Step-by-Step Medicare Checklist
Objective
Develop a marketing piece that would attract new customers to Medicare health insurance plans and elevate the brand of Medical Mutual.
Challenge
Upon retirement, older adults would start receiving a lot of marketing messages urging them to join a Medicare insurance plan. Since the target audience would get so saturated with outreach, most of the marketing materials would end up in a trash bin without the people even reading them.
Most of the competitors used the same messaging, so older adults could not even distinguish among the insurance companies because every outreach looked the same.
In addition, a lot of competitor campaigns would use scare tactics threatening that time was running out to join an insurance plan or people could end up paying steep prices for going to the hospital or face late enrollment penalties. This approach led to older adults being fearful about the Medicare enrollment process. They often turned to their friends or family for advice on the timeline to enroll, coverage to pick, and plan to purchase.
Idea
This target audience was receiving a lot of marketing materials for joining a health plan, so raising awareness was not an issue. After conducting multiple focus groups and surveys, we realized that the true needs of this audience were not information about health plans available (or companies offering them), but rather knowledge about key dates and action items they needed to be aware of to enroll in Medicare.
Many older adults revealed that Medicare was so complicated and the decision about picking a health plan was so important, that they were afraid of making the wrong choice. They often turned to insurance agents who they thought were gatekeepers of information about healthcare and insurance.
It was obvious that this group needed a clear timeline outlining the simple steps that they needed to take to pick the right health plan. We also wanted to develop a piece that had a long-term effect that went beyond the usual advertising message and could lay the groundwork for building a long-term relationship with the target audience.
Execution
Once we analyzed these insights, we developed a one-page checklist that outlined the timeline and action steps, providing a clear roadmap for Medicare enrollment. Rather than pushing sales, Medical Mutual gave customers a tool that empowered them to make the right choice and take control of their purchasing journey. By presenting information in a straightforward way, the checklist eliminated the fear and confusion factors.
The checklist’s transparency and simplicity positioned Medical Mutual as a trustworthy company and true industry expert. This view further prompted the target audience to consider plans from Medical Mutual and purchase insurance from the company.
The checklist was also printed on thick paper, encouraging older adults to hold on to it through their enrollment journey. This turned out to be a powerful move as most of the target group put the piece up on their fridge to refer to it and keep track of their Medicare timeline.
To further support older adults, an FAQ section was developed on the website detailing any additional questions this group may have about enrolling in Medicare or picking the right coverage.