Lesson 2: Getting Started!

Welcome to lesson two, Grassroots Marketing. So, the topic for lesson two is getting started. The key to any grassroots marketing strategy is just that you have to get started. You have to get off the couch. You’re never gonna sell insurance sitting on the couch watching tv, eating Cheetos. It sounds like what we all want to do, but it is not gonna lead to success. So, a couple of my favorite phrases, favorite quotes around, grassroots and feed on the street marketing is activity leads to productivity. The one thing you can manage is your activity level. I can’t always, control whether or not a client buys a policy. I can’t control whether a client answers the door, answers the phone. I can control my level of effort and activity that leads to productivity to go right along with that massive action equals massive results. If you want a little bit of results, go do a little bit of grassroots marketing. If you want to turn your market upside down with the value you deliver to the space, go do some massive marketing activity and be all over the place at the same time. Real estate agents are really, really good at this. They’re trained to do it. You see their face everywhere. They may have never sold a home, but their face is all over town because they understand the keys to activity and action driving results in, from their, their marketing efforts and driving leads to them. So, you can’t implement a grassroots marketing campaign sitting on the couch, sitting at the desk. You’ve gotta go where your target audience is. So, go where the people are,  become known and become trusted among the people that you are serving. Again, I’m not there to get a lead. I’m not there to get a sale. I am there to serve the demographic that I have chosen to market to, to build my business around. I am there to serve them. So, I have to ask myself some questions. Where do they spend their time? Where do they congregate? What businesses do they frequent? Where do they, go to the grocery store? What restaurants are they going to? My kids laugh at me all the time. You know, if I say I’m going  to Cracker Barrel, they all just start giggling. And they’re like, are you 70 years old? No, but they have good breakfast. But when I go there, I see the Medicare target market at Cracker Barrel. So, what businesses do they frequent? It could be different than the younger demographic. Ask yourself, what community events do they participate in? What do they enjoy doing? Where do they go to do those activities? And then I have to position myself where that target market is. Again, if it’s, uh, senior citizens Medicare, eligibles, I’ve gotta go where the older population is spending their time. If it’s the underage market, I’ve gotta consider the fact that they’re at work through the day, right? They’re, they’re at ball fields just about every evening and every weekend. So, I’ve gotta go where they are in order to build that value-based relationship. And I’ve gotta become known where my target market is. I can’t just go there once a week. I can’t just go there once every 30 days. I’ve gotta become a consistent presence and a consistent resource for that market as well. So if you aren’t where they are, give them a place to go. I don’t have to go to Cracker Barrel or McDonald’s at six o’clock in the morning to find a Medicare eligible. I can give them events and opportunities to come out and participate with us, not necessarily,  educational events and sales events, which is what most insurance agents think about when we say give them a place to go. How about social events? The data backs this up. Seniors who socialize for a few hours a day are happier. They’re healthier, they’re less depressed. They’re less stressed than those who do not. So, if I really care about this population, and that’s what I’m trying to convey through grassroots marketing, if I really care about their well-being, I’m going to give them opportunities to socialize. When I give them opportunities to socialize, they get to know me. I get to know them. We feel like we’re friends and family. So, I earn referrals out of those relationships that are built. And there are all kinds of opportunities to do that. You can go to senior centers. Just about every community has a senior center. They meet every single day. I’ve got friends of mine that are seniors. Uh, they’re up into their seventies and early eighties. They go to the senior center five days a week every single day because that’s their socialization. They go for lunch. They go to sit around and chat with other folks that are their age, that are facing the same, challenges and opportunities that they are. That’s where they go for socialization. So, we should go there and provide events. Again, not just trying to sell a policy, but to go and offer opportunities for them to have social events. At the senior center, there’s fitness classes all over the place that seniors are very conscious about their health. They’re in a phase of life that, their health is declining. The more attention they pay to at care, they give to their body, they see the results. So we should be offering opportunities to, to work on core strength and, and flexibility and obviously, aerobic exercise to increase their cardiovascular strength. We should be offering those opportunities. We can connect, a fitness trainer. We can connect somebody that can host classes for us. It can be at a gym and a YMCA. It can be in our office, whatever facilities we have access to, and we can offer those events to them. The other thing we can do is to encourage, the elderly population, the senior population, with volunteer opportunities. There are all kinds of volunteer opportunities. There’s one thing that they have a lot of, they have a lot of time now. They don’t move around as quick as the younger population does, but they enjoy giving back to their community. They, what I like to say is, is, uh, Medicare eligibles don’t retire. They re-fire or they re-hire. They’re being paid from their company that they’ve put all their years in and they have a pension. They’re being paid from Social Security and their investments that now they can go truly give back to their communities, and they love to do it. We just need to generate the opportunities for them to do it. Some of those ideas, and again, we want to be extremely creative. There’s no one size fits all or right or wrong way to do grassroots marketing. But some ideas for you around volunteer opportunities: hospice, companionship, spending time with, folks that are at end of life that may not have family that are coming around. It’s a great opportunity for them to get out and make a difference in someone else’s life. How about Habitat for Humanity? They can get involved in building projects and donating and organizing, with Habitat for Humanity. Feeding America is a great organization to get involved in, especially with a food insecurity that is experienced in the senior population. They can volunteer at state parks, national parks, local parks. They’re always looking for people that are, are able with a flexible schedule to come out and help. That’s a great opportunity. Meals on Wheels delivering meals to, to low-income seniors is a great opportunity. Animal shelters, seniors love their animals. They love pets. Animal shelters are a great way to give back to the community and get some volunteer and socialization opportunity at the same time. Foster Grandparents is a tremendous opportunity, especially in, the society that we live in today, and the challenges that we have through some of the addiction epidemics. Foster grandparents are a huge need in the younger population, and it’s an opportunity for our elderly clients to get involved. Boys and Girls Club, boy Scouts, girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, community gardens. I’ve got a community garden right down the street from me that several different families come together and, and serve in. It’s a great opportunity for those with a green thumb that enjoy gardening, to get out and volunteer and, and make a difference. School activities, sporting events, we should be involved, have a presence, but we should encourage our seniors to be involved. And then there’s a, organization called Big and Many that is a professional mentoring opportunity where a big, a retired,  individual is sharing their experiences and helping mentor people that are just beginning in their career.

So, all these opportunities, and we talk about them, and I know what, what the thought in your mind is. Well, how does this generate leads or referrals or business? For me, I am becoming a, I’m building a sphere of influence. I’m becoming a center of influence within that sphere. I am making myself consistently known and presenting value to the target market that I’m chasing some additional, opportunities within faith-based organizations. There are always activities that are going on. It’s a great opportunity to, invite seniors in. Faith-based organizations will always, facilitate events, that you can be a part of that seniors can come and be a part of. How about educational classes? Seniors love to learn. I know it sounds crazy. When I’m 80 years old, I don’t think I’m gonna set around and, and take a business management course. But you know what they do like to learn about, cognitive activities they know are good for them. So, they like to do that, that type of activity. They like to learn about technology. They feel like they’re ostracized. They feel like they’re, fish out of water in today’s society. So, providing classes that teach them social media, teach them, using a smartphone, they’re great opportunities to invite your clients in. And again, you’re providing a service to them. Senior trips, do seniors like to go places? You bet they do. They’ll jump on a bus and go just about anywhere. So, the goal is to continually increase your sphere of influence. And what I want you to think about, and I, I want the goal, for you to be, as you get started with event marketing and providing socialization opportunities, everyone within your target audience needs to know who you are and what you do. Not because I run up to ’em on the street and I, and I peck on their shoulder and say, read my, ask me about Medicare button, but I’m introducing myself, my heart for the population. And over time, they’re gonna ask me, why are you at the senior center today? Clearly, you stick out like a sore thumb. You don’t belong here. But I do, I work with people like you every day, educating them on the options that they have for their insurance, coverage to estate planning, to life insurance, you name it. The opportunities are endless. We just have to become creative. We have to get off the couch, and we have to get active. Again, activity leads to productivity. Massive action leads to massive results, and anyone can be a master at grassroots marketing if we’ll just allow our creative juices to flow and we start to get busy. So, now we’re gonna jump into a quiz to test your knowledge from lesson two.