Consumer Emotions: The Heart of Health Insurance Marketing Success
Are people more emotional—and less rational—than we like to think? Emotion, defined as the way people feel about a given experience, is a highly influential factor that affects customer loyalty in a number of industries. Specifically in the healthcare industry, where so many interactions are driven by emotion, it is essential for health insurance companies to focus on connecting with consumers and personalizing interactions to deliver individualized experiences. The most successful health insurance companies are the ones that positively engage individuals and promote brand trust by connecting emotionally with consumers through their healthcare content marketing.
Building Emotional Connections with Consumers
When you consider all the reasons individuals need health insurance throughout their lifetime, it’s easy to understand how health insurance is more highly influenced by emotion than any other industry. From the moment we are born—and throughout an entire lifetime of health, wellness and occasionally recovery—we depend on our health insurers to help us navigate the waters of a complicated and expensive system of providers and care.
Every aspect of the health insurance purchase, use and repurchase decision is based on emotion:
“If I go to the doctor, I don’t know what will happen. I’m not sure I want to know.”
“If I don’t have that test, will it reduce my quality of life? What will happen to my family?”
“I know I should manage my diabetes better, but I just can’t seem to do it.”
“Which plan should I pick this year? I might as well pick a new one or the cheapest one, as the last one didn’t really do anything for me.”
When emotion is a building block of the customer experience and purchase decision process, it’s important to engage consumers using emotional intelligence. Although we can’t solve everything related to healthcare and health insurance here at Hallmark, we can do our part to help companies create a competitive advantage by clearly articulating their emotion, their caring, their compassion and their hopes for better health for their members in a genuine and authentic way.
Clients leverage products and services from Hallmark Business Connections as part of their business strategies, not just because it feels good, but also because it works. Our solutions impact quality scores, Medicare open enrollment success, member satisfaction and engagement, direct marketing response rates and the ability to assess the risk of a population—all by breaking through with a Hallmark card that conveys your emotional investment in their health. With Hallmark cards, your message will get opened, read, understood and acted on better than other formats.
How Emotion Rules the Health Insurance Industry
Consider these three big ideas that demonstrate how the health insurance industry is highly influenced by emotion, as well as ways you can leverage emotional intelligence and personalization to help you connect with members to create a lasting professional relationship.
1. Health insurance is among the lowest-rated industries for customer satisfaction.
Industry consumers are outspoken about their feelings regarding the health insurance industry. Demand continues to outpace supply, and with an uncertain regulatory market, intense data security requirements and increasingly unhealthy populations across the country, health insurance companies are scrambling to keep up. Ratings reflect customer perceptions that insurers are out of touch or unsympathetic to their healthcare needs.
Boost customer satisfaction and personalize by offering helpful tips, along with thoughtful cards, at strategic times of year … like during open enrollment. It’s a great time to send helpful tips and reminders, as well as checklists of things to look for in a great provider. Hallmark Business Connections has a great selection of Just Because cards and Encouragement cards that are great for reaching out whenever you need to check in or send reminders to members. Plus, you can customize inserts with information that members may find helpful when choosing a plan that’s right for them. This is a great way to personalize your care and let members know you have their best interests at heart.
2. Population management requires trust between the health insurer and their members.
The early detection of disease and the management of unhealthy populations are at the heart of what health insurance is intended to do. Health plans are determined and focused on improving the overall health of their members, but they must find a balance between personalizing this information and the appearance of intrusiveness. By the very nature of what they do, it is difficult to build enough trust between health insurance companies and members to influence healthy behaviors. However, by combining your insights and tips for healthy living with an eye-catching Hallmark card, you’ll show members you care in a warm and meaningful way. Not only are Hallmark cards easily recognized among stacks of junk mail and bills, but they’ll be the first thing opened—and often the most impactful piece of mail—from the mailbox.
Boost customer satisfaction and personalize your marketing outreach by sending cards on special days like Birthday Cards, Wedding and Anniversary Cards, New Home Congratulations Cards and more to celebrate with members throughout the year. And don’t forget to be present for difficult moments with Sympathy Cards and Care and Concern Cards that will let customers know you are empathetic during the times when they need it most. When you reach out on days and occasions that are unique to individual members, they will remember that you recognized them, and they’ll likely favor your health insurance company when it’s time to renew.
3. Maintaining loyalty and acquiring new members require differentiation in the marketplace.
Not all health insurance markets allow for members to pick their plan, but more and more are doing so. Being perceived as different (and better) than other health insurance plans is the only way to get someone to say yes to you and no to someone else. As members are given more choices and options in the health insurance market, they are learning to expect more from the companies they select. Members are looking for convenience, transparency and ease of billing.
Boost customer satisfaction and personalize by treating your members to fun surprises. Consider sending unexpected gifts like a box of gourmet Christopher Elbow chocolates to celebrate milestone anniversaries or birthdays for members. Or brighten the desk of a soon-to-retire client with a beautiful bouquet of fresh cut flowers delivered from Hallmark. It’s the little things like this that become the big things in members’ eyes, and those are exactly the things that earn you clients for life (and clients who spread the word about their amazing health insurance company to everyone they know!). Corporate gifts are a great way to send little reminders that you care and that you’re there to help members wherever they are in their health journey.
If you’d like to learn more about effectively leveraging emotional intelligence and personalization in your member engagement marketing, read Think Like a Customer: Why Beginnings and Endings Are So Important in the Customer Experience.