Each year millions of Americans under 65 have the opportunity to make changes to their health insurance policies during the open enrollment period. As the only time each year when consumers can make policy updates or switches without a major qualifying life event, health insurance carriers must move quickly to attract prospects during a short timeframe.

The best practices highlighted below will help ensure your health insurance lead generation campaigns are set up for success.

Preparation For Open Enrollment Lead Generation Is Essential

Careful preparation is essential for any successful lead generation campaign, but in order to generate significant lead volume quickly, all elements of a health insurance open enrollment customer acquisition campaign should be set up to handle an accelerated pace.

• Determine what channels work best for your campaign: Channels that produce high-intent, motivated users perform well for accelerated lead generation campaigns. Email, search, social and native advertising campaigns, when priced correctly, can be key components of successful health insurance open enrollment lead generation campaigns.
• Identify key publishers and networks to partner with: Review metrics of publishers you’re currently working with to determine which will fit best into an accelerated lead generation campaign. Publishers with CPAs (costs per acquisition) that align with your goals and short conversion timelines make good candidates for campaign inclusion. Consider working with an ad network to amplify your reach quickly —  some ad network campaigns can be up and running in as little as one day.

Focus On Creative That Converts Quickly In Open Enrollment Campaigns 

The right messaging and creative is crucial for any lead generation campaign, but when the timing is accelerated -- like for health insurance open enrollment -- every impression, open and click counts.

• Know your audience: Determine who your target audience is, and develop creative that speaks to them. Use images that match your target demographics, enabling prospects to engage with relevant creative that is more likely to result in conversions.
• Create a sense of urgency: Be sure to use language that incites users to take action quickly. Using dates or countdowns when deadlines are approaching can encourage prospects to make moves.

Be Aggressive, But Realistic, With Health Insurance Open Enrollment Lead Generation Campaigns

Although the supply of consumers looking to make changes to their health insurance policies can be abundant during the open enrollment period, the competition is also fierce, as many health insurance carriers are attempting to reach prospects at scale and convert them into new customers at the same time. In order to compete, advertisers need to be aggressive, but also know their limits to make sure their goals are feasible.

• Timely follow-up is crucial: With many health insurance advertisers vying for attention from the same pool of prospects, following up with interested hand-raisers as close to real time as possible is essential. Make sure your call center is appropriately staffed to handle increased call volume, and consider extending call center hours. Make sure you have a robust plan in place for leads that come in during off hours, potentially incorporating automated nurturing emails or SMS messages to keep leads warm until call center agents can reach them.
• Understand that pricing may change: As competition heats up from other advertisers, lead and call prices may fluctuate. With publishers able to provide a steady flow of leads that convert, consider implementing tiered pricing initiatives, potentially based on demographics, geographics or dayparting criteria to scale health insurance lead volume with top partners during the open enrollment period.

Review, Optimize And Iterate To Improve Health Insurance Open Enrollment Lead Generation Campaign Performance

As with any lead generation campaign, monitoring results and making adjustments based on outcomes is essential, but data must be disseminated more quickly during campaigns focused on a short window.

• Test and iterate creative: Test subject lines, headlines and images to determine what creative is working best to generate health insurance prospects quickly. Iterate to improve creative performance throughout the campaign lifecycle.
• Share data with partners: Empower lead generation partners to optimize by providing them with outcome data as closely to real time as possible, ideally daily, enabling them to make adjustments to quickly and effectively improve campaign performance.

Are You Looking To Maximize Your AEP & OEP Campaigns?

DMS connects many of the nation's leading health insurance providers and agents with customers and near customers. Our AEP and OEP campaigns are designed to maximize results by matching high-intent health insurance shoppers with the health insurance providers and agents that meet their needs. Contact DMS today to learn how our first-party data asset, proprietary technology and expansive digital media reach can help you maximize your health insurance campaigns.

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