Why Gen Z Is The Future Of Insurance Marketing

When you customize your marketing strategy to the preferences of your target audience, you ensure delivering timely and relevant messaging to your prospects. There is a wide range of parameters to personalize your messaging, but generational marketing is one of the most relevant in the insurance industry. By applying generational marketing, you’ll segment your audience by the generation they belong to. Nowadays, baby boomers, Gen X, and millennials control the workforce, but there is a new generation entering the space: Generation Z. In this week’s post, we share why Gen Z is the future of insurance marketing to equip you with the insights to succeed in the years to come.

Who Is Gen Z?

Generation Z, or Gen Z, is the newest generation and represents people born between 1995 and 2015, which means they are currently between 4 to 24 years old and represent 32% of the global population. Think of the 24 year olds, raised by skeptical Gen X, and entering the workforce in 2019. They saw their parents lose their jobs during the recession and the loss of stability fostered their survival instincts. They are more realistic and practical than their millennial predecessors, they doubt they will retire by 60, and they are more concerned about their own personal well-being.

Why Gen Z Is The Future Of Insurance Marketing

In recent years, we have focused on understanding millennials, reacting to the changes instead of proactively discovering trends and targeting them. We entered the game late and we’ve been trying to keep up. Now, it’s time to turn our attention to millennials’ future co-workers. Gen Z is the future of insurance marketing since they will make up 20% of the total workforce by 2020.

Your ultimate goal is to get your agency and services in front of the C-Suite executives because they are the final decision piece, but the reality is that Gen Zers, as millennials do now, will be the ones determining who will be up for consideration in the first place. They will have all the influence in the research stage. Therefore, your agency’s content, the channels you choose, and the language at the top of the funnel, must align with Gen Z values, needs, and behaviors. The workforce is transforming and Gen Zers will have a significant influence on B2B purchasing decisions in the next ten years.

The marketing strategies you have implemented for baby boomers, millennials, or Gen X won’t work on Gen Zers. Below, we share the four key differences between Gen Z and previous generations to help you start implementing changes in your marketing strategies and work towards the future of insurance marketing.

Embrace Technology

Millennials are often described as digital natives, but they grew up in a world with VHS, Discmans, and dial-up internet. Millennials know progress takes time, but Gen Z has been living in a world of smartphones and free Wi-Fi. Gen Zers are true digital natives. They pick up new technology and software quickly, they jump between platforms easily, and their relationship with the digital world is more instinctual.

Gen Z is less inclined to tolerate outdated equipment or software. If you want to put your agency in front of Gen Zers and you want them to consider your services, you must ensure you offer a technology solution for benefits and HR that meets their expectations. If you are still printing forms and shuffling papers, your agency won’t enter the consideration stage. Staying technologically competitive is key to attract this new generation.

Personalize Your Services

Today, it’s not enough to be a benefits salesperson. Your clients expect you to be their advisor and confidant to guide them through the benefits process. With a transforming workforce, the most important change is to give employees the option to personalize their own benefits and cater to a wide range of preferences.

Talking about Gen Z in particular, the benefits need to go beyond the obvious perks. Develop a more creative and appealing approach to attract Gen Zers. Although a buffet-style benefits program is important to target all generations, Gen Z is the future of insurance marketing and offering specific benefits to attract them is crucial. If Gen Zers feel understood, your chances to enter the consideration stage will be higher.

Customization Is Part of the Future of Insurance Marketing

Every generation has its unique traits. The same way you won’t offer identical benefits plans to different clients, you can’t utilize the same marketing strategies for different audiences. Generation Z has always lived in a connected world, in which watching TV on the computer while being on your phone is normal. Gen Zers are multitaskers, they are used to constant updates from social media and more than a dozen apps. That doesn’t mean they are wasting their time: simultaneous attention to different channels with different formats comes naturally to them. Keeping this in mind, maintain your presence in all channels that are relevant for your agency, both online and offline.

However, make sure the message is appealing to them. Gen Z is the future of insurance marketing and they want to feel connected with the product or services they are purchasing. When Gen Z climbs to decision-making positions in your clients? HR department, they will go with the insurance agency that represents their generation and allows them to express themselves. For example, instead of referencing the idealistic future millennials feel comfortable in, craft your messages highlighting the security Gen Zers are looking for. Your messaging can get stronger in data, retirement, and HSAs.

Face To Face Conversations Are Back

Contrary to millennials, Gen Zers like to talk face to face. Communication via email or instant messaging apps is still fine for the initial phase, but when it comes to the final discussion to make the decision, in-person interaction is crucial. This might seem contrary to their digital nature, but think about the type of software they grew up with: Skype, Snapchat, Instagram Stories, FaceTime, etc. These types of software allow a full range of sound and motion, instead of just text.

When starting the conversation with Gen Zers, reach out to them keeping this in mind. Set time aside to meet them in person and be the one suggesting a time for the meeting. However, don’t get to the meeting and give the same sales speech you could apply to any of your clients. As we mentioned above, personalize your strategy.

Final Thoughts About the Future of Insurance Marketing

Gen Z is the future of insurance marketing since they are the next generation entering the workforce. Now is the time for you to accumulate insights about Gen Zers and start creating a relationship to be able to successfully sell insurance in the years to come. Your agency’s brand must resonate with Gen Z values and beliefs through the experience you create for them. If you fail to update your marketing strategy to meet their expectations, the story with millennials will repeat itself: brokers will be left behind while direct-to-employer software and PEOs take over the industry.