NAILBA Perspectives - September/October 2015 - (Page 22)

life happens Leveraging Life Insurance Awareness Month Is Easy With These 3 Things BY MARC SCHWARTZ, J.D., CLU W ith the fractured attention spans of consumers, stretched marketing budgets, the need to cover all of the financial and insurance "bases," limited staff and staff time, we all struggle with how to help producers get a focused life insurance marketing campaign together that can actually make a difference. That's why I've always been a big fan of September's Life Insurance Awareness Month (LIAM). This national education campaign, which is coordinated by Life Happens, is focused on that goal: to get consumers to take stock of their life insurance needs and get the protection they need. But the best part: There's no heavy lifting required. All the elements needed for a monthlong marketing campaign are ready to go. Producers need only choose the resources that make the most sense for their particular market and demographic. To get you and your producers started, I want to highlight three ways to leverage LIAM and the Life Happens materials: 1 Use star power. One of the great things that Life Happens does, which none of us could do on our own, is hire a celebrity spokesperson with a passion for life insurance to represent the industry. This year's LIAM spokesperson is Anthony Anderson, executive producer and star of the hit TV show Black-ish, and host of Eating America. He's a passionate advocate of life insurance, with this message for consumers: "You need to plan for the future. You have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but you can deal with that today. When you get life insurance, the future of your family is taken care of." But, even before reaching consumers with that message, you can get the producers you work with excited about the campaign with Anthony's moving message to the industry, in which he says "What you do is so important. ... so I'm asking you to get out there this September. Contact your clients. Contact those people who have said no 22 perspectives SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 over and over again. Sit down with them and help them get the life insurance coverage they need." Send them the link so they can watch it: www.lifehappens.org/spokesperson. Then in September they can reach out to clients and prospects with Anthony's consumer message by sharing his PSA (www.lifehappens. org/anthony), a downloadable flyer with his story or a great Q&A, or even inspirational photo quotes for social media, which are all available at www.lifehappens.org/liam. 2 Make social media a no-brainer. And I do mean a no-brainer. Life Happens has prepared a full month of social media posts for producers to use. There are 30 Facebook posts and 30 tweets ready to go in a calendar format. It's as easy as copy and paste. And because the posts come from a neutral, third party perspective, they can help open up the life insurance conversation with "friends, fans, and followers" without being heavy handed. These posts and tweets feature a range of information, including quotes from Anthony, links to the Life Happens life insurance planner and needs calculator, new statistics, eyecatching graphics, and more. 3 Educate about the true cost of life insurance. One of the biggest barriers to life insurance ownership is the misconception about cost. According to the 2015 Insurance Barometer Study by Life Happens and LIMRA, eight in 10 people overestimate the true cost of life insurance. Those with coverage think it's twice as expensive as it really is, and those without coverage think it's more than three times its true cost. There's only one way to combat this: education. Life Happens has a range of resources that speak to this objection. For example, there are five new short (15-second) videos that compare how much people spend on everyday items, such as lattes, cable, cell phone, and eating out, that far outstrip what they might pay monthly for term life insurance policy. Producers can send a link to http://www.lifehappens.org/spokesperson http://www.lifehappens.org/anthony http://www.lifehappens.org/anthony http://www.lifehappens.org/liam http://www.lifehappens.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NAILBA Perspectives - September/October 2015

NAILBA Perspectives - September/October 2015
Contents
Chariman's Corner
CEO Insights
The Fine Art of Transition
NAILBA Charitable Foundation
Agency Successor Networking Group
Life Happens
Gearing up for NAILBA 34
NAILBA 34 Program Review
Calendar of Events
Index of Advertisers

NAILBA Perspectives - September/October 2015