Monday, January 14, 2013

Medicare Marketing’s Top Ten

Today's guest post comes from Lindsay Resnick, Chief Marketing Officer, KBM Group: Health Services, Lindsay can be reached at lindsay.resnick@kbmg.com

 With over 14 million Americans enrolled in a Medicare Advantage and 10 million having a Medicare Supplement plan, generating leads and converting them to new sales is challenging every Plan. However with 3 million people aging-in to Medicare every year and thousands of plan “switchers” still making annual decisions, there are still opportunities to grow in this segment.

These market dynamics mean that Medicare Advantage plans looking for organic growth must juggle an array of skills to not only survive, but thrive:

 1. COMPLIANCE – Today’s Medicare marketers must understand and respect the important role compliance plays in the member acquisition process. This means making sure the link between marketing, sales and compliance is as strong as possible.

 2. DATA DRIVEN – Don’t leave Medicare marketing to chance. Start with data. It needs to be sorted, cleaned, refined, and turned into actionable intelligence. From building predictive models for most likely responders to variable direct response call-outs to optimizing media buys, data is king.

 3. AGE-INS – With thousands aging into Medicare every day, new approaches are needed to attract today’s boomer-seniors. It takes a combination of meaningful education, sequenced messaging, and different approaches to outreach to connect with “turning-65” audience.

 4. MEMBER RETENTION – The cost of acquiring a new member is 5X the cost of retaining an existing one. Loyalty-based member engagement plays a big role in a health plan’s long-term success and ultimately, member LifeTime Value.

5. STAR RATINGS – Marketing’s role is critical to ensure member communications reinforce customer satisfaction. Engagement marketing goes a long way in a Medicare plan’s ability to achieve the highest possible Star Rating and payment bonuses that come with it.

6. CUSTOMER INTERACTION – Give beneficiaries a reason to engage and connect with their Medicare plan. It takes direct-to-consumer offers that invite seniors to reach out to receive clear, sound and personalized recommendations. Create personalized opportunities for one-on-one interactions.

7. DIGITAL MEDICARE – As more Medicare shoppers use the Web as their primary research tool, it’s essential to have a Medicare online experience that’s user tested, compelling, and built for seniors.

8. MULTI-CHANNEL SALES – Different Medicare customers require different doors of entry, from agents to telephone to online to retail outlets. There’s tremendous value in the expanded reach of a multi-channel sales distribution strategy.

 9. DIFFERENTIATED VALUE – Being the health plan of choice is achieved by building trust, credibility and relevancy around your Medicare value proposition. This means understanding drivers that motivate prospects to select your plan and answering a beneficiary’s biggest question, “What’s in it for me?”

10. MARKETING ROI – Pressure on Medicare marketers has never been greater. The ability to track, analyze and measure results throughout the marketing cycle will bring you success…you can’t manage what you can’t measure! In a Medicare market, characterized by cutthroat competition and abundant product choice, potential customers looking for a resource to help guide their Medicare purchasing decision. A structured, mutli-disciplined approach to Medicare marketing has never been more important.

ABOUT US KBM Group: Health Services is a healthcare marketing and consumer engagement services provider that combines its proprietary national database consumer database with sophisticated segmentation and predictive analytics to drive offline/online direct-to-consumer marketing campaigns.

Join us February 11-13 in Phoenix, AZ for the 10th annual Medicare Congress, and attend both KMB sessions: Focus on the Members: Building a positive member experience and best practices to increase accuracy for self-reporting  & Medicare’s digital customer: five game-changing marketing tactics. To learn more, download our brochure.


As a reader of The Medicare Congress blog, you can use priority code XP1807BLOG to receive 15% off of the standard rate to register.





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