New blog connects the dots for marketers facing complex distributed marketing environments

DALLAS, TX — Apr 14, 2011 / (http://www.myprgenie.com) — The 2011 Life Insurance Conference sponsored by LIMRA, LOMA, SOA, and ACLI was one of the most positive events we’ve been to in a long time. 

One of the best things about the conference was the way industry leaders talked about where the industry will be in 10 years. It’s great to be around visionaries who are really focused on the future — instead of the “survival mode” that we were dealing with just a year or so ago.

Here are some great take away points from industry leaders that were reinforced and talked about at the conference.

How will life insurance marketing change in the next 10 years?

Steve Callahan — Robert E. Nolan Company:

  • The customer lifecycle — from prospecting, through selling and customer service — requires flexible, quickly configurable systems.
  • Intensified regulatory oversight means that the industry must focus on clarity, transparency, and suitability for all products and services.
  • Continuous investments in enabling technology are essential, with implementations staged to deliver consistent improvements over shorter time periods.
  • A depot of legacy systems and thinking are constraining growth, and immediate action to change both is needed.
  • Take-away for marketers: Look for a distributed marketing platform that makes it easy to streamline your marketing across all your channels, insures compliance with regulatory and brand standards, and enables your local and field sales organizations.

Esfand Dinshaw — Sammons Financial Group: No magic elixir of lower distribution costs and access to the middle class is apparent right now.  Take-away for marketers: There is no magic wand; we’re going to have to work at this.

Michael Fanning — MassMutual

  • I expect to see more focus on the middle market.
  • Nearly a third of US households have no life insurance coverage, the highest percentage in four decades.
  • A winning company in 2020 will be one that:
  • Expands more broadly to the larger — and more traditionally underserved — US population
  • Develops solutions that leverage brand, product, technology and customer service for the middle market.
  • Customer interactions are changing.
  • Ten years ago, we were still tapping into the vast potential of the Internet.
  • Now social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have changed the way people interact — and our industry is beginning to see the impact of social media on our customer interactions.
  • Take-away for marketers: Recruit and train new talent — and arm them with the technology tools they need to succeed.

Doug French — Ernst & Young: Two large demographic groups — Baby Boomers and Generation Y — demand very different products and delivery methods, but both have growing insurance needs. Take-away for marketers: We have to deliver our message in the medium that each target groups wants to use to receive it. Single-channel communications don’t work for a divided market — and all markets are becoming divided.

Eileen McDonnell — Penn Mutual Life

  • According to LIMRA, the sales capacity in our industry has been flat since 1998. So, it’s pretty obvious that we need to focus on increasing our talent base.
  • Only 15 out of every 100 producers hired remain in the industry four years after they are hired — a very costly problem.
  • Producers are aging.
  • The average age of a life insurance producer is 55, compared to the median age of 37 for all US workers.
  • We’ve missed a generation of talent during the financial uncertainties of recent years.
  • More people are leaving our business than entering it.
  • With one in four producers planning to retire or sell their practices in the next five years, and only 27 percent having a succession plan in place, we need to focus on helping our producers in the later years of their careers.
  • Take-away for marketers: Look at your sales force, and your marketing management, too. If there’s a gap between the demographics of the people selling your products and the ones buying them, look at how you can make it easy for the two to connect. A distributed marketing platform that makes it easy for your sales force to deliver compliant mobile and social media messages whether they’re “digital natives” or not can be a game-changer.

About the Distributed Marketing Blog

The Distributed Marketing Blog (www.distributedmarketing.org) connects the dots for marketers facing complex distributed marketing environments. Articles are posted Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with special posts when industry news becomes available.

Marketers in insurance, financial services, franchise, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, travel and tourism, and other multi-channel environments are encouraged to submit guest posts, news items, and comments for the blog. To suggest a subject, ask a question, or suggest a guest post, please click here.