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Better Results with Community Marketing

ICYMI -La Vida Felicidad Family Fun Festival. How to use community marketing at family oriented events.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the 3rd annual Family Fun Festival in Los Lunas, New Mexico. More than 600 people showed up for fun and information supporting a great nonprofit, La Vida Felicidad. La Vida supports Life quality for children and families, adults, and seniors, through advocacy and individualized services in collaboration with community partnerships. Most of their relationships are with those that support individuals with developmental disabilities.

Meet More People and Find More Clients with Community Marketing.

Agents are always asking how to get in front of more potential clients. This Family Festival was a perfect example of how to do that. Get out of your booth and explore the event to see who else is there. True, it was not our usual target market yet we still found relationships to nurture and develop ongoing business.  Don’t just sit on your butt waiting for people to come to you, get out there and mix it up! All of these relationships (even with other vendors) are just waiting for you. We haven’t even talked about the grandparents that stopped by our booth who were attending the Festival with their grand-kids.

Community Marketing

Charlie Ferrell Having a great time in Los Lunas, NM

While this wasn’t our normal sales event, the Family Festival was a great place to make community contacts. There were booths for dental and vision services for low income families. All of the major Medicaid providers were there as well. We forged some great relationships (and got their cell numbers) with those individuals that can actually help our clients with their Medicaid issues when they arise.

Native American parents of children with developmental disabilities asked us to speak to their service coordinators next month too. Additional community and tribal resources were also available to assist those families in need. We spoke to everyone we thought we might be able to use as a contact sometime in the future.

Confusion is Common and Your Knowledge is Power.

Most seniors I spoke to agreed that Medicare is quite confusing to someone turning 65 and don’t know where to turn for answers. I had great conversations with a couple of participants that were/are turning 65 soon. I told them to call Social Security and apply for Medicare as soon as they get home. These beneficiaries were just waiting for their Medicare cards to appear. All of their friends told them the cards come in the mail 3 months before you turn 65. It turns out they didn’t know that they had to apply for Medicare because they were not receiving Social Security benefits yet.

They were lucky that one had a birthday in June and the other in July and both are still in their initial enrollment period. Several others stopping by our booth filled out a “Permission to Contact” (PTC) card allowing us to give them a call for this year’s AEP.

Be on the lookout for events being held in your community. Using community marketing, you never know where your next client or contact may come from.

Remember that Sales events must generally be posted with most carriers with a 10 day or 2-week notice. You can hand out business cards and other sales literature and collect PTC cards.  You may discuss plan specific benefits and collect enrollment applications. Educational events do not require any  carrier registration but you can only talk with potential members about Medicare in general terms. You are not allowed to “hand out” business cards but you can make them available on your table and encourage participants to “Take a card”. Any materials must be general in nature. Collecting personal information or PTC of any kind is not allowed.

Contact us for all of your questions regarding how to register a sales event with the carrier. If you have questions about what is or isn’t allowed at marketing events, check out the guide to what a Secret Shopper will be looking for here.  RBI and Medicare Compare really do make it happen for you!

Get out there and market yourself! Part Two

Here’s my second post in a series of three about different kinds of events you can be a part of to market your senior insurance business. Read Part One here.

I loved working informal sales events when I was in the field full time because it’s an effective and compliant way to set appointments.

Informal sales events include popular senior expos, county fairs, church meetings and just about any gathering that’s likely to attract groups of Medicare beneficiaries. I’ll go over a few simple dos and don’ts below that can help you set more appointments, but you should always check CMS’ Medicare Marketing Guidelines for the complete set of regulations regarding marketing yourself at informal sales events

 

If you’re going to work an event, you’ve got to register as soon as possible. Choose one of your contracted Medicare Advantage carriers to represent and use their registration process (Call us at (800) 997 3107 if you’ve never done this before or need an assist). You only need to register with one carrier even if you are displaying materials from several plans. Captive agents can only offer the products from their company, but independent brokers and agents can offer a broad range of products from multiple companies.

By all means, do not sit down at your table or booth. Instead, have a chair or two for attendees to sit down so you can then start a conversation. Greet seniors as they pass by with a good morning or hello. Always make eye contact, and for goodness’ sake, smile! Seniors can be reluctant to discuss their health, well-being and finances, so it’s up to you to break the ice.

Contacting your carrier broker reps and asking for all the gewgaws and brief plan brochures they can muster is another great way to prepare. Get them from all your carriers and restock the table after a while. Who among us doesn’t love free stuff?

Have an Internet-connected laptop at your table. You can show a senior anything displayed on a carrier’s website or demonstrate Medicare.gov’s plan finder features. However, try to avoid researching docs, drugs or copays at the event. Offer to do the research for them and promise them a call back or appointment.
You should use a Permission To Contact Form (PTC) to collect seniors’ call back information in a compliant manner. Most carriers have these available. Try to get a Scope of Appointment if you’re working with Medicare Advantage, but keep in mind the PTC is a lot less intimidating to the average senior. Why most agents don’t use PTC forms is a mystery to me. Let me be very clear, though: Do not do enrollments at informal events. Keep a minimum number of enrollment packets available from the event registering plan (especially for Secret Shoppers, something I’ll cover next time).

Remember, the goal of your attendance at the event is to set as many appointments and call-backs as you can. Provide seniors with enticing factual hors d’oeuvres, not the full meal! Plan a call-back or make a home appointment to look up docs or medications or to report back any research. You’re much more likely to close the appointment with a sale if you can show you’re able to do due diligence for your clients.

For more informal sales event tips, call RB Insurance at (800) 997 3107 or email me. Subscribe to our blog here. RB Insurance-affiliated agents can call us for pointers or assistance with planning sales events.