — there was a huge proponent of direct mail marketing, he's the guy that first got me into a company called Send Out Cards, and that was the first time I was using direct mail marketing. And he said two things about direct mail that I'll never forget. Number one, he said people do not care how much you think about them. They care how much they actually hear from you. And direct mail is one of those ways that you can multiply your time by sending a magazine, a postcard, et cetera, to your client and it reminds them of who you are. The second thing he would really get into my head was that the biggest loss leader for clients is that they forget about you. They just forget that you exist. And this is a way for you to stay top of mind. You're showing them that you care by investing and sending a piece of mail to them, but you're also reminding them of who you are. So it's a great double win-win. I think it's one of the most effective pieces of marketing when it comes to reducing churn and getting referrals.
When I look at a budget for direct mail — and every time I talk about marketing people go, what should I budget for this? — for me I say I like to spend in the span of a year at least thirty dollars just sending people stuff and investing in the relationship. There could be a variety of different ways to do that. Direct mail is definitely one of them. But I like to invest back in the relationship. It creates this reciprocity where they know I'm thinking about them. Sometimes it's digital Starbucks cards. There's a variety of ways that we want to make our clients feel seen and heard.
And for the magazine — I know there are a couple of different people that do this — for Essential Engine's magazines, one of the things that I like about what you guys do is that you've actually created content that is specific to an avatar. This one feels a little more general but when we were sitting down you were showing me a magazine called Retire Well which was almost like for the more affluent older folks thinking about retirement. So you've really created numerous types of content here Andrew. Tell us a little more about the strategy behind that and how you guys are creating your next content batches.
Andrew Saksa
Awesome, what a great question. So a couple of things. First of all, on your previous point, yes, the power of staying connected with somebody is incredibly important. And I'll hit you with some statistics you may not have heard yet. 80% of the time — and this is a recent study by the insurance industry itself — 80% of the time when an agent had their client leave them, it wasn't for any other reason, wasn't they were doing something wrong or any of the things that most people think about. It was for one reason. That client did not receive meaningful communication from that agent in the previous sixteen months. So when you think about that, eighty percent of the time when they left you it was because they weren't receiving meaningful communication. And that is the power of what we do.
So why are we doing so well right now in this industry? It's just what you said. We create content that matches up to what the agents' clients are looking for right now. A big part of our business is that Medicare agent, that life agent, that annuity agent. And let's look at why this is such a unique moment in time to connect with these folks. Number one, 90% of the time somebody who's 65 years old wants a magazine. 90% of the time they love reading a magazine. Shocking — I didn't even know that statistic. And then not only do you have 12,000 people turning 65 every single day in this country, but holy cow, do they control wealth. 130 trillion dollars. Guys, in the history of mankind this is the largest wealth transfer we're ever going to see. So they like a magazine. I want to create a magazine with retirement type content.
But the other thing I heard for years was hey, that's cool you've got a nice magazine, but can I create more information in my magazine about what I do in the community and how I actually serve this community? And the answer is yes. We give the agent or financial advisor four pages in the middle of the magazine all about their practice — capturing testimonials, showcasing them, talking about them and their family. Because again Alex, I love your family. You've got a wonderful family, beautiful wife. You guys just moved to Dallas. If I could say to you, hey Alex, congratulations on your move to Dallas, I love your new house, I'm so happy for what you guys are doing — if I could do that right there on the front cover of the magazine, and it was turnkey, cost effective, less than the cost of a Hallmark card, and I had no contract to it — let's face it, you'd be crazy not to give us one shot. And whether it's us or whether it's any organization out there, do yourself a favor. Try them all out once. Try us out once, and if we don't move the needle to help you grow your business we'll part ways as friends. We're not going anywhere and we're here to help. The reason why we're so successful is because we make agents and advisors successful.
Alex Branning
Yeah. And one of the things that I hear a lot — I look for clues in success stories that other agents have. And when I talk to a lot of the largest agencies that are out there right now, one of the common threads is that they use mail. They're sending postcards, they're sending magazines, they're doing something to get in that mailbox. So if you're listening right now as an agency owner and you're going, okay, I hear what Andrew's saying, I hear what Alex is saying, I'm looking at direct mail — what should I do? Well in the playbook you can learn more about Essential Engine. I'm also going to drop a link to Mailbox Power. You can explore both options. I recommend trying them both and seeing what gives you the best return on investment.
But the key here is to take action on a marketing tool that you know is going to work to reduce churn and could work to generate more referrals. This is going to be a huge impact for every agency owner that has never tried it before. I think they're going to be surprised at how well it works. For us internally we've noticed a pretty big drop in churn when that person has received two or more pieces of mail from Agent CRM. Because it puts us in their hands. It makes us feel real. And we are in a trust recession Andrew. Receiving something in the mail with my face on the bottom makes me feel real and approachable. And that's something that is really hard to buy in this economy. We are in an AI dominated space. This ain't AI baby. I can feel it with my fingers.
Andrew Saksa
Absolutely. And Alex, if it's okay with you, I'm going to share one other thing. We talked a lot about the Retiring Well magazine because there's a huge part of the population it's geared towards. But that's not our only title. We have the general interest type of magazine geared towards younger folks. And we even have the world's first Spanish language magazine. Nobody's ever come out with a Spanish language magazine. But it all ties back to what you and I have been talking about. You have to connect with your client with meaningful communication that actually connects to them the way they want to be connected. And I agree with you Alex — I don't always believe that a magazine is the best tool to connect with somebody, but I think it is one of several tools that you need to be omnipresent with your clients so that you always not only continue that retention but really turn them into raving fans of your business.
So just so everybody knows, yes we are a magazine company, I'm not hiding from that. But one of the things I'm so excited about is we also offer postcards, we also do some social media stuff working hand in hand with you guys. I agree with Alex — you've got to be omnipresent. You've got to meet the client where the client wants to be met. Whether that's a text, whether that's a physical magazine, whether that's an email, whether it's a telephone call — my recommendation is you do all of them. Everything. Be omnipresent.
Alex Branning
Agreed. Andrew, thanks for being on the podcast. If you're listening and want more information, download the playbook. We have a big partnership with Essential Engine in Agent CRM now and we're very excited about that. You can learn more at our website. Thanks Andrew.
Andrew Saksa
Thank you Alex. You're the greatest man. And have a happy, happy, happy Fourth. I know we don't try to date these things, but happy Fourth brother.