Effective Social Media Tactics for OEP Promotions

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The rules for OEP marketing are very strict, which may cause you to think you need to scale back your marketing efforts during this period. Yet, there are ways to create brand awareness while still playing within the rules. 

The right social media tactics will allow you to get new clients and serve your existing clientele during OEP and all year long. 

We’ll explain why you should bolster your social media efforts during OEP, how to use various platforms effectively, and how setting and monitoring goals can lead you to success. Some fresh, new ideas may be just what you need as the OEP approaches. 

Shortcuts:

Why Market Health Insurance on Social Media Platforms?

Select the Right Social Media Platforms

Social Media Disruption and Evolving Trends

The Value in Social Listening

Create a Content Calendar Before OEP Is In Full Swing

Be Compliant, Be Available

Social Media Marketing Resources

The Keys to Social Media Success During OEP

Why Market Health Insurance on Social Media Platforms?

Businesses place billboards along interstates and other places where there is a lot of traffic to reach the regular drivers and those passing through. Marketers have gotten creative with billboard ads by adding 3D images, lights, extensions, visual effects (e.g. smoke rising from a cigarette), and more to make their advertisements stand out. 

Social media marketing tactics work in much the same way. Millions of people regularly pull up their favorite social media accounts while riding on public transportation, sitting in waiting rooms, taking a lunch break, or any other time they have a little downtime. A catchy ad with cool images or an interesting video may grab their attention enough to click and find out what it’s about.

According to a 2024 study by Smart Insights, 62.3% of the people in the world use social media. Within the last year, 259 million new users have set up social media accounts. On average, people spend nearly two-and-a-half hours checking out social media content.  

With millions of people on social media every day, you have endless opportunities to educate consumers, build trust, and illustrate the value of working with a health insurance agent or broker. 

While social media platforms have become highly competitive in the business world, they are a vital part of every marketing plan. 

Each social media platform gives you new opportunities to make your brand more visible. Your online presence adds a human element that will tell the general public more about you and your business. Over time, your messaging will help form deeper connections with your target audience. 

A variety of messages will also help drive traffic to your website and generate a stream of leads to pursue. 

Select the Right Social Media Platforms

Not all social media platforms attract the same audiences, so it’s important to understand the nature of each platform before deciding what and how often to post. 

When planning your social media strategy, you’ll also want to identify which social media platforms your target audiences spend the most time on. 

The Smart Insights study showed that Facebook and YouTube are the top two social media platforms, followed by Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Pinterest. 

Facebook is the most popular social media platform for a broad range of ages. That said, Facebook is highly competitive when it comes to marketing businesses. Facebook gives you the space and tools to put out detailed posts, client stories, and targeted advertising about health insurance plans. It’s also a great place to engage in interactive discussions with other Facebook users.  

YouTube is the second-largest search engine next to Google. YouTube is video advertising that lets viewers see your face and hear your voice. This platform allows viewers to know that you’re an actual human who wants to help them. A video allows you to explain complex topics, and health insurance is undoubtedly one of them.

Instagram started as a way for people to share images easily. While this platform began as a way for people to share personal content, it quickly evolved into a space where companies can add videos, stories, reels, and live streams to promote their businesses. 

Backlinko gives us some additional information on Instagram user demographics by age:

  • Ages 18-29: 71%
  • Ages 30-49: 48%
  • Ages 50-64: 29%
  • Ages 65+: 13%

By contrast, Twitter users tend to be a younger crowd. According to Social Champ, tweets primarily come from people between the ages of 25 and 34, which means it may not be the best platform for marketing during OEP. 

Like with Facebook audiences, the Pinterest platform is popular with all age groups. It’s growing particularly fast with the Gen Z-ers. 

Another notable demographic is that Pinterest’s audience is 70% women and 30% men. This is notable because men are the most likely gender to make Medicare decisions. 

TikTok is perhaps the newest platform for a strategy for social media marketing. This platform quickly developed a reputation for short-form videos, although long-form videos are gaining in popularity. 

You can upload videos to TikTok up to 60 minutes long. The platform recommends keeping live streams to 30 minutes. As for the TikTok demographics, younger people predominantly use the platform, but millennials and older audiences also use it. 

Regardless of which platforms you decide to invest your time and money in, you’ll get the best results if you optimize your posts. You can do that by using relevant keywords and accurate information in your posts. 

Also, be sure to use high-quality images and videos. 

Hashtags are another way to optimize your content. When someone searches for a particular hashtag, they may come across your content. 

Social Media Marketing Disruption and Evolving Trends

Often, it seems you no sooner have social media marketing figured out when everything changes. 

Instagram is a prime example of a recent change in social media trends. The platform can now detect whether posts are original or reposted. It now favors original content and may delete unoriginal, unenhanced content from its recommendations feature. 

Instagram has also changed its algorithm to favor creators with smaller followings. This change will allow smaller businesses to better compete with larger companies with large-scale marketing departments. 

As for other platforms, there is a new trend that prioritizes the content users consume rather than the content they regularly follow. This change means that users will likely see more content from new creators. 

Overall, today’s social media platforms have equaled the playing field between posters with small and large followings. Businesses with smaller, tighter communities that post short videos containing authentic, trustworthy content will have the advantage over gimmicky ads. 

The Value in Social Listening

Wouldn’t it be great if you could be a fly on the wall and hear what customers are saying about OEP? In a sense, social listening allows you to do just that. 

What is social listening? In a nutshell, social listening refers to monitoring digital conversations to learn what users are saying about a topic or brand. 

Social listening encompasses tasks such as tracking comments and likes and analyzing conversations across numerous platforms and forums.

While social listening can be time-consuming, it holds the potential for the following benefits:

  • Gaining insight into customer perspectives
  • Identifying emerging trends
  • Discovering competitor tactics
  • Refining marketing strategies
  • Improving customer service
  • Detecting negative comments before they escalate

Overall, social listening will create awareness of the customer perspective, which will enable you to address their concerns and, ultimately, improve customer relationships. 

Create a Content Calendar Before OEP Is In Full Swing

You won’t likely have much success if you take a haphazard approach to posting social media content during OEP. You’ll have better results if you take some time to plan and set some goals. 

Be sure to set SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). Also, be sure your social media marketing plans align with your business and content strategy goals.

The main issue with putting content out on social media is the time constraint. It’s not always easy to come up with new and exciting ideas that haven’t been seen or tried. It takes time to research your target audiences and competitors.

The best way to handle these objections is to make use of time when you have it. A content calendar requires you to put in a little time and energy upfront. 

The saving grace is that you’ll have ready social media content at your fingertips, and you’ll know exactly what you need to post, when you need to post it, and exactly where it should appear. 

Tips for Managing Social Media Content

  • Develop a content strategy for each of your target audiences (people who are new to Medicare, people who may be interested in switching, etc.).
  • Use a combination of text, images, stories, and videos to keep your content engaging.
  • Consider using AI as a resource for generating ideas for ads or getting rid of creator’s block.
  • Research when your target audiences will most likely be online and display paid ads during those periods. 
  • Engage with customers on all platforms. Like their posts and respond to their comments.
  • Make sure your content matches your brand voice.
  • Repurpose your content in new and unique ways if it’s getting attention.
  • Post regularly according to your content calendar.
  • Set metrics for each social media channel (reach, impressions, audience growth rate, video completion rate, etc.).
  • Do a hashtag analysis of your competitors.

Be Compliant, Be Available

As you may know, CMS has a list of marketing rules that you cannot break during OEP. The organization explicitly forbids you from engaging in or promoting any activities that intend to target the OEP as a way of creating revenue for your business. 

You can’t solicit clients directly or target them. You can’t knowingly try to change their mind about their plan. For example, you can’t suggest customers call you if they’re unhappy with the plan they chose or remind them that OEP is the perfect opportunity for them to switch plans.

If someone does change health plans, you can’t help them change to a new plan more than once during OEP. 

If you fail to follow the rules, even accidentally, you could risk losing your insurance license. It’s not a risk that’s worth taking. 

While there’s a risk of your ads sending up a red flag to CMS, the government wants agents to be available to answer customers’ questions. 

There is certainly a long list of “don’ts,” but there are a lot of perfectly legal things you can do to help your clients during OEP. 

Keep in mind that customers must reach out to you before you can help them. If they are the first to tell you they’re unhappy with their current plan, it opens the door for you to discuss it with them. You can also answer questions about when they can make changes and what new plans are available as long as they initiate the conversation. 

It is totally within the rules to service your clients during OEP. You can make sure they have their insurance cards. You can encourage them to use their wellness benefits, and you can answer any questions they have about their current plan. Any of these discussions may lead to them wanting to switch plans, and that’s acceptable. 

Some other ways you can engage with customers during OEP include sending them brochures with a medication tracker, a contact list for their doctors and emergency numbers, or a thank you card. 

Carriers often supply marketing materials for brokers and agents that are in compliance with CMS regulations. 

Social Media Marketing Resources

We’ve put together the following list of marketing resources to streamline your efforts in planning your social media content:

The Keys to Social Media Success During OEP

Patience and consistency are the keys to social media marketing success during OEP. It’s okay to start small. 

Stick to your content calendar and regularly engage with your audiences. OEP will soon be over, and you can expand your marketing efforts even more. You can always build on your successes next year.

Lastly, remember that this year’s trends may be completely outdated next year. With that in mind, be sure to research the new trends and revise your OEP social media tactics with every new season.