With the first healthcare exchange open enrollment period concluded, savvy health plan marketers are spending much of their time and resources sifting through enrollment data hoping to gaint insights. However, this is a new world for plan providers, and most current marketing plans and sales strategies were developed for commercial and Medicare sales.
New opportunities require a fundamental shift in thinking and are analytically driven, but may not be captured in the OEP sales data.
One large segment that is currently overlooked and under reported on is the "do-it-yourself" (DIY) plan shopper. DIY plan shoppers are typically younger consumers (45 years of age or below) who are searching for readily available information on insurance plans and benefits. Because of their general distrust of advisors, they are not looking for advice, but plan to make their decisions based on the information they can find by their own device. The web is the most likely channel where this group will interact with plan providers. Additionally, this group tends to be reluctant to provide personally identifiable information and is, therefore, not tracked in the typical payer sales funnel. However, this segment represents about 30-40% of the market, and they need self-directed access to brand propositions, plan benefits, and other necessary information to make their buying decisions. They also will represent a $44 to $52 billion dollar annual opportunity within the next 10 years.
Most payers/health insurers have not yet developed the analytics infrastructure and strategies to actively track, much less support, selling to this audience, despite its growing presence. Here are a few key components that marketers need to address to successfully target the "hidden segment" of DIY shoppers.
1) Evolve traditional lead models
Most plan providers are using traditional lead development models based on commercial and Medicare sales. These traditional models focus on the prospect's need for consultative sales, belief in the value of health coverage, and the ability to close sales directly. However, this model approach may not work for the Health Insurance Exchange (HIX). The HIX model incorporates strong influences from pharmaceutical and CPG verticals where direct sales are not possible. The marketplace provides consumers with access to competing products and, where needed, facilitators provide advice on the different options.
Additionally, the Medicare and commercial models track leads based on personally identifiable information (PII) captured through lead forms or call centers in order to be captured in the sales funnel. This process is focused on consultative sales, which is the least appealing approach for the DIY segment. As a result, 40%–50% of HIX enrollees have not "officially" entered the sales funnel for the plan provider they eventually signed up with. This is because they do not provide PII and are rarely tracked. However, based on web search traffic numbers, we can assume that about half of the enrollees above visited the plan provider web properties.
To address this gap, marketers must evolve lead development programs that work with various anonymity preferences, yet still provide individual-level information to support a personalized shopping experience.
2) Manage leads through digital technology
The self-educated DIY shopper uses the web to find information and interact with plan providers; a phone conversation is ALWAYS the last resort. Therefore, plan providers should strive to make their web experiences as helpful as possible. For known visitors, pre- and post-enrollment web activity provides rich data about the customer's needs, which can be used to develop an exceptional web experience throughout the customer journey. For unknown visitors, the use of unique visitor IDs can help track web activity. In both cases, demographic (3rd party) data, viewed content, and web behavior can all be used to deliver personalized web experiences for known and anonymous visitors alike, and support retargeting campaigns based on previous web visits.
3) Implement infrastructure to optimize your campaigns
With each virtual breadcrumb the DIY shopper leaves behind, insurers can learn more about the segment's needs and devise future campaigns to drives sales. Therefore, plan providers need to establish a strong web tracking platform that logs visits to each unique visitor (anonymous or identified). Visit history, device ID, cookie data, and PII data (data provided through web forms) should all be linked to each unique website visitor and stored for analysis. If possible, insurers should append a consumer's third-party data with cookie data to personalize the web experience.
Once a member's enrollment is complete, insurers can continue interactions on the web using a unique login. Using a member's device ID and cookie data, anonymous pre-enrollment visits can be matched to known enrollment data to facilitate sales attribution and provide insights for optimization. In addition, rich web visit data can now be merged with offline data to inform segmented multi-channel strategies
While the DIY segment can be challenging, the pool represents a large portion of the "young invincibles" that plan providers are eager to target. Plan providers committed to growing on the exchanges will need to address the needs of this group effectively as they present a significant market opportunity. With the right technology, data-driven strategy, and web experience, this is a segment that can be acquired.
Shiv Gupta is a Senior Director of Analytics Lead for Merkle's Insurance and Wealth Management Practice.