Insurance Agents – Make Your Open Enrollment Marketing Stand Out
In the Insurance industry, open enrollment marketing month is kind of like the wild west of the year. Since a great many Americans sign up for health care between November 1, 2018 and January 31, 2019, insurance agents market like mad. This it the time to get your planning done make sure your all your marketing ducks are in a row.
What can you do to make your people pay attention during Open Enrollment? Put your marketing hat on. Regardless of marketing channel (direct mail or email) you have just a few seconds to catch your people’s attention, so your Open Enrollment marketing needs to stand out and beg to be opened.
Create Compelling Open Enrollment Marketing
- Use bold graphics: See if you can borrow some time from your design team to create a brand for your Open Enrollment materials. If you don’t have access to a designer, try Fiverr.com and hire a freelancer to enhance your identity.
- Choose a solid mailing list: If you’re not reaching out to the right people, all your efforts will be wasted. Agents can select a mailing list of individuals who will be Turning 65 or a list of households age 65+up. Email addresses can be appended to about 40% the mailing list.
- Time your communications: Direct mail starting in October. In open enrollment marketing, repetition counts and agents who direct mail multiple times have a higher open rate. Send emails to the same people you’re mailing to – and time so the emails hit first / during and after the direct mail. Email early in the day (a good rule of thumb is around 10 a.m.). Many contact management software systems offer re-send to non-opener options that increase your response.
- Create snappy subject lines: Because “Open Enrollment: VERY IMPORTANT READ NOW” may not get the reaction you were looking for.
- Edit for concise content: Trade the long story for a short one. Communicate the highlights and important dates for Open Enrollment.
- Speak in plain English: Whenever possible, supplement confusing health plan jargon with simplified descriptions.
- Make it Easy for them to Respond: provide multiple response mechanisms. Prominent phone number, BRM/BRC, Click to Call, Push here.
- Convey a Sense of Urgency: The open enrollment period has a short window. Your Open enrollment marketing needs to convey the sense of NOW.
- Remember to let them know you can handle all their needs: Make sure they know you sell multiple products.