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Background

  • 10,000 seniors turn 65 every day making them eligible for Medicare benefits.
  • There are two types of Medicare; Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage.
  • The client, Medigap360, offers Medicare Supplement Insurance for seniors enrolling in Original Medicare as differentiated from Medicare Advantage.
  • Over a four-year period, the client archived 250,000 unused email addresses submitted by prospects via an online rate quote inquiry form.
  • For clarification, see the video I wrote and directed for Aetna.

 

MediNews360
Lead Nurturing Case Study

Challenge

“Create a marketing communications plan capable of growing New High Ground Revenue from an email list of existing prospects willing to accept post inquiry correspondence and telemarketing calls.”

Goals

  1. Create lead flow/sales from a vetted email list of respondents who previously requested rate quotes from medigap360.com
  2. Lower the average cost of leads by nurturing opt-in email respondents
  3. Engage existing clients and prospects in regular online and person-to-person interactions that build brand loyalty, confidence, trust, and goodwill
  4. Establish Medigap360 as an Inc. 500 industry leader
  5. Provide clients and prospects with free value-added services

Solution

“Increase sales by leveraging a mix of original and curated content to drive a lead nurturing system using a combination of email remarketing, telemarketing, a WordPress newsletter, and a healthcare benefits discount card offer.”

Pre-Production

  • Clean existing email lists to assure deliverability. (Example Resources)
  • Determine the actual number of active email addresses. (Final = 100,000)
  • Research, vet and contract services with a minimum of two Email Service Providers (ESPs). (Listrak and Silverpop)
  • Research and prepare to meet all requirements of existing email/spam laws and regulations. (Can-Spam Act)
  • Research, vet and contract a WordPress hosting service. (Bluehost)
  • Register www.medinews360.com for a newsletter website. (No longer active)
  • Research and develop a list of value-adding products and services

Solution Narrative

Working in consort, Medigap360’s marketing and information technology teams created a lead nurturing ecosystem capable of assigning exclusive ownership of individual leads to a 30+ team of licensed insurance brokers.

This tactic allowed brokers to develop personal relationships with prospects weeks, months and, in some cases, years prior to sale.

Opt-In Lead Generation

Medigap360 uses SEO, PPC, and various forms of paid advertising to drive inbound traffic to the medigap360.com website. Based on their individual data sets, interested prospects can check insurance rates in real time.

The landing page for rate quotes asks only for the prospect’s zip code.

This narrows the query to geo-specific data and also engages users without risking the initial loss of interest that sometimes occurs when prospects are faced with multiple data entry requirements.

The next screen captures the remaining data necessary for the system to generate a list of prospect specific carriers and rate quotes.

The sales manager then assigns each inbound lead to a specific broker who owns the lead from that point forward. Appending brokers to the database, as a single point of contact for each inquiry, assures continuity of communication and encourages relationship building for the life of the lead.

Brokers follow-up inbound leads with telemarketing calls as soon as possible.

When a lead closes, the system updates the database to reflect the client’s status as an existing account.

Brokers telemarket to new and remarketed leads but are not permitted to prospect via email due to management’s concern regarding compliance issues.

MediNews360

“The core of the MediNews360 Plan rests on a firm belief in the value of personalization, customer service, and spaced repetition.”

The client’s marketing department created a monthly editorial calendar featuring curated and original content for publication in MediNews360, a monthly email newsletter linked to a companion WordPress blog site of the same name.

Newsletter distribution included all clients and prospects.

It also sent notice of the click to the sales team triggering a call from the broker assigned to the account.

This tactic provided brokers the opportunity to make timely outbound calls to build rapport, sell annual renewals, and solicit new business at a time when Medicare Supplement Insurance was top of mind.

The Medigap360 Benefits Card

The marketing team created the Medigap360 Benefits Card for individuals who purchase, or express interest in purchasing, Medicare Supplement Insurance from Medigap360.

Cardholders and their families save on dental, vision, hearing, telemedicine, and on generic and brand-name prescriptions at nearly 60,000 major chain and independent retail pharmacies nationwide.

There is no cost to enroll and the card is free.

At the beginning of each month, plastic Medigap360 Benefit Cards go out to all new clients.

Marketing also fulfills offers designed to increase rate quote requests when the lead flow from Medigap360.com is down.

Results

Total Email Remarketing Leads: 13,365

Average Cost Savings Per Lead: $10

Total Lead Cost Savings: $133,650

Closing Rate: 10%

Total Policies Sold: 1,336

Annual Average Recurring Policy Value: $1,500

Annual Recurring Gross Revenue: $2,004,000

Achieved Top 5 Fastest Growing Rank for Insurance by the Inc. 500

Total Medigap360 Benefits Cards Sent: 7,500

Seasonal Aspects of Medicare Supplement Marketing

Initial Enrollment

One constant worth mentioning is the month-to-month lead flow driven by thousands of seniors “Turning 65”. These newly minted Medicare recipients provide a steady baseline of rate quote inquiries month in and month out.

Leads from this demographic help replenish email unsubscribes and undeliverables. They are a welcome source of new business but not a strong driver of new high ground.

Launching the MediNews360 initiative in June provided perfect timing for a strong summer lead flow that exponentially exceeded expectations.

As a result, the slow months of June and July saw record sales.

  • June: 2,144
  • July: 2,745
  • Total Leads: 4,889
  • Total Sends: 100,000 per month
  • Rate Request Response %: 2.44

ANOC Season

In August and September, carriers send out Annual Notice of Change (ANOC) letters informing policyholders of rate changes (increases) for the upcoming year.

By offering rate quotes at the click of a button during ANOC season, MediNews360 produced the following results from prospects and clients looking for the best rates.

  • August: 1,771
  • September: 1,201
  • Total Leads: 2,972
  • Total Sends: 100,000 per month
  • Rate Request Response %: 1.48

Open Enrollment

During Open Enrollment, which runs from October 15 to December 7, Medicare recipients can switch from Original Medicare to Medicare Advantage or vice versa.

Most inbound leads came from the medigap360.com website between October 1st and December 7th. Still, MediNews360 added over 3,000 leads to the pipeline during one of the busiest seasons of the year. Again, proving itself to be a valuable source of new high ground.

  • October: 869
  • November: 1,261
  • December: 1,063
  • Total Leads: 3,193
  • Total Sends: 100,000 per month
  • Rate Request Response %: 1.06

General Enrollment

Medicare-eligible recipients who miss their Initial Enrollment Period can sign up for Medicare Parts A & B during the General Enrollment Period.

General Enrollment yields the least amount of leads across the board. MediNews360 added over 2,000 rate quote inquiries to the lead flow making a significant difference in the client’s quarterly sales volume.

  • January: 877
  • February: 750
  • March: 684
  • Total Leads: 2,311
  • Total Sends: 100,000 per month
  • Rate Request Response %: 0.77

Goal / Results Summary

Goal 1: Create lead flow/sales from a vetted email list of respondents who previously requested rate quotes from medigap360.com

Result: $2,004,000 in annual recurring sales from a flow of 13,365 leads

Goal 2: Engage existing clients and prospects in regular online and person-to-person interactions that build brand loyalty, confidence, trust, and goodwill

Result: Brokers paired with prospects and clients for the life of the relationship

Result: Monthly email newsletter and companion blog site

Goal 3: Establish Medigap360 as an Inc. 500 industry leader

Result: Achieved Top 5 Fastest Growing Rank for Insurance by the Inc. 500

Goal 4: Lower lead cost across the board by nurturing email leads

Result: Average Lead Cost Savings = $10 per lead / $133,650

Goal 5: Provide clients and prospects free value-adding services

Result: Free Medigap360 Benefits Card that allows cardholders and their families to save on dental, vision, hearing, telemedicine, and generic and brand-name prescriptions at nearly 60,000 major chain and independent retail pharmacies nationwide