Table of Contents
Key takeaways:
- Business is slow in the summer, but the right communication strategy can engage your audience.
- For employers, adapt your message to the industry and discuss vision plans to prepare for an upcoming hiring surge.
- For the family market, you can discuss eye health symptoms that appear in the summer and back-to-school eye exams.
- Take advantage of the slow months to review your portfolio and consider joining VCD.
It’s the summer, and everyone is either preparing for the health insurance enrollment period in November or not considering benefits.
For vision brokers, it means vision insurance sales are down. However, with the right communication strategy, you can keep vision plans front and center. Talking about seasonal employment or preparing for a new school year can speak directly to the needs of employers and families to boost sales.
Here are a few tips for being more proactive about vision plans in the summer.
Understanding Summer Employment Trends
Summer employment trends look very different from one industry to another, and you should adapt your strategy:
- For hospitality businesses, seasonal employment is in full swing. These temporary positions often lack seasonal hiring benefits, and discussing short-term vision plans can be interesting.
- Some industries, like healthcare and education, are slow at the moment but anticipate a fall hiring surge. This is an opportunity to offer consultations and help employers review their benefits packages.
- In other fields like retail and e-commerce, hiring surges won’t happen until later in the year, with the busy holiday season. Start reaching out now to nurture these leads over the coming months.
Your message should be unique to each employer and their hiring pattern, but it should also reflect what’s happening in the job market in 2025.
Many people feel uncertain about the economy and aren’t looking to change jobs. Framing better vision benefits as a factor for employee retention isn’t as effective as it used to be. Plus, job openings are down, and employers might not feel they need to upgrade their benefits to stand out.
This means two things for your business:
- Frame vision benefits are a perk that helps with hiring rather than retention.
- Focus on growing industries that aren’t affected by the hiring slowdown, such as AI, healthcare, cybersecurity, e-commerce, real estate, or clean energies.
What About the Family Market?
If your business customers aren’t prioritizing better benefits due to slow hiring, it might be time to pay more attention to the family market. Given the current conditions in the job market, people are less likely to leave their jobs if they dislike the benefits. This means they’re more likely to look into upgrading their health or vision plans outside of work.
Eye health might not be a priority during the summer, but you can change that by talking about these topics:
- Eye health symptoms can worsen between outdoor activities and AC usage in the summer. Sharing common signs of eye health problems can help people realize they need better access to professional vision care.
- Parents will soon schedule back-to-school eye exams. Encourage them to beat the rush by booking these important appointments in the summer instead.
- For those overlooking these pediatric exams, a campaign about how undiagnosed vision issues impact learning can make a difference.
- For those with HSA or FSA balances, the mid-year point is usually an opportunity to assess how much money they have left to spend. Remind your audience that they can use these funds to pay for some vision plans.
By focusing on these timely concerns, brokers can keep vision care relevant for families throughout the summer and encourage stronger engagement as the new school year approaches.
3 Broker Strategies to Keep Customers Engaged This Summer
Updating your communication and messaging can help maintain momentum during the slower summer months.
Vision Plans as “Prep”
Present vision benefits as an important step to prepare for the next season, whether it’s a new school year for families or a spike in hiring for your business customers. With a vision plan in hand, your customers are free to focus on other important things and have the peace of mind to know they or their employees can access professional vision care as needed.
Focus on Cost Savings and Value
We talked about how many feel uncertain about the economy and might hesitate to spend money.
The solution is to communicate about value and savings:
- Highlight your diverse product portfolio and how you have options for different budgets.
- Talk about savings when presenting the benefits of vision plans. For instance, prepaid plans like VCD help you save on vision exams. Scheduling exams regularly helps catch a wide range of health conditions early, which leads to lower health-related costs for employers, employees, and families.
Keep It Short
Remember, it’s summer, and few prospects want to read lengthy digital content. It’s the perfect time for a social media campaign with a series of short posts, or, even better, some personalized emails with a few plan recommendations.
Offer Prepaid Vision Plans With Vision Care Direct of Oklahoma
Before you update your communication strategy for the summer, take a few minutes to review your portfolio. Are you offering the right plans for your audience’s needs?
Joining the Vision Care Direct of Oklahoma family means you can offer flexible prepaid plans for employees and families. Your customers can stack the savings by paying for these plans with pre-tax dollars and unlocking pre-negotiated savings at the optometrist. Plus, our plans give you access to one of the largest networks of optometrists in Oklahoma.
Learn more about VCD plans and how brokers earn a 10% commission.
FAQ
What types of vision plans work best for seasonal or temporary employees?
Summer employee benefits are usually limited, but you can offer prepaid vision plans as a flexible option. Standalone plans are also a good match for employees who don’t have access to other perks.
How can brokers engage customers about vision insurance in the summer?
Brokers can frame vision plans to prepare for the next season. Focusing on value and savings is also important.
How do summer employment trends impact vision insurance sales?
Vision insurance sales are usually down in the summer because many industries don’t have a hiring surge until the fall or later. Plus, some businesses mostly have seasonal or temporary workers with little to no benefits in the summer.
