It seems like once a person hits 65, they’re lumped into one stodgy category: SENIORS. It’s a most unflattering term, and one this group dislikes, by the way. The Medicare audience isn’t one big homogenous group of mature adults. There are different segments that are influenced by backgrounds, education and economics—just like any other audience. They don’t think the same way or shop the same way. One segment may want a lot of handholding. Another is very engaged in research and just wants good solid information. And another couldn’t be bothered by researching; they’d just rather have you do it all for them. Clearly, they have different concerns and goals.

A segmentation study would reveal to you which segments make up your audience. But what if you want to get into each segment’s head and speak directly to their fears and desires, so that when they read your marketing materials, they feel as if you’ve read their minds and are addressing their needs in a much more direct and personal way?

At KERN Health, we’re able to create more targeted communications through a proprietary method we created called Progressive Persona Profiling. We take a segmentation study and layer over it the 10 stages of the shopper’s journey. This gives us important insights into how a prospect thinks and feels when they’re selecting a Medicare plan. It means digging deeper into the personality of these segments and doing more targeted communications, but the rewards are worth it.

Tufts Health Plan in Massachusetts had a 55% share of market and were curious to discover how much more they could grow when they hired KERN Health. They had commissioned a segmentation study, which revealed three distinct age-in groups to target.

When we analyzed their competition and how Tufts’ work compared, KERN Health suggested that they:

• 1. Create more graphic and dynamic self-mailers that would stand out from the lifestyle/letter package DM being done by their competition
• 2. Develop infographics and snackable content that are more engaging and memorable
• 3. Take their segmentation study and apply Progressive Persona Profiling so that each DM drop communicated directly to that segment

This chart illustrates how we took one of their segments and analyzed what they could be experiencing throughout the shopper’s journey. You can see how much more deeply you understand what your audience is thinking and feeling when you do this. This was then translated into marketing content.

The next step was to test that content in focus groups. Only the highest scoring content was then used in the DM marketing.

Here are two different DM pieces we created for Drop One for two of their segments.

As a result of this effort, Tufts achieved a 17% year-over-year lift in qualified Medicare leads.

Understanding your audience through Progressive Persona Profiling not only helps you motivate and communicate more effectively, it also helps you understand which products will resonate more with each segment to help you boost enrollment.

Boni is a Medicare specialist with more than 11 years of experience marketing to Medicarians. As an Associate Creative Director, she leads the Medicare creative development team at KERN Health.

This CRM marketing agency boasts a specialty focus on Medicare member acquisition of the baby boomer generation.

Backed by a proven foundation of experience in healthcare and multiple competitive acquisition industries, KERN Health offers a powerful agency partnership to its clients.

From TV commercials to direct mail, KERN understands the emotional, physical and cognitive aspects of the Medicare audience. Our campaigns are designed to help you achieve your goals and support your strategies for building brand awareness and membership advocacy.

If you’d like to learn more about the power of Progressive Persona Profiling, please contact Shane Kimsey, Healthcare Group Account Director, direct at 949-235-5476.