The Journey to Financial Independence: Encouraging Work As a Path to Health and Wellness for People with Disabilities Via an Email Drip Campaign

Background: According to a 2000 World Health Organization report, employment can promote mental well-being by providing structure, social contact, purpose, identity and activity. These benefits, along with financial wellness and independence, make access to work valuable to people with disabilities.

Program background: Social Security’s Ticket to Work program provides access to employment support services to approximately 13.4 million Americans  who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and/or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits and who wish to prepare for, seek and sustain employment. An integrated communication and outreach program that includes multiple social media channels, educational webinars, website support, print and multi-media informational materials, and maintenance of a 45-person call center. Our challenge is: How do we communicate the benefits of this program to a diverse population with a variety of communication preferences and accessibility issues without tangible and high-touch resources such as mailings and in-person events?

As part of a comprehensive, multi-modal outreach program,  “The Journey to Financial Independence,” an email drip campaign was developed to provide Social Security disability beneficiaries the information they need to make an informed choice about participation in the Ticket to Work program. The email campaign is divided into four phases based on the beneficiaries’ position within the Ticket program continuum. This program is structured on a behavioral economic/choice architecture model and is intended to provide participants the information they need, at the time they need it, to make informed choices about participation in work as a path to financial independence. The email campaign is integrated into the overall digital outreach strategy including web, social media and mobile via text messaging.

This session will describe the initial results of this program, launched in February 2014 to an initial cohort of 150,000 potential participants

Evaluation Methods and Results: Initial measures of success include digital analytics--opens, link tracking, etc.-- and beneficiary feedback. We will present lessons learned from using a phased email drip campaign for behavioral change communication, preliminary results and indicators.

Conclusions: The email drip strategy appears to help overcome accessibility challenges while still providing the timely and accurate information to this diverse population. We intend in the next phase to use micro-targeting by beneficiary characteristics that will be connected to program participation data to demonstrate outcomes.

Implications for research and/or practice: Using phased email drip campaigns for behavior change communication shows promise for reaching a diverse audience

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