If you want to grow your senior living community, you need to market your location. There’s really no two ways about it; if people don’t know about your community, you won’t attract new residents.
With ever-changing changes marketing senior living, it is crucial to stay ahead of the curve by adopting and implementing innovative and effective marketing strategies. Of course, the ideation process of what marketing strategies and tactics to use is one of the most difficult aspects to overcome.
This guide explores 10 marketing ideas you should consider for attracting new clients to your senior living community.
- Optimize your site for organic search
- Consider investing in a PPC campaign
- Network with other healthcare professionals
- Request referrals from current and past clients
- Leverage social media
- Use a CRM platform to streamline the business aspects
- Offer tours of your location
- Record virtual tours
- Engage in community events
- Allow outside events at your location
If you need help improving your assisted living facility’s marketing efforts, click here to schedule a call with Sagapixel to see how we can help.
1. Optimize Your Website for Organic Search
SEO, or search engine optimization, is key to increasing the visibility of your assisted living facility’s website on search engines like Google. The foundation of an effective SEO strategy is identifying appropriate keywords and terms to include in your content, titles, URLs, and image descriptions. Regularly publish valuable content in the form of blogs, articles, and infographics to address your target audience’s, usually elderly individuals or their families, questions and concerns surrounding life at assisted living facilities.
Outside of content production and optimization, SEO also encompasses technical fixes, backlink building, and site architecture optimization. All of this is to the benefit of ranking your senior living community’s website higher in Google search. This is because, generally speaking, the higher you rank, the more traffic you’ll attract.
Optimizing your facility’s website in-tandem with creating a Google Business Profile also gives you a better chance at appearing in Google’s local pack. This is especially important for senior living communities because potential residents usually want to find a local facility for ease of moving in and staying close to family.
Ranking in the local pack is hugely beneficial as your site can rank in that, organically, and in the sponsored ads (which we’ll get to in the next section), giving you the best chance at attracting more residents.
Generally, the greatest benefit of investing in an SEO strategy is the comparatively greater return on investment. Other marketing tactics like PPC or sponsoring a local event come with a recurring cost as you continue placing your name at the top of Google’s search results or at the physical location. SEO still comes with a cost, but, if it’s done properly, you can continuously drive leads week-after-week, month-after-month, or even year-after-year assuming you solidify your spot in the search results.
Of course, Google changes how they rank websites almost constantly, but the cost of SEO work compared to the leads it can generate are generally more favorable than some other strategies.
Finding a digital marketing agency to help with SEO for your assisted living facility means you can focus on providing the best care for your clients.
2. Consider Investing in Paid Ad or PPC Campaigns
Paid Google ads or a PPC (pay-per-click) campaign can directly target individuals searching for senior living communities. Essentially, when you win a bid for a specified keyword, from a list you establish for your campaign, your page will appear at the top of Google’s search results page. This benefits your location because the higher your site appears in Google, the more likely someone is to click through.
As opposed to SEO, the keywords you get to explicitly choose which keywords you want your site to appear for. Generally, you’ll also bid on 4 types of keywords for paid campaigns: branded, broad, long-tail, and competitor.
- Branded: Keywords specifically related to your brand name; you want to prevent competitors from stealing your PPC traffic for your facility’s name
- Broad: Top-level, general keywords related to home care; examples include “home care agency,” “home health aide,” and “caregiver”
- Competitor: Your competitor’s branded keywords; even if you don’t rank first in the ads, you can still appear and try to take some of your competitor’s traffic
Implementing a PPC strategy increases the chances of reaching potential clients who are already interested in finding an assisted living facility either for themselves or for an elderly family member. Google Ads also provides valuable data and insights about your audience that can further optimize your marketing efforts.
3. Network with Other Healthcare Providers in Your Area
Building relationships with healthcare professionals can significantly increase referrals to your senior living community. Attend healthcare events, join professional groups, and actively participate in conversations to establish valuable connections. You have a variety of options depending on your location, but physical therapists, primary care providers, hospitals, and other similar healthcare providers are good opportunities to build relationships with for gaining professional referrals to your senior living community. Creating a network of healthcare professionals who can recommend your services to their patients works as a passive way to attract prospective clients.
Essentially, you want to drive professional referrals for 2 reasons. First, you improve awareness of your home care agency through a network of healthcare professionals. The more people aware of your services, the better chance you have of driving more leads. Second, the patients of those healthcare professionals tend to trust their recommendations. If you’ve built a good relationship and those healthcare professionals refer someone to you, there’s a better than that person will follow through if they need home care services.
The biggest trick when networking with other healthcare professionals is you need to develop genuine relationships. You can’t build transactional relationships as even the referrals from them may likely come across as ingenuine. Actual relationships ensure those providers you network with actually feel your services are worth referring to.
4. Ask for Referrals from Existing Clients
A happy resident or family is a powerful marketing tool. Referrals from actual clients works as a form of social proof, essentially person-to-person proof that your facility or community is worth trusting, and encourages others to consider your facility for their needs. Encourage residents and their families to share their positive experiences with others.
Offering a referral program, where existing clients get a benefit for every successful referral, can also stimulate word-of-mouth marketing. That said, you shouldn’t come across as too cold or focused solely on the financial elements for the danger of appearing too corporate. However, moving into an assisted living facility is a concern of finances for many, so it may be worth considering using it as a marketing tool.
Another tactic to consider is reaching out to previous clients for referrals assuming those clients ended services on good terms. For example, if your caregivers were especially helpful for a client who had a change in life situation, maybe their loved ones became financially able to care for them, you could request them to let their friends and other family know about your services.
The biggest point is to not be too pushy when requesting referrals of current or past clients.
5. Leverage Social Media
Social media platforms are ideal for reaching out to a wider audience, primarily the families of seniors looking for help with their loved ones. Regularly posting about your community, sharing photos of events and residents, and publishing testimonials can attract potential clients and demonstrate how your facilities benefit residents. Also, engage with your followers by responding to comments and messages, especially questions about your facility’s amenities and services.
Not every social media platform is ideal for private duty home care agencies. Facebook is most likely the best option but Twitter may also work. LinkedIn and Tik Tok would be a bit harder to wield effectively for a home care agency.
I would also like to point out that you shouldn’t follow through with a social media strategy if it wouldn’t do anything for your home care agency. Put differently; don’t use social media just because. Yes, a solid social media strategy may help increase your online presence and visibility, but the end goal is to attract the right kind of clients to improve client acquisition.
6. Use a Customer Relationship Management Software to Track Marketing Efforts
A customer relationship management (CRM) system helps manage your interactions with current and potential residents. It streamlines the process of lead management, tracks resident data, and identifies opportunities for up-selling, allowing you to better focus your marketing efforts.
Finding the right CRM software for your home care agency makes running the business elements easier. Additionally, it helps you prioritize the most effective marketing strategies as you can track what works and what doesn’t.
7. Offer Tours of Your Location & Listen to Prospective Clients’ Needs
Physical tours of your senior living community allow potential clients to experience the environment firsthand, something many seniors and their families need. It’s an opportunity to showcase the quality of your facilities and services. During tours, potential residents can interact with current residents, which can reassure them about the quality of life in your community.
A crucial element of touring prospective clients is to listen to their specific concerns. For example, reserved seniors may not be interested in social events and would rather better understand how your facility ensures their privacy or alone time. Likewise, more social individuals may want to hear about the myriad of social events your facility runs.
Overall, tours are a fantastic way for you to connect on a more personal level with prospective clients. Not only do they get to see the amenities and living spaces you offer, but you also have an opportunity to address personal concerns and questions, improving your chances at convincing a prospective client to choose your location from your competitors.
8. Record Virtual Tours
In today’s digital age, virtual tours are increasingly becoming a necessity, especially for senior living communities. They allow potential clients to explore your community from the comfort of their homes first before committing to an in-person visit or tour. This is particularly useful for family members who live far away but are involved in the decision-making process.
Essentially, a virtual tour should serve as a preliminary method of demonstrating the living quarters and communal areas to put family members at ease. Of course, the follow-up should be encouraging families to visit your location in-person to better showcase your amenities, living spaces, and staff.
Another benefit of virtual tours is the ability to capture potential leads from non-local prospects. Ideally, after some communications with these types of clients, they’ll schedule an in-person visit, but a virtual tour is a great tool for attracting clients you may not have had the opportunity to interact directly with.
9. Engage in Community Events
Participation in local, community events improves visibility and helps build a positive reputation for your senior living facility. Sponsor local events, or host your own events, like health seminars or workshops. These gatherings provide an opportunity to connect with potential residents and their families on a more personal level.
What’s more, engaging in local events demonstrates your business is active in the community, something that’s sometimes important to prospective clients. Showing your business is actually local may put potential clients and their families at ease as there is the potential for distrust for non-local companies or organizations.
You want your community engagement to effectively function as a networking event but with local business owners and residents instead of exclusively healthcare professionals.
10. Allow Outside Events to Use Your Location
Allowing outside events to take place at your community can expose new people to your facilities and services. This strategy can lead to increased awareness of your community and potentially attract new residents similar to engaging in other local events.
Additionally, hosting events at your facility gives you an opportunity to offer more varied activities for your residents. You can use this as a benefit for your clients and for attracting new residents.
Of course, there are special considerations you must take if you elect to allow outside events to take place at your facility like the safety of your residents. But, they are a good opportunity to improve general awareness of your location. Of course, this does mean adequately vetting event runners to ensure it’s the type of event you want to associate your facility with and the safety of your residents.
Summary of Marketing Strategies for Senior Living Communities
Marketing your senior living community requires a blend of traditional and digital strategies. The key is to build and maintain a positive reputation, foster relationships, and leverage the power of digital tools.
That said, running your senior living facility and implementing effective marketing strategies can become overwhelming. Finding a digital marketing agency to handle at least your SEO and PPC campaigns can help alleviate some of the stress.
If you want to learn more about how we can help your assisted living business’s digital marketing, schedule a discovery call with Sagapixel today.
