Goose Bump Insurance Marketing: Why Your UVP Isn’t Enough

For years, I’ve been telling insurance marketers about the vital importance of having a well-honed UVP (unique value proposition). My biggest pet peeve is when a marketer tells me that the company UVP is service. Seriously? Service is the anti-UVP. In fact, there’s nothing unique about it. Of course, that’s a whole other insurance blog article.

The point of this article is to tell you that my thinking is evolving. I still believe that you need a well-honed UVP but I also believe you need something else. You need the story behind UVP. You need the WHY. I was introduced to this concept by Catherine Hedden at Films About Me. If you take one look at the company’s portfolio, and the video featuring financial advisor Jamie Fleming, you’ll see what I mean. Wow – when you watch Jamie’s video, you want her to be YOUR financial advisor, even if you’re perfectly happy with the one you already have.

Catherine told me that the approach for their films was inspired by a Ted Talk by Simon Senek – “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.” Take 20 minutes during your lunch hour to check it out. I also found it inspiring.

Simon says that people don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it. (And by the way, making profit is not the WHY, it’s the end result.) Therefore you must talk about what you authentically believe in through your marketing. Apple is a great example of a company that has been successful with this approach.

Great leaders also use this technique. Think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I have a dream” speech. Simon contends that thousands of people came to see Dr. King speak, not because he had a dream, but because THEY had a dream. They believed what he believed.

Perhaps the key to successful insurance marketing is know your UVP (how you do things differently) and to also know your WHY – what inspires your company to achieve greatness every day. Now, please don’t think I’m telling you to go print your mission statement on all your marketing materials.

Instead, think human, think goose bumps and think about how you can tell your “feel good” story like it’s never been told before. Discovering your WHY is the key to discovering you and your clients’ happily ever after.

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