Anthem Blue Cross Uses E-Mail to Push Wellness
How many people really believe that their health care provider cares about their health? That was the challenge faced by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and its parent company Wellpoint. As health care provider to more than 28 million people in 13 states, Anthem needed a way to promote healthy lifestyles and build customer relationships.
The answer was a personalized e-mail program, reaching out to members and brokers. “Prior to the e-mail program our communications were handled in the old- fashioned, traditional way,” said Jerry Mallicoat, vice president central region group marketing for Anthem Blue Cross. “That wasn’t necessarily bad, but in an emerging consumer-oriented market it isn’t the way that many of our customers want to do business with us. And it’s not the most efficient way. Conducting business via phones, snail mail and fax can be slow and bureaucratic.”
Anthem put ExactTarget’s Enterprise Solution to good use. An e-mail blast to more than 200,000 policyholders contained 53 different embedded links with graphics, flash presentations and Web sites. The content included Anthem’s latest insurance offerings as well as product and service discounts, and value-added services for such things as gym memberships and flower delivery.
The open rate was 41%. The most popular links were to weight loss reduction services and the “My Anthem” page on the firm’s Web site.
Mallicoat’s staff is able to tell if it is meeting the goal of promoting healthy lifestyles by the number of policy holders that register on the “My Anthem” area of the Web site. Since the launch, that number has increased by 600%.
“It has helped us establish relationships with our policyholders and members that previously we didn’t have because most of our members only have a relationship with us when they use our health insurance at the doctor and file claim” Mallicoat says.
And policyholders seem to appreciate the personal touch. Last year Anthem sent out holiday notes wishing members and their family peace and happiness. “The verbatim response was, ‘Wow, you’re not trying to sell me anything? Did I read this right?’” says Mallicoat. “That’s an example of how we use the tool in a personal way to make our customers feel phenomenal and we feel that way too.”
Anthem has also started using ExactTarget’s On Your Behalf feature to send approved personalized e-mails to independent insurance agents. These contain both customized and standard content to ensure compliance in this highly regulated industry.
“Our internal sales force is comprised of account managers and higher level internal sales people supporting some of our larger brokers and distributors,” says Mallicoat . “They use the tool to push value added information to our broker channel so they can in turn use it to help add value to the customer.”
For example, Anthem’s research on obesity that could be useful to brokers and customers can be complied and distributed as a white paper. Using the tool, Anthem can send the paper to the broker with the account manager’s photo. The accompanying note will read, “I’m here as an account manager to help you get the most value from Anthem, and here’s one way.”
Maillcoat says that “most brokers wouldn’t have the resources to do this research. But they can take that and educate their customers with a very personal message.”
His conclusion?
“The key point is that you have to be able to service your customer segments in ways that they want to be serviced,” he says. “And, in a broader scale you want to have relationships with them in ways that have value and relevance for them based on how they go about doing business and living their lives.”
