Most Americans have embraced technology in their daily lives and those over 50 are no exception. Results of a new survey by AARP show older adults are using a variety of devices to stay informed, shop and connect with others. Over 90% of adults over 50 own a computer or laptop, 70% have a smartphone, and over 40% own a tablet, according to a national study of 1,520 adults conducted in November. Adults 70+ are more likely to have more dated technology, such as desktops and feature phones, than those age 50-69. Want to know what the grandkids are doing? Check on Facebook. Sure enough, across all devices, over seven in ten adults 50+ are on social media, and nine in ten (91%) of those with devices say they use technology to stay in touch with friends and family. Different devices for different purposes Smartphones help people be social while they are on the go. Over half of smartphone owners use a social app weekly. Texting (86%) has caught up to email (87%) as the top ways people use technology to communicate with others. Among adults 50+, nine in ten say they use their smartphone to send instant messages, texts or emails, and over three quarters find them handy for getting directions or traffic information. They also use them for purchasing apps, surfing the internet, getting news, and accessing social media, the AARP research found. Just how adults use technology varies by age. Adults 50-59 are more likely to do banking activities and watch video on their smartphones than those who are over 60. However, smartphone users age 60-69 are leading the way in using their phone to manage medical care (they are significantly more likely to do so than those over 70: 33% vs. 21%). Respondents report using tablets more for entertainment and computers for practical tasks. Adults in their 50s and 60s use their computers to engage in online learning activities and posting ratings and reviews more frequently than those older. Further, Americans over 70 do fewer activities on their computers than those under 70, with a couple exceptions, including gaming (over half play games on their computer) and email. When it comes to wearable technology (smartwatches, fitness trackers, etc.) and home assistants, just a small percentage of the 50+ market are on board. Younger adults are more likely to own a wearable than those over 70. Wary of security and virtual reality In spite of the reliance on technology in many realms of life, just 18% of adults 50+ are extremely or very confident in their online privacy. Four in ten (41%) are not very or not at all confident in their privacy. Those over 70 are more skeptical their information is private online than those aged 60-69, the survey finds. Most older adults do not completely trust companies to keep their data secure. The survey discovered respondents have more confidence in banks and health care organizations and less trust toward the media, social media sites, and membership organizations. Despite security concerns, however, the survey found many older adults don’t take proactive steps to protect themselves (although men are more likely to do so in several instances). Overall, just 58% of respondents say they use a passcode to lock their tablets and 59% use one on their smartphones. And changing passwords every few months? Just 45 percent of adults 50 and over take that security precaution. Few older adults have used virtual reality, and many are unfamiliar with augmented reality. Most respondents had heard of virtual reality devices but few have tried them. Adults age 50-59 are the most likely to have checked out or own a virtual reality device, but adoption is still small. Over six in ten adults in the survey have never heard of augmented reality and very few have tried it -- although awareness was greater among those in their 50s. This study was fielded from November 16-27, 2017 using GfK’s KnowledgePanel, a probability based web panel designed to be representative of the adult US population. Respondents needed to be age 50 or older to complete the survey. Completion rate was 59.9% and resulted in a total sample of 1,520. The data are weighted by age within gender, education, race/ethnicity, household income, language preferences, and Census division to reflect US adults age 50 or older. For more information contact G. Oscar Anderson at GAnderson@aarp.org. At PSM, we provide the tools, knowledge and support to help take your business to new levels. If you have an interest on how to effectively sell online, we would love to assist you. Source: https://www.aarp.org/research/topics/technology/info-2018/technology-use-attitudes.html |
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Medicare Blog | Medicare News | Medicare Information
Baby Boomers Embrace Technology
Posted by www.psmbrokerage.com Admin on Tue, Mar 13, 2018 @ 03:51 PM
Tags: Web Marketing Advice, Baby Boomer Medicare Stats, Insurance Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Digital Marketing
Have a Website? The Definitive Digital Marketing Handbook for Medicare Agents
Posted by www.psmbrokerage.com Admin on Mon, Mar 05, 2018 @ 12:08 PM
If you sell Medicare products and you have a website, this is an insightful on how to effectively market your business. We live in a digital world. The signs of people’s ever-increasing passion for digital communications are all around us. Digital has become woven into everyday life, yet, most Medicare Agencies don't have a sound digital marketing strategy. KERN Health’s informal polls at the Medicare Marketing & Sales Summits in Orlando and Nashville suggest that most (65%) of Medicare Agencies felt that their organizations were struggling and were unprepared to develop a digital marketing strategy. According to Pew Research Center, 76% of older (leading-edge) Boomers (ages 60–69) use the Internet daily. Even the Silent generation (ages 70–87) now has an adoption rate of 61% who use the Internet. And when we look at the younger (trailing-edge) Boomers (ages 51–59), we see the handwriting on the wall for the future of Medicare marketing—with only 17% of this group not using the Internet daily. Furthermore, 84.9% of Boomers and Medicare beneficiaries are sharing information, talking about politics and engaging on Facebook.
And when we’re speaking about digital, more than half of what we’re speaking about is mobile. According to a 2016 Pew Research Center report, mobile now accounts for more than half of all digital advertising spending, while digital ad spending grew from $43 billion in 2013 to over $60 billion just two short years later. Hopefully this guide will provide insight and best practices on how to make sure your website and marketing efforts are optimized in the new digital age of the senior market.
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Tags: Web Marketing Advice, Baby Boomer Medicare Stats, Insurance Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Digital Marketing
Easy guide to build a web marketing strategy on a budget
Posted by Guadalupe Cantu on Fri, Sep 13, 2013 @ 12:29 PM
Please give us your feedback! Do you feel your business could improve by implementing three most important online traffic techniques for online marketing; organic search, inbound traffic and click through rate?
Source: LifeHealthPro |
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Tags: Networking Sites, Organic Search, inbound traffic, click through rate, call to action, Success Tips, Web Marketing Advice, Leads
Please give us your feedback! Do you feel your business is hanging by a thin thread? Would revamping the marketing approach help your business move in the right direction?
Source: LifeHealthPro |
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Tags: Insurance advisor, Senior insurance, Sales Tips, Success Tips, Web Marketing Advice, Web Tips, Health Insurance, Referrals, Creating Value, insurance companies, Advisor
![]() By building an effective brand for your business you can separate yourself from the competition in this industry. Creating an effective brand is one that convinced people to buy “you” before they step foot into your office or talk to you over the phone. Determine your brand in your community and see if people already know who you are. If they do, what is the brand they identify with your name? Does is help to separate you from the competition or does it lump you in with everyone else?
An effective message and brand along with a great marking plan can lead to the successful practice you’ve been working toward. If you have any questions, please give your marketer a call at 1-800-998-7715. Please give us your feedback!What steps have you taken to build your brand? How has it changed your business?
Source: LifeHealthPro |
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Tags: Success Tips, Senior Market Advice, Web Marketing Advice, Web Tips, Customer Service, Cigna Medicare Supplement, Sentinel Life Hospital Indemnity
Start today in order to start filling your sales funnel in preparation for Annual Enrollment Period! Please give us your feedback! Source: Senior Market Advisor |
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Tags: Sales Tips, Senior Market Success, Web Marketing Advice, Referrals, Customer Service, Gerber Life Medicare Supplement
Websites: The New Face of the Insurance Agent
Posted by Lauren Hidalgo on Fri, Apr 01, 2011 @ 09:41 AM
Please give us your feedback! Source: Agent's Sales Journal |
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Tags: Sales Tips, Web Marketing Advice, health insurance news, Assured Life Medicare Supplement, Leads, Quality Management, Medicare Sales, Creating Value, Gerber Life Medicare Supplement, Mutual of Omaha Medicare Supplement
The Benefits of Selling Medicare Supplements Over The Phone
Posted by Lauren Hidalgo on Thu, Feb 24, 2011 @ 02:21 PM
If you are just getting into selling in the senior market or you have been in the industry for a long time, selling Medicare Supplements over the phone is a great way to help grow your business. When you sell over the phone, you broaden your selling horizons beyond your immediate driving area and give yourself a virtually unlimited selling area with little to no travel necessary. Also, you can connect with a whole new market in a different city or state, no matter the distance from you. When you sell Med Supp over the phone, you can begin prospecting in an area with a larger senior population than the one you currently live in, all from the comfort of your home or office. |
Tags: Sales Tips, Success Tips, Web Marketing Advice, Web Tips, technology
5 Great Reasons to Incorporate Screen Sharing into Your Sales Process
Posted by Richard Ybarra on Fri, May 14, 2010 @ 04:38 PM
![]() With the growing popularity of the phone & Internet sales process among senior insurance agents across the country, many are seeking out solutions to enhance the experience for both agents and consumers. One solution that is being used to great success by many of our top producing agents is screen sharing software.
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Tags: Sales Tips, Senior Market Advice, Senior Market Success, senior market blog, senior market news, Web Marketing Advice, Senior Market, senior insurance market news, Referrals, Leads, Quality Management
![]() As we mentioned before, one of the sales methods you’ll want to take advantage of this year is the webinar. And if you are already doing a webinar, then perhaps you’ll find some useful nuggets of knowledge that will help you refine your presentation. 1. What you need. In order to conduct the most effective webinars you will need the right tools. Here is a list: • Presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint • Web conferencing software such as http://www.megameeting.com or http://www.gotomeeting.com • Stock media from sites such as http://www.gettyimages.com or http://www.shutterstock.com • Video editing software (free) such as Windows Movie Maker or iMovie • Video camera and tripod 2. Planning. Your webinar is a project that will require a few hours of planning to ensure a smooth execution, low cost, and as little rework as possible. First, you will want to think about your audience. Do you sell direct to seniors? Do you solely recruit agents? Are your clients more affluent? Are they mostly minorities? Once you’ve identified your audience, you’ll want to identify the key issues that are important to them when considering the product or services you are trying to sell. Your webinar subject matter will vary greatly depending on if you are selling Medicare supplements, annuities, or even both. Regardless, you’ll want to remember to focus your subject matter on only 3-5 major points. After identifying the 3-5 major points you want to convey to your audience, the next step is to create an outline of the information you will convey about those 3-5 major points. The key here is to get the right arrangement for your information so you can then start thinking about the detailed content you will present. The more visuals the better, so consider how you can visualize as much information as possible. The last part of planning your webinar requires that you finalize all the content you want to put in your webinar and think about the logistics of creating that content. You’ll need to write the script for your oral presentation, and if you plan on showing a video clip of a customer explaining her financial devastation from not having a Medicare supplement, you will of course want to identify the customer, pick the time and place to interview, and so forth. 3. Creating the content. With your plan in place, now comes the execution. You will want to contain your entire Webinar within the presentation file. This is easy to do as you can easily drag and drop other types of files into the presentation file. If you are unfamiliar with how to use presentation software, I recommend buying a presentation software tutorial or book to enable you with maximum creative ability. The first thing you will want to do is choose your theme. The color and structure of your theme are both important in addressing your audience and presentation style. If you are going for a more upbeat style, then brighter colors will compliment and enhance your presentation. If your subject matter requires respect and a more serious tone, then you’ll want to use darker shades of colors. Stay away from blacks as a primary color as it comes across as too serious and it can be hard to read text from. If you aren’t happy with the included templates, you can find many impressive templates for purchase with a simple search for “PowerPoint (or other software) templates.” Next, comes adding your content. A good rule of thumb to follow is to use as little text as possible. This means keeping your bullet points to 3-5 on each slide and never writing paragraphs of text. Use charts, tables, photographs, videos, and so forth to convey your message when possible. When it comes to charts and tables, make sure the data and source is correct and that you have permission to use them. Also, always use professional stock photos. Nothing loses respect more than low-quality, amateur material. Stock photo sites allow you to buy at different sizes so you shouldn’t have to worry about resizing photos. If you have to resize photos to conform to your design, know that you can safely scale down, but never up. When scaling down hold down the shift key when resizing the photo. This will prevent distortion and pixilation. With the popularity of YouTube and reality TV, less than professional quality video is accepted if done right. If you are doing a client interview video or if it’s a video of yourself, make sure you record it with at least a tripod. You don’t want any shaking in your video. Also try to record in as well lit a room as possible. Dark video isn’t appealing. Once you recorded your video, you can then edit it with one of the free programs mentioned above. Music always helps, so buy some stock audio to make your video that much more attractive and effective. Again, cheap and short tutorials are readily available to show you how to use the video editing programs. 4. Edit and Test. Once you’ve created your presentation make sure to edit it for mistakes. You’ll also want to test your webinar to a sample audience to make sure it’s perfectly executed. The software should give you the ability to record your webinar, so make sure to watch yourself and see if there are any improvements to be made. 5. Marketing. With your webinar all ready to go, you’ll want to consider how to get the most eyeballs to watch it. Before you do though, consider the costs. Typically, each “seat” in a seminar costs money. The more “seats” you need the more it is going to cost you. So as you can see, it will pay off to ensure your audience is as targeted as possible for maximum effectiveness. If you have a large budget and want as many eyeballs as possible, then you’ll want to communicate your webinar information through an E-blast, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also use more traditional methods like radio and print, but they cost a lot more. Once you’ve executed your perfect webinar and have it recorded, you can then use it as a very effective promotional/educational piece. Set up a webpage to show the recorded webinar and drive traffic to it. You can also put it on a disc or thumb drive and send it out to those less Internet savvy. You spent the time, money, and effort to make the perfect webinar, so make sure you leverage it as much as possible. |
Tags: Sales Tips, Senior Market Success, senior market blog, senior market news, Web Marketing Advice, Web Tips, technology, Customer Retention, Leads