Aetna: Rx for Engagement

"A retained member is not necessarily a happy member," says Melissa Jones, marketing manager for Aetna's New England regions, in addressing a Custom Content Council audience on why customer engagement is more important than merely measuring customer retention. To better engage Aetna's Medicare audience -- all over the age of 65 with an average age of 75, Aetna entered the world of content marketing.

Jones' objective was to turn around a trend of Aetna Medcare members voluntarily terminating their memberships by creating editorial content that was relevant to this demographic.  "We decided to create a pilot program to test the impact of an integrated communication program on member retention," she says. The goal was modest, a 1% improvement in retention to show the pilot's success -- and save the company millions.

The group came up with Healthful magazine, which has three standard sections: Health, Enjoyment and Reference. The editorial content is positive and slanted toward maintaining the emotional, mental and physical well-being of this adult audience. Jones was surprised at how important physical fitness was to this audience. "You can't believe how popular the Wii is at senior centers," she said.

In looking back, one of the harder chores was getting buy-in from the C-suite level. The group persevered and ultimately, the company realized a 6 percent increase in retention. The success easily offsets the investment undertaken.

The group is looking to offset costs by experimenting with advertising. A cover wrap was sold to HEB Health & Wellness. The wrapper was targeted to 25,000 homes in Texas - and more than 31,000 coupons were redeemed, an outstanding success. "Soft-sell" ads dot the magazine -- a feature on hearing encourages people to call a number to find out more about hearing aids, an article on adopting pets, includes a sidebar on how PetsBest offers health insurance for pets.

I asked Melissa what the percentage of ad revenue was against the cost of creating content. She was quick to tell me that the effort was merely a pilot, and that there was no intention of turning the entire magazine into an ad-supported title -- rather, it had to remain a value add.

She better not let the C-Suite know of the success of the ads then.