Employers continue to migrate to digital employee benefits communications, most especially during this Q4 open enrollment season. Younger and more digitally savvy workers have especially welcomed this transition.
This flight to digital has no doubt been hastened by the continuation of work-from-home policies and the unwelcome return of a year-end slowdown in delivery services at the US Postal Service.
No matter the cause, employers who embrace digital communications as part of an omnichannel employee benefits marketing campaign instantly recognize the benefits of these advanced marketing solutions.
For the past several years, JP Griffin Group has utilized several digital marketing solutions. Still, two are particularly noteworthy - our interactive benefit enrollment guides and our mobile wallet cards. Both have substantially improved our marketing efforts and have earned us many accolades.
Here are ten improvements we've noted during our migration to digital.
Retention & Engagement
Digital technologies such as interactive readers allow additional layers of engaging and contextually relevant information to be added to otherwise static content. For example, our interactive benefit enrollment guides offer the ability to embed videos, roll-over definitions, and image-driven photo galleries. The addition of video alone increases messaging retention almost ten-fold, from 10% when presented in text form to 95% when presented via video.
Furthermore, research shows that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text. So it's no wonder that the average reader spends 88% more time on a website with video than a website without one.
Add to this the benefits of adding helpful descriptions of complex benefit jargon and detailed and depictive imagery, without added heft or perceived length to a document, and you have a winning formula for compressing more impactful information into less space.
Interactivity
Digital communications provide audiences with more opportunities to engage in content and instantaneously act. Embedded hyperlinks and click-to-call functionality allow motivated readers to seek out additional information conveniently and seamlessly take action.
Sharing, clipping, bookmarking, and translation features aid in comprehension and the socialization of concepts with other interested parties, such as spouses and dependents also on the plan - and without message dilution.
Accessibility
Digital communications are easy to access, often a critically important feature in times of need. Our mobile wallet card provides audiences with benefits information that is always at their fingertips.
Malleability
Anyone who has ever caught a mistake after a piece of communication has gone on press knows how frustrating and costly these mishaps can be, not to mention confusing for the intended audience. Digital communications allow you quickly fix these mistakes "behind the screens" and "on the fly."
Digital communications also make it far easier to update information in real-time, such as the all-important but ill-timed late October announcements by the IRS regarding tax-advantaged savings account limits for the upcoming year. Being able to update accurate information about transportation, 401(k), and FSA limits, is invaluable to keeping enrollment materials accurate.
Insights
Digital communications allow for the monitoring of employee engagement thanks to backend analytical reporting. Usage insights can help employers monitor compliance with required reading and other activities, such as e-signatures. This rich intelligence can also help content creators assess where readership/viewership might wane, thereby helping to guide adjustments to content to better improve engagement.
Lead Times
Digital communications can often be produced in less time than printed materials. Picking up just a few days in the production cycle can often allow more time for key plan decisions to be made and/or provide audiences with more time to educate themselves on an employee benefits program. These additional days also help employers avoid rush charges and extra expenses sometimes required for the express delivery of time-sensitive materials.
Ease of Distribution & Message Targeting
Digital communications can be disseminated instantaneously. Multi-state employers can also automate delivery by time zone, while employers with customized benefits by location or employee class or language can very easily target the right marketing pieces, to the right audiences, at the right time.
Cost Savings
Certain digital communications can be produced and disseminated for far less cost than traditional marketing materials. For example, while pre-production work such as coding and design is on par with pre-production work related to traditional print publishing, communicating through digital mediums eliminates printing and distribution expenses entirely. (Video production, on the other hand, can admittedly be pretty costly, though prices are coming down every year.)
Sustainability
Digital communications are more environmentally friendly than traditional marketing materials that have to be printed and then shipped. This more sustainable approach to communications is always very well received by those in your workforce who are environmentally conscious.
Security
Finally, digital communications can typically be password protected. While registration walls can sometimes be a barrier to entry (which is why we typically don't recommend them), they are very useful when disseminating sensitive or personalized information.
Open enrollment is the perfect time to introduce digital innovations to your workforce. There's simply no other time of year when you have your employees' attention any better than when they are making benefit decisions.
Contact JP Griffin Group today if you'd like to see a digital benefit enrollment guide or mobile wallet card in action. We'll help you take your next open enrollment to the next level.