Drip, drip, drop: How health insurance agents keep prospects’ attention with drip campaigns

For many health insurance agents, sales is the easy part. It’s marketing and lead generation keeping you up at night. Fortunately, carriers like Humana and UnitedHealthcare regularly provide drip campaigns for your use in email, social media, and mailers. But what are drip campaigns? How do they provide value to you – and your customers? And how, exactly, do you execute one?

What is a drip campaign?

You’ve had a drippy faucet before. Even if it’s not at the top of your mind, it’s always there in the background. You’re constantly aware of it -- until you solve the problem.

That’s exactly what a drip campaign does.

By hitting your prospects with discrete parts of your message over time, you’re building awareness of a problem – and the solution you provide for it. A common example of this is Turning 65 mailers sent to beneficiaries who may soon be aging into Medicare. Over a few months, you might send brief mailers educating them about their Initial Enrollment Period, the parts of Original Medicare, and cost-sharing under Original Medicare. The last mailer might invite them to an educational seminar, or to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation consultation with you.

Over that mailer series, you’ve slowly spread a few educational parts of your message, built value for yourself, and then, hopefully, earned the opportunity to help them meet their Medicare needs. That’s a drip campaign in a nutshell.

What’s the value of a drip campaign?

Drip campaigns can be more effective than one-and-done ads for a few reasons.

First, by definition, they provide more contact points with your prospects and clients. Generally speaking, each time someone interacts with your brand (e.g. – a postcard), you’re likely to stay top-of-mind for somewhere between four and ten days. After that, they’ll need to come across your card again – or see another one – to remember that you exist. Because you’ll be in more regular contact over your drip campaign, you’re more likely to be on the tip of their tongues.

Second, drip campaigns help you nurture each lead you’re working on. You won’t be the first agent to send a turning 65 campaign, and you definitely won’t be the last. But throwing your hat into the ring puts you ahead of local agents that don’t. As for other agents that are also sending postcards? Now you’ve got a fighting chance to earn a consumer’s business as each does their due diligence in vetting prospective agents.

Finally, drip campaigns help you stand out from others because they require you to send timely and relevant content. In a prospect’s shoes – which would you rather receive? Another mailer with an agent’s headshot that proclaims themselves an insurance expert? Or something that educates them about their upcoming Medicare journey?

How can health insurance agents run a drip campaign?

There’s a few key questions you’ll need to consider:

What format will I use?

Your first choice here revolves around whether you’ll use email or snail mail to get in front of prospects. Of course, you’ll need to be mindful of compliance regulations in your target market, so in some cases, this decision could be made for you. Generally, though, email is seen as much more cost-effective – but it’s very much a shotgun approach. There’s no guarantee you’ll make it through to an inbox – and even less of one that you’ll make it in a primary inbox. The same can be true of snail mail, of course, but it is generally seen as better at generating higher-quality leads.

What materials will I use?

If you’re working in the Medicare market, this decision is also likely made for you. You’re often confined to using CMS-approved materials created by your carriers. That’s not always a bad thing – many of them offer room for personalization. And you can usually download digital versions at no cost.

If you’re looking to build overall awareness of your agency or market your other services, you’ll have to think about how you’ll generate your creative (e.g. – the content of the mailer or email itself). You always have the option of creating this yourself using platforms like Microsoft Publisher, InDesign, or Canva. If you’re working with an email or snail mail vendor, their creative teams will often design your mailers for an additional fee. Or, if you’re partnered with us, just send your request to info@actionbenefits.com. We’re happy to put drafts together for you at absolutely no cost.

Who will I send my drip campaign to – and how?

We have longstanding partnerships with local mailing houses. Any mailing vendor worth their salt will be able to build a list based on your target demographics (e.g. – lives in XYZ Zip and is turning 65 in six months). But, this can often be more costly than some other alternatives.

Every Door Direct Mail from the United States Postal Service is another, more budget-friendly option. It’s way less targeted, but you can have postal carriers deliver your message to each house in a particular area. That makes it a better fit for brand-building communications. If you’re looking to broaden your reach beyond your immediate area, though, you might use data from the U.S. Census Bureau to find other ZIPS or census tracts of interest.

Or, you always have the option of mailing to your clients whose addresses you already have. This can be a more cost-effective, but labor-intensive option. It can be a great fit, though, for building a case for your clients to investigate ancillary products to round out their protection.

Make a splash

Drip campaigns build value for your agency, and can often yield high-quality leads. When done well, they educate your prospects and make them aware of how you can solve their health insurance problems. And so, when they’re ready to do something about those problems, you’re more likely to be the one they call.