Sales Funnel for a Product Customers don’t Understand
A survey revealed that many of our members do not understand two of our least popular plans. Both plans have good reviews and are very popular in sub-groups within our organization.
Identify the following:
1. Why is the plan more popular in smaller groups?
2. How can we increase understanding in these plans?
1. Investigating the plan’s differing popularity
Looking into membership records, the plan is most popular with SDPOA. Police Officers are not part of our regular news blasts but do receive a lot of in-person support from benefit specialists. After discussing with the team who gives presentations, it became clear that SDPOA learns about these two plans during NEO.
Anecdotally, one administrator in the POA office mentioned that managing officers often recommend one of the plans to other members.
2. Creating a plan to increase understanding
Since educational plans are complex, this plan will be split based on how much effort is required.
Low Effort: Add these plans to NEO presentations for other membership groups.
Mid Effort: Look at older content surrounding these plans and update them to be more informative.
High Effort: Create new content for direct mail, email journeys, and the newsletter to highlight this product and further emphasize its uses. Be sure these articles are shareable, to mimic the word-of-mouth marketing done by POA.
Follow up with Survey to confirm increased understanding.
6 Months Later
Problem: During the following Open Enrollment period, surveys revealed understanding had increased and there was a small uptick in the number of people who enrolled in these new plans. Numbers still do not match what’s expected.
Solution:
1. Identify roadblocks and issues facing new applicants
2. Create a marketing drive to push these products.
1. Identifying roadblocks
No apparent data trend explains why individuals are not enrolling in these products, however, by creating sub-groups we were able to identify that many of the individuals who are not enrolled do not interact with our newsletter or attend group trainings.
Another trend suggested that many applicants exclusively used online enrollment forms rather than enrolling in-person or over the phone. Looking at the online application, there is not much information on these two plans.
2. Creating a marketing drive
Using the sub-groups from the previous section, we developed personas for our different members based on how they interact with our content. We were able to split these individuals into 3 segments: individuals who prefer physical mail with QR codes, individuals who prefer physical mail with a URL or phone number, and individuals who prefer direct e-mail.
Since we did not want to change existing application methods, we developed a separate form allowing individuals to enroll solely in either plan. This new form was much quicker to fill in and could be done entirely online, in person, or over the phone.
Additional issue: marketing pushes in the past have led to an increase in phone calls that our support team cannot deal with. These new forms were designed with this in mind. Not only are these new forms easy to fill out on your own, but our call center is also able to fill them out over the phone in just under 5 minutes.
We then created three marketing journeys with the same direct link to these forms, alongside our phone number. One was a one-pager with information on each plan that went directly to our members home address with a QR code, phone number, and URL. The other two were email campaigns sent two weeks apart that explained the use cases for these plans and included a button to enroll online.
The online journeys included two follow-up emails reminding members when Open Enrollment in these plans were ending, these also included the same CTA.
The original email had a combined average 4% CTR and the letter home had 2.5% of the QR codes scanned (phone calls were not tracked). 2% of individuals who interacted with any of the marketing content ended up enrolling via the online form.
This resulted in a 100% increase in one plan and a 50% increase in the other.
Sample Educational Email:
Subject: Getting a Will and Trust in 2024
Hello {FirstName},
Do you have a will and trust?
Wills and trusts are necessary to protect your assets should anything go wrong, and they make sure your loved ones are not in a legal mess after you’re gone.
If you don’t have one, we recommend going through MetLife Legal. SDPEBA’s MetLife Legal plan gives you access to a team of local lawyers who can help with anything from estate planning to traffic court. The best part is that the plan is under $300 a year, which is around $200 less than a standard will and trust.
To learn more about MetLife Legal click the button below.
Learn More
Thanks for all that you do for San Diego,
-Your SDPEBA Team
Sample Educational Email 2
Note: this email was ghostwritten by me.
Subject: Open Enrollment: Identity Theft Protection for your Family – SDPEBA
Hello {FirstName},
I wanted to reach out to you to chat a bit about a plan you’re eligible for: Aura.
Aura is a Cyber Security plan that protects your family from spam calls, spyware, and clears data from harvesting sites. It offers $5 million in Identity Theft protection and even gives you access to a VPN. The family version of this plan lets you share it with up to 10 adults and costs less than $9 a pay period.
I see ads all the time for different VPNs or data scrubbing services, and I usually ignore them because I feel like I’m pretty good at making sure I’m playing it safe and not going anywhere or clicking on anything I shouldn’t.
I do not feel the same about my mother though, haha.
I have this plan and use it pretty often. I shared it with my mother, my in-laws, my aunt, wife, brother, and my niece and nephew. It makes me feel good knowing they’re covered if anything goes wrong, especially how online they all are.
It’s also nice to get way less spam texts, but I really consider that a secondary bonus.
If you want to learn more about Aura you can check out our website or book a meeting with us and we can talk to you about it.
Thanks,
Will
Sample Marketing Email
Subject: MetLife Legal Enrollment is Available Now
Hello {FirstName},
MetLife Legal is a service plan that allows members to get help with anything from Wills and trusts to defense on parking tickets. This policy is considered a hidden gem among SDPEBA members and offers a lot of coverage, for a very affordable price.
Many members sign up for this plan to get a will and trust, and then end up keeping it because they find its coverage so useful. Whether you want help with refinancing your home, assigning power of attorney, or just a second set of eyes on a contract/lease, MetLife Legal can help!
Around 50% of Americans will be involved in a court case one way or another this year, so we highly recommend you consider this plan!
It costs X a month, making it very affordable and easy to slot into your budget.
You can enroll today by clicking the button below or calling XXX-XXX-XXXX.
Enroll Now
As always if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Thanks,
-Your SDPEBA Team