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Why Isn’t My Website Converting? Advice for Senior Living Marketers

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Are you a senior living marketing professional asking, “Why isn’t my website converting?” Read on, because the problem might be that you’re asking the wrong question. Below, we’re going to explain why—and we’re going to give you four better questions to ask instead.

“Why isn’t my website converting” is the wrong question.

The question is vague because the word “converting” is vague.

We all know what you mean generally, but specifically, are you asking why you’re not converting more people at the bottom of the funnel into move-ins? Or are you asking why you’re not converting anonymous website traffic into leads? And about those leads, are you referring to marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) or sales-qualified leads (SQLs)?

Remember, people don’t come to your site and instantly “convert.”

Sure, some people might enter with an urgent need, but what about everyone else? Consider the following two scenarios:

Scenario 1

Dad just died, and Mom can’t be alone due to her dementia. The adult children do a Google search on “memory care communities in the area,” looking for places with decent reviews. They visit the websites, including yours, do a cursory review, and head right to “contact us.”

Scenario 2

Lily and Bob are nearing retirement. They’re just beginning the search into senior living, specifically independent living. They’re considering Cape Cod so they can remain in Massachusetts near their kids and grandchildren, but they haven’t ruled out Florida, either. They’re checking out communities in both states, but the timeline for their decision is much longer, at least two years out. Bob and Lily enter your site after doing some googling and reading reviews. They subscribe to your blog and follow your community on social media, just so your community remains on their radar.

In both scenarios, the people “converted,” but they converted at different points in their journey—and where they are in their journey matters.

We know that move-ins are the ultimate conversion metric, but to get there, many smaller conversions need to happen along the way.

For example, Lily and Bob might move in two years later, which makes the smaller conversions (subscribing to your blog and following you on social media) super important.

4 better questions to ask than, “Why isn’t my website converting?”

1. Are we segmenting and scoring our leads appropriately?

If you’re sending ALL leads to sales, that’s a problem.

You shouldn’t treat all leads the same way. Someone who downloads a “Senior Living Options” guide is likely in a different place in their journey than someone who requests a tour.

Only sales-qualified leads should go to sales. The marketing-qualified leads should enter nurturing campaigns until they indicate they’re ready for a sales interaction. (It takes too many touches, on average, to convert a lead, to handle them all individually.)

Setting up effective lead scoring will give you much better insight into whether your website marketing produces sufficient MQLs and SQLs.

2. Do we have enough website conversion opportunities for people at various points in their journeys?

Keep the key stages in mind: awareness, consideration, and decision. You should have helpful content for people in each stage.

For example, people in the research stage (like Lily and Bob) might subscribe to the newsletter. Someone nearing the decision stage might find comparison charts useful. Both are essential steps to the ultimate conversion: move-ins.

3. Is there friction at any of our conversion points?

Friction is when the prospect gets stuck at some point on your senior living website, and the reasons why can be many:

  • A broken link
  • A form that doesn’t go through
  • Navigation that doesn’t make sense
  • A poor mobile experience
  • Too many hoops to jump through to get the info they want

Most of us have likely experienced friction on websites—that thing that makes us throw up our hands in frustration and exit the site.

With good analytics, you should be able to identify the culprit (or culprits) and drill down into each conversion point to better understand where people are getting stuck. From there, you can try to identify what’s causing the friction.

For example, if a landing page that’s usually enjoyed excellent conversions suddenly stops delivering, you can investigate why:

  • Does the form work?
  • Is anything in the copy outdated?
  • How does the page render on mobile?
  • What CTAs are leading to the page?

Sometimes it’s something as simple as a broken form.

Other times, it’s not obvious, and you must experiment. That’s where A/B testing can be helpful. Change an element on the landing page (maybe the wording in the headline) and see if that improves conversions.

4. What’s the quality of the SQLs been like? (AKA: Do we have a website problem or a sales problem?)

Your sales team must communicate honestly with themselves and marketing about lead quality. Are they closing the ones they have at an acceptable rate/percentage?

If yes, then ask:

  • What makes these leads “high” quality? This is a question for the sales reps. The info they provide can help inform things like blog topics, FAQs, and premium content offers.
  • What path do these leads take on the website? A good analytics package shows you their path and their various conversion points. If you understand what’s working, you can try modeling other paths that aren’t working after this “winning” path and see if this helps improve the numbers.

If no, then ask:

  • What’s the sales follow-up like? If sales reps are calling once or twice and considering a lead “cold” if they can’t get anyone to bite, this suggests the problem might have less to do with the website not converting and more to do with the sales team needing some training or support in how to effectively follow up with SQLs.
  • Why aren’t the leads good candidates for moving in? If the sales reps are doing a good job following up, discuss why they think the leads aren’t converting. Is something “off” with the lead scoring? Some leads may be misclassified as SQLs when they should be MQLs. Is something off with the buyer personas? It might be time to develop fresh personas and revamp your content strategy.

Don’t go it alone when it comes to website conversion issues.

Understanding why your site isn’t “converting” takes work. Partnering with a senior living marketing agency that monitors web analytics and makes wise adjustments based on actual data can be a smart investment. Curious to learn more? Get in touch, and let’s talk about your website.