Animation of man in a dark room with computer lighting illuminating him.

Overcoming Email Fatigue in Senior Living Marketing

Animation of man in a dark room with computer lighting illuminating him.

I recently attended an enlightening 36 hours at the Senior Housing News (SHN) Sales & Marketing Conference in Tampa, Florida.

Amidst the whirlwind of networking, insightful presentations, and thought-provoking discussions, one topic stood out: the debate around so-called email fatigue in senior living marketing.

The Myth of Email Fatigue

One of the conference attendees stated that senior living prospects have become increasingly overwhelmed with email and are experiencing “email fatigue.”

At Senior Living SMART, we’re witnessing a different story. More than 50% of our clients attribute half or more of their move-ins to effective email nurturing, thanks to marketing automation.

Here’s the thing: Our clients’ prospects don’t initially engage with the community by choosing a sales action, such as scheduling a tour, clicking to call, taking a survey, or requesting a call back. Instead, they choose to give their email in exchange for something educational, like a brochure, guide, or eBook.

The email part is critical!

After getting the email, the community’s marketing automation enrolls the prospect in a multi-step email nurturing campaign. Through email alone, the prospects advance themselves (hello buyer enablement!) to taking a sales action, like booking a tour. The prospect decides when they want the sales interaction, and once they do—they tend to be excellent leads with greater conversions to move-ins.

But it all starts with email.

The Real Culprit Isn’t Email Fatigue, It’s Lackluster Content

So, why the stark contrast in results between what our clients are experiencing and what other communities at the SHN conference were talking about?

It boils down to the quality of the email’s content and design. Emails heavy on text, lacking originality, or feeling overly salesy are the true culprits behind so-called email fatigue.

In contrast, emails rich in valuable resources like videos, guides, FAQs, infographics, testimonials, and vibrant imagery resonate well with prospects.

Revitalize Your Email Marketing Strategies for Senior Living

Before dismissing email as a viable marketing channel for your community, consider revamping your approach:

  • Conduct A/B testing: Experiment with various elements of your email campaigns, including landing pages, content, design, and workflow cadence. However, remember to test one element at a time to accurately measure impact.
  • Write engaging subject lines: Test different styles to improve open and click-through rates. Emotional appeals, questions, and emojis can make your emails stand out in people’s inboxes. I recommend following Jay Schwedelson, Nancy Harhut, and Andy Crestodina for inspiration.
  • Don’t skimp on visuals: Incorporate authentic videos, virtual tours, and images to make your emails more engaging. Authenticity connects with prospects, showcasing real-life community experiences.
  • Leverage your marketing automation: Pay attention to analytics to get the most out of your marketing automation software, like HubSpot. Measure your email campaign’s effectiveness. Adjust email workflows based on open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates to fine-tune your strategy.
  • Consider the cadence: Recognize that not all decision-making processes are the same. Adjust your email cadence to match the sales cycle length for various care levels. For example, memory care decisions tend to be shorter than independent living. You may need a four-step workflow for one and an 18-step workflow for the other.

Bottom Line: Email Marketing Is Still Relevant

Not only is it relevant, but email marketing offers excellent ROI. So don’t rush to nix it from your marketing strategy or replace it with SMS/text messaging.

Sure, integrating SMS into your strategy is smart. But email marketing still reigns—at least for now. To get the most out of it, focus on producing better emails.

Need help? That’s what we’re here for. Our agency’s sole focus is senior living marketing.

Multicolor boxes stacked in various patterns.

More Tech Stack Tips for Senior Living Marketing

Multicolor boxes stacked in various patterns.

Recently, I had the privilege of participating in a panel discussion at the Senior Housing News sales and marketing conference in Tampa alongside Sherrie Bebell and Wade Goodman.

The session, “Tech Stack Transformation: Innovating Senior Living Sales & Marketing in 2024,” offered a fascinating look into the collective drive to enhance the prospect experience, minimize decision-making friction, and refine the integration of marketing and sales for improved lead quality and conversion rates.

Of course, choosing the right tech stack can be challenging for senior living marketers since many legacy technologies haven’t adapted. Not to mention, there are so many new bright and shiny things to choose from.

We recently shared an article about the tech stacks all senior living marketing and sales teams should use. Now, let’s take a deeper look at three critical areas (and let’s use a fun analogy to explain them: shopping malls).

What do shopping malls have to do with your senior living community’s tech stack anyway?

Like shopping malls, today’s marketing tech stack has anchor stores, lots of smaller boutique shops, and a food court in the middle.

In this shopping mall analogy, the senior living website and CRM are at the ends of the mall, anchoring the smaller boutique shops. The marketing automation platform is the food court—it feeds the marketing machine. The small niche shops are your website chat, surveys, blogs, floor plans, videos, and so forth—the stuff that engages prospects as they pop in and out of their shopping experience.

Just as malls have had to rethink their structure to remain competitive, senior living operators should rethink their three anchor technologies: website, CRM, and marketing automation.

Outdated website? Here’s what to do next . . .

If your senior living website hasn’t been updated in over three years, consider this your sign for a makeover. Modern prospects expect a mobile-first, fast, intuitive, and easy-to-navigate online experience that allows them to research anonymously.

When doing your website makeover, emphasize original photography, comprehensive 3D floor plans, transparent pricing, trust signals like reviews, and robust educational content to keep prospects engaged and loyal to your brand.

Build your site on WordPress, own your hosting license, and avoid falling prey to proprietary websites that you cannot access and do not own.

Learn more about the ins and outs of effective senior living websites here.

Crappy CRM? Time to upgrade . . .

A great senior living CRM integrates with your chosen marketing tools, including your marketing automation, email marketing, chat (live or widget), surveys, call tracking, third-party aggregators, call center (outsourced or internal), Google Analytics, and social media.

The best CRMs also allow integration of choice rather than limiting the selection to only their preferred partners, which they monetize through forced bundling.

Today, with open APIs, Zapier, and custom middleware, operators should expect their CRM technology partner to provide bilateral integration with all marketing tools and platforms.

If your CRM doesn’t offer all of the above, it’s time to upgrade.

Is your marketing automation too basic? Time to upgrade here as well.

Your website (along with Google Analytics) should be able to capture the initial prospect journey information, such as lead attribution sources, most visited pages, entry and exit points, and conversion insights (where and how prospects are converting from anonymous website visitor to lead).

Your CRM picks up the prospect when they have advanced to a sales-qualified lead and documents all sales activities, effectively closing the loop when prospects advance to move-ins.

Your marketing automation, however, is the engine in the middle that works 24 hours a day to nurture and advance prospects throughout their journey. The connection between each of these three platforms ensures that there are no blind spots in the prospect journey and that no lead is left behind.

We recommend HubSpot above all others because of its reporting capabilities and the marketing dashboards you can create by ownership group, portfolio, region, and level of care. These dashboards allow you to visually display the entire lead pipeline by stage. You can see the ROI of every marketing dollar spent by channel, which is critical intel.

Don’t forget to integrate bespoke experiences for added panache, personalization, and conversions.

To complete our analogy of comparing the martech stack architecture with a shopping mall configuration, we can’t forget the smaller boutique stores that connect the anchor stores and the food court.

In our analogy, these would be all the third-party integrations that plug into your tech stack, including chat, surveys, call tracking, videos, map features, and the like.

Just as mall shoppers pop in and out of the niche store as they move between the large anchor chains and the food court, senior living prospects will use these tools when they visit your website.

Our approach to creating this foundational tech stack for our clients

Our clients have enjoyed great success using WordPress CMS, HubSpot marketing automation, and Welcome Home CRM. This combination of products provides complete visibility into the prospect’s entire journey.

From there, we can reverse-engineer move-ins to better understand:

  • The original lead attribution source
  • All the touchpoints along their decision path (engaging with social, paid, content, video)
  • Measure their engagement (number of website visits, landing page conversions, content downloads, and emails opened and clicked)
  • The number of days between first conversion and tour, first conversion and move-in, and tour-to-move-in by persona and level of care

Ready to rock your senior living marketing tech stack?

For communities that want to increase their lead generation and conversion rates, embracing a well-rounded tech stack is key. And we can help! Schedule a brainstorming call with us today, and let’s explore how we can transform your marketing tech stack.

ChatGPT and SEO for Senior Living

ChatGPT & SEO for Senior Living

We recently wrote about ChatGPT and whether you should use it for senior living marketing. The short answer: Don’t use it to replace your process for creating digital content, like blog posts, white papers, and guides. ChatGPT has trouble producing quality long-form content—it can lose its train of thought, and you can’t rely on it to provide accurate information or for the content to be original.

But even if those issues get resolved, there’s another reason why you shouldn’t rely on ChatGPT to create your digital content: It could end up hurting you in search.

And that brings us to today’s topic: ChatGPT and SEO for senior living.

Below, we’re going to discuss the following:

  • The effect AI-generated content can have on search engine optimization (SEO)
  • Whether AI-generated content can ever be considered “original, high-quality content”
  • How to make sure any AI-generated content you do use doesn’t sound like AI

Let’s get to it!

What effect does AI-generated content have on search engine optimization (SEO)?

Google rewards “original, high-quality content.” And it doesn’t like it if you do things to your content to manipulate rankings. (This isn’t new; think back to the days of keyword stuffing.)

So, what’s Google’s take on whether you should use AI-generated content?

Google says, “If you see AI as an essential way to help you produce content that is helpful and original, it might be useful to consider. If you see AI as an inexpensive, easy way to game search engine rankings, then no.”

This, of course, leads to a natural question:

Can AI-generated content ever be considered original and high-quality?

ChatGPT generates conversational content that’s grammatically correct. But it’s content that you could find anywhere, and there are even valid concerns about plagiarism. (Not to mention, its “voice” is somewhat vanilla and often wooden.)

For example, asking it to write a blog post about the Veterans Aid & Attendance benefit will produce grammatically correct, conversational content that may or may not be accurate… (Another issue with ChatGPT is that it’s only been trained on data through 2021.)

But this blog post won’t include anything highly original, like the story about Bob, who was so grateful for the lunch-and-learn session you held about the benefit or how he uses it to pay for his apartment in your community.

A story like that can elevate a piece of generic content you could find anywhere to something special that resonates with readers.

ChatGPT can’t create this unique content since it won’t know the people in your community, their stories, or tactile things like the colors, the smells, and the feeling you get when you sit out on your community’s patio sipping wine.

You need a human to capture those things. And that’s unlikely to change any time soon.

How would Google (or anyone else) know if you’re using AI-generated content?

The rise of AI chatbots has led to the rise of AI detectors. Open AI (the creator of ChatGPT) has also released its own AI-text classifier. You paste a portion of the text into the tool, and it determines whether AI or a human being generated the text.

If you use ChatGPT to support or supplement (not replace) your content marketing efforts, you’ll want to thoroughly revise any content it creates to sound like your brand, not AI. To do this, run your content through the AI detector. Keep revising the content until the AI detector says your copy is unlikely or very unlikely AI-generated.

Sounds like a lot of extra work, right?

This is for you to decide. Is ChatGPT, in its present state, more of a novelty? Or can it help your senior living marketing team speed up content creation for your community?

Going back to our Veterans Aid & Attendance benefit . . . if ChatGPT creates the initial blog post and you pass it off to a writer to rewrite with real-life examples and with your brand voice in mind, are you saving any time or money?

The answer will likely vary, depending on the writer. Some writers are much faster at producing content from scratch than rewriting someone else’s content, like ChatGPT’s.

Successful SEO for senior living doesn’t cut corners.

Listen, we get ChatGPT’s allure. It would be fantastic if we could rely on AI to create highly original, helpful content that converts site visitors into leads and leads into move-ins. But the technology isn’t there yet—and it might never be.

There’s no substitute for the human touch when it comes to successful SEO for senior living. Reach out if you’d like help from a marketing firm that knows how to do it right.

ChatGPT for Senior Living Marketing

ChatGPT: What to Know for Senior Living Marketing

You’ve probably heard people buzzing about ChatGPT. Its emergence has dominated headlines (it’s the fastest-growing app of all time), spurred countless debates, and worried everyone from teachers to writers to editors to ethicists to conspiracy theorists.

But what exactly is ChatGPT? And how can it be used to support your senior living marketing efforts?

Below, we’re going to answer those questions and more:

  • What is ChatGPT?
  • What sort of content can ChatGPT produce?
  • Are there any issues with ChatGPT-generated content?
  • Should you use ChatGPT for your senior living marketing?

Let’s get to it.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a free artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. It was released in November 2022 by OpenAI. ChatGPT stands for “Chat-based Generative Pre-trained Transformer,” which is a mouthful.

Also, what the heck does that even mean?

Simply put, ChatGPT delivers text-based responses to your “prompts.” A prompt is a question or a request, such as “Write a 600-word blog post about the benefits of senior living.” ChatGPT produces its responses astonishingly fast—and the responses sound remarkably human.

ChatGPT is “trained” on massive amounts of text data. From this data, it has learned how to mimic human conversations.

It’s worth mentioning that ChatGPT isn’t the only AI game in town. Here’s a list of 30 ChatGPT alternatives (free and paid). We’re focusing on ChatGPT because everyone is talking about it.

What sort of content can ChatGPT produce?

You can prompt ChatGPT to create various content, like a well-reasoned essay about Romeo & Juliet, a poem on first love, or an explanation of the Veterans Aid & Attendance benefit.

See the screenshot below, which includes our prompt and ChatGPT’s response.

ChatGPT definition of Veterans benefit

ChatGPT wrote the above in a matter of seconds.

Impressive, right? Well, yes and no.

The above might sound convincing, but ChatGPT’s answer is outdated. The 2023 rate for a surviving spouse is now $1,432, not $1,244. The other numbers are also incorrect.

The above example highlights two of the most significant issues with ChatGPT to date:

  • ChatGPT is “trained” only through 2021.
  • ChatGPT makes LOTs of mistakes.

ChatGPT got the details wrong about the Veterans Aid & Attendance benefit because of its training—it has no “knowledge” of anything after 2021, so it doesn’t know about the updated rates for 2023.

But here’s the thing: ChatGPT also makes plenty of mistakes on things it should know.

Many people have written about this issue. Here are some excellent articles to check out if you want to dive deeper.

Are there any other issues with ChatGPT-generated content?

Yes! If the lack of accuracy isn’t enough to give you pause, then the following issues might:

  • ChatGPT has trouble producing long content. It can lose the “thread” of a discussion once it hits 800 or so words.
  • ChatGPT content often sounds stilted. It’s trying to mimic humans, but it’s not human. While the content is grammatically correct, it can still sound wooden. (And good luck trying to get it to capture your brand voice.)
  • ChatGPT-generated content could have serious SEO implications. We’ll address this in a subsequent blog post, but if you use ChatGPT to create tons of content to manipulate your site’s rankings in Google, we have two words for you: keyword stuffing. (In other words, Google doesn’t like being manipulated, and it’s only a matter of time before it updates its algorithm accordingly.)

Should you use ChatGPT for your senior living marketing efforts, like content creation?

ChatGPT shouldn’t replace your current process for creating high-quality, original, long-form content. The issues with originality, accuracy, tone, and potential SEO implications outweigh any benefits.

But ChatGPT does have potential in other areas:

Use it for brainstorming.

Brainstorming might be the best use for ChatGPT in senior living marketing. Give ChatGPT a keyword phrase and ask it to brainstorm ten potential blog post titles. Then, choose the title you like best and hand it off to a writer.

Below is a screenshot of this idea in action.

ChatGPT blog title brainstorm Vet Benefit

Use it to create outlines.

A keyword-rich blog title and solid outline can help make a writer’s job go much faster. Having ChatGPT do the heavy lifting with the outline is another smart way to use this tool.

See the screenshot below. You’d still want to review and revise the outline. But ChatGPT typically delivers a solid structure that you or your writer could easily work with.

ChatGPT blog outline

Use it for short-form content (but always review and revise).

We asked ChatGPT to write five calls to action for a guide about the Veterans Aid & Attendance benefit. Some might work better as social media posts. All would need to be revised for style and voice.

ChatGPT CTAs

Bottom line: Be careful how you use ChatGPT for your senior living marketing.

ChatGPT is one tool, not the only tool. While it might be helpful with brainstorming and generating outlines, you shouldn’t use it to generate long-form content. Stick to humans for that.

Need help developing an effective content strategy for your senior living community? Get in touch, and let’s chat!

Senior living sales training tips for engaging phone calls

Senior Living Sales Training: Tips for Engaging Phone Calls

Just about everyone today begins their search for senior living online. But at some point, phone calls come into play, which is why phone skills still matter, even in the age of digital marketing.

How does your sales team do on the phone? Kinda-sorta OK? Meh? Not so great? We got you! Below, you’ll find helpful tips for your senior living sales training.

Hint: Pay close attention to our last suggestion for taking things to the next level.

Tips for Better Senior Living Sales Calls

1. Display genuine empathy

Empathy and sympathy are not the same thing. (And sympathy won’t serve you in this case.)

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and to see and appreciate things from their perspective. Through your words, you can demonstrate this understanding. (If you’re on a Zoom call, your non-verbal gestures can also help.)

Examples of empathy in action:

  • “Oh, my gosh, you don’t need to apologize for sounding frazzled. Making a decision like this is extremely overwhelming. It only makes sense that you’re experiencing so many emotions right now.”
  • “I can only imagine all the questions running through your head since there are many things to consider. We can take as much time as you need and go through your questions one by one. And if you think of something later, call me back, and we’ll chat some more. How’s that sound?”
  • “You know what? That’s an excellent question, and I don’t know the answer. But I completely understand how the answer will affect your decision. If I were you, I’d want to know the answer, too! Let me do some digging, and I’ll call you back. I should be able to do that within the next day or so. How does that sound?”

Related: WHAT IS EMPATHETIC MARKETING & HOW CAN YOUR COMMUNITY USE IT?

2. Listen actively

Active listeners:

  • Focus on the person talking. You shouldn’t be multi-tasking or doing something else while talking with a prospect, like scrolling through Facebook or reading emails.
  • Speak less. As the saying goes, there’s a reason why you have two ears and one mouth. You should spend much more time listening during a sales call than talking.
  • Aren’t afraid of silence. Prospects need time to think, process, and finish their thoughts. Sure, pauses can sometimes feel awkward. Resist the temptation to jump in and fill it. Take a deep breath and count to three. If there’s still silence at that point, you can say something.
  • Make it clear that they’re listening. This means giving appropriate verbal cues on the phone, such as saying “yes” or “uh huh,” while prospects talk.
  • Recap and clarify what they’re hearing along the way. Here’s an example: “So it sounds like you and your husband are interested in a two-bedroom model, not a one-bedroom. Do I have that right?”

3. Don’t rush people

One of our favorite scenes from Grace and Frankie is when Frankie (played by Lily Tomlin) gets her first laptop and doesn’t know how to get online. She calls the Apple tech support number, but they overwhelm her with questions. Flustered, she spouts that she’s seventy, which is the magic word—she’s transferred to a guy named Mike.

Mike is patient. He takes his time. He’s relaxed. He’s chill. He puts Frankie at ease.

Here’s the clip (with a naughty word or two, so consider yourself warned).

 

Remember, you’re talking to an older population, so more people will be like Frankie than not. Even if you’re dealing with adult children, you’re still talking to people who are likely north of fifty—and often quite a way over that. This demographic needs more time to explain things, vent, and ask questions.

An article from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) offers solid advice when talking to older adults: “Be mindful if you are feeling impatient with an older person’s pace. Some people may have trouble following rapid-fire questioning or torrents of information. Try speaking more slowly to give them time to process what is being asked or said, and don’t interrupt. Once interrupted, a [person] is less likely to reveal all of their concerns.”

4. Be mindful of hearing deficits

The NIA also reports that one-third of older adults have hearing loss. You might need to compensate for hearing deficits when chatting with prospects.

On the phone, this can be even trickier, but here are some tips:

  • Ask if the person can hear you OK.
  • Talk slowly and clearly. Enunciate.
  • As mentioned above, don’t fill in pauses (the other person could be processing or coming up with a question).
  • If you have a bad connection (due to a cell phone or cordless phone), ask to reconnect on a landline, if possible.

5. Always provide a brief recap and next steps at the end of the conversation

Say something like this, “Before we hang up, I’d like to make sure I captured everything we discussed. Let me read through my notes, and you can tell me if I missed anything, OK?”

After you recap, say, “OK, so my next steps are A and B. And your next steps are C and D. Does that sound right?”

BONUS: Consider outsourcing to a senior living call center

When we discuss inbound marketing with our clients, we’re always reminding them that the goal is to segment and score inbound leads appropriately. The high-intent ones go to the sales team for follow-up. The warm but not-ready leads continue to be nurtured.

The same philosophy applies to inbound phone calls. Not every prospect who calls your community will have “high intent.” Why waste the sales team’s time by having them field ALL inbound calls?

A better solution is outsourcing your inbound calls to a call center with expertise in handling senior living inquiries. And guess what? We offer that through LeadGenie.

LeadGenie is a fully customizable lead management solution. It provides virtual sales support to respond to your leads quickly and consistently. Visit the LeadGenie site to learn more and to schedule a demo.

Using Facebook Live in Senior Living During COVID-19

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.

5 Marketing Trends That Can Generate 5-7 New Move-Ins

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This webinar will provide best practices on how to use your event marketing to increase your lead generation and move-ins!

Mystery Shopping as a Coaching Tool Webinar

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8 Questions that Determine a Great Leader

8 Questions that Determine a Great Leader

Are you a good leader? How do you know? Review this quick leadership checklist to see how you measure up against characteristics of great leaders.

8 Questions for a Great Leader

  1. Is your door open more than it is closed? Does your team feel comfortable coming to you with questions, ideas and concerns?
  2. Do you have favorites or are you fair with all your staff? This can be tough – it’s part of human nature to develop close bonds.
  3. Do you have a culture of safety? People make mistakes. Do you punish or provide an environment that creates learning opportunities?
  4. How are you in managing your team’s work/life balance issues? It never fails – on the day of your yearly strategic planning meeting your key team member is out with a sick child. Are you empathetic or frustrated?
  5. Are you even- tempered and consistent with your emotions? Are you predictable in your reactions in times of change and crisis? Keep calm and carry on!
  6. Have you set expectations with your team? Does your staff know clearly what is expected of them and are they given the support to reach their goals?
  7. Do you micromanage your staff? Or do you empower them to make changes and decisions with the end goal in mind?
  8. Are you having fun? Are you creating an environment where people enjoy coming to work regardless of the external stressors?

The best way to assess your leadership skills is to look at your team:

Are they having fun?

Are they feeling successful?

Is the team reaching goals?

What other questions could you ask someone to determine if their characteristics are ones of great leaders?