Archive for category: Marketing Resources

We’re in the midst of celebrating our 10th anniversary. You can catch up on some of our other anniversary-inspired posts below: 

• 10 Ways Senior Living Marketing Has Changed in 10 Years 
• 10 Ways We’re Not Your Average Marketing Agency 
• 10 Interesting Facts About Us & Our Marketing Journey 

For this post, we’ve rounded up 10 predictions in senior living marketing for the next 10 years. Some of the ideas are bigger and dreamier than others. But our team believes all have merit—and could very well happen in some fashion over the next decade or just beyond. 

1. Boomer marketing will need to be segmented.

We’ve been reminding clients about this, but not enough communities are embracing the idea that Boomers should be segmented into two distinct groups: Boomers 1 and Boomers 2.  

The youngest Boomers are 58, and the oldest Boomers are 76. That’s a span of nearly two decades. What a 60-year-old Boomer wants will be vastly different from someone who’s approaching 80. 

• What this means for senior living marketing and sales teams: Make sure you have plenty of engaging content that speaks to both groups—and that you have an effective way to score and segment leads in your marketing automation so that you can successfully send the right message to the right Boomer at the right time. 

2. Climate change will continue to enter the conversation.

From operations and infrastructure standpoints, senior living communities will need to address the climate crisis since things like more powerful hurricanes and threats of fires and floods will affect the buildings themselves. There will also be a need for clearer emergency protocols and preventive measures.  

• What this means for senior living marketing and sales teams: People buying into senior living are going to increasingly care about this issue—and how it could affect their living situation. In fact, as this article reports, Boomers care about climate change as much as their younger counterparts—if not more. Communities that want to stay ahead of the curve should already be discussing messaging around green initiatives. (And urging the C-suite to start initiatives if they haven’t already.) 

3. Offering plenty of variety and interesting options will matter more—much more.

The generations coming up—think Boomers and Gen X—have grown accustomed to ordering exactly what they want, when they want it. They’re not going to accept a cookie-cutter lifestyle that has few choices or limitations on customizing features and amenities.  

This article from The New York Times quotes one industry expert as saying, “We have to design communities that cater to what boomers want, and that’s a difference between senior housing today and housing developed 10 or 20 years ago.” 

• What this means for senior living marketing and sales teams: While this trend will affect operations and infrastructure, it will also be something marketing and sales teams will need to think about, too. Because you’re going to need to quickly convey with makes your community different from all the others—and yet also show how people can customize it to their liking. 

4. More transparency will be needed on senior living websites around pricing.

Today, most communities shy away from listing prices on their senior living websites. (Or if they do, it’s either hard to find or you have to surrender your info to get it.)  

We predict that over the next decade communities will need to find a way to be transparent about pricing so that no one wastes their time—prospects and community staff members alike. 

Why do we predict this shift? The New York Times notes that there’s going to continue to be increasing separation between luxury senior living and more affordable options. “Specialized housing for older Americans has been around for decades. But shifting demographics are forcing the industry to diversify more rapidly across rates and services, yielding increasingly lavish residences for upper-income Americans as well as a growing number of affordable housing models.”  

The article discusses some interesting experiments happening presently, like one community requiring residents to volunteer 10 hours a month in the community to help take the load off staff and to feel more connected to the community. We predict more interesting experiments like that, which brings us to some of our wilder predictions below.  

• What this means for senior living marketing and sales teams: Teams will need to experiment with language and messaging around pricing discussions. This will influence so many aspects of marketing from organic search to paid ads to how you approach pricing on the website. For example, you might want to create interactive surveys that help website visitors easily self-identify whether they can afford the models that you’re specifically selling.  

5. Print ads and direct mail will go away. 

As we enter the next decade (the 2030s), we do predict that direct mail and print ads (and other print materials) will no longer be viable marketing channels. (Unless something unforeseen happens. We reserve the right to revise this prediction!)  

Print and direct mailers still work with the Silent and Greatest Generations—and older Boomers. But think of the 58-year-olds you know today. How many of them regularly read print publications? 

• What this means for senior living marketing and sales teams: Closely monitor your results with direct mailers and print ads. Don’t be afraid to pull the plug once the numbers are telling you these vehicles aren’t delivering ROI. Continue to monitor what does work with younger Boomers and Gen X (and don’t be afraid to experiment). 

6. Expect to see more offers of senior living “test drives” or “free trials.”

Hey, it works for Netflix, right? And sleep trials work for mattress companies. Why shouldn’t the concept of a free trial work for senior living communities? Offering people the chance to test drive accommodations for two-week stretches might be the way to seal the deal.  

After all, most communities that offer free lunches often see increased interest and higher move-in conversions from those who attend those lunches than those who don’t. So think of this idea as simply an extension of a turbocharged free lunch. 

And no, it might not work for every senior living lifestyle (like memory care) or price point. But for AL and especially IL? Why not?   

Now, we know there will be some kinks to work out, like making sure people don’t use the two-week trial as free lodging for a vacation. You wouldn’t offer it to just anyone, either. But for truly sales-qualified leads—we’re talking serious folks who are considering your community vs. a competitor . . . why not offer a no-obligation trial for a week or two so they can experience what life would be like? 

• What this means for senior living marketing and sales teams: Our point in bringing this idea up . . . it’s going to be on marketing and sales teams to come up with some of these big, hairy, scary ideas and present them to the C-suite. And if you really want one of your wildcard ideas to happen, know that everyone on the marketing and sales teams might need to step up and participate. (Nothing is worse than someone coming up with a great idea, only for that person to walk away, because it’s on someone else to execute the great idea.) 

7. Expect to see more flexible options for how, when, and where people can live. (Especially in the luxury active lifestyle space.)

Imagine a senior living community with locations in the Northeast, the South, and the West. And now imagine, as a resident, you get to split time between all three communities. Perhaps you spend your summers living in the community outside of Boston, your autumns in California, and your winters in Florida.  

Who knows? Maybe a sister community will pop up in Paris, and every other spring, you get to live there. We predict more creativity and options like this, especially for the luxury active adult lifestyle. 

• What this means for senior living marketing and sales teams: So much of what we’ve been discussing in this article should sound exciting to anyone who works in marketing and sales. Because historically, one of the biggest challenges has been that senior living marketing and sales teams are all essentially selling the same thing—the same floor models, the same amenities, and the same concepts (more or less). But in order to be competitive and to cater to the younger generation’s more discerning tastes, we’re going to see more differentiators—which will make it easier and more fun to market. 

8. Expect to see even grander scenarios in the ultra-luxury senior living space.

The Times article we’ve been linking to throughout this blog post discusses the growing income disparity between luxury senior living and more moderate options. And we think this disparity will continue to grow.  

As a result, we predict some “ultra” high-end luxury communities will come into existence, ones that offer customization to the Nth degree, amazing concierge services modeled after 5-star hotels, and lots of built-in perks. “Senior living” will become a senior living experience—with many options for what that experience can look like. 

• What this means for senior living marketing and sales teams: The behind-the-scenes teams will look very different, too. The ultra-luxury model will attract people with luxury marketing backgrounds from other industries, like hotels, rather than healthcare. (This isn’t a judgment, either! Different senior living models will need very different teams supporting them.)  

9. Death, dying, grief . . . these subjects will emerge from the shadows.

Some of the writers on our team—including this writer who authors most of SLS’s blog content—have often wondered why we don’t talk about death, dying, bereavement, and grieving more in senior living materials.  

No, it’s not a sexy topic. Or a cheery one. But it’s necessary. People residing in senior living communities—even those on the younger end—deal with death (and long-term illnesses) regularly. Think parents, spouses, and friends. Maybe even adult children.  

As this article in Psychology Today says, “We need, as a society, to acknowledge this grieving process; to talk openly to people living with a terminal condition and be kind and available. When we shun those experiencing death or loss we shut ourselves off from our more compassionate, empathetic selves and reduce our capacity to relate to those in distress.” 

Now, we’re not suggesting that a community’s marketing materials will ever lead with the subject of death and dying. But as younger Boomers and Generation X come of age, we predict an easing up on the unspoken rule that talking about death is verboten. 

• What this means for senior living marketing and sales teams: Writing about death in a way that people can embrace will require nuance and planning—it’s not something a writer can put together quickly. The best thing teams can do now is learn what their personas would like to know and hear about this topic. Talk to current residents. Talk to families. Talk to families who’ve recently lost a loved one who had been living in your community. What would they have wanted to be done differently? What would they have wanted to know? What materials would have helped? 

10. Another pandemic? Aliens? Something else?

Back when we founded our agency in 2012, we never would have predicted the world we’re in today—a world that’s still emerging from a two-year pandemic and that’s publicly acknowledging and investigating UFOs.  

Trying to predict what the world will be like ten years from now might seem like a foolish endeavor. But it’s important to dream—and to anticipate things large and small, good and bad. We do think we’ll continue to see some big marketing shifts in general—and within senior living marketing specifically. 

• What this means for senior living marketing and sales teams: Stay alert. But don’t panic. From a marketing standpoint, follow reputable sources and work with people who keep their fingers on the senior living marketing pulse.  

Work with us now and worry less about the future tomorrow. 

Making predictions can be fun—and exhausting if you start fixating and worrying about things that haven’t happened yet. Senior living marketing can be exhausting enough on its own. Let us help. You can offload many tasks to us, and we’ll always keep you informed about the latest marketing trends we’re seeing—and if any make sense for your community.  

We spend a lot of time talking with our clients about marketing strategy—and why creating a winning strategy is an essential first step. But what does a “winning” senior living marketing strategy even mean, or look like? Keep reading . . .  

1. Define what “winning” looks like at various points during the marketing and sales process.

In senior living, the ultimate conversion point is move-ins. Everyone wants to see more move-ins and better move-ins. But words like “more” and “better” are incredibly vague. Marketing and sales teams need specific (and realistic) numbers to aim for—and not just in terms of move-ins, either.  

Think of all the conversion points that can influence move-ins. For example, increasing quality website traffic by 10 percent next quarter is an example of a clearly defined goal that can influence move-ins. No, not right away, but eventually. 

The clearer your definition of winning is and the clearer your goals are, the easier it will be for marketing and sales teams to develop a strategy for achieving those goals—and for measuring progress.  

2. Develop a strong resident retention program.

If you have excellent move-in conversions, but lousy resident retention, this will affect your bottom line.  

Remember, it costs more to replace a resident than it does to attract a new one. When a disgruntled resident leaves, you lose precious acquisition (aka marketing) dollars. But other costs come into play, such as direct costs, operational costs, and social costs. (Hint: Make sure you understand the lifetime value of each resident.) 

Bottom line: A winning senior living marketing strategy today must include a specific strategy for retaining residents and keeping them happy. 

3. Don’t skimp on the essentials, like buyer persona development.

We understand that persona development can be hard for some people to appreciate (especially those in the C-suite who are monitoring spending). After all, the results don’t yield something truly tangible, like a piece of marketing collateral. Personas aren’t customer-facing, either.  

But here’s the thing: You can’t develop a winning senior living marketing strategy if you don’t understand who you’re marketing to. Taking the time to understand the ideal residents for your community will inform your overall strategy. Generic personas will produce a generic strategy—one that won’t deliver the ROI you’re looking for. Instead, invest in senior living persona development. 

4. Be prepared to pivot—a lot.

Long gone are the days when you could create a 12-month marketing strategy for the year ahead. Too many things are in flux now in our world, forcing marketing strategies to change on a dime. Case in point: the pandemic, the current rise in inflation, and even climate change.  

Marketing strategies—and those responsible for developing and managing them—must remain nimble. You need to adjust quickly as things change on the ground.  

For example, if you were managing any communities in Florida in September of 2022, you likely had to change your short-term campaigns quickly, thanks to Hurricane Ian. And if any of your properties were affected by Ian, well . . . obviously that’s what we call a game-changer—something that can upend a marketing strategy in a matter of hours. 

This leads us to our next point . . . 

5. Work with a marketing agency for additional expertise and ongoing support.

A good senior living marketing agency can serve as an extension of your own marketing team within your community. Plus, an agency has a 30,000-foot view. They can help pick up the slack, monitor analytics, and often save you money since everything can flow through them (ad buys, paid digital ads, writing, etc.). 

Interested in learning how we can help your team create a winning marketing strategy? 

Set up a complimentary brainstorming session with us and let’s talk through your goals and how we can help you achieve them. 

 

 

If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you’ve likely heard us say that effective marketing involves sending the right message to the right person at the right time. Marketing automation can help with the execution. But how do you identify who the “right” person is—and the corresponding messaging? 

That’s where buyer personas come into play.  

What are buyer personas? 

Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers—in this case, your ideal residents and the adult children and loved ones who are often involved in making decisions. By having a clear picture of who your buyers are, you can better personalize your messaging and marketing to them.  

For example, instead of sending the same lead nurturing emails to everyone in your database, you can segment by prospect persona and tailor the messaging accordingly. 

Keep in mind that personas are internal documents. Marketing and sales teams use them to guide the various messaging and marketing campaigns.  

What is the best way to create a buyer persona? 

You create buyer personas through research, surveys, and interviews with happy residents and lost prospects.  

Here are some practical methods for gathering the information you need to develop personas: 

• Interview happy residents. What made them decide to make the move to senior living? Why your community? What problem did your community solve for them? Note: The “problem” isn’t necessarily going to be negative. It could be something positive like “I was ready to downsize and enjoy maintenance-free living and an active lifestyle.” 
• Gather demographics. What’s the average age, the breakdown between women and men, marital status, etc. 
• Review family and resident surveys. What services and amenities do your residents find most valuable? 
• Talk to lost prospects. Have your sales team get into the habit of asking people why they decided to go somewhere else. You should also conduct a more formal interview with a willing lost prospect or two about their experience. 
• Gather intel from your website forms. Use form fields to capture important information, like the person’s timeframe or hobbies. Take advantage of progressive profiling, which allows you to ask different questions as people download more content from your site. 
• Talk to your sales team. Ask for their feedback on the leads they’re interacting with most. What generalizations can they make about the different types of residents and prospective residents you serve best? What are the most frequent questions they answer? 

You should also keep track of details that would indicate when someone isn’t a good fit for your community. Whereas a prospect persona is a representation of an ideal customer, a negative—or exclusionary—persona is a representation of who you don’t want as a customer. For example, this could include prospects who require care or services that you’re unable to provide.  

What happens with all the persona research? 

Now, comes the fun part! You’re going to create a one-page narrative about each persona. Give the persona a name. Use images (stock images are fine) to bring the persona to life even more.  

For example, you might craft narratives about “Widowed Wally” and “Single Sally” that explain who they are, their needs/pain points, and what they’re hoping to find in a senior living community. The needs of widowed men between 70 and 85 (“Widowed Wally”) will be different from single women in their 60s (Single Sally).  

For example, maybe you learn that one of the most important things to the widowed men in your community is having access to delicious, nutritious meals and plenty of activities like playing cards, watching football, and playing golf. Given this, you might create lunch & learn campaigns where you invite widowed men to a free lunch at your community so they can enjoy the food and learn more about the community. 

Remember, even though these are fictional representations, your personas are based on very real facts that your research uncovered. In other words, your personas will be different from another community’s personas.  

How do you use buyer personas? 

When combined with the lifecycle stage (i.e., how far along someone is in your sales cycle), personas allow you to map out and create highly targeted content. 

For example, if an individual downloads a guide called “Understanding the Early Stages of Dementia,“ you know this individual will likely be interested in other topics related to Memory Care. The workflow for this prospect would include sharing related blogs and eBooks or inviting them to a Memory Care support group or educational program. As long as the content is relevant to their needs and pain points, your prospects will continue to be engaged and will continue through the sales funnel. 

What should you do if you need help creating buyer personas? 

Work with a marketing agency that excels in persona research for the senior living industry. Ahem—that would be us! Get in touch and let’s talk about personas.

When it comes to marketing to baby boomers, you must have a strong value proposition. OK, so what the heck is a value proposition anyway—and how do you create one? Keep reading. 

What is a value proposition? 

Oh, marketing! You got to love the jargon, right? Sometimes referred to as a unique selling proposition (or USP), a value proposition shows what’s in it for the prospect and why the prospect should choose you instead of your competitors. Because at the end of the day, that’s what prospects care about: How does your product or service benefit them?  

Your value prop shouldn’t be confused with a company mission statement. A mission statement is about your company’s goals and vision. A value proposition is focused on the prospect’s needs and pain points and how you address those pain points. It’s a true proposition—in essence, a proposal—about why the prospect should choose you. An effective value prop will get into the benefits you offer and how you’re different from your competitors.  

Is a value proposition a written statement?  

An effective value proposition is usually a short paragraph rather than one simple sentence. You need more space than a single sentence since a value prop gets into what’s in it for the customer, which includes their needs/pain points and how you solve for those better than your competitors. 

How is a value proposition used? 

Your senior living website home page is the best place for your value proposition since that’s your most trafficked website page and it sets the tone for what website visitors can expect. You might have your value prop “blurb” in the header area or just below it, depending on the headline. 

But that doesn’t mean you can’t have the value prop—or a version of it—appear on other pages. In fact, your value proposition will influence the messaging you use in all of your marketing materials, from your internal website pages to advertising to everything in between. 

What makes for a good value proposition? 

Here’s what to aim for when developing your value proposition.  

• Be specific. Your value proposition should be incredibly specific about the benefits your prospects and customers receive compared to what your competitors offer. There’s no room for vagueness or generalizations. Be clear and direct. Avoid jargon. 
• Be accurate. This is not the place to be aspirational. Don’t tout anything that’s not true today.  
• Be authentic. Accuracy and authenticity are two sides of the same coin—they go hand in hand. Accuracy is about being truthful. Authenticity is about being genuine in your tone and how you present your value proposition. It should reflect your overall senior living brand identity.  

An important caveat: Your value proposition won’t be all things to all people. Why? Because your senior living community isn’t for everyone. In some cases, your competitors might very well be the better option, and that’s OK.  

Why are value propositions so important? 

An effective value prop does the heavy lifting for you. It can help people self-identify whether your community sounds like the right fit for them—or not. The ones who aren’t the right fit can go elsewhere. The ones who are the right fit can continue their journey with you, downloading content and requesting tours. Ultimately, these “best fit” folks will be easier to convert into move-ins. 

Why do value propositions matter so much when marketing to baby boomers? 

Boomers are tech-savvy. The youngest Boomers are in their late fifties. The oldest are in their mid-70s. These folks do online research. They will visit your website. They will read online reviews. And they will look for a community that can serve their specific needs. Once you’re on their “pass” list, you might never get back on their “consideration” list. The better you are at clearly conveying the key benefit to your ideal boomer prospect, the easier it will be to keep the conversation moving forward. 

How do I write a value proposition? 

There’s no shortage of ways to go about it—and every marketing site has its own take and approach. Try not to overthink it too much. Instead, pretend you have one shot to communicate why someone should choose your senior living community instead of another community. What would you say? 

• Work with your team on brainstorming answers to that “why.” Dig deep. All senior living communities are selling the same thing, more or less, so you have to go beyond the basics and figure out what makes your community special.  
• Interview your happiest residents. Ask them what they would write if they had one shot to convince someone to move into your community.  
• Read your reviews—the good ones and the bad ones. Create a spreadsheet with words/phrases that people keep using.  
• Audit competitors. Not just physical competitors in the area, but also competitors you compete with online. (They’re not always the same.) How are they positioning themselves? What’s their value proposition?  

Once you do this work, you’ll want to identify the focus of your value proposition, meaning the number one reason why someone should move into your community rather than a competitor’s.  

Take a step back. Challenge your own assumptions. Allow yourself to be persuaded by the evidence. For example, maybe you originally were thinking the community’s modern accommodations were the key selling point, but all the reviewers and residents keep talking about the warm staff that feels like family.  

After you’ve identified the number one reason why someone should move into your community, you need to write the “blurb,” as we affectionately call it, which will include:  

• A compelling headline that clearly communicates the key benefit you’re delivering to your ideal prospect 
• A short paragraph that continues to make your case by building off the headline (you only have a few lines) 

Draft several versions. Ideally, work with a copywriter. Writing short persuasive copy isn’t as easy as it sounds. In fact, sometimes writing short copy is harder than writing longer missives. So it’s a worthwhile investment to work with a writer. If you need some inspiration, WordStream has a great article with seven examples of compelling value propositions.  

 Once you have a few versions, you’ll want to discuss it internally with marketing and sales (and possibly the C-suite if they want to provide input). You might want to get feedback from some of the happy residents you talked to—simply ask which version captures how they would position your community. You can (and should) test your value props to see what resonates. 

Can Senior Living SMART help me develop a winning value proposition? 

You bet! We have a stable of talented copywriters and marketing strategists who can work with your team in uncovering the key differentiator you offer. From there, we can craft an engaging value proposition for your home page and use it to guide your overall messaging.  

Get in touch and let’s discuss what makes your community special.