Marketing and managing employee benefits differs from most businesses because there are two distinct customers: an employer and their employees. One of the processes that needs to run well in order for each type of customer to derive value is employee enrollment. What is the key element of a successful enrollment campaign? Access to employees. This is the starting place when it comes to engaging employees. Once there is a defined access strategy, we can begin to plan our engagement strategy, and once we get employees engaged, enrollment success follows.

A friend of mine who runs an enrollment/communications company refers to an enrollment campaign without an access/engagement strategy as "fishing without a hook and bait." The access support an employer provides is the hook, and the engagement plan is built around bait that will engage the attention of employees.

A successful strategy for access to employees begins with educating the employer that a well-planned benefits program results in satisfied employees. Employers need to understand that their access strategy should include working with you to build a campaign around both contact strategy (enabling access) and content (enabling engagement).