How to Attract Different Age Groups to Buy Your Insurance After COVID-19
Key takeaways
- There are three types of generational groups that attract the attention of insurance businesses.
- Baby Boomers have money to spend, but they also want to protect their wealth.
- Generation X outspends all other generations when it comes to housing, clothing, eating out, and entertainment.
- Millennials are less likely to take risks and less likely to spend money than other generations.
Regardless of the insurance type, you sell your products to real people with their individual needs, views, opinions, and experiences. Thus, to start selling effectively, you first need to analyze your audience in depth.
This has become especially crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic when people are forced to change their day-to-day lives. As such, new patterns have appeared, while some old ones remain the same. We’ll discuss and share both in this article, so keep reading!
New common insurance patterns during COVID-19
As you probably know, there are 3 types of generational groups that attract the attention of insurance businesses. Those are Baby Boomers (56-78 y.o), Generation X (39-56 y.o), and Millennials (20-39 y.o).
During COVID-19, these generations were presented with a unique opportunity to evaluate online insurance services. While doing so, 57% of respondents found themselves disappointed, and almost 41% was planning to switch from brands with a poor online experience. Herein lies both your biggest threats, and opportunities for advantage.
Tip: Run an audit of your website, and ask clients about missing features. This will help you focus on what matters and improve customer satisfaction.
Though Baby Boomers were the least engaged group during the pandemic, general online engagement numbers were quite positive. 20% of people over 65 y.o participated in an online social gathering or a party. This percentage grows with the younger groups, reaching 48% with the youngest millennials of 18-29 y.o. Therefore if you haven’t run any webinars or live streams, this is a good time to test their potential impact on your sales. There are tools like On24, EverWebinar, Livestorm, GoToWebinar, Zoom, and others, which can help you implement webinars in your marketing strategy.
Other things that have proved important for all generations, are quite obviously the usability of a website, as well as responsive design. Make sure your website is easy to navigate, readable, and optimized for all devices, including mobile and tablets. The same can be said about emails you’re sending to your audience. You can test your website with these free Google tools: PageSpeed Checker and Mobile-Friendly Test>> .
Another important element was personalization. In fact, 73% of people wanted to receive a personalized experience. Of course, this covers all the communication channels you’re using, including email. Use machine learning and rule-based technology to craft customer journeys with personalized offers. Learn more about how we implement it at Cloud Insurance during your FREE consultation>>.
Now let’s look at differences and analyze each generation in-depth.
Baby Boomers (56-78 y.o) as insurance consumers
Most people from this generation are already retired or preparing to retire. They have money to spend, but they also want to protect their wealth.
Here are some rules on how to attract Baby Boomers:
- Avoid mentioning “old” when talking to them. This is not how they see themselves. Retirement for them means enjoying life, and taking up new hobbies like traveling or scuba diving.
- Focus on customer service. Baby Boomers adore one-on-one interactions offline, on the phone, or online. Consider integrating a chatbot or online support on your site.
- Encourage online purchases. This generation outspends younger adults online 2:1. Place a call-to-action on your marketing materials directing them to your website and convincing them to buy now.
- Highlight good offers. Baby Boomers look for promotions, they value good deals and take advantage of them by using coupons.
- Emphasize text and avoid acronyms. This generation grew up reading full copy. Thus, elements like “24/7/365” are an absolute turnoff to them.
- Advertise on Facebook. According to new research from Security.org, Baby Boomers are using it daily, and 84% of them report that social media is likely to improve their lives. This is a drastic contrast to Millennials, who feel completely the opposite.
- Offer insurance products for other family members. People from this generation often buy products and services for others, especially for their grandchildren. Thus, many companies offer insurance for grandchildren. If you don’t have it yet – we recommend you consider it.
- Leverage email marketing. Baby Boomers often read emails. Craft subject lines that appeal to problems or issues a baby boomer might be encountering to lure them into the email where they’ll find the perfect solution.
Generation X (39-56 y.o) as insurance consumers
Being the smallest group among the generations, Generation X outspends all other generations when it comes to housing, clothing, eating out, and entertainment. They are at their highest-earning years and are on their way to reaching the top of their profession.
Here’re some rules on how to attract Generation X:
- Encourage loyalty. This is an important condition for Gen Xers to remain loyal as they tend not to switch brands as other generations do. Make sure to reward this loyalty in some way, whether it’s a discount after a certain amount of purchases or with a simple thank you email.
- Add a little nostalgia to your marketing. Whether by featuring people, events, music, old commercials, give them something that stirs their nostalgia. This will make them feel that rather than being advertised, you have put thought into them as an audience. Since they often feel ignored, this small tip will give you big chances for success.
- Add elements that demonstrate safety. Generation X cares about family and security. Showcase your awards, reviews, and recognitions to prove them you are worth their attention.
- Be personal and authentic. Most Gen Xers prefer to consume media that reflects their values. Be transparent, authentic, and don’t hide agendas or values from this generation — they will see right through it.
- Be active on social media, especially Facebook. Generation X loves social media — 95% of them use Facebook.
- Use traditional media. 48% of gen Xers listen to the radio, 62% still read newspapers, and 85% watch traditional television.
- Use videos to showcase your insurance products or services in a creative, personal way. Gen Xers watch upwards of 32 hours of TV a week and 45.8 million of them consume digital videos.
Millennials (20-39 y.o) as insurance consumers
Younger Millennials just graduated from high school or college, while the older group – might already have established professional careers and children. Generally, Millennials are less likely to take risks and less likely to spend money than other generations. When they do choose to purchase, they tend to pick ethical companies with strong social stances.
Millennials are less likely to opt for a home or life insurance and more likely to be focussed on paying off student debt. While they tend to splash out on travel when they do a third of young people do not take out travel insurance.
Here are some rules on how to attract Millennials:
- Offer insurance for those with no permanent address. You won’t always find today’s prospects in the usual places. Millennials may not even have a permanent address—but they have property to protect and they love to travel. Taking that into consideration, ISO created Your Belongings personal inland marine (PIM) Program. It’s a policy that travels anywhere, for everything the policyholder owns, without requiring that they live in a permanent residence.
- Provide education. 80% of millennials need help understanding insurance, and most of them are open to working with an independent agent. Usually, they want to know about:
- the coverage and how it works
- what to expect if they have a claim
- unique features of their policy
- managing their policy online
- additional relevant products/services
- safety and loss prevention
- tips and tricks
- Position for online search & social media. More than 27% of Millennials said they learned about an agent through digital engagement such as online search, reviews, and social media (compared with 18% of GenXers and 12% of Boomers).
- Be comprehensive. Millennials are often looking for the most comprehensive coverage.
- Not (yet!) home or renters insurance. Many Millennials aren’t sold on the need to buy homeowners or renters insurance, so avoid prioritizing this product for the segment.
- Be present on review sites. One way to market to this group is through positive reviews, as 80% never buy anything without checking reviews first.
- Count other generations in. Millennials are also open to recommendations from family and often opt for the same insurer that their parents use, so building loyalty with previous generations can have knock-on effects.
- Enable online purchase. 36% of Millennials bought their auto insurance online.
Insights on generational behaviors and preferences serve as a good ground for testing and experimentation. These can help to better understand your audience and conclude on what helps to drive sales.
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