Millennials make up 50% of the current workforce and are expected to increase to 75% in 2025. Spending up to $600 billion a year, they have a lot of purchasing power within today's market. Soon, they'll be the largest population of your group clients -- but are you ready to sell to them? When marketing to this generation, dental insurance brokers need to keep in mind three ideas in order to effectively sell dental insurance to this group.

Emphasize the need for maintaining dental health.

An ADA study cited by Forbes showed that only 30% of millennials see the dentist each year. In your open enrollment meetings, you’ll need to keep in mind that millennials are a visual generation where personal appearance is a top priority. Dental insurance brokers should thus emphasize that maintaining oral health is important for millennials to keep their teeth looking (and feeling) healthy while they pursue careers, relationships and proceed along their adult lives.

Show that your organization makes a positive impact on the world.

A study by Nielson shows that millennials are willing to pay more for sustainable products and services. They prefer to deal with companies that have gone green, paperless or have otherwise taken a public stance towards bio-security and/or eco-friendly causes. Lastly, it's important to millennials that the product or service they purchase contributes socially. When selling dental benefits to millennials, if the carrier is involved in the community, let them know.

Be proactive and have an interactive presence online. 

As a tech-dependent generation, millennials stay connected and rely heavily on the internet to find the goods and services they're looking for. Social media campaigns, websites and infographics that allow millennials to thoroughly research and review consumer opinions, as well as give relevant and straightforward statistics are essential for reaching out to this generation. What does this mean to you? Become accessible by providing your email address and phone number, available to answer questions via text message -- especially during open enrollment. You also want to mention their dental plan’s online tools, apps and when possible, offer online enrollment tools as well.

The workforce is changing and it’s important for you to understand the buying habits of your new clients: the millennial member. Dental insurance brokers need to meet at the millennials level. So within their marketing message, they must convey to millennials how dental insurance is necessary to live their lives in a way that positively impacts others. And since this generation puts little stock in traditional marketing methods, companies must use social media and other online marketing techniques to engage their viewers and make online purchasing easily accessible. Lastly, they must get the millennial viewer's attention with clear, appealing and relevant visuals; gain their trust by including consumer-supported testimonies about the insurance products they offer; and demonstrate a long-term interest in environmental concerns and/or sustainability.