Best Practices for Building Brand Recognition as a Senior Living Provider

Best Practices for Building Brand Recognition as a Senior Living Provider

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Brand recognition is a critical component of success in the senior living industry. With increased competition and evolving consumer expectations, providers must proactively build a strong, trustworthy brand that resonates with seniors and their families.

Often, despite best intentions and efforts, searching for a senior living community for yourself or your loved one can seem like wading through a sea of sameness. Even when the amenities, activities, and physical plant vary at the communities you’re considering, the same messaging comes through for each. Building a strong brand means standing apart from the crowd and having your messaging, marketing, and operations in alignment.

Here are the best practices for improving brand recognition and establishing a compelling presence in the market.

1. Develop a Strong Brand Identity Internally

Your brand identity is the foundation of recognition and trust in your market. Having internal alignment on the following pieces will allow you to stand out in a crowded marketplace:

  • Define Your Mission and Values: Clearly articulate what makes your community unique and how you serve seniors. To understand these values, connect with your stakeholders. Ask your founders and c-suite what their true “why” is. Senior living is not an easy vertical to operate in. People don’t dive into opening, owning, or operating a senior living community without a vision or a compelling reason. Interview your long-term staff and uncover their opinions on what sets you, their employer, apart. And perhaps most importantly, ask your residents and families – why did you choose us? And why do you continue to choose us month after month? The answers to these questions will help you see the true values that your organization embodies.
  • Create a Consistent Visual Identity: Use a cohesive logo, color palette, and typography across all marketing materials. Your brand creatives should reflect your unique value proposition and give your audience an immediate sense of who you are. Consider getting feedback from your residents and families as you choose your visual identity.
  • Develop a Unique Brand Voice: Ensure your messaging is consistent and reflects your organization’s personality and core values. In this effort, documentation is paramount. Assuring that your brand voice and visual identity are aligned, and accessible to your staff will help keep your brand consistent and recognizable. A brand style guide including fonts, colors, logo versions, visual elements (iconography, textures, etc.), and notes on usage will help keep your branding on point.

2. Optimize Your Online Presence

A well-optimized digital footprint increases visibility and trust with your prospects. Creating and building up a strong digital footprint is a long game. It will take a long-term commitment and a strategic approach. Focusing on the following best practices will give you a leg up:

  • Maintain an SEO-Optimized Website: Ensure your website is user-friendly, mobile-responsive, and optimized for local search keywords like “senior living near me.” A well-structured website should include clear calls to action (CTAs), easy navigation, and accessible information about services, pricing, and amenities. In today’s environment of SEO, connecting with your audience with authentic content that answers their questions is the most important thing you can do.
  • Claim and Optimize Google Business Profiles: Keep listings updated with accurate contact details, high-quality images, and positive resident testimonials. Add virtual tours and Q&A sections to engage visitors. Google Business Profile optimization is the single biggest factor impacting your local SEO authority and appearance in Google’s “map pack” of results.
  • Claim and Optimize Directory Citations: Assure that online directories and citations pages, especially those geared toward the senior living industry, are claimed and accurate. Making sure your name, address, and phone number (NAP) are accurate and formatted correctly is the best first step with online citation sites.
  • Encourage Online Reviews: Positive Google and Facebook reviews enhance credibility and search rankings (especially local search). Develop a system to request and manage reviews from happy residents and families, on autopilot. Be sure that you are following up and responding to reviews – good or bad – to highlight your accountability and connection with your residents and families.
  • Invest in Local SEO: Optimize for location-based searches by ensuring consistency in your name, address, and phone number (NAP) across directories and using geo-targeted keywords in content. Beyond optimizing your Google Business Profile and generating positive reviews, consistency across directories and well-optimized website content will boost your local SEO results substantially. Consider building pillar pages that speak directly of the benefits of retiring in your local community or neighborhood.
  • Leverage Paid Search Ads: Utilize Google Ads and social media advertising to increase visibility for high-intent keywords, targeting families researching senior living options. Aligning your ad creatives with your brand and visual identity will help keep you top of mind while your prospects are searching, further solidifying your brand recognition across channels.

3. Create Valuable Content

Content marketing is a powerful tool for building brand awareness and engagement. It influences user experience, search engine optimization, and highlights your experience in the industry. Strategies for success with senior living content marketing include:

  • Educational Blog Posts: Provide insights on topics like aging, senior care trends, and financial planning for senior living. Creating an authentic and authoritative voice for your blog posts is going to help your prospects understand who you are as a brand. Aligning your content with the conversations that your sales teams are having with prospects is a great way to maintain authenticity and relevance. These posts should always strive to be genuinely helpful to your audience – not “salesy” — while reflecting the brand voice outlined in your brand style guide.
  • Local Area Pillar Pages: Create targeted, content-rich pages to highlight your local area. These pages help with local SEO and also help to set your brand apart with hyper-local content that your competitors won’t be featuring. Your locality can be a vital part of your brand.
  • Resident Stories and Testimonials: Humanize your brand with real-life success stories. These stories are truly one-of-a-kind and apply only to your brand. They speak powerfully to your prospects because they are authentic and unfiltered. Content generated by your residents tends to resonate well with prospects because they can see themselves reflected back at them, rather than feeling like they are being “sold” to by community staff.
  • Video Marketing: Virtual tours, resident interviews, and staff spotlights help create an emotional connection while building authority for your website domain as well. Video content is becoming a must for building brand recognition and trust with your audience. It’s perceived as more natural, more authentic, and less curated. It’s harder to “hide” things when you have a robust video marketing library, from the prospect perspective.

4. Leverage Social Media Effectively

Social media is essential for engaging with prospects and families. Social media is often perceived as more natural and authentic than website content, because it is more immediate and seemingly less curated. Prospects view your social pages to get an unfiltered glimpse inside the community, to see a bit of the day-to-day experience. Key strategies for successful senior living social media marketing include:

  • Consistent Posting Schedule: Share valuable content, community events, and resident stories regularly. Striving to post everyday helps keep your content in front of your audience and builds trust with your prospects. They can see inside the community and understand the benefits of living there on a day-to-day basis. The authenticity and transparency is appreciated.
  • Engage with Your Audience: Respond to comments, answer questions, and participate in discussions. Connecting with your audience helps the social media algorithms highlight your content to a wider group of people, but it also showcases the human side of your organization and shows that you put care into all of your interactions, no matter how “small” they may seem.
  • Use Paid Advertising: Targeted Facebook and Instagram ads help expand reach and attract qualified leads. Highlighting photography and videography from inside your communities in paid advertising is a great way to spread your brand message and increase recognition in the area.

5. Strengthen Community Engagement

Being active in the local community enhances trust and brand reputation (not to mention, it can be a great source of new referral leads). Best practices include:

  • Partner with Local Organizations: Collaborate with hospitals, senior centers, and local businesses. Rehab facilities, community centers and groups (Elks, VFW, Rotary International), and your local chamber of commerce are also great options for networking and partnering. Show up authentically with the goal of adding value to these organizations – not extracting it.
  • Host Educational Events: Offer seminars on topics like dementia care, financial planning, and wellness. Working with local businesses or community attractions like libraries and museums can be a great way to jump-start your event series. Working with experts in the industry can expand your network and also lend more credibility to your organization.
  • Participate in Senior Living Expos: Showcase your community at industry events and local fairs. The best compliment you can get when it comes to building brand recognition for senior living is… “We see you everywhere!” Showing up in person to these types of events is a great way to garner that response.

6. Invest in Public Relations & Thought Leadership

Establishing authority in the senior living industry builds brand credibility. Ways to achieve this include:

  • Contribute to Industry Publications: Submit articles or guest posts on leading senior living websites, newsletters, podcasts, and publications. Senior Housing News, Senior Housing Business, McKnight’s, AARP, and more are constantly churning out valuable content for this market. They also have already garnered enormous audiences. Leveraging their media prowess can do wonders for your own presence and credibility.
  • Engage in Local Media Outreach: Position your leadership team as experts by securing press coverage. This works in tandem with hosting informative events and engaging on social media. Your team should always come across as being the resources and the experts when it comes to aging in your local area.
  • Speak at Conferences and Webinars: Present insights on senior care trends and best practices. Document your successes and submit your findings to industry conferences, summits, panel discussions, podcasts and webinars. First-hand industry research is incredibly valuable to many of these organizations – being able to speak on trends you are seeing day-to-day is highly desirable content that can be extrapolated from for other providers.

7. Utilize Marketing Automation & CRM Tools

Automation and personalization enhance brand recognition by improving lead nurturing and communication. Consider:

  • Automated Email Campaigns: Send targeted emails based on user behavior and interests. Following up with leads contextually, rather than generally, shows that you have deep knowledge of senior living and that you actually care about where your prospect is in their journey. Expertise and passion go a long way toward creating a favorable brand.
  • Personalized Follow-Ups: Use CRM data to customize interactions with prospects. This goes beyond including someone’s name in an email – by segmenting users based on their behaviors, you can truly align your content creation with their journey and their pain points.
  • Chatbots and AI-Driven Assistance: Provide instant responses to inquiries on your website by leveraging machine learning, chatbots, and AI. This allows prospects to get the information they want faster and removes that burden from your sales team – allowing for more productive and informed sales conversations.

8. Monitor and Measure Brand Performance

To ensure continued success, track key metrics such as:

  • Website Traffic and Engagement: Use Google Analytics to assess visitor behavior. Are metrics like engaged sessions, pageviews per session, and time on page improving? Direct traffic should also see improvements as additional prospects become familiar with your brand and online presence.
  • Social Media Insights: Analyze follower growth, post engagement, and ad performance across social media channels.
  • Lead Conversion Rates: Measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and outreach efforts by measuring the change in lead conversion rates over time. If you’re connecting with the right audience and they are finding the information they need within your site, your conversion rates should increase as they download new information and get in touch with your sales team.

Conclusion

Building strong brand recognition as a senior living provider requires a multi-faceted approach that includes consistent branding, digital presence, valuable content, and community engagement. By implementing these best practices, you can establish trust, increase visibility, and attract more residents to your community.

Need help enhancing your senior living brand? Contact our team of experts to develop a customized marketing strategy that elevates your presence in the industry!

Baby Boomer Marketing

Baby Boomer Marketing in Senior Living: Tips for Skewing Younger

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Many independent living (IL), continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs), and active adult/55+ communities face a similar challenge: attracting younger, healthier baby boomers (late 60s, early 70s).

This challenge can cause big headaches, considering the financial sustainability of these communities often depends on residents staying longer (think 5, 8, and even 10 years) before transitioning to higher levels of care. Getting younger and healthier people to move in sooner can help ensure they stay longer.

But here’s the thing: If you think you can market to “all” boomers the same way, think again. Younger and older boomers might be from the same generation, but their needs differ.

This post will explore key steps to take if you’re trying to appeal to younger boomers.

Rethink your buyer personas.

If you’ve developed personas for people in their late 70s or early 80s, that’s great, but they likely won’t reflect the mindset of folks in their sixties or early 70s.

For example, many younger boomers are still working and probably won’t relate to messaging about slowing down and taking pottery classes on a Wednesday afternoon.

So, what should you do?

Conduct focus groups and develop a persona for younger boomers.

In addition to getting into persona basics, probe deeper and ask them the following:

  • What’s holding you back from moving in now?
  • What amenities or services would make you consider moving sooner?
  • What concerns do you have about independent living communities?

PRO TIP: If you have a waitlist, create focus groups with the people on it. Focus on folks in their mid-to-late 60s through early 70s.

From there, develop four main types of personas.

Create separate personas for each of them. Yes, the messaging can and will overlap, but taking the time to do this work up front will help with content creation, lead scoring, and lead nurturing.

You’ll likely be talking to a combination of the following:

  1. Couples (married or unmarried partners)
  2. Solo agers (never married, no kids)
  3. Single adult woman (widowed or divorced, with or without kids)
  4. Single adult man (widowed or divorced, with or without kids)

Develop messaging and marketing assets that will resonate with each persona.

Younger boomers tend to respond to more aspirational messaging highlighting the benefits of independent living while addressing the fear of missing out (FOMO).

  • Messaging should be positive and forward-looking. Focus on the excitement of new experiences, friendships, and opportunities within the community. Campaigns should create urgency (“What are you waiting for?”) while contrasting life at home with the vibrant lifestyle of a senior living community.
  • Social proof is key. Testimonial videos and reviews should showcase real residents who made the move and never looked back. Persona-driven social media campaigns can highlight different interests (pet lovers, foodies, fitness enthusiasts, artists) to show prospects that their “tribe” is already thriving in the community.
  • Balance emotion with logic. Behavioral science has taught us that people make decisions for emotional reasons but then rationalize their reasons with logic. The above points cover the emotional aspects. But don’t forget to reinforce why moving in now is a smart choice—financially, socially, and for long-term well-being.
  • Content formats should be dynamic and engaging. Include video tours, floor plans, photo galleries, event highlights, testimonials, and even TikTok videos and Instagram Stories/Reels to bring the community to life.

By using relatable storytelling, social validation, and compelling visuals, content can help younger boomers see themselves thriving in the community and take action sooner.

Don’t forget to create separate campaigns for each persona you’re targeting.

Because each persona will have unique needs (for example, consider the solo ager compared to the married couple), you’ll want to create separate campaigns for each.

But remember that campaigns for each persona will each have integrated components. For example, your campaign for the solo ager might include print, email, social media, and PPC ads that reinforce the same messaging for that particular persona.

Need help with your baby boomer marketing?

Listen, we get it: There’s a lot to think about. Our senior living marketing agency can help. Get in touch, and let’s discuss how to convert more boomers to tours and move-ins.

Why-Leads-Require-Many-More-Touches

Why Senior Living Leads Require MANY More Touches Than Others

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Originally published on 4/22/2022 and updated on 2/25/25

How many touch points does it take to get a senior living lead to move in? While this number will vary from one community to the next, generally speaking, senior living leads require many touches—likely more than your marketing and sales teams even realize.

In the Enquire Solutions white paper, Marketing Automation Templates for Senior Living, they share a chart about the number of touch points a prospect requires, on average, before becoming a resident.

Turns out, leads need a minimum of 22 touches for independent living, assisted living, and memory care and 28 touches for life plan communities. The sales cycle can range from 107 days (for memory care) to a whopping 400 days (for life plan communities). Assisted living and independent living fall in the middle at 145 days and 203 days, respectively.

The question, of course, is why. Why do senior living leads require so many touch points? And what do your marketing and sales teams need to do as a result?

Why Senior Living Leads Require More Touch Points

Moving, in general, is stressful.

A recent OnePoll survey reported that Americans say moving is the most stressful life event (followed by divorce and marriage). While older adults might recognize that it’s time to move into senior living, the act of moving (and all it entails, like selling their current home) might cause them to stall and stutter along the way.

This is why sales and marketing teams need to be patient and provide those regular touch points. You want your community to be top of mind when the person is finally ready.

Moving into a senior living community is a big monetary investment.

The bigger the price tag on a purchase, the more time people need to evaluate their options and crunch numbers. This is true for any pricey purchase, not just senior living.

Even older adults who have financial stability—for example, they own their own home and have retirement savings—might be skittish about moving into senior living. After all, what if their money runs out?

This is a very real concern. In fact, New Retirement cites a study that claims “60% of baby boomers are more afraid of running out of money than dying.” But here’s the rub—older adults should be worried. The same article shares the following:

  • 83 percent of baby boomers in the lowest income quartile will run out of money in retirement
  • 47 percent of boomers in the second lowest quartile will run out
  • 28 percent of boomers in the second highest quartile will run out
  • 13 percent of boomers in the highest income quartile will run out

Providing extra touch points—and including ones that directly address money worries—is a smart way to reassure prospects and move them down the funnel.

Choosing a senior living community is one of the most emotional purchases a person (or family) will ever make.

When a person buys their first home, emotions can run the gamut, but excitement and pride tend to top the list. When a person is shopping around for senior living, the emotions they experience are understandably different. While some people might feel excited about the next chapter, especially if they’re recently retired and entering into independent living, others might have mixed feelings:

A sense of loss about leaving their home (often the one where they raised their family)

  • Monetary concerns (will they outlive their funds?)
  • Fears around declining health
  • Existential angst (facing their own mortality)

Given what so many senior living leads are dealing with, it’s no wonder they need time to process, consider their options, and engage numerous times with communities before making a decision.

Our job as senior living marketers is to patiently accompany them on this journey of contemplation and discovery. The goal of ongoing communications shouldn’t be to sell, sell, sell, but rather to give, give, give. Give prospects information that will truly help them.

Strategies for Creating a Multi-Touch Lead Nurturing Campaign

Here’s what you need to keep in mind as you nurture your leads over the long haul.

If you haven’t already, invest in marketing automation. You can’t do effective lead nurturing without quality marketing automation. Full stop. It’s important to choose the right marketing automation for your community’s specific needs and budgets. If you need help selecting software, call us.

Make sure you set up lead scoring. Not all leads are created equal. Some leads will be more sales-qualified than others. The sales-qualified leads (SQLs) will be served up to the sales team for follow-up. The marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) will enter your long-term lead nurturing programs.

Understand your prospective buyers. In addition to the pain points outlined above, your prospects might have other pain points as well. Remember, you’re selling to various people, including older adults, spouses, adult children, and so forth. You need to create lead nurturing for each persona.

Map out different journeys and create content that will be helpful throughout each journey. For example, if your prospects are getting “stuck” because of concerns over money, develop content that acknowledges their fears and that offers potential solutions. Some examples . . .

  • Provide a short guide on the Veterans Aid and Attendance Benefit and a checklist that helps the person self-qualify.
  • Create and share short videos from current residents who had similar money concerns—and what helped them feel good about choosing your community.
  • Give authentic answers to tough questions. You could create a guide called “Retirement Worries: What Happens if Your Money Runs Out?”
  • Offer a complimentary lunch & learn with your community’s financial counselor.

You get the idea. When you approach your lead nurturing from a problem/solution perspective (rather than a sell, sell, sell perspective), developing helpful content for 22+ emails isn’t as challenging as you might think.

That said, if you get stuck with all the touch points, let us help.

Too often, communities simply go through the motions when it comes to creating and sending automated emails. That approach won’t get you the results you want. Reach out and let’s discuss a sound strategy for creating a multi-touch nurturing campaign that turns prospects into move-ins over the long haul.

Senior Living Referral Sources: Outreach & Engagement Strategies

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Originally published on 10/28/2021 and updated on 2/18/2025

While we spend a lot of time in our blog talking about digital marketing strategies for attracting quality prospects, we should never underestimate the power of loyal referral sources. Think of them as your “boots on the ground” who can help supplement your online efforts. Wondering how to reach and engage with senior living referral sources? We got you covered.

Types of senior living referral sources to go after:

1. Healthcare referrals.

Referrals that originate from healthcare providers offer a couple of key benefits. First, the sales cycle is usually much shorter since these tend to be needs-based referrals. And because a high level of trust usually exists between provider and patient, the sale is often much easier to make on your end. It’s not unlike asking a trusted friend for a referral for a general contractor—the same concept applies here. If a person’s doctor recommends your senior living community, that referral will hold a lot of sway.

Bottom line: Actively engaging with people in healthcare will be time well spent. Think beyond primary care physicians, too. Anyone who works with older adults (or adult children) can be a focus of your outreach: rehab providers, geriatric specialists, cardiac/pulmonary specialists, social workers, discharge planners/coordinators, and providers of home care services, just to name a few.

2. Friend and family referrals.

There’s nothing more compelling than a personal referral from a happy resident living in your community. If you don’t already offer an incentive, like a rent credit for referrals that result in a move-in, start one ASAP. “Make Your Friends Your Neighbors” campaigns work well, provided they are well executed. (We can help with that.)

3. Trusted advisors (non-healthcare).

Families often consult with financial advisors, elder-law attorneys, and/or private geriatric care managers (like a private college advisor to guide everyone through the decision process). These trusted relationships are highly valued.

4. Competitors. (Yes, really!)

Sometimes “competitors” can be “complements” as long as they offer a different niche. For example, active adult and independent living communities can refer to assisted living and memory care communities when residents need more support than they can provide (and vice versa!). Another example: a Kosher community will be able to refer prospects that are not aligned with that lifestyle/affiliation.

Even with direct competitors, situations exist where a prospect’s “non-negotiable” will be a barrier to moving in. In this case, it’s in everyone’s best interest to recommend the family to another community. (We’re firm believers in what goes around, comes around. So if your community refers prospects to other communities, eventually the favor will be returned.)

5. Grassroots groups.

Ultimately, senior living communities are very local, so building solid relationships with local organizations will always be a wise move. Think first responders, like EMTs (since they know who is unsafe at home), the Chamber of Commerce, houses of worship, and so forth.

Tips for engaging your senior living referral sources

Healthcare

Find ways to make their jobs easier. For example, create a “Rapid Referral” program to simplify steps. Clearly outline your admission criteria so they are not frustrated with denials, guarantee a response timeframe (e.g., “We will do an assessment within X hours of your referral”), make a decision quickly, and if you have to deny a move-in, explain why.

Recognize their contributions. Celebrate them on special healthcare-related days, like National Nurses Appreciation Day in May or Social Work Month in March. (And that’s just the beginning—check out this resource for other ideas.) Let them know that they make a difference.

Add value to their day-to-day lives and careers. Bring CEU programs/speakers to them (and pay for their credits) or offer space/use of your community for a team event.

Offer them something fun. Bring an ice cream truck around to referral sources on a hot summer’s day. Dress up on Halloween and hand out treats, bring chocolate-covered strawberries on Valentine’s Day, and if you can find out when their annual state survey is, bring a Stress Buster Basket with treats and a big bottle of Advil!

Say thank you on the regular. Get some branded latte cups with coffee samples and imprint them with your logo and “Thanks a Latte!” to acknowledge a referral. Also, provide a follow-up note to let them know how great a referred resident is doing—your referral sources care!

Friends & Family

Make it worth their while. Provide an exciting incentive for referring friends or family, like a rent credit for the loved one currently living in your community.

Make it easy for people to participate in your referral program. Offer a variety of ways for people to make the referral (e.g., phone, email, landing page on your website). Don’t make people jump through hoops—the only info you need is the current resident making the referral and the contact info for the person they’re referring to your community. Make sure you have a good backend system for keeping track of this info so that you can award rental credits in a timely manner.

Promote your referral program regularly. You always have new people moving in. Not to mention longer-term residents and their families need the occasional reminder. Go beyond the basic flyer. Instead, order door hangers and tent cards for the dining room and common areas. Have a vibrant pull-up banner in the lobby and create eye-catching inserts that can go into monthly billing statements. In addition, promote the program by email and link to a landing page that outlines the program basics and allows people to refer someone right then and there.

Host monthly/quarterly family nights and talk up the program and the incentive. Some communities make a presentation of a giant check for referrals. Take pictures of your senior living events and share them on social media and in newsletters to reach a larger audience.

Trusted Advisors

Build a referral network. Elder law attorneys, real estate professionals, downsizing experts, geriatric care managers, life insurance agents, accountants/CPAs, financial planners, and the like work directly with your target audience and their families. All of these service providers can be excellent sources of referrals. And remember, the best way to get referrals is to give referrals. This is exactly what networking groups like Business Networking International (BNI) promote with their “givers gain” philosophy.

Offer opportunities for trusted advisors to speak, educate, participate on a panel in your community. Cross-promoting your services is an excellent way to support trusted advisors and for them to support you. If you help them grow their business, they will return the favor. This strategy is also a smart and easy way to find topics for your monthly in-person or virtual events, newsletter, guest blog posts, podcasts—you get the idea.

Competitors

Foster trust and build relationships with competitors. This can be tricky since not everyone plays well together, but you should still make the attempt. Tour their communities and invite them to tour yours. Talk about your differentiators, your ideal prospects, and those you can’t accommodate. Regarding the latter, this could be based on services offered, price point, religious affiliation, and/or special needs, such as special diets.

Grassroots Groups

Get out and attend all community events. This is a great activity for sales teams. Attend health fairs, fundraisers, and school booster programs. Sponsor a local sports team—and bring residents with you! Have your community’s bus in the parade and at outdoor concerts. Become part of the community and have the community see that your residents are out and about and having fun! Participate in back-to-school backpack drives, food drives, clothing drives, and the like. And, of course, make sure you have plenty of branded material at the ready.

Offer community spaces for meetings, clubs, groups, piano recitals, art shows. This can be another great way to support local organizations and give locals a bird’s-eye view of your community.

Bottom line: Treat potential referral sources as people first, sources second.

Get out there and talk to them in person (again and again) and make it about them. Don’t feel like you’re being a pest. Remember, you’re a professional resource for them, too. Demonstrate this through goodwill gestures, like referrals, and thank-yous like a coffee gift card. And, of course, get in touch with us if you need any help engaging with senior living referral sources.

Use Traditional Marketing

Use Traditional Marketing to Build Community Awareness

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While most prospects find senior living communities through digital sources (like organic search and paid ads), other more “traditional” marketing tactics can still be critical during this all-important “find” stage.

The primary purpose of these traditional tactics is not to generate leads but to make people aware that your community exists.

Remember, prospects and adult children often live within a small radius of your community. Effective signage, a presence in the local media, and a strong local referral network can help people become familiar with your community’s name long before they search Google.

Below, we dive into several ways to build brand awareness in senior living via these more traditional marketing tactics:

  • Local media
  • Referral networks
  • Direct mail
  • On-site and off-site events
  • Grassroots marketing

Local media

The target demo for senior living still reads local newspapers, magazines, and publications. The messaging for print ad campaigns or paid advertorials (a popular staple in weekly and monthly publications) should highlight services and reviews. For the call-to-action (CTA), you can experiment with “Schedule a tour” or “Attend our [fill in the blank]” (like a book club; events do exceptionally well in these campaigns).

Consistency is key when building awareness. You can’t run a few ads and expect immediate results. Success requires sustained effort over time.

Speaking of results, they can be subtle and difficult to measure. Consistent messaging often registers subconsciously: “Didn’t I see an ad for that in the newspaper?” “I think I drive by that place on my way to work; I remember seeing a sign.” “Oh, that’s where we donated school supplies last fall.” These small connections gradually build familiarity and trust.

Print ads are especially important for communities going through transitions, like lease-ups, acquisitions, or changes in management.

We recommend running half-page or quarter-page ads every month. Use a combination of evergreen content, such as resident spotlights, testimonials, and “Did you know?” facts, along with any upcoming community events. CTAs should be relevant to the content (learn more, call today, save your seat), and any URLs or phone numbers should include tracking for proper attribution.

Referral networks

For needs-based senior living (assisted living and memory care), prospects often “find” a community through a direct referral from a professional contact such as a discharge planner, social worker, physician, home care provider, adult day care center, or geriatric care manager.

Independent Living prospects might seek counsel from trusted advisors, such as elder law attorneys, financial professionals, spiritual advisors, and realtors, since their decision is more planned.

Building a professional referral network requires time and a collaborative approach. However, the investment is worth it, as these referrals tend to have the highest closing rate at the lowest price.

Direct mail

Today, you can buy direct mail lists that go beyond age, income, and zip code. You can now source highly targeted lists to include parameters like health criteria, diagnosis, and household demographics.

For example, providers needing to generate leads for memory care can buy a list of contacts within the community’s radius and include other qualifying income and asset criteria related to dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

The three essential components of an effective direct mail campaign include:

  • The quality and accuracy of your list (refresh your mailing list yearly)
  • The demographics (for example, health status, persona, financials, age)
  • The offer. Make it compelling! Think visually appealing design and an engaging message and CTA.

Including a QR code, vanity URL, or call tracking number will help measure each campaign’s ROI.

On-site and off-site events

A combination of various events—social, educational, networking, and community—can help attract different audiences at different decision stages.

Early-stage prospects in the awareness/research stage might be more comfortable attending an off-site event at a restaurant, library, church, or country club rather than booking a tour in your community. Dine & Discover, Lunch & Learn, and speaker/author events work well for these folks.

Prospects in consideration and decision stages are more likely to attend on-site events, such as educational programs (financial, legal, downsizing), open houses, Parade of Homes, support groups, and social events.

Grassroots marketing

Grassroots marketing is all about building meaningful connections within the community. Joining local chambers of commerce, donating to organizations like Toys for Tots, food pantries, or Meals on Wheels, and supporting school supply drives are excellent ways to establish awareness. Offering event space for community gatherings, hosting health fairs, and organizing immunization clinics further solidify your presence as a trusted and engaged community partner.

Yes, it is possible to get move-ins from hosting Girl Scout meetings, piano recitals, bridge groups, and even The Happy Hookers (get your mind out of the gutter—we’re talking about a knitting circle!).

Most of these tactics are outbound marketing—and that’s OK.

By “outbound,” we mean that the messaging is reaching a broad audience, most of whom haven’t expressed a need or interest in senior living. The common denominator is that the members of this audience live or work locally.

The hope is they will see your sign, print ad, or postcard or remember your outreach when there is an opportunity to refer. The lead volume for these tactics will be much lower (again, the goal is awareness, not lead generation). However, the closing ratio tends to be much higher in the long run. Senior living has a long sales cycle, and advancing prospects from awareness to close involves a multi-touchpoint and attribution strategy.

Weave these tactics into one comprehensive marketing strategy for senior living.

Do you need help putting all the pieces together and seamlessly executing various tactics? We can help. Get in touch to discuss your community’s marketing strategy.

Marketing Strategy for Senior Living

Marketing Strategy for Senior Living: A SMARTER Approach

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An effective marketing strategy for senior living begins with defining your business objectives and integrating them into your brand, growth, and resident (post-sale) strategies.

Below, we briefly explore each area, resulting in a blueprint you and your team can follow.

Strong business objectives build a strong foundation for your marketing strategy for senior living.

Every effective marketing strategy starts with well-defined business objectives. These objectives guide all subsequent decisions and ensure your efforts align with your community’s overarching goals.

growth-brand-resident-strategies

For senior living, objectives might include . . .

  • Breaking up with aggregators or reducing your reliance on them for lead generation
  • Attracting the “younger senior” with less acuity/frailty
  • Extending lengths of stay
  • Shortening the sales cycle

When developing your business objectives, focus on specifics and concrete figures.

Using the above list as an example, here’s what those concrete figures might look like:

  • Reduce dependence on aggregators by 30%
  • Bring the average age of new residents down from 82 to 78
  • Extend the length of stay in independent living from five years to seven years
  • Shorten the sales cycle for assisted living from six months to four months

Keep these objectives in mind when developing your brand, growth, and resident strategies.

Weave a killer brand strategy into your overall marketing strategy.

The goal is to create and maintain a strong brand identity that resonates with prospects, residents, and referral partners and helps differentiate your community from the sea of sameness.

Key components of a brand strategy include:

  • Your “why”: Clarify your community’s purpose and mission. What drives your team’s passion for serving seniors?
  • Ideal Client (Resident) Profile (ICP): Think of your best residents. They are your ICP. Does your website speak to your ideal resident, or is it trying to be everything to everyone?
  • Value proposition and unique selling proposition (USP). Your value proposition is how prospects benefit if they choose your community. (Think of it like this: What’s in it for them if they move in?) Your USP is that special something-something that makes your community different from your competitors.
  • Brand identity: Develop consistent messaging and visuals to establish trust and recognition.

Develop a growth strategy focused on driving new opportunities.

A growth strategy focuses on attracting, capturing, nurturing, and converting leads. The goal is to create a seamless journey for potential residents from awareness to decision-making.

Here’s a breakdown of essential growth elements:

  • Attraction: Use your website, social media, and other channels to increase targeted traffic and generate interest. Showcase testimonials, reviews, and affiliations to foster trust.
  • Lead capture: Implement tools like landing pages, forms, and calls-to-action to capture visitor information.
  • Lead nurture: Use marketing automation, personalized content, and other tactics to build relationships with leads over time.
  • Lead conversion: Leverage marketing technology (martech) to streamline the sales process and track key performance indicators (KPIs), such as:
    • Marketing-qualified lead (MQL) to sales-qualified lead (SQL))
    • SQL to tour
    • Tour to deposit or tour to move-in
  • Prospect re-engagement: For leads that get stuck in the pipeline, use digital retargeting with paid ads, targeted workflows to advance MQLs/pre-tour leads, and targeted workflows to nudge post-tour leads that have stalled. You can also use a workflow to re-engage leads sitting in the “cold” and “lost but not disqualified” status in the CRM. (We have effective workflows for all of these scenarios.)

Don’t stop once you close a prospect.

Post-sale strategies are just as critical as pre-sale efforts. By prioritizing resident experience, you can boost retention and strengthen your reputation, leading to more organic growth.

In fact, senior living professional Jamison Gosselin conducted a survey that revealed personal referrals (like friends and family) had a ton of influence on those learning about specific retirement communities (this was cited by 52% of respondents). Building an intentional customer strategy that fosters brand ambassadors will lead to increased referrals (and these leads tend to have the highest conversion rate).

Key elements to keep in mind during the post-sale stage include:

  • Onboarding plan: Moving is stressful. To make it easier for new residents to move in, provide valuable resources for downsizing, packing, choosing a mover, and planning for move-in day.
  • Welcome program: The first 30 days can make or break a new resident. Develop a new resident welcome program that’s as special on day one as it is on day 30.
  • Retention plan: Never stop delighting residents. Keeping residents happy will reduce turnover while creating new brand ambassadors.
  • Referral program: Develop a referral program that makes it easy for happy residents and their families to refer others to your community.

Bring it all together in one comprehensive marketing strategy for senior living.

Do you need help putting all the pieces together and seamlessly executing various tactics? We can help. Get in touch to discuss your community’s marketing strategy.

How-to-Create-a-New-Resident-Welcome-Program

Senior Living Guide: How to Create a New Resident Welcome Program

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Editor’s note: This article was reviewed and updated on 12/17/24.

A successful move-in program does more than hand over the keys—it makes new residents feel seen, valued, and excited to be part of your senior living community.

This senior living guide will show you how to roll out the red carpet, setting the stage for happier residents, more positive reviews, and long-term success.

Senior Living Guide: How to create a true “red carpet” welcome for new residents.

Have move-in day checklists.

Give each department in your senior living community an internal checklist to make sure they are ready for the new resident. For example, apartment readiness checklist, dining/meal plan checklist, activities checklist, and so forth.

Prior to move-in day, provide the family/ future resident with a list of helpful resources to reduce stress.

Consider sharing a list of local movers, a packing list, downsizing tips, downsizing resources (e.g., junk removal and donation pick-up services), and a paperwork checklist (e.g., what to bring to the lease signing).

Develop move-in day protocols, such as . . .

  • Leaving a welcome basket on the kitchen counter
  • Providing a welcome packet in people’s apartments with helpful info
  • Issuing a senior living resident handbook
  • Assigning a staff member to greet the new resident and their family—and to check on them a few times throughout move-in day
  • Assigning a resident from the Welcome Committee (more on this below) to be the new resident’s go-to person during the first few weeks

Create a formal Welcome Committee.

Remember the first day of school or camp when you walked in feeling scared and overwhelmed because you didn’t know anyone? But once you made that “first friend,” you knew everything would be OK? The same feelings happen whether you’re eight or eighty.

Remember, new residents have to navigate a new physical space, figure out meal times, make friends/ find someone to have meals with, know where all the activities are taking place, know how to sign up for transportation or salon services, and so forth. It’s a lot of change and a lot to keep track of and remember. Other residents are often the best source to help a new resident fit in and to create a real sense of belonging.

Having an active Welcome Committee in your community is an excellent way to connect warm, friendly residents with the newbies. Be intentional about creating a positive sentiment in the first 30 days.

  • Week 1: Deliver a gift card for salon services.
  • Week 2: Deliver guest passes for meals to invite family & friends.
  • Week 3: Provide a voucher for something special (for example, offer free private transportation to go shopping or pet service for Fido).
  • Week 4: Host a housewarming event for the new resident’s friends and family. Give the resident a choice of a nice private lunch, cocktails and appetizers, or coffee and donuts. Let them know this won’t cost them a dime.
  • Week 5: Send flowers to mark the first month with a heartfelt note that expresses how happy you are that they’re part of your community.

Keep in mind that there is a compelling business value to creating a positive move-in experience.

When you foster a wonderful, welcoming environment where people can easily become raving fans, well guess what? Raving fans will more likely . . .

  • Write a positive review.
  • Refer their friends and neighbors and/or participate in your referral program (you’ll enjoy very high conversion rates on those referrals!).
  • Not move out! Think of all the money and time you invested in getting that resident to move in. The last thing you need is a resident who moves out in their first month.

Getting all of these different moving parts and programs to work in harmony takes work, but we’ve seen it done successfully before.

Need help? Guess what? We’ve got a special program.

We believe so strongly in creating a warm welcome for new residents that we’ve created a turnkey “red carpet welcome program” that’s waiting for your branding and customization. Get in touch today and we’ll show you how it works! 

Fresh Ideas For Planning Events That Drive Traffic & Generate Leads

Marketing Events for Senior Living: Fresh Ideas That Drive Leads

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Editor’s note: We updated this article on 12/17/24 to shift away from pandemic-related suggestions..

Well-planned marketing events for senior living communities can generate qualified leads, re-engage stalled prospects, and create opportunities to develop new professional contacts and nurture existing relationships.

On the other hand, poorly executed events can be a big waste of time and money.

How can you make sure you’re putting together events that deliver excellent ROI? Here are three types we recommend: educational events, social events, and community events.

Educational events: Show that you’re an expert and a resource

Educational senior living marketing events will help position you as a trusted advisor and valued resource. Below are some topics and themes to consider.

  • Author Visit. Many authors do book tours, both in-person and virtual For in-person events, the author can speak and bring books for purchase and signing.
  • Downsizing/ Transitions. Invite real estate pros and downsizing experts for a lunch & learn series.
  • Financial Solutions. Same idea as above. Your community hosts experts for a casual lunch. Think VA benefits, life insurance conversion, and long-term care.
  • Memory Care Topics. Again, hold lunch & learn sessions on popular topics like brain fitness, education, research, driving, and dementia.
  • Support Groups. Ideas include caregiver support groups, Alzheimer’s support groups, men’s groups, bereavement groups, etc.
  • Continuing Education Units (CEUs). Do this in your community or bring your program to a local hospital or skilled nursing facility.

Social events: Be social and show off your community’s fun side

Give prospective residents and their families a taste of what your community is like by inviting them to attend social events and fun activities. Here are some ideas:

  • Art classes. Paint and sip nights can be a fun way to get people to mingle, and the prospective resident gets to bring home artwork that will remind them of your community.
  • Fitness classes. Offer day passes to your most popular classes.
  • Networking. Think breakfasts, lunch, cocktail receptions, martini mixer etc.
  • Dash & Dine. Stop by for a tour or event and take home dinner on us!
  • Brunch. Ideas include champagne, jazz, holiday, and Mother/Father’s Day.
  • Senior/Senior Prom with local high school (Star Dust Prom).
  • Holiday/ Special Day Socials / BBQs. Think of all the possibilities: Valentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, Mother/ Father’s/ Grandparent’s Day . . . and that’s just the beginning. You could focus on a silly day like National Hot Dog Day (third Wednesday in July). Invite a hot dog stand to set up shop on the premises and invite people from nearby towns to come by for hot dogs and ice cream on you.
  • Chef demonstrations. What better way to give people a sense of the food and menu options than by having your chef demo one of their top dishes or specialties (like cake decorating).
  • Fashion Show. Collaborate with a local store and use staff, residents, family, or professionals as models.

Community Events: Grass roots and local community

  • Host spiritual groups. Think parish nurses, Stephen Ministries, non-denominational meetings, or meetings with rabbis, pastors, priests, etc.
  • Host seniors’ groups. Think Red Hat Society, senior centers, and other related groups.
  • Host art shows for local schools/ artists or resident art
  • Host piano recitals for local teachers if you have a piano
  • Dinner & a movie if you have a theater
  • Sponsor a community yard sale
  • Host fundraisers. Consider fundraisers around the annual Alzheimer’s Walk or Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in September.
  • Sponsor a community health fair with free screenings
  • Host community group car wash (for example, for the local high school)
  • Host a variety/ talent show
  • Wreath/ miniature tree decorating – referral sources and families buy a wreath or tree and decorate it (usually with a theme) and raffle them off for charity at a social event.

Bonus: More great marketing events for senior living communities

Need help coming up with ideas? Get in touch and let’s discuss how events can fit into your marketing strategy.

How We Keep Your Senior Living Marketing on Track

How We Keep Your Senior Living Marketing on Track

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How We Keep Your Senior Living Marketing on Track

One of the first things that happens when a client starts working with Senior Living SMART is they get their own dedicated client success manager (CSM).

But what does a CSM do exactly? How do they keep a community’s senior living marketing on track?

Below, Doug DeMaio, our Director of Client Success, pulls back the curtain and shares five key things our CSMs do for our clients. (Check out the podcast with Doug that inspired this article.)

1. Our CSMs interpret reports and analytics and use the intel to guide the client’s marketing strategy.

Reports and analytics can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re dealing with countless metrics across paid ads, organic traffic, emails, and social media. That’s where your CSM steps in.

Our CSMs are constantly monitoring the numbers, but each quarter, they take a deep dive and look for trends (good or bad). This includes analyzing macro and micro trends across regions and the entire industry.

Doug says, “One of the things we do is relate what we’re seeing back to industry trends and ask ourselves, ‘Are we on par with what’s being seen across the industry? Or are there certain places where we could optimize and bring ourselves back up above the industry average?'”

Every piece of reporting can highlight opportunities to optimize, like conversion rate optimization of pages or forms or email open rate optimization (to name just a couple of examples).

Our CSMs also distill metrics into an easy-to-follow narrative that clients can understand and share with colleagues and other stakeholders in the senior living community.

2. Our CSMs remain hyper-focused on the prospect’s journey.

The path to conversion is rarely linear in senior living. That’s why your CSMs take time to identify what actions your prospects take along their journey.

“How often did they visit the website? What pages did they consume? What content did they download?” Doug says.

The CSM team is constantly asking these questions to better understand the winding road of prospect behavior. The answers help refine strategies to satisfy prospects’ needs.

“It’s about meeting the prospect where they are, even if they’ve gone dark for a while,” Doug explains.

3. Our CSMs strive to maximize client budgets.

Senior living marketing is an investment, and our CSMs are crucial in helping clients determine which tactics and strategies deliver the best return on their investment.

This work requires constant vigilance and adjustments when necessary. For example, if a campaign isn’t performing as expected, CSMs can shift gears, reallocating resources to maximize ROI.

Our CSMs also have deep knowledge of industry partners, vendors, and integrations. A thoughtful analysis of a client’s marketing technology helps keep expenses in line without sacrificing results.

Bottom line: Our CSMs are always focused on making every dollar count and being thoughtful stewards of client budgets.

4. Our CSMs pay close attention to conversion drop-offs and know how to re-engage stalled leads.

Conversion drop-offs (for example, from tours to deposits) can significantly impact your bottom line. Our CSMs track where leads lose momentum and create strategies to re-engage them.

“Through automation and strategy, we’ve identified how to re-engage leads who’ve fallen off,” Doug explains.

Using data from the CRM or tracking inactivity, your CSM can integrate those leads into personalized workflows that include email, social media, and even text messaging. This helps push prospects further along the decision-making path in a way that complements existing sales efforts.

Collaboration with the sales team is key, however.

“We’re really careful about not stepping on the sales team’s toes,” Doug says. “If the sales team is still engaging with a lead, we avoid sending automated communications to the lead.”

Your CSM will also make sure proper lead scoring and segmentation are in place so that the right lead receives the right message at the right time.

For example, there’s no sense in having the sales team pursue a lead that’s still in the early educational stage. It makes more sense for the lead to enter an automated nurturing workflow where they receive resources like funding guides or educational content that helps build trust and readiness.

5. Our CSMs are super responsive to client requests.

Our CSMs prioritize responding quickly to emails and calls (always within the same business day and often within a few hours). And operationally, we make sure we don’t overload our CSMs—most manage around six accounts at any given time.

Ready to experience our approach to senior living marketing?

Sure, we might be a little biased, but we genuinely believe we have the best CSMs. Interested in seeing for yourself? Get in touch, and let’s talk about your marketing.

Senior Living Google Ads: 5 Ways to Evaluate Performance

Senior Living Google Ads: 5 Ways to Evaluate Performance

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Senior Living Google Ads: 5 Ways to Evaluate Performance

If you run senior living Google Ads, you need to know how to evaluate their performance. What metrics should you look at?

Chris Zook, our Director of Search, discussed this topic on a recent podcast, and we’ve captured some of the highlights below.

Five metrics to evaluate your senior living Google ads

1. Ad spend

Your ad spend sets the foundation for interpreting the rest of your performance metrics. But the key is being consistent with the amount.

Chris explains, “You can change the budget to make the data go up, and you can change it to make the data go down. But that doesn’t necessarily say anything about your market. That just says how much you’re investing.”

Focus on maintaining a stable ad spend since this will allow you to evaluate other metrics more accurately.

2. Impressions

Impressions reveal how many people are seeing your ads.

Chris says, “We can figure out things like cost per impression. How does that relate to the other client that we have running in a similar area? Is it higher? Is it lower? If the impressions are really low for that budget, then we have to ask the question, ‘All right, do we need more budget to go up against these guys? Or should we be choosing a different campaign? Should we be reworking to a different strategy?'”

3. Clicks

Clicks indicate engagement—how many people are interested enough to interact with your ad (i.e., click on it).

Chris says, “So if you have a lot of impressions—people seeing your ad—but you don’t have any clicks, you know that you have a problem with your actual ad that’s showing. People aren’t engaging with it. What’s the reason?”

Low-to-no clicks suggest an issue with the ad’s appeal, which could be related to the images, headlines, or descriptions. Try testing different creative elements (such as images or headlines) to optimize the ad for more engagement.

4. Conversions

Conversions track whether people are taking actions that bring them closer to becoming a resident, like downloading a brochure or calling your community.

What if impressions and clicks are high but conversions are low?

“We know that our problem isn’t the ad,” Chris explains. “The problem is the website.”

Questions to ask:

  • Does the landing page provide a clear path to the next step you want people to take, like downloading a brochure or calling the community?
  • Does the landing page copy, especially the headline and opening text, match the gist of the ad copy? If it doesn’t, people might be experiencing a disconnect when they go from the ad to the landing page.
  • Is the layout confusing or difficult to navigate?

Are there any technical issues, like slow-loading pages or poor rendering on mobile devices?

All of those issues (and plenty more) can affect conversions.

5. Cost per conversion (CPC)

Cost per conversion is a valuable indicator of lead quality. However, you need to use common sense when considering your CPC.

For example, if the CPC is extremely low, you might think that’s a good thing. But remember the adage about something being too good to be true. If the CPC is incredibly low, connect with the sales team to ensure you’re not sacrificing lead quality for a super-low CPC.

Conversely, if your CPC is unusually high, you should try to understand why that’s the case.

Chris discusses an experience with an unusually high CPC. “We had a memory care-only client in a very competitive market. And their average cost per conversion was more than $600 for a memory care lead. And that told us that we need to learn more about the market because, clearly, that’s extremely high for senior living.”

Bottom line: Paying attention to these metrics can help optimize your senior living Google Ads.

Need assistance? Connect with Chris to discuss your ad campaigns.

More helpful resources: