Company: BenefitMall, Dallas, TX
Company Description: With a dedicated focus on the broker community, BenefitMall leverages innovative technology backed by human expertise to provide the very best in broker services nationwide. Our mission is to provide the fastest, easiest, and most trusted benefits selling experience for our brokers. Through our network of brokers and carriers, we deliver efficient, secure, digital benefits solutions.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - New Product or Service Launch
 Nomination Title: BenefitMall: Marketplace
- Which will you submit for this nomination, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the nominated PR campaign or program, or written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
September 1, 2021
- Optional: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Describe the genesis of the nominated campaign or program: the reasons it was initiated, the challenges it was created to address, the problems it was developed to solve, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 247 words used.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the expectations for employers and employees when it comes to benefits enrollment and administration. While a technology evolution was already taking place across the benefits industry, COVID created urgency and increased the pace of digital adoption. To compete, brokers needed to offer their clients more lines of coverage, an all-digital enrollment process, and assurances of data security.
BenefitMall is committed to providing the fastest, easiest, and most trusted benefits selling experience for brokers. Through the creation of a proprietary service called Marketplace, BenefitMall offers brokers a completely digital solution that is paperless, secure, and cohesive across every point of client engagement, from new quotes to annual renewals. Marketplace, powered by Ease, enables brokers to offer a General Agency experience that differentiates them from their competition.
By providing full-service support that includes pre-sale quoting, point-of-sale enrollment, and post-sale census management support, Marketplace can deliver faster, best-in-class processing and turnaround times due to digital automation and complete enrollment data. Brokers using Marketplace can avoid repetitive data-entry tasks that are time-consuming, introduce human error, and decrease data security.
Broker advertising states, “Less of what holds you back and more of what makes you great.”
Marketplace also enables brokers to easily implement marketing campaigns to upsell additional lines of coverage and offer the varied benefit products that their clients want and need. Through data analysis, Marketplace supports brokers in more effectively upselling voluntary products and services that are driven by life changes, increasing revenue and retention.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Describe the development of the campaign or program: the planning process, the goal setting, the creative and media development, the scheduling, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 217 words used.
Project Overview: BenefitMall launched a “free ben admin” and “post-sale service” pilot in Florida and Georgia in September 2021 with expansion to California, Colorado, and Texas in April 2022.
Business Goals and Objectives:
- Activate broker use of the platform and service
- Increase number of groups sold and average lives per case
- Increase share of wallet with existing customers
- Grow broker network with acquisition of new brokers
Marketing Task: Announce and build excitement about FREE Benefits Administration with Full-Service Support through a series of marketing communications. From a teaser promotion to the final reveal, the campaign moves from peaking the brokers’ interest and curiosity to fully unveiling this new offering from BenefitMall.
Target Audience: The targeted customer is a tech-friendly person, looking for a benefits administration solution that will allow them to scale by doing less paperwork and better manage their business and ultimately leverage BenefitMall’s quote-to-enroll experience.
Marketing Strategy: Lead with FREE Benefit Administration and position BenefitMall as a technology leader with exceptional service at all stages of the employee benefit process from sales to renewal each year.
Introducing “Free Ben Admin”– From quote to initial enrollment and active management of a group’s benefits, BenefitMall is bringing the next level of integration/benefits technology to brokers by offering an integrated ben admin through a proven partner - Ease.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this fourth question: Outline the activities and concrete results of this campaign or program since the beginning of 2021. Even if your initiative started before 2021, limit your response to activities and results since the beginning of 2021 only (up to 250 words):
Total 248 words used.
BenefitMall’s Marketplace:
- Reached goal of enrolling 10,000 employees in the first six months (three months earlier than projected); 39,068 lives currently enrolled
- Increased average employer group size from 22 lives to 34 lives
- Enrolled 1,142 groups since initial launch
- Increased average lines of coverage from 2.5 to 2.98
Since launching Marketplace, the response from brokers has been overwhelming:
Jay Claborn of The Claborn Agency:
“It’s all wrapped up into one nice little website that is very easy to navigate and it makes running an agency, running a business, across different lines of business, very simple. Once we switched over, as far as the quoting side, it became a whole lot safer for us and a whole lot cleaner and just a much better benefits quote presentation overall, and then, of course, it saved time because we didn't have to go to each individual insurance company every single time.”
Connie Chiara of Corporate Benefits Partners:
“It helps us to get proposals easily, understand the pricing for different clients and prospects almost immediately, like within 20 to 30 minutes. We can turn around and see exactly where our clients are going to stand in the Marketplace.”
Marketplace levels the playing field for brokers by giving them access to secure technology that would otherwise be too expensive and time-consuming for them to deploy on their own. Marketplace has created a differentiated value proposition for brokers to not just compete–but win–in the current industry landscape.
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