Senior Living Sales: Cold Leads Success Story

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When it comes to senior living sales, we often discuss best practices, like finding gold in lost or cold leads. But stories are much more compelling, right?

Below, we share results we achieved for a client and the takeaways you can learn and apply to your own community.

Many lost leads aren’t actually lost—they’re simply deferred.

Remember, lost leads were once qualified leads.

Unfortunately, something happened along the way that forced these leads into the dark abyss known as the “lost lead” category in your senior living CRM. Leads in this bucket might also have labels like cold, unable to reach, decided to stay home, chose home care, or moved in with family.

But here’s the secret about these leads. Don’t think of them as lost forever. Think of them as deferred.

  • That person the sales team reached out to only once or twice might not have been ready for the sales call then, but they could very well be months later.
  • Those who decided to stay home might think about things differently after a snowy winter.
  • That person who chose home care might have more needs than the aides can handle—or that the person’s home can accommodate.

Our point: Revisiting lost leads is a smart strategy. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. And thanks to marketing automation, you don’t need to put the onus on your senior living sales team to call or manually email hundreds or thousands of lost leads. A turnkey email campaign (we call ours “Stay in Touch“) can do the heavy lifting. If someone bites (i.e., engages), then the sales reps can get involved at that point.

Here’s a recent success story using this approach.

We went through this process with one of our clients, Sinceri Senior Living. They had around 4,300 cold leads that they wanted to re-engage. Our automated “Stay in Touch” email marketing campaign resulted in 20 move-ins, equating to three million dollars in revenue. Not too shabby, right?

Even better: An additional 350 (or so) leads re-engaged (whether it was moving to marketing-qualified or sales-qualified status), so the sales reps then had another 350 engaged leads to work with.

⮚      TAKEAWAY: Don’t ignore lost or cold leads. View them as opportunities. Create a plan for entering them into an automated email campaign that will re-engage and convert at least some of them to tours, deposits, and move-ins.

Most stalled leads won’t stay stalled forever.

Your community likely has a bucket of marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) that have gone through your nurturing workflows, yet they still haven’t advanced to sales-qualified lead (SQL) status.

Stuck MQLs also offer great opportunities. Sure, after they’ve gone through your nurturing workflows, you could simply enroll them in your email newsletter and call it a day. But that likely won’t be enough to nudge them.

That’s why we recommend creating a slow-burn, long-term drip campaign. We call ours “Still thinking?” In it, we offer ways for the person to self-identify where they’re at in the process, if things have changed for them, and so forth.

Again, this is an automated email campaign—no heavy lifting for sales or marketing (once you set it up). The goal is to re-energize some of the stuck leads. It won’t work on all of them, but even if you can get a small portion to move forward, it’s all good.

And for the rest of the leads that truly cool down to the point they enter the “lost” bucket? You can give them a break from emails for a while before entering them into the “Stay in Touch” campaign. And don’t worry: Good marketing automation, like HubSpot, has settings you can enable to ensure people don’t go through the same workflows repeatedly.

Here’s a recent success story using this approach.

We used the “Still thinking?” campaign with Sinceri. The result? Twenty percent of the stalled MQLs advanced to SQL status.

⮚      TAKEAWAY: You have to nudge MQLs along. Yes, even after they’ve been through the initial nurturing workflow. The sales cycle for senior living can be long (especially for independent living).

Would you like to experience similar conversions with your cold or stuck leads?

The results we achieved for Sinceri Senior Living weren’t an isolated experience. We strive to get these results for all of our clients. Get in touch and let’s talk about how to convert cold and stuck leads into move-ins.

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How to Market Senior Living Communities in a Sea of Sameness

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One of the biggest challenges in how to market senior living communities is differentiation. On the surface, most communities look the same. They all promote having the best care, best staff, best dining, best activities, best blah, blah, blah. (Sound familiar?)

If you can’t figure out what makes your community genuinely different and special—in other words, its unique value proposition—prospects will resort to focusing on price and location when deciding. Price wars are a race to the bottom, and you can’t move your community, so get ready to play the “let’s make a deal” game.

That’s the bad news.

But here’s the good news.

Developing a unique value proposition isn’t as hard as you might think. The unique value prop doesn’t need to be sexy or over the top to “win.” It simply needs to be true and resonate with your prospects.

So, how do you create this value prop? Begin by leaning into the things that your happiest residents and families continually say about your community.

Here are some ideas to get you going.

  1. Embrace your newness.

If yours is the newest community in your market, lean into that. Be the bright, shiny penny and play up your newness. You likely have the latest technology and modern finishes, and residents can be the first to live in their space. No scuffs, scratches, or stained carpets here.

But remember, the newness won’t last. Claim this position while you can, but behind the scenes, work on developing another value proposition to replace it when the time comes.

  1. Embrace your oldness.

OK, so maybe you can’t play the new game, but you can focus on your experience, stability, and years of service to your community. Older communities often have better locations and larger apartments. Promote this. Not to mention, older adults turned off by ultra-modern aesthetics might feel more comfortable in older communities.

Bonus: You might be able to offer a lower price point since competitors are paying significantly more for construction and financing.

  1. Promote high acuity levels of care.

Several regional and national brands position their ability to manage high-acuity residents. Their messaging about caring for the “frailest of the frail” attracts their ideal prospects (or their families). These communities don’t try to be all things to all people. Instead, they focus on what they’re great at: serving older adults who need more care.

If this describes your community, focus on your staffing levels, staff training, and the technology that supports better management of frail seniors. Include compelling proof of your community’s excellence by achieving deficiency-free status.

  1. Highlight luxury.

If you are the luxury price leader, your marketing messaging should focus on exclusivity, discernment, and lifestyle.

Here are themes that tend to resonate with people seeking luxury:

  • When only the best will do.
  • Dream bigger.
  • You earned this.
  • Design your life one day at a time.

The key is focusing on what elevates your brand to luxury status. For example, other communities might have fitness centers, but your community has personal trainers.

  1. Highlight affordability.

The key to marketing an affordable product is positioning your community as a responsible choice for consumers who are planners and don’t want to run out of money. Your community offers everything that your prospects need without making them pay for additional amenities that they’ll never use.

This is an example of an un-sexy but highly effective message for people who can’t afford frills or simply aren’t interested in them.

  1. Show off your specialty.

Maybe you only offer independent living or stand-alone memory care. Your marketing messaging can promote all the advantages of being purpose-built for that lifestyle to sell against competitors offering multiple levels of care.

Specializing in just one lifestyle should give you an advantage to create a unique experience that your competitors can’t provide in a more blended model.

  1. Niche down.

Niche developments often appeal to older adults who want to live with people with similar backgrounds, experiences, and hobbies.

Here are some examples of senior living communities with interesting niches:

  • Lasell Village in Newton, Mass, is a university-based retirement community (UBRC) built on the Lasell University campus. The community says the pursuit of lifelong learning is central to its lifestyle.
  • The Lillian Booth Actors’ Home is built for retired Broadway professionals (actors, musicians, directors, and designers).
  • The design-build company Haskell has created senior housing for Naval and Air Force personnel: Fleet Landing in Florida and Falcons Landing in Virginia.
  • There has been a lot of press about developing communities for retired NFL players.
  • Some companies are building specialty properties for the LGBTQ community, while others are focused on a specific culture.

The above is a small sample of ideas, but many others exist, like big campuses, small residential homes, buy-ins, rentals, and many more. The key is identifying your authentic value proposition and building your marketing messaging and campaigns around your strengths.

Need help standing out in a sea of sameness?

Messaging is one of our core services and specialties. Get in touch, and let’s brainstorm how to market senior living communities like yours.

Are You Maximizing Your Senior Living Marketing Budget?

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The success of your senior living marketing—whether in-house or outsourced—is measured by tours, deposits, and move-ins. While it might be tempting to think your marketing is “working” as long as those three things consistently trend upwards, you could be leaving money on the table and not even realize it.

Budget season is the perfect time for a gut check. Here’s what to do . . .

Review your traffic and conversion sources.

As the saying goes, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Questions to ask:

  • Do you have complete visibility into each of your marketing channels, including digital and traditional?
  • Are you using UTM tags properly so you know where people are coming from and how, when, and where they convert?
  • Do you use centralized marketing technology, like HubSpot or something similar, that empowers you to monitor traffic sources and campaigns throughout the prospect’s journey?
  • Does your marketing tech integrate with your CRM? If not, the two systems won’t communicate, leading to disjointed data.

By asking these questions, you can identify areas you need to fix or improve. For example, if you recently launched an email marketing campaign, but the tracking is broken or non-existent, you won’t know if the campaign is working—or how well.

Or maybe your website traffic and conversion sources are not aligned or a historically successful source of qualified leads is trending down.

Again, these things can be subtle and easy to miss, especially if conversions seem good and the sales team appears happy. You must be proactive, pop the hood, and see what’s what. If you don’t, you might lose out on viable leads that could turn into tours, deposits, and move-ins.

Evaluate your content’s performance.

You need content for all phases of the buyer’s journey. However, too many marketing teams fall into the trap of thinking that the most popular content produces the most conversions.

That’s not always the case, which is why it’s essential to understand which pieces of content drive the most tours, deposits, and move-ins.

For example, guides like “How to fund senior living” tend to be top downloads for many communities. But the question is, how many of the people who download the funding guides ultimately convert into move-ins?

With some of our clients, we’ve discovered that when we look at the people who’ve moved in and best reflect the ideal customer profile, another piece of content—like a decision-making toolkit—actually converts more move-ins.

Intel like this can help you adjust and optimize your content marketing strategy. This is why you shouldn’t get hung up on vanity metrics like most downloads. Instead, always consider which content (and which content paths) produce the best conversions to tours, deposits, and move-ins.

Assess your budget allocation, look for wasteful spending, and adjust accordingly.

Here’s a four-step process to follow when developing your budget. Doing this will help ensure you’re putting all of your marketing dollars to good use:

  • Consider your current budget for each channel (e.g., organic, paid, social, etc.). Remember, the best way to inform future strategy is through current performance.
  • Review each channel’s results. And not just contacts and leads—you must know which channels are producing tours, deposits, and move-ins.
  • Identify any gaps. What don’t you have in your marketing stack? For example, if you haven’t launched a new version of your website in three years, you probably need a new one or a significant refresh at the very least.
  • From there, reallocate your budget accordingly. Put more dollars toward what’s delivering the most tours, deposits, and move-ins.

Now’s also a good time to audit your martech stack for technology and software you’re still paying for but not using. You’re wasting budget that you could be using somewhere else that actually helps generate more leads—and ultimately tours, deposits, and move-ins.

  • PRO TIP: Communities often wonder how to split their budget between digital and traditional marketing. This will depend on various factors, including the care level you’re selling, what type of community you have (rentals vs. life plan communities, for example), and even location. A rule of thumb: for-profit properties, an 80/20 split makes sense. For non-profits, a 70/30 split works (these communities tend to send more direct mail).

Understand and monitor key metrics.

Do you know the lifetime value of a resident? If not, tackle that first. It’s the granddaddy of all metrics.

Make sure you’ve set up clear goals and conversion tracking:

  • Define and track specific conversion goals, such as form submissions or phone calls.
  • Analyze conversion funnels to identify potential drop-off points. (More on drop-offs below.)
  • Implement tracking codes and pixels for accurate measurement.

Analyze demographic and behavioral data:

  • Explore demographic insights of website visitors and email subscribers.
  • Analyze user engagement based on age, location, and interests.
  • Use this data to refine your buyer personas and marketing messages for them.

Pay attention to funnel drop-off points:

  • Identify stages in the conversion funnel with high drop-off rates.
  • Analyze user behavior, messaging, or design issues causing drop-offs.
  • Optimize those specific areas to improve conversion rates.

Remember, the above items still matter if you work with an outside senior living marketing agency.

The primary difference is that you’ll collaborate with the agency about these items.

If you’re questioning whether your agency is the right fit and delivering measurable ROI, you should take a step back and evaluate their work—and your relationship with the account team.

Remember, a good agency will:

  • Create custom dashboards that highlight the metrics that matter most in achieving your goals
  • Be proactive in delivering reports, analysis, and recommended adjustments
  • Not be afraid to make changes based on what the data says
  • Act like a partner rather than a vendor

Some communities might find the agency’s results OK, but the customer service is severely lacking. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice one for the other. A good agency will value its relationship with you and promptly respond to emails, calls, and requests.

Still not sure you have the right agency?

Check out eight signs it might be time to fire your senior living marketing agency. Or you can simply contact us! We value our client relationships and love getting great results for them.

Do You Need a Senior Living Marketing Plan, System, or Both?

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If you’re one of our regular blog readers or podcast listeners, you might have heard us talk about the importance of having a marketing system. But what is a marketing system? How is it different from a senior living marketing plan? And do you need both?

Below, we explore this topic by drawing from our podcast with Sarah Nay, the COO of Duct Tape Marketing. (Listen to the full podcast here.)

What is a marketing plan?

senior living marketing plan outlines specific tactics and actions designed to achieve your marketing objectives. While a marketing plan is crucial for identifying what your team must do daily, weekly, and monthly, it will fall short if it doesn’t integrate into a broader, more dynamic strategy.

The main issue? Too many marketing plans list tactics like blogging, emailing, posting to social media (and so forth) without taking that all-important step back to understand the “why” behind each item.

What is a marketing system?

A marketing system, on the other hand, is a comprehensive, strategic framework that guides all marketing efforts. Before getting into a list of day-to-day or month-to-month tactics (i.e., your marketing plan), the marketing system delves into a cohesive marketing strategy that aligns with your overall business goals.

This strategy work includes things like:

Once you understand those things, you will have a much better grasp of the “whys” behind your marketing efforts and how those efforts will help the community achieve its business goals (for example, increasing revenue by X percent year over year).

Why your senior living community needs a marketing system and a marketing plan

Here’s why you need both to effectively market your senior living community.

1. Strategic Direction and Tactical Execution

A marketing system provides strategic direction, ensuring your efforts align with your business goals. The marketing plan, on the other hand, outlines the specific tactics and actions needed to execute this strategy. Together, they ensure that every action you take is purposeful and contributes to your long-term objectives.

2. Consistency and Flexibility

A marketing system ensures consistency in messaging and branding across all channels, creating a cohesive experience for your audience. The marketing plan allows for flexibility, detailing the specific actions to be taken and adjusted as needed based on performance metrics.

3. Comprehensive Coverage

While a marketing plan focuses on immediate actions, a marketing system ensures that these actions are part of a larger, integrated strategy. This comprehensive approach covers every stage of the customer journey, from awareness to conversion and retention.

4. Improved ROI

By integrating a marketing system with a well-crafted marketing plan, you can track and measure the ROI of each tactic more effectively. This transparency allows for better resource allocation and more informed decision-making, ultimately driving higher returns on your marketing investments.

Key differences between senior living marketing plans and marketing systems

1. Scope and Depth

  • Marketing Plan: Typically more tactical, focusing on specific actions to achieve short-term goals.
  • Marketing System: Holistic and strategic, encompassing the entire customer journey and ensuring all marketing activities are interconnected.

2. Approach

  • Marketing Plan: Often a static document outlining what needs to be done.
  • Marketing System: Dynamic and iterative, adjusting strategies based on ongoing performance metrics and feedback.

3. Integration

  • Marketing Plan: Might include isolated tactics without a unifying strategy.
  • Marketing System: Ensures all marketing efforts are integrated and support a unified strategic direction.

Bottom line: Think marketing system first, marketing plan second.

Relying solely on a tactical marketing plan will not yield the results you want. To drive occupancy and build a thriving community, you need a smart strategy that informs your marketing plan.

The marketing system provides the strategic backbone, while the marketing plan outlines the specific actions needed to achieve your goals. By integrating these two elements, you can create a cohesive, dynamic marketing approach that delivers consistent, measurable results.

Need help with your community’s marketing strategy, plan, or both? Get in touch.

Senior Living Leads Stuck in Pre & Post-Tour Stages: What to Do

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Tackling occupancy issues in your community often means finding untapped opportunities within your existing senior living leads, such as those stuck in the pre-tour and post-tour stages.

By effectively re-engaging these segments, you’ll move more pre-tour leads to tours and more post-tour leads to move-ins. Below, we explore strategies for doing exactly that.

Understanding Leads Stuck in the Pre-Tour Stage

People stuck in the pre-tour stage have expressed interest in your community by reaching out, but they haven’t scheduled a tour yet. They need an extra nudge to take the next step.

But first, how do you know if someone is genuinely stuck? The 2023 Aline Annual Sales and Marketing Benchmark Report for Senior Housing provides excellent metrics like the average sales cycle length from inquiry to tour for the following:

  • Independent living: 122 days
  • Assisted living: 78 days
  • Memory care: 49 days

Here are some strategies for nudging leads stuck beyond those averages.

1. Come right out and ask if they’re still interested.

Direct is usually best. If prospects are stuck in the pre-tour stage, you could enroll them in an email nurturing campaign that asks if they’re still considering your community.

We’ve had great success with these “Are you still thinking about senior living?” campaigns for our clients. The gist of the correspondence is, “You expressed interest in our community in the past, but we haven’t heard from you in a while. We‘re wondering if you’re still thinking about senior living?”

The campaign gives recipients options for re-engaging. If they opt out, no harm, no foul—at least you know, and you’re not wasting time marketing to them.

If they re-engage, they’ll continue receiving emails that refamiliarize them with your community and gently nudge them to book a tour.

2. Forget selling. Focus on connecting.

Some people might find the concept of a “tour” too formal or salesy. Instead, avoid the word “tour” and offer something that feels more relaxed, casual, and low-risk.

  • Lunch invites. People love free food. Inviting your prospect to a casual lunch can provide an excellent introduction to your community.
  • Event invites. Invite prospects to social gatherings where they can experience the environment without the pressure of a formal tour. Think movie nights, musical events, or fairs.

3. Don’t nudge people to the point of annoyance.

Gentle reminders are good, but pestering emails and phone calls aren’t. Moving to senior living is a huge decision involving many emotions. Empower prospects to tell you when they’re ready to schedule a tour. Enrolling them in lead nurturing campaigns is a good step, but only if the campaigns are relevant to them.

Remember, these prospects have already expressed an interest in senior living and your community in particular. Brainstorm why the prospect might be reluctant to schedule a tour and use the nurturing campaign to address those issues and demonstrate your empathy.

Common issues include:

  • Fear of Commitment: They might think scheduling a tour implies a level of commitment they’re not ready to make.

o   How to address: In your communication, reassure prospects that a tour isn’t binding. Explain that touring several communities is part of the process, and even if they decide your community isn’t “the one,” that’s OK.

  • Emotional Barriers: The prospect or their family members might face emotional challenges, such as denial or guilt about moving into a senior living community.

o   How to address: Acknowledge that having mixed feelings about senior living is normal. Share stories of residents who experienced different emotions before making the move—sadness, fear, anxiety, guilt—and how they successfully overcame those emotions. (If you don’t have this content, create it.)

  • Lack of Information: This is also called the fear of the unknown. Prospects might feel uncertain about what to expect during a tour.

o   How to address: Create a robust “What to expect when you visit” page on your site that talks about tour specifics, like where to park, where to enter, who to ask for, how long the tour will last, etc. If available, sprinkle the page with testimonials or snippets of Google reviews that mention how helpful the tours are. (Not sure your tours are up to snuff? Here’s how to create a red-carpet experience.)

  • Perceived Sales Pressure: Prospects might worry they’ll experience high-pressure sales tactics during the tour.

o   How to address: Once again, emphasize that they are always in control, that a tour is simply an introduction to your community, and that no one expects them to make such a big decision on the spot.

Understanding Leads Stuck in the Post-Tour Stage

Nothing is more frustrating—or puzzling—than when a high-intent lead tours the community, seems to love it, and then . . . crickets.

But here’s the thing: Too often, sales teams drop the ball here, thinking the heavy lifting is done once they give someone a tour. Sure, the sales rep might do a perfunctory follow-up. But one follow-up won’t cut it given senior living’s notoriously long sales cycle, especially for independent living and assisted living.

You must continue to actively and creatively engage leads in the post-tour phase.

But again, how do you know if someone is genuinely stuck? The 2023 Aline Annual Sales and Marketing Benchmark Report for Senior Housing provides the average sales cycle length from tour to move-in for the following:

  • Independent living: 201 days
  • Assisted living: 119 days
  • Memory care: 64 days

Here are effective strategies to implement if leads get stuck in this stage.

  • Invite the prospect back for another visit. Even better if it’s something other than a tour. Personalized invitations to special events, like a holiday party or a lunch-and-learn, can keep your community top-of-mind.
  • Occasionally drop in on them at home. Consider doing home visits for high-intent leads. Bringing a meal or a small gift can be a thoughtful way to show that you care and to keep the conversation going.
  • Enroll the prospect in a “What are you waiting for?” campaign. This is another campaign we’ve had great success with. This post-tour campaign uses FOMO (fear of missing out) to encourage decision-making. In this campaign, we contrast the annoyances of the prospect’s current home life with the vibrant life they could have in your community. For example, in one email, we show a person alone eating a can of soup, followed by a shot of smiling people enjoying a yummy-looking meal in the community’s gorgeous dining room. The concept is simple: What are you waiting for? This could be your life.

Bottom line: Don’t give up on stuck leads.

We’ve seen too many senior living CRMs with buckets of leads labeled “cold.” Yet when we dig deeper and ask questions, we discover that these leads once had high intent. (Especially the ones that went on tours.)

Don’t give up on these leads. The senior living sales cycle is long and involves a lot of effort and patience on the part of marketing and sales. If your community needs help re-engaging stalled leads, get in touch and let us help.

Using Social Proof in Digital Marketing for Senior Living

Have you ever been in a social situation where you weren’t sure how to behave—should I sit, stand, congregate in one room, avoid another—and you modeled your behavior based on what others around you were doing?

That’s social proof (or social influence) in action.

Psychologist Robert Cialdini coined the phrase social proof in his book Influence: Science and Practice. The term suggests that when people don’t know how to behave or what to do in a situation, they tend to look at what other folks are doing, assuming (rightly or wrongly) that others have more information or insight.

OK, so you might be wondering what social proof has to do with digital marketing for senior living. Turns out, a lot. Below, we discuss what social proof is in terms of marketing, why it matters for your senior living community, and what you can do to foster it.

What is social proof in marketing?

Social proof in marketing occurs when someone other than the brand says the brand is fabulous, and this stamp of approval influences others to buy from the brand. As noted above, humans tend to be influenced by what other people do and experience.

⮚      Have you ever had a bunch of friends talk up a new show on Netflix or Hulu, and you found yourself watching it over the following weekend? That’s social proof. (This is how The Bear took off last year.)

⮚      Have you ever craved a specific type of food and chosen a restaurant based on its stellar Yelp reviews? That, too, is social proof.

⮚      Have you ever asked for a recommendation in a Facebook group—maybe for a plumber, landscaper, or hair stylist—and eight comments mentioned the same person, which spurred you to call them? Hello, social proof!

Social proof is also closely tied with another concept many of us know: FOMO, or “fear of missing out.” Think of any product that’s gone viral—from the Cabbage Patch dolls of the 80s to the veggie chopper everyone’s talking about on TikTok. These things take off because influencers talk them up, and suddenly, everyone wants to have the product or service.

Why is social proof important in digital marketing for senior living?

We don’t have to tell you that people hesitate before making big purchases. Moving to a senior living community is often the last big purchase a person will make in their lifetime—and it’s a pricey one.

Prospective buyers want to be reassured that they’re making a good decision. And that’s precisely where social proof comes into play. They want to hear about people’s experiences in the community: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Were they happy? Was it money well spent? Were they cared for? Was the place as wonderful as the website and marketing materials suggested?

If your community lacks social proof, you’ll have an uphill battle converting marketing-qualified leads into move-ins.

Consider these social proof stats cited by OptIn Monster:

  • 87% of purchasing choices start with online research before the transaction.
  • The average consumer reads ten online reviews before deciding to buy.
  • 88% of people value user reviews as highly as personal suggestions.
  • 82% of Americans consult friends and family for advice before buying something.

Bottom line: social proof matters!

What types of social proof should senior living communities encourage?

Reviews

If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you’ve likely heard us emphasize the importance of your senior living community’s Google Business Profile, particularly the reviews. At some point, most of your prospects will see your Google reviews.

When it comes to reviews, focus on doing the following:

Regularly solicit reviews. If you don’t have recent reviews, this can lead to questions and diminish trust in your brand. Why are the reviews a year old? What does this mean? Is the community still around? Did something change with management? Does that five-star review from three years ago tell an accurate story of what it’s like in the community today?

⮚      INSIGHT: OptIn Monster reports that eighty-five percent of consumers believe online reviews older than three months are irrelevant.

Maintain an overall positive rating. Most reasonable people don’t expect perfection. In fact, a perfect 5.0 for reviews would likely raise an eyebrow since enough folks have likely heard about fake or paid reviews. At the same time, people will quickly cross off communities with ratings in the threes or lower. We advise our clients to aim for the sweet spot of 4.0 to 4.5. This tends to be a believable score as well as a good score.

⮚      INSIGHT: OptIn Monster reports that fifty-seven percent of consumers will only purchase or use a business’s services if it has a rating of at least four stars.

 

Provide thoughtful responses to all reviews, especially negative reviews. Are your responses kind and authentic? Or snarky and defensive? People do take note. Demonstrating that you’re listening to people’s critiques will serve your community a lot better than a dismissive response to a negative review.

⮚      INSIGHT: TrustPulse reports that fifty-six percent of consumers alter their view of a business based on the way it responds to reviews.

Referrals

We mentioned earlier that most people seek recommendations from friends and family before buying something. Having a robust referral program can help you take advantage of this stat.

Referrals can come from residents, family members, and third parties, such as elder law attorneys, financial planners, and geriatric care managers.

RESIDENTS. The best way to get referrals from residents is by creating a seamless move-in experience—and a stellar first month. (We’re not suggesting things should go downhill from there, but the first 30 days are critical.) Marketing, sales, and other departments (like activities) should collaborate. Silo mentalities need-not apply. Learn how to create an epic new resident welcome program.

FAMILY MEMBERS. Adult children can be an excellent megaphone for your community, especially if their mom or dad is having a wonderful experience. Remember that the adult child can continue to be a referral source even after the resident moves out or passes away (provided the experience remains positive until the end). Learn more about the adult child’s journey and why staying in touch with them is critical.

THIRD-PARTY REFERRALS. Sales reps should always nurture these relationships and regularly network. Still, marketers can help by providing compelling collateral and setting up automated email workflows to make it easier for reps to stay in touch with their networking contacts. Learn more about how to engage with senior living referral sources.

Need help developing social proof for your community?

There’s no better form of social proof than glowing reviews and a steady stream of referrals. Get in touch if you need help generating more of one or both. We specialize in digital marketing for senior living and know how to prime your community’s social proof engine.

Senior Living Social Media Marketing: Storytelling Tips

Photo of a cell phone for the article Senior Living Social Media Marketing: Storytelling Tips

Humans are suckers for a good story, full stop. We love telling stories. We love listening to stories. And thanks to social media, there’s no shortage of ways to consume stories, either.

For the casual scroller, encountering interesting stories on social media can be a fun way to while away the hours. For savvy businesses, however, sharing memorable stories can increase engagement, brand recognition, and even sales.

Consider these compelling storytelling stats:

So, let’s discuss the power of storytelling in senior living social media marketing—and some tips for creating truly memorable stories on three of the biggies: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Facebook

Along with YouTube, Facebook is still the granddaddy of all social media platforms, with over two billion active daily users globallyAccording to Hootsuite, it’s also the most used platform in the U.S.

This makes Facebook an ideal platform for senior living communities to connect with prospects, current residents, and their families.

Facebook Storytelling Tips for Senior Living

Your residents are an excellent source of compelling stories, so turn to them for ideas. Even better, their stories won’t be the same ones people see on a competitor’s social media accounts.

Here’s how to use their stories on Facebook:

 

  • New resident spotlights. By highlighting a new resident, you’ll create a warm and fuzzy feeling for the resident and their family. You’ll also show prospects how you celebrate residents.
  • Holidays. Here are some examples. For Thanksgiving, ask residents to share their favorite family traditions. On Halloween, ask residents if they’ve ever encountered a ghost or haunted house. You get the idea. Consider venturing beyond traditional holidays and focus on creating stories around things like National Hot Dog Day or National Ice Cream Month in July.
  • Day-in-the-life stories. Follow a resident around for a day in your community and highlight the happy moments.
  • Timelapse videos of events, like decorating the Christmas tree or how the gardens change from spring to fall.

Regarding story length, remember that no one expects a novel or movie. Shorter posts typically get better engagement on Facebook.

What do we mean by short? HubSpot says 40 characters or fewer. If you’re about to say it’s impossible to share a good story at that length, consider the famous six-word short story attributed to HemingwayFor sale: Baby shoes, never worn.

BOOM. That little story, which weighs in at 33 characters, delivers one heck of an emotional punch. Now, we’re not suggesting that you must stay under 40 characters. But you should aim for no more than a couple of sentences. Do your best to keep your post under 200 characters (at which point the text gets cut off, and people need to click to “see more”).

How can you keep it short and sweet while still delivering a compelling story? Here are some strategies.

Provide a super-short story, like Hemingway’s, but illustrate it with a pic or two.

 

  • EXAMPLE: Meet Mary. She loves quilting, cats, and a dry martini with three olives. Cheers!

o   Make sure you include a picture of Mary holding up her martini.

 

Offer a cliffhanger that entices people to click into a longer piece of content.

 

  • EXAMPLE: Meet Mary. She loves quilting, cats, and a special libation that she swears has kept her 87 years young. Find out what it is in our latest Resident Spotlight.

o   Link to a narrative about Mary on your website.

 

Let videos tell the stories.

  • EXAMPLE: Mary, our newest resident, reveals the drink she can’t live without.

o   Include a short video where Mary is toasting with her friends.

Videos are incredibly helpful in telling stories. Plus, videos boost engagement. (People spend half their time on Facebook watching videos.) Videos don’t need to be super long (think one to two minutes max), and they don’t need to be professionally shot, either.

Encourage residents and staff to keep their smartphones handy and share raw footage with the marketing department (here’s how to foster and reward this behavior). With an intuitive editing app like InShot, you can edit the raw footage into a compelling video.

Instagram

Instagram caters to a much younger demographic than Facebook. According to Hootsuite, 85% of IG users are under 45. You might be thinking, why bother? Well, nearly 16% of Instagram users are between 35 and 44, and 8% are between 45 and 54. Many of those users have aging parents and will likely be involved in the decision-making process when Mom and Dad consider moving to senior living.

The bottom line: Instagram is still an excellent place to share content, as long as you remember that you’ll most likely be talking to adult children rather than seniors themselves.

Instagram Storytelling Tips for Senior Living

So the question becomes, how do you engage this younger demographic, one that might influence their parents and grandparents?

We recommend turning to time-tested hashtags on Instagram—and reinventing them.

For example, hashtags like #food (and its various synonyms) are among the most popular hashtags on Instagram. Food is also among the most common questions communities receive from prospects and their families. Plus, it’s one of the topics communities like to promote as a differentiator.

You see where we’re going with this, right?

Use #food as the starting point for your storytelling. No, we’re not suggesting you show shots of what’s for dinner and call it a day.

Brainstorm all the stories around food in your community. Questions to ask yourself:

  • What’s your chef’s story? Conduct a video interview with them. You could also do a timelapse video of the chef and their team preparing dinner. Or record another video of them doing something special, like decorating a cake for a resident’s birthday or making one of the most popular dishes in the community. And then—this is important—share the recipe in the caption.
  • Does your community have a vegetable garden? Do the residents help with gardening? What’s grown, and what dishes are made from the harvest? Take a bunch of pics and include an engaging caption.
  • Where are veggies and meats sourced from? If there’s an interesting story—fishmonger, local butcher, farm-to-table approach—highlight it.
  • What are residents’ favorite meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Do a breakfast montage where you shoot a video of favorite meals interspersed with quick snippets of residents saying what they love about that meal.
  • Do you host pasta parties, brunches, ice cream sundae bars, etc.? Lively reels with fun captions are always crowd-pleasers on IG.
  • How about celebrations? Record a video highlighting how the dining staff works with a resident and their family for special occasions—wedding anniversaries, birthday parties, Mother’s Day brunches, and so forth.

Remember, no other community has your chef, your recipes, or your dining staff. By focusing on a popular hashtag like #food, you’ll gain traction (over time), but you’ll also be able to stand out—in a good way—from the competition.

Note: We’re not suggesting you can’t have content highlighting other areas of your community. But if you create stories around the food in your community, you’ll capture people’s attention and boost engagement. And we’re not just talking about more likes, either. People often share and save food-related content, especially food demonstration videos and recipes.

Here are some more tips for this approach . . .

  • Don’t forget the captions. If you need inspo, check out how local restaurants and hotels approach writing fun captions on Instagram.
  • Don’t forget to repurpose your videos. You can use the videos on other platforms. Share them on TikTok and YouTube as well.
  • If your competitors join the #food action, that’s OK. Again, all communities will have different food tales to tell.

LinkedIn

Your community is only as good as your employees. The most successful communities usually have happy, loyal people who enjoy their profession and love working for your senior living community. If you have a rotating door of staff members coming and going, everyone will feel it (and not in a good way), including residents, families, and fellow employees.

While fixing employment challenges is beyond marketing’s purview, the marketing department can still help attract the right people to open roles within the community. This is where LinkedIn comes in.

LinkedIn Storytelling Tips for Senior Living

The stories you share on LinkedIn can provide a glimpse into what it’s like to work in your community. To get started, revisit your community’s mission and value statements. From there, share content that shows how employees embody these values.

For example, if compassionate care is one of your community’s values—and not just for residents but also employees—you could share the story about an employee who recently had a baby and the amount of parental leave they were given, the flexible “easing” back into their work schedule, and the adorable gift basket the community delivered to the new parent and baby.

Of course, everything you share has to be true, but you get the idea. By sharing a true story demonstrating your community’s values and how they affect employees, you’re showing prospective employees what they can expect. Showing instead of “telling” is the hallmark of good storytelling.

More storytelling ideas for LinkedIn:

 

  • Employee Spotlight. Just as you have resident spotlights, you can record short videos or write up short narratives on employees.
  • Employee Testimonials: Share written or video testimonials from employees about why they love working in your community. These personal stories can provide insight into your community’s positive work culture and supportive environment.
  • Professional Development and Training: Highlight stories of employees who have benefited from ongoing training and professional development opportunities. Share how these programs have helped them advance their careers and improve their skills, reflecting your community’s commitment to continuous learning.
  • Team Achievements: Showcase team achievements and collaborative projects that have significantly affected the community. This could include successful events, innovative programs, or any initiatives that highlight the teamwork and dedication of your staff.

Bottom line: Make sure you’re including compelling stories in your senior living social media marketing.

By tailoring your storytelling approach to fit each platform’s unique features and audiences, you can maximize engagement and highlight the vibrant life within your senior living community. These tips will help you create compelling content that resonates with current residents, prospective residents, and their families.

Here’s more helpful content on social media marketing in senior living:

Senior Living Search Engine Optimization 101

Photo for the article Senior Living Search Engine Optimization 101

We spend a lot of time diving into more advanced digital marketing topics on our blog. But sometimes, it helps to return to a beginner mindset. After all, if you’re new to digital marketing in the senior living space, you’re likely encountering all sorts of acronyms, like MQLs (marketing-qualified leads), TOFU (top of the funnel), and SEO (search engine optimization), all of which can be super overwhelming to newbies.

Today, we’re giving a crash course in senior living search engine optimization (SEO). Why are we focusing on this acronym rather than some of the others? Simple. Your website is the most important element in your senior living marketing efforts. If you don’t optimize your community‘s website for search, you might as well pack up and go home.

Below, we answer common beginner questions:

  • What exactly is SEO?
  • Why is senior living search optimization important?
  • What are the key components of effective SEO?
  • What is local SEO?
  • How do you measure SEO success?
  • What are some common SEO mistakes?
  • How can you stay updated with SEO trends?
  • What’s a smart next step for me to take?

What is search engine optimization (SEO)?

Simply put, search engine optimization—or SEO—involves enhancing your website’s visibility in online searches. The better visibility your website pages have in search results, the more likely you are to attract prospects to your website.

Why is senior living search engine optimization so important?

Today, most senior living prospects will begin their search online. That doesn’t mean they’re necessarily searching for a community at the outset. Some people will be in education mode: What is senior living? How can I finance senior living? Others will be checking out review sites or “listening” to conversations friends and family are having on social media.

Eventually, though, serious prospects will venture onto senior living community websites. Some will land on these sites because of paid ads or third-party aggregators (like A Place for Mom), but plenty of others will enter them via organic search, provided the site has been optimized properly.

Note: As a rule of thumb, most of your website traffic should come from organic search (shoot for 70 to 75%).

What are the key components of effective SEO?

Effective SEO involves many moving parts, but the big ones to keep in mind are the following:

  • Producing high-quality content that’s easy for humans to read and for search engines to navigate (thanks to things like H1, H2, and H3 tags, good formatting with bolding and bulleted lists, and strong page titles)
  • Gaining “authority” through quality backlinks that occur organically or that you build as part of a larger link-building strategy
  • Focusing on the right mix of keyword phrases, including ones with decent search volume and relatively low competition
  • Making sure technical elements are up to snuff, like mobile responsiveness and site speed

And let’s not forget:

  • Optimizing images and videos: Use alt text and appropriate file names to ensure your media is engaging and SEO-friendly.
  • Local SEO: This is critical for senior living communities since people often perform “near me” searches. Effective local SEO includes an optimized Google Business Profile, listings in local directories, and plenty of recent reviews.

The above list only scratches the surface. A lot goes into effective SEO and local SEO. And here’s a secret: you’re never “done” optimizing a website. It’s an ongoing process. You must monitor your site’s performance, stay updated on the latest trends, and adjust your strategies accordingly.

Further reading

How do I measure the success of my SEO efforts?

To gauge how well your SEO efforts are paying off, track key metrics like organic traffic, bounce rate, and conversion rates (anonymous traffic to marketing-qualified lead [MQL] and MQL to sales-qualified lead). Tools like Google Analytics can provide valuable insights.

What are some common SEO mistakes to avoid in the senior living industry?

Don’t try to game the search engines. This won’t end well for you. Always write for humans first, search engines second. Write naturally and avoid keyword stuffing. Don’t underestimate the importance of mobile optimization or user experience. As mentioned above, SEO is an ongoing process—you’re never done.

How do I stay updated with the latest SEO trends and algorithm changes?

Follow reputable SEO websites (like Moz and Search Engine Journal), attend webinars, and participate in SEO forums.

Below are some additional resources to check out:

What’s a smart next step to take?

While digging into the ins and outs of SEO is an excellent first step, you might be wondering what your next step should be. We recommend getting an SEO audit like the one we offer. Our team lives and breathes SEO, so we’ll be able to tell you what’s working, what isn’t, and how to address issues.

5 Signs You Must Pivot Your Senior Living Marketing Strategy

Photo of signs for the article 5 Signs You Must Pivot Your Senior Living Marketing Strategy

Nothing is more frustrating than spending precious budget and time devising and deploying your digital marketing strategy, only to experience “meh” results.

But the analytics don’t lie. If the results aren’t there, you must react. Here’s how.

5 signs you need to pivot your senior living marketing strategy

Sign #1: Most of your website traffic isn’t coming from organic search

70 to 75 percent of your website traffic should come from organic search.

Why? Well, leads from organic search have self-identified that they’re interested in (or need) senior living. (In other words, they want to hear what you have to say.) Plus, organic search traffic is free.

Running pay-per-click ads can be an effective marketing strategy, but the cost-per-lead can be expensive. For example, the cost per lead for memory care often costs $400 or more. Paid search traffic should be part of the mix, but the bulk of your website traffic should come from organic search.

⮚      WHAT TO DOPerforming a website audit is a smart first step. The audit can provide a solid overview of what’s working and what isn’t, allowing you to prioritize what to fix first.

Sign #2: You have tons of leads, but they’re not converting

Not all leads are created equal. Having tons of leads isn’t necessarily better than having a smaller number of targeted leads that are much more likely to convert.

⮚      WHAT TO DO: In this case, performing an SEO audit can be an excellent place to start. Doubling down on SEO efforts, targeting keyword phrases, and paying attention to local SEO (including the all-important “near me” searches) can be a fantastic way to increase targeted traffic. Note: You might see overall traffic numbers go down. Don’t panic. As long as conversions go up, you’re on the right track.

Sign #3: You have plenty of targeted traffic and leads, but conversions still aren’t where they should be.

Usually this indicates an issue with how you’re handling leads. Remember, not all leads should be treated the same way. Most often, the culprit is poorly executed or non-existent lead scoring, meaning ALL leads are immediately served to the sales team.

Remember, people enter your website at different points in their journey. Some are at the very top of the funnel, seeking education. They might not make a decision for 18 to 24 months (this is especially true for independent living). If you serve those leads to the sales team, they won’t convert no matter what you offer because they’re simply not ready.

⮚      WHAT TO DO: Revisit how you score and segment leads. That’s the first step. Then, you’ll want to create long-term nurturing campaigns for the marketing-qualified leads (MQLs). The goal is to nurture MQLs as they make their way down the sales funnel and help them convert into sales-qualified leads when they say they’re ready.

Sign #4: You have excellent conversions-to-tour but not tour-to-deposit

It’s easy to think this is a sales problem. After all, marketing has done its part by delivering qualified traffic that converts into tours. So, what gives?

A few things could be going on:

  • The marketing messages don’t match reality on the ground. You need to market the community that exists, not the one you and your team wished existed.
  • The personas you’re targeting don’t reflect the people who live in the community. While personas are fictional representations of ideal residents, the work that goes into developing them should be based on real people, a.k.a. happy residents who love your community. You might be attracting the personas that you made up based on hunches instead of focusing on accurate personas based on actual residents.
  • You don’t have a post-tour communication plan. You might think this task is on sales and that marketing did its job by delivering the leads. But why not work together? Marketing can create an automated email nurturing cadence to complement the ongoing sales outreach and follow-up.

Marketing and sales alignment is critical; there should be an overlap between the two. The sooner both sides see and accept this fact, the better.

⮚      WHAT TO DO: Audit your messaging, personas, AND post-tour communications. Does anything feel like a bait-and-switch? Are post-tour prospects left hanging and wondering what to do next? Are the people you’re attracting to tours the complete opposite of the types of folks who thrive in your community?

Sign #5: You know many things aren’t working, but you’re overwhelmed, feeling tons of pressure from the bosses, and don’t know what to do first

We hear this one a lot. The C-suite is asking marketing teams to do more with less budget, and then it gets annoyed when you’re not delivering leads to sales. Or maybe the sales team is being cranky and unhelpful. Or perhaps you’ve been tasked with managing marketing, even though your specialty is more on the sales end.

⮚      WHAT TO DO NEXT: Consider working with an outside marketing agency specializing in senior living. The right agency can help you identify the issues, create a plan for addressing them, and help you achieve the results you (and the bosses) want. Here’s what to look for in a senior living marketing agency, including common traps to avoid. Hint: We can help. Our specialty is creating senior living marketing strategies that get quantifiable results.

Pivoting your senior living marketing strategy isn’t a sign of failure

Your marketing strategy should be dynamic and responsive to data-driven insights. Recognizing the signs that a pivot is necessary and taking proactive steps can help you compete better and achieve the desired results.

And if you need help doing any of the above, give us a shout.

Content Creation Best Practices: How to Nail Your Voice & Tone

Photo of a female Female for the article Content Creation Best Practices: How to Nail Your Voice & Tone

Have you ever been on a company’s Facebook page, clicked over to its website, and then wondered if you were in the right place because it sounded “off”? The problem probably had something to do with the company’s voice, tone, or both.

Now, if you’re scratching your head wondering what the heck we mean by voice and tone, don’t worry. Below, we explain exactly what you need to know about content creation best practices for voice and tone—and how to apply this knowledge when developing content for your community.

What’s the difference between voice and tone?

When we talk about voice, we’re talking about a brand’s unique personality. It’s how you communicate with your audience, no matter the medium. When someone reads your social media content, it should sound like the same voice as the content on your website, emails, print ads, etc.

Why is this so important? Well, a consistent voice will help people remember your brand—and recognize it when they encounter it again. An inconsistent brand voice can create a disconnect in the reader’s mind. (They might even question if they’re in the right place!)

OK, now let’s talk about tone.

Tone is like an emotional dial that you can turn up or down, depending on the situation. For example, if you’re writing content about something serious—like signs of dementia to watch for—the tone will be much more somber than the tone you’d use to recap a Mardi Gras celebration.

Bottom line: Your brand voice should be consistent across all content and marketing channels. Tone will change, depending on the situation.

How do you define a senior living community’s brand voice and tone?

Developing a brand voice for your community involves two key components:

  • Revisiting your community’s mission and values
  • Knowing your ideal residents inside and out

Revisiting your community’s mission and values

Do a deep dive into your mission and values. These core principles should guide how you communicate with your audience. For example, is your brand all about providing compassionate care? Or do you emphasize a vibrant, active lifestyle? Does your community pride itself on treating employees exceptionally well since that will translate to a positive experience for your residents?

Understanding these elements will help you craft a voice that aligns with your community’s identity.

Knowing your ideal residents inside and out

Hopefully, you’ve done persona development work to understand your ideal residents—who they are, what they care about, and what content resonates with them. Your ideal residents will reveal the type of voice your brand must embody. Here are some examples to consider:

⮚      An older community that doesn’t have the latest amenities or flashiest apartments but does have an excellent, long-term staff that everybody raves about might define its voice as warm, homey, authentic, and caring.

⮚      An active adult community catering to the 55+ crowd in a busy metro area might define its brand voice as cosmopolitan, energetic, and positive.

⮚      A community focused on memory care and assisted living, where the average age of the residents is 80, might have a helpful, compassionate, and straightforward brand voice.

While tone typically depends on context, offering notes about tone strategy can also be helpful. For example, if your community offers luxury residences, and your tone is ultra-sophisticated, you might have a note indicating that content should avoid hyperbolic language or exclamation points since this would feel off-brand.

Ideally, you’d provide examples of acceptable tone and examples that didn’t hit the mark—and how to rewrite them to satisfy the tone requirement.

Where should you record this info about your community’s voice and tone?

You’ll add this information to your brand style guide (sometimes called a brand book or brand bible), which will also include information and instructions on things like . . .

✔    Audience
✔    Brand elements
✔    Brand story
✔    Brand typography
✔    Color palette
✔    Image guidelines
✔    Imagery
✔    Iconography
✔    Logo usage

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but the above are the essential elements in most brand books.

The voice and tone section doesn’t need to be long. You might provide a paragraph or two that discusses both (including lists of adjectives) followed by examples since those are critical for demonstrating the voice and tone you’re trying to achieve.

Anyone involved in content creation should have access to the brand book, from marketers to designers, full-time writers to freelancers. Encourage everyone on the team to run their creative against a simple
“voice and tone” checklist:

  • Is the content aligned with our brand’s voice?
  • Does the tone match the context of the message?
  • Am I using any verboten words, phrases, or punctuation?
  • Can I strengthen the creative to be even more on-brand?

See? It doesn’t need to be complicated. But having that gut check at every pass will help ensure the voice and tone hit the mark.

Does your community’s brand need some TLC?

Most senior living communities are treading water in the “sea of sameness,” so developing a strong brand voice can help differentiate your community. We love helping our clients do exactly that. Get in touch, and let’s talk about your community’s brand identity.

Want to dive deeper into branding, voice, and tone? Here’s more helpful reading:
 
⮚      Senior Living Branding Mistakes to Avoid – Senior Living SMART
⮚      5 Strategies for Powerful Senior Living Branding – Senior Living SMART
⮚      Brand Voice: What It Is, Why It Matters – Sprout Social
⮚      Creating Your Brand Voice: A Complete Guide – HubSpot
⮚      How to Define Your Brand’s Tone of Voice (+ Template) – Semrush