As
CMS begins to release guidance about Affordable Care Act's (ACA) October
2013 open enrollment (e.g., timelines, recommended language - http://goo.gl/zdLK9)
it’s time for
health insurers to finalize their playbook of
offense and defense action plans.
Forward thinking players are focused on honing their direct-to-consumer
marketing skills around retaining and acquiring membership. Success in the Affordable Care Act game means
protecting your membership base with tough defense, and preparing to put points
on the board (i.e., new members) with aggressive offense.
DEFENSE: Retain the members you already have. Prioritize those that are the most valuable and create customized engagement strategies to keep them. Take a data-driven approach to understanding your most vulnerable “at risk” population within your Individual and Small Group businesses thatcan soon make individual choices.
Maximize retention of existing membership in both on and off Exchange “marketplace” products by minimizing the potential to lose Individual and Small Group customers to competitors.- Leverage membership data and third-party intelligence to improve understanding of current customers.
- Communicate a timely and “most relevant” message to existing membership, employers, and distributors to support retention by improving member engagement and building brand loyalty.
- Emerge as a trusted source for information regarding what health care reform is and what is means to those most impacted…What am I eligible for? Where do I go for help? What’s in it for ME?
OFFENSE: Get your share of the Oct ’13 – Feb ’14 open enrollment “land grab”. Optimize acquisition campaigns by understanding key attributes of various segments of new market entrants. Create on/off Exchange strategies to generate leads from individuals most likely to enter the market as a result of ACA’s new rules. Switching will be at an all-time high...so make sure they switch to you!
- Increase sales opportunities to enroll a larger percentage of the individuals across all segments likely to purchase through public/private Exchanges and, small businesses SHOP Exchanges (e.g., uninsured, disenfranchised small group employees, subsidy eligibles, parental plan “age-off” shoppers).
- Optimize and increase the use of database management and segmentation tools to improve targeting capabilities and gain a better understanding of the marketplace than your competitors.
- Work in tandem with product development to identify various product acquisition paths, mapping current portfolio to a post reform product to establish the basis for determining outreach and sales strategies.
- Deploy new business direct response marketing tactics that blend push-based “value” education with pull-based “Influence” as entry into your selling cycle.
To achieve and sustain profitable growth marketing strategies need to look very different going forward. They need to move from product-centric…see who buys it; to customer-centric…understand how they engage.
Tomorrow’s health insurance consumer needs to be at the center of everything marketers do throughout the customer lifecycle. An engaged consumer means connecting early and often, nurturing them into the sales cycle, keeping them involved through purchase, and delivering a superior customer experience. It’s this balanced approach to customer retention and acquisition, supported by data-based intelligence and strong consumer engagement, which will determine ACA winners.