On today's episode of Denim Rivet, we continue our conversation with Mike Schreurs, Chairman and Chief Strategist of Strategic America. Our conversation with Mike was so, riveting, we decided to break the interview into two parts. If you've not yet listened to the first part of our interview, please be sure to check it out. In part two of our interview, Mike looks ahead at what field marketing may hold for the insurance and financial services industry in 2017 and beyond.

Radical Change

Mike notes that many of the political campaigns that wrapped up at the end of 2016 began to push the insurance and financial services industry into some uncertain areas. The change that is coming could very well be disruptive. The onus to make consumers feel secure is becoming ever more crucial in the industry. How do you make customers feel like they’ve protected what is most important to them? Security is fast becoming a key component of what brand promises need to be focused on.

With regulatory change comes insight. And careful insight is pulled from data and used to drive investment at both the corporate level, and the local level in order to drive results. Passion to win in every market needs to be at the forefront of every company, as well as the commitment to seek solutions that may work in one part of the country, but not others.

Social Media & Mobile In A New Era

It was only four or five years ago that Facebook hadn’t even launched its mobile app yet. Smartphones are now an all-encompassing connection point for consumers daily lives. The phone is a connecting point to both peers and markets, and consumers actively seek out information from peers before making purchasing decisions. Social, in this way, is empowering and validating for any consumer looking to make informed decisions. For the insurance industry, the prime "real estate" that needs to be focused on is the vertical scroll-field of the social media newsfeed on smartphones.

Small Testing, Big Analytics

With the impact the digital era is having on marketing it makes more sense to let big budget tests fall to the wayside a bit. Consistent, smaller investments using paid social media and mobile allow for a variety of tests to be conducted. This gives a broader range of data points to be looked at and see what works best, and how certain campaigns can be optimized for full scale campaigns with regard to demographics and regions.

Are You Wearing Denim?

If you’re a fan of our show, please do us a favor and leave us a review in iTunes. We'd be very appreciative!

Episode Links

Strategic America