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The open enrollment period (OEP) and annual enrollment period (AEP) are essential times for health insurance advertisers looking to create interest, drive sales and sign new policyholders. Preparation is critical for advertisers and should include a range of internal checks and balances, compelling creative and thoughtful, personalized targeting. Implementing the right best practices can help insurance advertisers and publishers make sure they’re getting the right messages to the right people to encourage immediate action.

The following 3 strategies can help ensure that your AEP/OEP campaigns are set up to be successful.

1. Make Sure You Have A Healthy Infrastructure Before Launching Your OEP/AEP Campaign

There are many factors that go into having a successful OEP/AEP season for advertisers, but starting off on the right foot with a strong infrastructure can set you up for growth and conversions from the very beginning. The following four considerations should be buttoned up before you kick off your OEP/AEP campaign:

  1. Focus on your operations: Make sure your dialers are working, that your CRM is up to date and that your agents understand how to properly enter information. These seemingly basic items are essential to a strong launch. 
  2. Call capabilities: Confirm that your call center, or a third-party call center, can handle the volume of leads you will be sending them. Speed to lead and smart, efficient management of calls can have a positive impact on conversions. 
  3. Strong compliance partners: Make sure your campaign strategy is compliant and that you have the confidence that your partners are compliance-forward, with an understanding of all the nuances and changes in compliance. This is particularly crucial in the healthcare space. At DMS, our industry-leading operationalized compliance processes are supported by in-house legal and compliance teams.
  4. Confirm your tracking: Make sure proper campaign tracking is in place and that the parameters for your tracker align with your campaign goals and overall KPIs.

2. Leverage Your Creative To Optimize Success During OEP/AEP Enrollment

As with any campaign, creative assets are an essential component. With AEP and OEP campaigns, compliance is an additional consideration and must be a part of your creative plan from the start. Chris Pink, Senior Vice President of Sales at Digital Media Solutions (DMS), notes that the requirement of creative approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) can cause delays with the creative launch, so he encourages advertisers to not only get started on their creative well ahead of the launch of the OEP/AEP enrollment period but to have “a really good, solid, clear view of their copy and creative guidelines [that are compliant].” By leveraging creativity that is both compelling and compliant, advertisers can thrive in the OEP/AEP space.

Additionally, it can be helpful to see what creative assets competitors are putting into the marketplace to reach insurance shoppers across different channels. A diversified, multichannel outreach leveraging different approaches, from call campaigns to social media platforms will help expand your reach and meet potential consumers where they are.

3. Personalize Your Sales Approach And Vary Your Channels For Different Target Audiences

The amount of disruption in recent years, including Covid and other high-level decisions impacting consumer healthcare needs, means that insurance shoppers are evolving, and consultations and sales must be personalized. Advertisers should understand what their customers are looking for and truly listen to their unique situations instead of churning through calls trying to drive conversions. A personalized approach allows advertisers to match the right customer with the right coverage, which can drive loyalty and retention and can set you apart from advertisers who aren’t making qualitative assessments of their potential customers, and instead taking a one-size-fits-all approach.  

Personalization and listening are also reflected in matching the right creative to the right channel to reach the right audience. The rise of video as a creative asset resonates with younger consumers on social platforms like TikTok, while email drives high-intent users at every stage of the OEP/AEP enrollment period. Choosing the right publisher partner, like DMS, can also help advertisers reach channels they wouldn’t normally have access to, offering unique creative opportunities and more access to high-intent prospects.

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.

Are You A Publisher Looking To Maximize Monetization Efforts For AEP/OEP And Beyond?

The team at DMS is committed to the success of our publishers. From the simple touches, like being there when you need us, to more strategic support, we build relationships with our publishers and advertisers so we can align needs and deliver both audiences what they need to achieve their goals. Contact DMS today to learn how you can become a preferred publisher.

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Want To Learn More? Check out our DMS Live podcast Health Insurance Customer Acquisition: Prepping for AEP/OEP.