Posts Tagged ‘PIMA’

As you’ll hear in this most recent podcast, at the 2011 PIMA Annual Meeting, I thought it might be interesting to get a few comments at the closing reception from attendees. The theme of the conference was “Innovation”. Perhaps like no other time in the history of the association, Innovation is critically needed. In general, “tried and true” best practices for insurance direct marketing through associations and affinity have been showing declining results over the past 5 years. Marketing strategies are shifting even further to “Multi-channel”. Social Media Marketing has emerged as a legit channel, but few are using it. Mobile, QR Codes, video, and other technology-based marketing tactics seem to be ‘the future’.

But there are barriers. Listen in to the comments. What patterns to you hear. Any surprises? This was by no means a scientific and thorough survey – more of a conversation with a few people I happened to see immediately and in a short period of time. What barriers would you add to the list? Were you there? What take-aways to you leave with? It’s been 6 months now. Have you implemented any of them? Care to share a story? Comment here on this blog or back in the Linkedin Group for PIMA. We MUST all learn from each other to keep our industry strong and adapting well to the new technologies and cultures ahead of us.

Thanks in advance. No Lurking, please. Leave a note for other readers to consider as well. Thanks again.

Btw, here’s a direct link to the pictures I shot at the conference.. I’ll be adding more next week at the MidYear Meeting & Trade Show. Greatly looking forward to it. Tell you what, I’m hosting a Cabana Social Hour by the pool at the Broadmoor on Saturday afternoon from 3-4pm. Anyone that Comments on this post and then comes by the Cabana, while supplies last, will get a free 1G USB Drive with a bunch of useful Social Media Marketing stuff. Sound good? Please Comment below. Thanks again.

Insurance, Compliance, Social, & Multi-Channel Marketing – “It’s a lot to bite off all at once.” -What About Bob!

Wanted to give a quick shout-out about a Webinar I was asked to help with.

Background: Distribion, a new member of the association I’m involved in, PIMA, caught my attention at the last conference. So I decided to check out their system in an effort to better understand their value prop , especially in the context of PIMA members. After a quick, high-level demo, I could see that the tech definitely has great utility for organizations that are leveraging multi-channel marketing. Of course my expertise is about e-Commerce, Web sites, Web marketing, and Social Technologies. So it was interesting to see how Direct Mail, Call Center Marketing, and other channels can be integrated into a common dashboard.

In talking about the insurance industry, they asked me what I felt were some of the biggest challenges in the insurance space relative to Social Media Marketing. Short answer… legal and compliance issues have kept many insurance marketing organizations on the Social Tech sidelines. I shared a recent project I’m working on where I’m helping an insurance company with a pilot marketing project. I’m orchestrating a process with the carrier, a couple of their agencies, and compliance folks. Interesting.

Of course that started with a research project sponsored by the company’s marketing department where I was tasked with an assessment of the Social Media Marketing and Compliance landscape. That ended up being very helpful in bringing the legal and compliance folks up to speed on Social Technologies, breaking down some functional myths about Social, illustrating what other carriers are doing with Social, researching and describing current guidelines by the NAIC, etc.

At the time, Distribion folks reached back to me and suggested perhaps we do a joint White Paper, perhaps a joint Webinar, that brings together these Social Media Marketing and Compliance concepts together with Marketing Technology concepts. So fast forward several months and here we are.

Next week we’ll be jumping on a call to discuss these subjects. Edgar Rodriguez, Sales Exec with Distribion will be facilitating a session with myself and Deb McAlister-Holland. Deb recently joined Distribion to lead their marketing efforts – very interesting background that brings a rich perspective I’ve appreciated getting to know in preparation for this Webinar. Check out here new ecosystem at www.distributedmarketing.org

Here’s what the Agenda looks like:

• How Google Changed Marketing Forever
  
• The Empowered Customer & the Echo Chamber
  
• 21st Century Marketing in a Regulated Environment
  
• Social Media Guidelines & Compliance
  
• Empowering Producers & Local Marketing
  
• 7 Things Marketers MUST Know About Online Marketing

Again, “It’s a lot to bite off” in 60 minutes. But it seems like it should be a worthwhile effort. The ensuing White Paper should be good as well. If you have anything you really want to know, feel free to use the Comment below, Linkindin, Twitter, email, call me, etc. Happy to help in any way…

Btw, not sure how many of the attendees will be on Twitter during and after the event, but I’d like to suggest the Twitter hashtag: #MCRE for Marketing & Compliance in a Regulated Environment. In fact, I’ll make a note to stay on Twitter for a half-hour after the Webinar to kick around thoughts and ideas. Ala HubSpot, we’ll call it the “Twitter After-party!” I love it.

Links:

Register here

Linkedin Event (Click “Attending” for an easy way to Share with your Linkedin network)

Perhaps Share this post as well. The more insurance folks that assimilate some of these concepts, the better. Definitely encourage you to send it to legal and compliance folks.

Thanks!

Running in between PIMA and ICMG with tons of follow-up from the former while getting organized for the latter. Geesh! All the while, Cleveland and the Midwest is getting pummeled by “snow-pocalypse”.

Future note to keep me accountable: At the closing session, I asked several attendees the question, “What is the one thing you would say to someone who wasn’t here regarding all the innovation content we heard?” And then, “What is the one BIG barrier to innovation that we must overcome?” Really looking forward to sharing the content with you.. very interesting mosaic of comments. Look for that next week.

In the meantime, a few thoughts collected real-time. Curious for reader comments. Btw, if you are serious about Social Technologies, especially as they relate to Innovation, Mobile, Viral Marketing, e-Word-of-Mouth, etc., I’m meeting with a few clients at the Scott Klososky Enterprise Social Tech Bootcamp in Dallas in early March. I’ve got one open spot left.

Seismic changes in this age of the consumer, disruptive technologies….

“Innovation is a necessity.”

Unknown and unarticulated needs

Culture of failure is important

No such thing as B2B anymore – just the relative distance from the consumer.

…the things that didn’t work… “We lucked into innovation…”

“Big Slow Staid Bureaucratic”
good descriptive of our industry

“All the innovation is already there; you just have to unleash it.”

Mobile is changing everything – right in our customers hands

recognize failure “a lot” – words of encouragement

Lessons Learned
#1 Solve for Ideas
Innovation process… THEN product development process
#2 Unpeel you Onion – innovation is already there…

“disruptive innovation: product or utility that does less and cost less”

Huffington – embrace the new economy, embrace the link economy

Extreme Affinity – LA City Employees Association – referral from American General

“Insurance wasn’t enough”

Captivating and compelling use of innovation. Gobs and gobs of take-aways…

Pictures

PIMA hashtag search

Next Meeting – The Broadmoor

Meantime – Brand project, continuing the discussion on Linkedin, lots of client engagements, Innovation

What was your take-away from the conference? Good for you? What about some of these concepts? If you weren’t there, feel free to ask questions. Perhaps the reader crowd can bring clarity. Please Comment below. Thanks in advance.

So it’s been snowing off and on here for three days!!! Geez. But there’s LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL – Miami in 12 days… for 9 days. PIMA and ICMG. First PIMA…

[Twitter Hash-tag for PIMA: #PIMAAssn (more on Twitter at the end of the story)]

The 2011 PIMA Annual Meeting will be in full swing two weeks from today. At 200 registrations and climbing, and with content focused on “Innovation”, it’s shaping up to be a bang-up conference. Greatly looking forward to attending, taking pictures, engaging in thought-provoking discussions, podcasting with a very sharp new member and savvy guests on innovation, and having fun with people a lot smarter than me in this business.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be asked a few recurring questions.

• “How’s it going with the new business?” and
• “What’s new in e-Commerce and Social as it relates to our business model?”

…or something along those lines. I have some really good answers to both.

But I’m equally sure I will also hear a few recurring statements.

1. “I don’t have time for all that.”
2. “Compliance just won’t let us do blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.”
3. “I’ve been very successful with Direct Marketing…I don’t need all the Social stuff…”

…or something along those lines.

Totally understand and resonate. Let me collect a few thoughts and ask for your comments…

On “No Time”…

Social Media Marketing, building a Social-based river of information, actively engaging your constituents, and paying attention to ‘listenting’ programs definitely takes time and resources. No doubt about it. As an example, this blog post took me from 9-1030am this morning from start to finish.

A little about what I do…

1. A weekly appointment with myself to write a new Blog post.
2. Open Tweetdeck several times a day looking at my stream or running keyword searches.
3. Check in on Facebook a few times a day and have top priority network updates coming to Gmail and the Droid.
4. Spend 15 minutes a day on Linkedin keeping my status fresh and looking for places to add value in conversations.

It does take time.

But on the flip side, I am NOT doing things that used to take up that time. Looking back over last year, I would characterize several big items:

1. seemingly important but often meaningless conversations with co-workers (I’m sorry, don’t mean to offend, and I enjoyed them and saw value, but nonetheless, a bit of a waste of time, usually in 15-20 min chunks),
2. inefficient meetings (easily consuming 15-20 min’s of waste each),
3. paper shuffling (ugh),
4. and a big one – watching TV at night, especially sports (we gave it up as a family – we’re talkin’ HOURS a week there).

Net net, diving in and making room for Social in my schedule has actually freed up AT LEAST an equal amount of time that it has consumed.

How about you? If you’ve done a similar process, has this been your experience?

If you’ve haven’t done this process, do you see opportunities with your time where you could make similar changes?

Please share a comment.

On the Compliance side, totally get that. Here’s the good news. Last year I collaborated on a strategic project with a leading insurance company in the insurance affinity space. Long story short, they hired me to research industry and company guidance relative to Social Media and Compliance. Once we had all the facts in a nicely organized document, we then took a half day and talked through the ‘real deal’ wrt Social and the insurance industry and more specifically the affinity distribution model. At the end of the day (literally), compliance was VERY pleased with the report, the discussion, and, perhaps most importantly, the approach. (I give great Kudo’s to the affinity marketing veteran who led the effort – a STUDY in professionalism on several levels.) We’re now moving beyond that into the strategy phase – in collaboration with a much smarter compliance department.

Is Compliance still an issue for you? What questions do you have?

Comment below or let’s talk at PIMA…

To the statement about past success, it’s totally legit. Absolutely. I still don’t have a good answer… at least one that doesn’t come off as a scare tactic or offensive. I have a lot of answers, but they typically aren’t successful in helping someone in this mode understand their need for Social and/or to get started. But invariably when I hear this statement, the first company that comes to mind is Blockbuster and the whole Netflix/Redbox situation, since I see the remnant of a Blockbuster store near my house quite often.

At one point, Blockbuster was extremely successful. But now they are… well, let’s just say they have fallen. Why? Of course there are a lot of reasons (click on this Google search called blockbuster case study 2010). But no doubt (and if anyone has a true story to share, please do), at some point in the early days of Netflix, there were conversations at Blockbuster about Netflix as a threat, the whole streaming video business model idea, the potential impact on consumer behaviors, and so forth. What was the response at that moment by the leadership team?

Am I out in left field, or would it be safe to say that Blockbuster did not adapt, perhaps at the very point that they were REALLY successful, at a point where the executives might have said,

“Why change? Our business model has made us VERY successful?”

What do you think? Do you see a connection with the insurance affinity exec that says,

“Why do Social Media Marketing? I’ve been very successful with Direct Marketing.”

What’s your take on all this. Whether you are going to PIMA or not, do you have anything to share that we can all learn from? I, for one, am all ears.. and I’m confident many of the follow-on readers will be as well. Please Comment below. Thanks a gazillion in advance. (Btw, if you do Comment, click the button that subscribes you to the subsequent comments so you can stay posted on the thread.)

Mike

More on Twitter:

Hashtags? YouTube video on it

How Twitter and Hashtags help enrich conferences. Great stuff on this Google Search.

Not sure about Twitter?  Link to Twitter Handbook… excellent Resource.

——

Oh yeah, PS. Akron Men’s Soccer set yet another record!!! In the MLS SuperDraft, 5 OF THE TOP 10 DRAFTEES were from Akron!!! Holy Cow! Read the story here.

2011 is underway. For me personally, it’s off with a bang.  If you remember, it was a year ago, that I was venturing out into the unknown starting WebWisedom from nothing.  For those that are interested, 2010 was a reasonably successful year, definitely feast or famine at times, but I wouldn’t have traded it for the alternative. For those of you that did business with me in 2010, most successfully, a few not so much, I GREATLY APPRECIATE the opportunity to work with you. Thank you.  Let’s pick up the pace in 2011 and really make things happen. I kid you not – I’ve learned some things in the past few months that are critically important nuggets for succeeding in the digital economy.

Perfect segway. This week, in the flow of an off-line conversation someone characterized me as “…a digital person living in an analog world.” The reference was spiritual in context, but the second thing that popped into my head was how well that comment translated into my professional life as well. I’m curious if you, those of you that know me well, see this to be a true statement and why? Further, if true, I’m curious if this is a good thing or a bad thing? Does this bode well for me in business, enhancing my value-prop and increasing my chance to successfully add value and thereby generate revenue, or am I in the wrong space doing the wrong thing, eventually destined to fail. Perhaps you would be kind enough to lend your perspective.  I’ve got two focus points:

1. Social Tech and Insurance – teaching the insurance-related enterprise about Social & e-Commerce
2. Socially Facilitated Selling, or my new term: Amplified Influence – teaching B2B sales people how to leverage SocialTech

What’s your comment? Please share. I’d be extremely grateful for either encouragement to press on or a reality check. Really.

*******************A few other quick Shares*******************

Check out these forecasts from World Future Society.  LOT of Social Tech stuff in here. Especially noted the comments on the classroom and customers having the power of CEO’s.  So much more… Maybe this is the year I finally go to a WFS meeting. Anyone care to join me and share costs? It’d be a hoot I’m confident.

I’m signed up for the 2011 PIMA (yes those are my pics on the site) & ICMG (check out the viral video I made for them) Annual Meetings later this month.  Those of you tracking with me in the insurance space, hope to see you at either or both of these events. They both look like they will be well attended and should offer great chances at getting something for the money. And how great that they are back to back in the same city – and a warm, fun one at that. In between I will be running around the area meeting clients and working on the Amplified Influence book (I know, I still have to finish last year’s book. Maybe I’ll integrate all that content.)

I got this from my daughter who’s also into Social Tech, smartly starting to build her own River of Information. Interesting data on Millenials and their habits and preferences. Gee wiz, if you’re selling to these folks, shouldn’t Social be a big part of your sales and marketing strategy? “Tech is in their DNA and IT ENHANCES THEIR LIVES” (emphasis added). Do you get that, Babyboomer marketers and decision makers? Facebook, Smartphones, etc. is ENHANCING, not diminishing, their lives as boomers so often say. If you don’t get it, how many stories like this do you need to read before you get a smartphone, a Macbook, a blog, a Twitter, and start understanding what Social Tech is and why Millenials in particular, and now other generations, are using it so heavily. It’s not then, it’s you. (OK enough of my rant – sorry, I get passionate sometimes.)

You gotta love Shoutlet. As I said a lot in 2010, they are doing some really great work in the SocialTech space with respect to content distribution, control, and reporting. Here’s their prognostication for 2011. Take it to heart. Call them and get started with their tool. Ask for Jenny. (No, I’m not on their payroll.)

Favorite tweet from this week:

@barbaragiamanco: It is ag8 example of how a group should be run! RT @paulcastain: Thanks for the #salesplaybook shout out Barb.  #sales #newhandshake

I just joined this Sales Paybook group on Linkedin. Already picked up a few powerful tips. Now I need to add some. Follow Barb Giamanco. Had an off-line phonecon with her this week. Looking forward to reading her book. Very sharp and savvy Social & Sales Consultant.

From Lewis Howes, Linkedin looks to going public. Darn! I could be wrong, hope I am, but I think a Linkedin IPO is NOT a good thing for Linkedin. It will be interesting to watch. One thing’s for sure – it will be a very Social event, one way or the other!

Lastly, how are you coming on the Mobile version of your site? Do you understand that needs to be a priority project for 2011? NOW? I’ve got a fantastic resource I’d like to connect you with.  Contact me.

Favorite picture from the Christmas break. Me and the fam decorating the Christmas Tree.

It was a great Christmas.

Appreciate hearing from you in the Comments below next to the tags. Thanks for engaging.