A panel of senior living marketing professionals will share strategies and tactics for lead generation, nurturing and conversions given current restrictions regarding tours, events and community visits.
As a senior living COO, you’ve been tasked with overseeing the daily operations of your communities. You work closely with leadership at all levels, capital partners, vendors and suppliers. You are responsible for developing and executing a clear operational plan that often includes a multi-year vision for your organization.
You likely have a keen financial intellect and a strong understanding of analytics in general. But you’re also acutely aware that you can’t always know what you don’t know, especially when it comes to digital marketing analytics.
Don’t worry—we got you!
You don’t need to get into the weeds since you’re paying your marketing team to manage your Google Analytics account, but smart senior living COOs should still have a working knowledge of website traffic and traffic sources (and how not to get fooled by the “more is always better” trap).
Website traffic: focus on quality over quantity
It’s certainly good news to see website traffic increasing, provided the lead quality and conversions correspond accordingly.
Remember, the ultimate measure of quality website traffic is conversions, so if your site is bringing in a lot of traffic but it isn’t converting, this indicates a disconnect. Maybe the site isn’t optimized for the right search terms and is bringing in visitors who are not looking for senior living at all. Maybe the site doesn’t have compelling content that entices people to act. Or maybe the site performs so poorly technically that visitors leave before engaging in any way.
When we optimize our clients’ sites for the first time, we explain that it’s OK if overall traffic goes down as long as quality lead conversions increase. (Then, from there, we focus on attracting more of the right traffic. Which means traffic should trend up from that point.)
Traffic sources: which ones convert best?
As for traffic sources, you’ll want to know which sources—organic, paid, social, direct—yield the best leads since this will guide your budget. For example, why spend valuable dollars on a social media platform like TikTok if it doesn’t move the needle?
Paid advertising, especially Google Ads, can be an excellent way for senior living communities to compete—provided the ad strategy is sound.
We’ve written an article that takes a deep dive into Google Ads, but here are the highlights you need to know:
What’s a good conversion rate for senior living PPC ads?
A conversion rate for pay-per-click (PPC) ads is the percentage of people who convert after clicking your ad.
The definition of “convert” will vary depending on the advertiser. An e-commerce store running ads for sneakers will consider a sale to be a conversion. In senior living though, there’s a much longer sales cycle. We don’t expect someone to click on an ad and convert into a resident. Instead, our goal is to convert the person into a lead.
For example, if someone clicks on a senior living PPC ad, they might go to a landing page to download an educational guide in exchange for their name and email address. That’s the conversion point.
Senior living PPC conversion rates can vary depending on geographies and a community’s budget. Generally, we like to see conversion rates between 8 to 15%.
What are some benchmarks for costs per lead?
Reminder, we’re publishing this post in July 2023. Numbers will fluctuate.
Independent living
Assisted living
Memory care
Memory care is the most expensive because it’s the most competitive. People searching for memory care are often ready to convert due to an urgent need.
The resident lifetime value is the revenue you can expect the average resident to generate throughout their stay.
You will have different resident lifetime values for different levels of care. For example, maybe your memory care resident stays 14 months on average, while the average resident in your CCRC community stays eight years (96 months).
The way you calculate the average resident lifetime value is straightforward: Length of stay (in months) multiplied by the monthly rent (plus the entrance fee, if applicable).
Knowing the average length of stay is incredibly helpful for forecasting occupancy. And knowing the resident lifetime value can help predict your return on investment (ROI), potential lost revenue, and return on marketing investment (ROMI).
For example, let’s say the average length of stay for assisted living in one of your communities is 24 months. Now, let’s pretend you have six AL residents who move in the same month. In 24 months, you could face six vacancies on top of your “normal” vacancies.
Knowing this, you can reverse-engineer your marketing budget and marketing tactics in anticipation. For example, let’s say you know that you successfully convert AL leads from Google Ads. You could budget for an increase in paid advertising in the month or two before the six apartments are due to open up. And you can justify why when reporting to leadership/capital partners.
We love working with senior living COOs and making them look smart in front of leadership and capital partners. Let’s explore how we might work together.
Threads, the latest app owned by Meta, was launched to the public on July 5th, 2023, and has already amassed an outstanding 100 million active users within just five days. What is Threads, and what do I need to know about it for senior living marketing?
Threads can be described as a modified version of Twitter. Like Twitter, Threads allows users to post threads, reply to others, and follow profiles they find interesting. Users can include short text (up to 500 characters), links, photos, videos, or a combination of these media types in their posts.
Mark Zuckerburg, Meta’s CEO, has made it incredibly simple to create an account, allowing it to be the fastest growing app in history. If you already have an Instagram account, creating a Threads account is an easy click of a button using the same login credentials.
Despite its rapid growth, Threads still lags Twitter in certain aspects. Unlike Twitter, users cannot modify their settings to view only Threads from the accounts they follow. Even if you don’t follow a particular account, you may still see its content if the Thread is popular enough. Meta did state that the functionality would be added in the future, but there is no estimated time frame.
Threads is exclusively available for mobile users. While you can read content on threads.net, creating threads is only possible through the mobile app. Additionally, there is currently no option to remove your Threads account without also removing your Instagram account. The two accounts are directly connected, so if you regret creating a Threads account, you’ll have to wait until this feature is addressed.
Unlike Twitter, Threads does not offer a tab to see trending topics or the ability to search for specific topics or posts. Although these limitations are likely to change as the app grows, for now, users will have to rely on scrolling through content. Furthermore, Threads is currently only available in certain countries such as the US, UK, Canada, Japan, but plans for expansion are likely underway.
Notably, Threads lack certain features popular on Twitter, such as the ability to direct message someone or utilize hashtags for social listening and trend tracking.
Twitter experienced a significant loss of users when Elon Musk took over as CEO, with 1 million users (equivalent to the population of Delaware) leaving the platform in just one month. It is projected to lose 32 million users (about twice the population of New York) by 2024, many of whom are transitioning to Threads. People are leaving Twitter due to increased hate speech and technical problems associated with Musk’s tenure.
Before Threads, there was no major competitor to challenge Twitter. Twitter is known for its virality, acting as a news source and enabling users to consume information in bite-sized portions. Although not primarily photo-based, Twitter allows users to attach various media like images, videos, and GIFs. If you are already familiar with Twitter, learning to use Threads will be a breeze since it shares a similar format of sharing thoughts, responding to others, and reading content.
When using Threads, your Instagram account data is utilized, including:
Most Threads users belong to Generation Z. Males make up approximately 68% of the user base, while females account for the remaining 32%. Among males, the largest age group is 23-25 years old, constituting 28% of the male user base. Additionally, 11% of males and 5% of females fall within the 18-25 age range. Users aged 45 years and above represent a smaller portion with only 2% of females and 3% of males in this age group.
Threads can be a valuable platform for any industry to engage in conversations with their audience. If your target audience is on Threads, it is crucial to actively communicate with them. However, Threads is not designed for selling products or services. Instead, it is better suited for introducing new ideas, sparking conversations, and providing insights and perspectives.
From a though leadership perspective, Threads can be a suitable platform. However, for marketing senior living communities, it may not be ideal. Before deciding, consider whether your target audience uses Twitter. If they do, it is likely they will also be active on Threads. If you wish to establish a presence in your industry and your target market is receptive on Threads, it is worth diving in early. You can repurpose existing content and offer fresh perspectives or insights to stimulate conversation. Threads thrive on starting conversations, so if your audience is absent or you anticipate a one-sided dialogue, it might be best to focus on the platform where your audience is most active. For guidance on best practices for your preferred platform, refer to our guide to social media success.
We asked our CEO, Debbie Howard, to discuss an important topic: memory care lead generation.
Below, she answers the following questions:
Debbie Howard: There’s a greater sense of urgency with memory care leads. An interesting study came out during the pandemic that showed how Covid affected the sales cycle for different levels of care. The only sales cycle that wasn’t affected was memory care. It was the shortest sales cycle then, and it remains the shortest sale cycle today, which makes sense since it isn’t something most people plan for or are proactive about. Even though the disease is very predictable, people still don’t want to deal with it until they absolutely must.
People looking for independent living and assisted living don’t typically feel the same pressures. Most of those folks are being proactive. People looking for memory care are often in crisis mode.
Debbie Howard: The buyer personas include the adult child and the spouse. The adult child tends to take a more intellectual approach initially. They try to quickly learn as much as possible because they want to make informed decisions. But the emotional aspect does enter into the equation eventually. After all, this is their parent, and the adult child is entrusting their mother or father to strangers. Moving a loved one into memory care is never easy, even if it’s the right decision.
For the spouse, the trajectory tends to be the opposite. They start off needing trust first and education second. Many spouses have resisted moving their loved one into memory care for so long. They made a vow to care for their partner for better or worse. Moving their partner to memory care often fills them with guilt, angst, and regret.
It’s important to remind the spouse that it takes an entire staff working round the clock to care for and manage people through this disease process. Eventually, it becomes impossible for one person to do it alone—even with outside help.
Debbie Howard: The emotional aspect is vital to both personas. Too often, communities focus only on providing education. If you only connect with people rationally—like ‘Here are 10 Things to Look for in Memory Care’—it will take longer to connect emotionally with the prospects. And you might lose out to a community that does focus on connecting on an emotional level.
Connecting emotionally means acknowledging the not-so-pleasant parts of this disease process. This can be extremely hard for marketers since many believe all marketing must have a positive spin.
But it can be extremely powerful for a salesperson to hold a prospect’s hand and sincerely say, “I know this is killing you. I know this is the hardest decision you’ve ever made. You’ve done so much, and you’re exhausted. I’m so sorry you’re in this position.”
You don’t have to stay negative. Acknowledge how challenging the situation is. But also recognize and honor what they’ve done for their loved one—how they’ve gone the distance. There comes a point when the person with dementia can no longer safely be managed in the home, and their own quality of life is greatly diminished. When the person moves into memory care, they receive round-the-clock care from a full-time staff, which allows the spouse to return to the role of a spouse rather than a caregiver. The spouse can come in and have a date night with their loved one. They can visit daily. They can stay overnight. Showing the spouse what can be—and that there are some bright spots—can be a way to find a more positive angle.
You shouldn’t ignore the negatives just because they’re hard to discuss, though. Empathetic marketing is extremely important in senior living, especially with memory care leads.
The same is true for adult children: They’ve often missed days and weeks of work, given up vacations, and missed important events in their own life as they’ve juggled their parents’ care, so acknowledging their sacrifices is also essential.
Meet them at the emotional level—acknowledge how hard this decision is and recognize and honor all they’ve done. Then, turn it around by showing them how your community’s memory care neighborhood helps each resident succeed.
Debbie Howard: People searching for memory care are doing just that—they are actively searching.
Debbie Howard: It’s definitely important because word of mouth is one of the best forms of marketing. Tap into skilled nursing facilities, rehab centers and hospitals. Target their social workers, case managers, care managers, and discharge planners. ERs are also good places to ensure the staff is aware of your memory care community because they often see folks from unsafe environments.
Home care agencies can manage the disease process from the early through middle stages, but when it gets to a later stage, they can’t safely manage that client anymore. So you should also focus on networking with people who run home care agencies.
Consider area agencies on aging. Even the local fire department can be a good resource. Many fire departments keep a list of homebound at-risk older adults that they often help. Reaching out and educating them about your community is also a good idea.
Debbie Howard: Yes. You should have a marketing program for your referral network so that your community remains top of mind.
Make sure your referral sources have . . .
Remember, you want to make their lives easier.
Debbie Howard: Remember, marketing can’t solve an operational issue. Before worrying about getting quality memory care leads, make sure you have a quality memory care program.
Suppose there’s a video circulating of a staff member abusing a resident. In that case, the best marketing in the world can’t help because the problem has to do with operations, not marketing or sales. But a high-quality memory care program with happy residents and positive results, can almost speak for itself.
Bottom line: The best way to generate leads is to have a great memory care program.
We asked Chris Zook, Director of Paid Media & Strategy at Senior Living SMART, to sit down for a Q&A on all things Google Ads. Chris also did a podcast on this topic with our CEO, Debbie Howard. If you’d rather listen than read, here’s their conversation about Google Ads.
Otherwise, keep on scrolling for the text. Or click on the links below to jump to a specific section:
Google Ads are pay-per-click (PPC) ads. With PPC ads, advertisers only pay for an ad if someone clicks on it.
Here’s some context on how this works: Google runs an auction that allows advertisers, like senior living communities, to bid on specific keyword phrases. For example, phrases like “assisted living,” “memory care,” or “dementia care.”
When someone searches on one of those phrases in Google, the auction determines who the top bidders are. Google will then list the PPC ads of the winning advertiser bidders on the search engine results page (SERP), starting with the highest bidder.
Again, advertisers don’t get charged unless someone clicks on their ad, so there’s value in having your PPC ad display even if no one clicks it. Someone might still glance at it and see your community’s name, which can help with name recognition down the line.
Google isn’t the only PPC option in town, either. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer PPC options, as do competing search engines like Bing.
It’s also worth noting that we’re discussing this in July 2023. Google recently announced its Search Generative Experience (SGE), which reimagines search and search results. Google makes money from advertisers, so it remains committed to showing ads. However, stay tuned since this is a fluid situation.
Here’s why PPC advertising is so effective for myriad businesses, large and small: You can bid on all kinds of keywords with whatever budget you have, and there’s almost always going to be an opening for you.
It’s not simply the tyranny of the big guy, although that can happen for certain industries. Even with modest budgets, we still see plenty of PPC opportunities for senior living communities.
Keep in mind that if a community finds that they’re not getting any clicks, at least they’re not dumping a ton of money into ads, because again, Google only charges you if people click on your ads.
We follow PPC best practices and combine them with our knowledge of senior living in general and our understanding of a community’s brand, including the types of prospects they want to attract. (Learn more about prospect personas.)
We maintain a list of keywords that people search throughout the United States when researching independent living, assisted living, and memory care. We have an excellent grasp of these phrases because they’re fairly universal. It’s how everyone everywhere talks about senior living. Think of phrases such as “senior living near me” or “assisted living near me.”
From there, we get to know the client’s community, particularly the location and region. Every time we research a different region, we discover nuances and quirks of how people research assisted living, independent living, and memory care that we hadn’t seen before. This enables us to further refine the keyword list.
For example, we don’t use only “memory care” in our targeting because not everyone looking for memory care will necessarily call it that. We’ll use words like Alzheimer’s, dementia, and memory support. We’ll also pay attention to how people search in different markets.
We can target ads based on criteria like the person’s location, too. For example, let’s say we have a client who has a senior living community outside of Austin, Texas. We can target people within a 10- to 15-mile radius of Austin who are doing searches on things like “senior living near me,” or “assisted living near me,” or “senior living Austin.”
It’s true that you can’t use financial criteria in your ad targeting. This is because of federal and state fair housing laws, which state that we cannot target housing based on people’s income. At the end of the day, senior living is a form of housing. For example, we can’t run ads where the criteria include targeting people interested in senior living in Austin who also have a yearly income of $300K.
But what we can do is help people self-qualify. Within the ads, we can include something like “Rents starting at $5,000/month”. Someone reading the ad can decide, “Yep, that works.” Or “Nope, I can’t afford that.”
Another tool we can use is “negative” keywords. Essentially, you’re telling Google that it shouldn’t show ads to people who use specific keywords. For example, consider people who search for “at-home assisted living.” We’d indicate “at home” (and various combinations and synonyms) as negative keywords, and Google wouldn’t show our ads to people who use those search terms.
A conversion rate for PPC ads is the percentage of people who convert after clicking your ad.
The definition of “convert” will vary depending on the advertiser. An e-commerce store running ads for perfume will consider a sale to be a conversion, but in senior living, there’s a much longer sales cycle. We don’t expect someone to click on an ad and convert into a resident. Instead, our goal is to convert the person into a lead.
For example, if someone clicks on an ad, they might go to a landing page where they can download a brochure in exchange for their name and email address. When a person takes that action, they become a senior living lead. That’s the conversion point.
If 100 people click your ad, and 10 become a lead, that’s a 10% conversion rate. We consider this a good conversion rate in our industry.
Conversion rates can vary depending on geographies and a community’s budget. Generally, we like to see conversion rates between eight to 15% for senior living.
Of course, clients will often say, “The conversion rate is only 10%? That means I lose 90% of the prospects clicking on the ad.”
On the surface, that might be true, but effective advertising is as much about allowing people to self-qualify out of your sales funnel as it is about bringing them into it. As much as you want to bring lots of people into your sales funnel, you also don’t want to waste anyone’s time on leads who will never become residents in your community, no matter what you do. And, that other 90% isn’t lost forever. Those folks can always come back and convert at a later date.
You could be targeting the best keywords and have great ads that people click, but what if there’s a disconnect on the landing page—the place on your website that the Google Ad click sends them to? What if the landing page doesn’t deliver on what the ad promised, or it’s confusing, or it doesn’t function properly, and someone navigates away before converting? Well, you’ve just wasted money on that click.
To improve landing pages, we’ll conduct A/B testing. Sometimes, the smallest change—like changing the color of a submit button, for example—can improve conversions. We’re constantly monitoring landing page performance to achieve that desired conversion rate of 8 to 15%.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that what happens to the leads after they convert matters, too. This is where lead scoring and marketing automation come into play. High-intent leads can go onto the sales team, while leads that aren’t ready for a sales interaction can continue to be nurtured through automated lead nurturing.
The lowest cost per lead right now is for independent living. They can be as low as $18 per lead, or as high as $45 to $50.
Assisted living is higher. Typically, we see the low end around $38 to $40. The high end is in the range of $80 to $100. Again, this depends on location. A densely populated metro area will likely be more competitive and more expensive.
Memory care is a moving target and is constantly getting more expensive since there’s so much competition. This isn’t surprising, either. Every community that offers memory care already knows it’s an urgent need and a lucrative source of move-ins. The lower end of memory care is about $100 to $120. The higher end can be $400 or more.
We start by having a very open conversation with each client about goals for leads this year and how that breaks down per quarter and month. For example, the client might want ten leads a month, eight of which come from paid ads.
From there, we’ll do keyword research using the seed list of keywords as our base and review the geography. Google wants you to spend money, so it’s incredibly transparent about how much keywords cost in different geographies.
Using our ideal conversation rate as a guide—so again, for senior living, we’re happy if we can land in between 8 to 15%—we can do some reverse-engineering with the numbers.
For example, if we get a hundred clicks on assisted living keywords that cost X amount, and the goal is to convert 10 of them, what does that mean in terms of the cost per click? How do we spread that cost over 30, 31, or 32 days? PPC platforms operate on a monthly basis, but they parse your budget on a daily basis. And because of that, we use either 31 days—or if it’s a month with 31 days, we use 32 days to make sure we don’t go over budget—to figure out our daily budget.
Once we’ve reviewed these scenarios, we can recommend a budget to the client. If the budget isn’t what they had in mind, we can adjust while resetting expectations about leads. Instead of expecting eight leads a month coming in from PPC ads, they might need to adjust their expectations to five leads a month due to their budget constraints.
The question isn’t “can they.” In theory, anyone can run paid ads if they have money. The question is, should they? Effective paid advertising requires more than simply tinkering with the ad platform and entering a credit card. The paid ads team at Senior Living SMART are specialists with years of skill and expertise—and a track record of getting the results our clients seek.
We monitor campaigns and make tweaks so that we can optimize a client’s budget and get them the quality leads they’re looking for. It’s a dynamic process—setting and forgetting ads won’t yield quality long-term results. So having a partner like SLS to set up and manage your ads is one of the best investments you can make.
Let’s discuss how we can turbo-charge your paid advertising strategy.
A panel of senior living marketing professionals will share strategies and tactics for lead generation, nurturing and conversions given current restrictions regarding tours, events and community visits.
You’ve worked hard to get leads from various sources, like organic search, paid ads, and social media. You might think the hard part is over, but how you manage these leads matters—and it can make or break a senior living community, given the competition. Here are some best practices to know and use.
Some leads will be in a hurry—they need to move a parent into assisted living or memory care ASAP. Others will just be getting started on their journey, researching what senior living is. And in between, you’ll have other leads at various points.
If you treat every lead the same way, you won’t have much success.
For example: Good luck trying to rent one of your apartments to a person in their mid-sixties who’s doing early research into independent living. Your sales team won’t get far if they hound the person—and they might do more harm than good, leaving the person with a negative impression of your community. Meanwhile, your team wasted time on someone who isn’t ready to buy—and possibly lost out on someone who is ready.
To avoid this fate, you must score and segment leads appropriately. By “scoring,” we mean having an automated process that identifies and segments high-intent sales-qualified leads (SQLs) from marketing-qualified leads (MQLs).
This is where robust marketing automation, like HubSpot, comes into play. Good automation will score leads (according to the parameters you set) and funnel them appropriately. SQLs will go on to the sales team for follow-up. MQLs will enter relevant lead-nurturing campaigns. For the latter, the marketing automation will send the right email (with the right message) to the right person at the right time.
So, for example, an adult child helping her mom move by next year will enter a lead-nurturing workflow that delivers relevant content. On the other hand, a 60-something person getting a head start on researching independent living will enter a much longer-term email nurturing campaign.
It all begins with scoring leads appropriately, so don’t overlook this step.
Remember, third-party leads are shared leads. In other words, your competitors receive the same leads as you. The community that responds fastest stands the best chance of converting the lead into a tour.
There are some drawbacks to using third-party lead aggregators:
You’re better off taking the money you spend on third-party leads and putting it towards other tactics, like Google Ads. (A good conversion rate for Google Ads in senior living is eight to 15%.)
We know many senior living communities don’t want to give up lead aggregators. If that’s the case for you, make sure you have a plan for fast follow-up.
Need help? We offer a Speed to the Lead solution that empowers your community to respond quickly to third-party leads, deliver brochures immediately, and follow up using an automated five-step lead nurturing workflow.
Your senior living CRM is probably filled with a fair number of “cold” leads. We’re willing to bet that not all of them are cold. Maybe a sales rep got lazy with following up. Maybe you have a backlog of leads you lumped together before you developed a way to score and segment appropriately. Or maybe a cold lead has since warmed up—but you don’t know this because you’ve written them off.
Instead of assuming all these leads are cold, try re-engaging them. Create a program that focuses on cold leads. (Hint: We have a turnkey program called “Stay in Touch” that makes it easy to re-engage cold leads.)
Too often, communities rely on a front desk greeter or receptionist to field calls from people who want to know more about the community. The problem is that they are not trained and skilled salespeople.
Expecting your on-site sales reps to be available to take sales inquiry calls as they come in is also unrealistic. Your reps will be busy doing tours, meeting with families, and networking.
A better solution is contracting with a senior living call center to manage all inbound inquiries. A good call center (like the one we offer) can qualify, score, and segment leads appropriately. SQLs will go to the sales team (along with helpful notes). MQLs can go into relevant nurturing campaigns. You won’t have to worry about leads falling through the cracks. Learn more about LeadGenie here.
Need help implementing any of these senior living lead management best practices?
We have the lead management expertise you’ve been looking for. Give us a shout if you need help with lead management for your community or communities.
Are you a senior living marketing professional asking, “Why isn’t my website converting?” Read on, because the problem might be that you’re asking the wrong question. Below, we’re going to explain why—and we’re going to give you four better questions to ask instead.
The question is vague because the word “converting” is vague.
We all know what you mean generally, but specifically, are you asking why you’re not converting more people at the bottom of the funnel into move-ins? Or are you asking why you’re not converting anonymous website traffic into leads? And about those leads, are you referring to marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) or sales-qualified leads (SQLs)?
Remember, people don’t come to your site and instantly “convert.”
Sure, some people might enter with an urgent need, but what about everyone else? Consider the following two scenarios:
Scenario 1
Dad just died, and Mom can’t be alone due to her dementia. The adult children do a Google search on “memory care communities in the area,” looking for places with decent reviews. They visit the websites, including yours, do a cursory review, and head right to “contact us.”
Scenario 2
Lily and Bob are nearing retirement. They’re just beginning the search into senior living, specifically independent living. They’re considering Cape Cod so they can remain in Massachusetts near their kids and grandchildren, but they haven’t ruled out Florida, either. They’re checking out communities in both states, but the timeline for their decision is much longer, at least two years out. Bob and Lily enter your site after doing some googling and reading reviews. They subscribe to your blog and follow your community on social media, just so your community remains on their radar.
In both scenarios, the people “converted,” but they converted at different points in their journey—and where they are in their journey matters.
We know that move-ins are the ultimate conversion metric, but to get there, many smaller conversions need to happen along the way.
For example, Lily and Bob might move in two years later, which makes the smaller conversions (subscribing to your blog and following you on social media) super important.
If you’re sending ALL leads to sales, that’s a problem.
You shouldn’t treat all leads the same way. Someone who downloads a “Senior Living Options” guide is likely in a different place in their journey than someone who requests a tour.
Only sales-qualified leads should go to sales. The marketing-qualified leads should enter nurturing campaigns until they indicate they’re ready for a sales interaction. (It takes too many touches, on average, to convert a lead, to handle them all individually.)
Setting up effective lead scoring will give you much better insight into whether your website marketing produces sufficient MQLs and SQLs.
Keep the key stages in mind: awareness, consideration, and decision. You should have helpful content for people in each stage.
For example, people in the research stage (like Lily and Bob) might subscribe to the newsletter. Someone nearing the decision stage might find comparison charts useful. Both are essential steps to the ultimate conversion: move-ins.
Friction is when the prospect gets stuck at some point on your senior living website, and the reasons why can be many:
Most of us have likely experienced friction on websites—that thing that makes us throw up our hands in frustration and exit the site.
With good analytics, you should be able to identify the culprit (or culprits) and drill down into each conversion point to better understand where people are getting stuck. From there, you can try to identify what’s causing the friction.
For example, if a landing page that’s usually enjoyed excellent conversions suddenly stops delivering, you can investigate why:
Sometimes it’s something as simple as a broken form.
Other times, it’s not obvious, and you must experiment. That’s where A/B testing can be helpful. Change an element on the landing page (maybe the wording in the headline) and see if that improves conversions.
Your sales team must communicate honestly with themselves and marketing about lead quality. Are they closing the ones they have at an acceptable rate/percentage?
If yes, then ask:
If no, then ask:
Understanding why your site isn’t “converting” takes work. Partnering with a senior living marketing agency that monitors web analytics and makes wise adjustments based on actual data can be a smart investment. Curious to learn more? Get in touch, and let’s talk about your website.
Getting a prospect to tour your senior living community is a critical step in the senior living sales process—but it’s only one step. Once prospects finish the tour, then what? What can your marketing and sales teams do to help prospects cross the finish line and become residents?
We’ve rounded up some tips for helping your teams do exactly that.
The salesperson’s job is to focus on the prospect. This is an excellent opportunity to discover what makes the prospect tick, their questions, and why they (or their family) might be hesitant about your community. Remember, the main goal isn’t to sell—it’s to listen. Show sincere empathy and take mental notes.
To do this, you need an excellent pre-tour process that captures relevant details about prospects. Are they foodies who love gourmet meals and fine wine? You’ll want to stop by your community’s pub and talk about the wine tastings on the first Saturday of each month.
Does a prospect love to read? Talk about the community’s book club, stop by the library, and—ideally—introduce them to book club members during the tour.
We mean both literal and figurative tastes. Food quality is always at the top of prospects’ lists, so invite prospects to have a meal. Better yet: invite them to come back for a meal after they finish their tour. Book it with them before they leave, but send them home with something to whet their appetite, like yummy baked goods from the community’s kitchen.
As for figurative tastes, invite prospects to participate in activities like an upcoming movie night or book club. Don’t simply invite them, either. Facilitate by introducing the prospect to the resident in charge and reminding the resident as the date gets closer.
Share success stories about current residents or their families. Hearing about positive experiences—or experiences they can identify with—can go a long way in helping to alleviate doubts and inspire confidence.
PRO TIP: Introduce prospects to current residents during the tour, including some of the ones featured in your stories. This allows them to see firsthand the positive experiences and relationships that can be developed within the community.
If your community doesn’t have a new resident welcome program, start one ASAP. Every community should have a program for welcoming new residents and helping them acclimate. The program can include pairing the resident with a peer, making sure someone from the community is there to greet them on move-in day, and scheduling introductions between the new resident and essential personnel, like the chef and the executive director.
It seems so basic, right? Senior living sales 101. But in our busy world, sometimes the basics fall by the wayside. Always follow up tours with a heartfelt note—ideally, a handwritten one you send via good old-fashioned snail mail. You can then follow up with digital communication like email, but a handwritten note is classy—especially in the eyes of the older generations—as it takes time to write and shows someone you’re thinking about them.
Personalize the note! This is where all that listening you did during the tour will pay off. Demonstrate you were listening by referring to something they said or providing further info about a question or concern they had.
You’ll see that we repeated this tip—on purpose. During the tour, you should discuss the next steps if the prospect wants to move in. You should also discuss how your community helps residents acclimate. But post-tour, you should follow up with specifics in writing. Creating a packet with a checklist of next steps, important dates, and even a list of helpful service providers like senior move specialists can be helpful. (You can turn this into a digital packet on your website as well.)
People love good deals, like waived fees or discounted first month’s rent. If you’re heading into a historically slow season—or your census is below a critical threshold—you can deploy incentive programs until you get your numbers back up.
Your best bet is to use a senior living call center like LeadGenie. The staff can qualify callers who are ready for tours and record interesting nuggets about them for the sales reps who’ll be leading the tours. Learn more about LeadGenie here.
Let’s talk about bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) content. Oh, wait—you’re not sure what that means? No worries! We’ll walk you through what it is and why it’s essential. Plus, we’ll share fun ideas to rock your BOFU.
To understand BOFU, we need to discuss what comes before it—and this involves a quick lesson on the basic stages that buyers go through: awareness, consideration, decision.
(You might see this labeled as awareness, evaluation, conversion—same thing, different labels.)
They’re becoming aware of their own need or problem. For example, adult children of seniors might have a family meeting because mom is having trouble maintaining her house now that dad is gone. What should happen next? Hire in-house assistance? Downsize to a smaller house? Retire to a senior living community? Something else?
At this point, your senior living community probably isn’t on anyone’s radar yet. The family begins researching, which is when top-of-the-funnel content, or TOFU, comes in:
Using our above example, maybe everyone (including mom!) agrees that downsizing and moving into a senior living community makes sense. Now, it’s a matter of learning more about IL, researching options, and evaluating them.
Types of content that speaks to the senior living MOFU crowd include:
When someone is in the bottom of the funnel (BOFU), they’re ready to buy.
This is known as the conversion stage. Again, using our above example, the family members might have narrowed it down to three contenders for their mom.
Types of senior living BOFU content include:
Keep in mind that there’s often overlap between stages. For example, people in the top of the funnel might not know the difference between independent living, assisted living, and memory care. They might assume nursing homes fall under the senior living umbrella.
However, people in the middle of the funnel have likely learned the basics. At this point, they might focus on the specific lifestyle they’re interested in, read reviews, and compare options.
And people in the bottom of the funnel might have their eyes on three different places. Even though they’ve already read some reviews, now they’re going back and reading more—especially what the one- and two-star reviews have to say.
It’s easy to think that TOFU and MOFU content are more important than BOFU. After all, if you can get someone to the point where they’re seriously considering your senior living community, what more can you do?
Think of it this way: if someone hasn’t made a final decision, your community still has a chance. Great BOFU content can give your community a competitive edge over communities that don’t take this extra step.
And even if other communities also have a strong BOFU game, something that your BOFU content mentions might resonate more.
Bottom line: Don’t skimp on developing strong BOFU content.
Need fresh BOFU content ideas? Check out the brainstorm below. Customize them to fit your needs. And if you need help bringing any of these to life, give us a shout. Our content team is ready to help.
Showcase residents’ positive experiences to build trust and credibility. You can make a video using Canva (or its equivalent)—interspersing pics with words and audio. Then, email the prospect and their family a link with something like “This could be you in 30 days.”
Why this is effective bottom-of-the-funnel content: Happy residents talking in their own words is powerful marketing. And you never know what little nugget will motivate someone on the fence.
PRO TIP: You can create a similar version with clips from family members about how happy and relieved they are that their loved one has acclimated to your community—and how much easier it was than they were expecting.
Here’s another video idea that can resonate, especially if you’re trying to create that bespoke senior living experience. Do a video montage featuring key people like the head chef and have them talk about how they can’t wait to meet “you” (the new prospect) and help you settle in.
This is a practical suggestion, but no less effective. Moving is HARD, no matter what the person’s age. Add in other challenges, like selling a house or moving to a new state, and the move becomes even more complicated. A move-in guide shouldn’t be generic. It should assume the close—that the person is moving into your community—and outline all the necessary steps, contact names, phone numbers, and what to expect on move-in day.
Ideally, this would be a nicely designed packet. Make it even more special by including an invitation to enjoy a welcome toast at the community’s lounge. The note can say something like, “We’re looking forward to toasting your arrival the afternoon you move into your new home at Awesome Senior Living Community!”
Round up quick snippets from residents about their experience the first day, week, and month after they moved into your community. This is the place to highlight residents who might have been anxious/afraid/sad about making the move and their “pleasantly surprised” reaction to what happened the first day, week, or month.
Highlight the community’s safety protocols, emergency response systems, and 24/7 security measures to reassure prospective residents and their families that they’re making the right choice when they choose your community.
Compile a comprehensive list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) and some not-so-common but still relevant questions.
Why this is effective bottom-of-the-funnel content: The title alone should make someone want to click, open, or continue reading. Because someone in the decision stage will likely be curious about knowing the answers to a question they forgot to ask.
Need more ideas? Set up a 30-minute brainstorming session with us at no charge.
