The Next Generation of Insurance Buyers: How to Reach Gen Z and Millennials

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By Sabrina Sebastian, Vice President, Group Benefits, Performance Marketing, MetLife Insurance

Gen Z and Millennials are reshaping how the insurance industry goes to market, bringing higher expectations, digital behaviors, and experience preferences. While younger generations may not purchase policies the same way their parents and grandparents did, they are signing up for coverage — just on their own terms. The shift from traditional agent-led sales to online research, digital purchasing, and social media-driven decisions requires a modernized approach to marketing, customer engagement, and the overall insurance experience.

To meet the demands of today’s evolving workforce, insurance providers need to adapt their marketing strategies to align with a generation that is more digitally connected than ever. This includes a strong mobile experience, leveraging social media platforms and building and leveraging a brand that consumers can trust and relate to.

Prioritizing User Experience

In comparison to previous generations, younger buyers are more digitally connected, comfortable researching policies online, making a seamless digital experience of the utmost priority. Instead of relying solely on brokers or recommendations, younger consumers are turning toward self-service platforms, mobile apps, and digital comparison tools to guide their decision-making. As digital natives, Millennials and Gen Z expect fast, intuitive, and mobile friendly insurance platforms. If the buying or quote process is slow or complicated, they’ll abandon it altogether. In fact, Gen Z is 2x more likely to purchase from a mobile-optimized website than a non-optimized one. To meet the needs of today’s consumers and workforce, insurance providers must take a digital-first approach and build out the necessary online framework to appeal to a younger audience.

Why Brand Values Matter

Research shows that younger consumers prefer brands that align with their beliefs, with 77% of Millennials saying they are more likely to buy from a brand that reflects their values (eMarketer). This means a strong brand awareness is vital when looking to reach younger generations, but with social media, the task doesn’t have to be daunting.

Millennials and Gen Z spend significant time on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit, making these platforms essential for brand awareness and lead generation. MetLife’s 2025 Employee Benefit Trends Study (EBTS) found that Gen Z employees cite video resources/ podcasts and social media as their top choice for benefit communications. When used strategically, social media can help to build strong customer loyalty by aligning your brand with key social causes such as corporate responsibility while delivering content in an easily digestible way.

Making Engagement Count

According to MetLife’s EBTS, 38% of employees said they struggled to understand employers’ communications around benefits, up six percentage points from the prior year. To empower employees to effectively take advantage of their employer’s benefits offerings, employers and insurance providers must offer education both before and after enrollment. Sustaining engagement with employees through open, transparent communication is essential for driving optimal business outcomes.

Innovative solutions such as MetLife’s Upwise, an intuitive and customizable interface that helps employees understand benefit offerings and provides recommendations based on unique financial, health and lifestyle needs. It also helps employees complete the enrollment process efficiently and confidently.

Upwise also offers year-round guidance and support to boost understanding and utilization, with timely notifications connecting employees with the right benefits during key moments

To remain competitive, insurance and benefit providers must shift from traditional marketing to a digital-first, socially conscious, ongoing approach. Younger generations aren’t just potential future customers—they’re already actively reshaping today’s consumer expectations. The question no longer is if insurance go-to-market strategies should adapt, but rather how quickly they can.

All data from this article is from MetLife’s 23nd Annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study (https://www.metlife.com/workforce-insights/)

Published in the Spring 2025 issue of Insights Magazine.

PIMA® (Professional Insurance Marketing Association®) is a member-driven trade association focused exclusively on the affinity market.