Senior man on couch checking his phone for email

Email Marketing Strategies for Senior Living in 2024

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The death of email has been greatly exaggerated. In fact, the opposite is true: email has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years thanks to the tremendous growth of smartphone and tablet ownership, as noted by this 2021 Pew Research fact sheet. Armed with a mobile device, everyone from kids to seniors can easily access their email accounts.

For marketers, email is an excellent way to reach prospects and customers. And get this: according to Constant Contact, email marketing offers the highest and most measurable return on investment (ROI) than other types of marketing.

So, as you prep for next year, don’t forget about the power of email. Below, we’re sharing seven email marketing strategies for senior living that will level up your efforts in 2024—and beyond.

Email marketing strategy #1: revisit how you personalize and segment your email campaigns

Personalized and segmented email campaigns can increase opens, click-throughs, and conversion rates.

  • Emails with personalized subject lines see an increased open rate of 26% [Source: Campaign Monitor]
  • Segmented email campaigns produce a dramatically higher click-through rate than non-segmented emails—over 100% higher, according to some studies. [Source: Kinsta]
  • Segmented campaigns have produced a 760% increase in revenue. [Source: Campaign Monitor]

Email marketing tips for 2024:

  • Segment your email list based on demographics, interests, and behavior.
  • Use personalization tokens to include the recipient’s name, location, or other relevant information in your emails.
  • Create targeted content that is relevant to each segment of your audience.

Email marketing strategy #2: include interactive content to increase engagement

Adding interactive elements to your email content, like things that invite people to swipe, click, or watch, can increase engagement and lead to more opens and click-throughs. Campaign Monitor notes interactive content in email increases the open rate by 73%.

Email marketing tips for 2024:

  • Include polls, quizzes, surveys, or other interactive elements.
  • Use video content to capture your audience’s attention. (More on this below.)
  • Create animated GIFs or other engaging visuals.

Email marketing strategy #3: send more video-based emails

Video is an interactive element worthy of its own section. Campaign Monitor shares several compelling stats about the benefits of using videos in your emails:

  • Including a video (or a link to a video) in your email can improve click through rates (CTR) by 65% (for context, the average CTR is about 2.69%).
  • Including a video in your initial email campaign can boost click rates by 96%.
  • Including a video in a welcome email can boost open rates by 96%.

You might think YouTube is the best place to house your videos, but Campaign Monitor says it’s Vimeo (average of 8.13 CTR), with YouTube coming in second (at 6.62% CTR).

We’re always encouraging our clients to do more video content. (Our social media director, Kerri-Anne Pendergast, discussed this very point in a recent article.) The beauty of shooting just one video is that you can share it across multiple channels—YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, website, paid ads, and email.

Email marketing tips for 2024:

  • Create short and engaging video content that is relevant to your audience. Think “day in the life of a resident” or a “meet our chef” video.
  • Embed videos directly in your emails.
  • Use nicely designed video thumbnails to capture attention.
  • Email marketing strategy #4: improve (or develop) a mobile-optimized email design

As we mentioned earlier, more and more people are reading their emails on their mobile devices than ever. Backlinko reports that almost 42% of all emails are opened on a mobile device. (Super Office, however, reports that over 80% of all emails are opened and read on mobile devices.)

Bottom line: Ignore mobile optimization at your own peril.

Email marketing tips for 2024:

  • Make sure all email templates are responsive and mobile-friendly.
  • Use large fonts and buttons that are easy to tap on a small screen.
  • Keep your email designs simple and uncluttered.

PRO TIP: Start optimizing your emails for dark mode. Dark mode is a feature that allows users to switch the background color of their devices from light to dark, which can reduce eye strain, save battery life, and improve readability. While still somewhat new, dark mode has been expanding among users. According to Mailmodo, 34% of people used dark mode for opening their emails in August 2022. Stay ahead of the curve by optimizing emails for dark mode now: use transparent images, high-contrast colors, and dark mode-specific CSS.

You should also optimize your emails for accessibility by using clear fonts, alt text, captions, headings, lists, and buttons that make your emails easy to read and navigate for people with disabilities or impairments, like poor eyesight (a common condition found in older demographics).

Email marketing strategy #5: conduct more A/B testing

HubSpot reports that testing your emails can lead to a higher ROI. Mailmodo echoes this point by citing a study showing how businesses that A/B test every email enjoy a 37% higher ROI than those organizations that never A/B test.

Email marketing tips for 2024:

  • Test different subject lines, send times, and email designs.
  • Track your results to see what works best for your different buyer personas.
  • Make changes to your email campaigns based on your test results.

Email marketing strategy #6: increase automation with behavioral triggers and dynamic content

Automation can help you save time and resources and improve your email performance and customer experience. Benchmark Email cites research that shows automated emails enjoy 119% higher click rates than blast emails precisely because automation sends the right message to the right person at the right time. Benchmark Email cites another study from Jupiter Research where automated emails generate 18x more revenue than blast emails.

When it comes to automation, get granular. For example, use behavioral triggers to send emails based on the recipient’s action or inaction, such as opening an email, clicking a link, visiting a page, or requesting a tour.

You can also use dynamic content to customize your emails based on subscribers’ attributes or preferences, such as their location, interests, or stage in the buyer’s journey. Marketing automation software like ActiveDEMAND / Enquire MAP or HubSpot can help you create automated workflows.

Email marketing tips for 2024:

  • Use marketing automation software to automate tasks, such as sending welcome emails, lead nurturing emails, and reminder emails (for an upcoming tour or event, for example).
  • Create email workflows triggered by specific events, such as a website visit or a booked tour.
  • Use segmentation to send targeted emails to different groups of subscribers.

Email marketing strategy #7: improve deliverability and brand authority with BIMI and DMARC

Leverage industry standards BIMI and DMARC for email authentication and brand authority. BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is a standard that allows you to display your brand logo next to the sender’s name in the inbox. BIMI can help you increase your email visibility, recognition, and trust by making your emails stand out and verifying your identity as a legitimate sender.

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) is a protocol that helps you prevent email spoofing, phishing, and spam by validating your email domain and ensuring

that only authorized senders can use it.

DMARC can help you protect your email reputation, deliverability, and security by preventing your emails from being blocked, filtered, or marked as spam.

Email marketing tips for 2024:

  • Implement BIMI and DMARC correctly. This is essential for ensuring that your emails are properly authenticated and that your brand logo is displayed correctly in the inbox. Several resources are available to help you implement BIMI and DMARC, such as the BIMI Group and the DMARC Wikipedia page.
  • Promote your BIMI logo. Once you have implemented BIMI, promote your logo to your subscribers. Include it in your email signature and social media profiles. The more people are familiar with your logo, the more likely they will recognize it in their inbox.
  • Monitor your email performance. Once you’ve implemented BIMI and DMARC, monitor your email performance to see how it’s affecting your open rates, click-through rates, and deliverability.

Need help with email marketing for senior living?

We’ve helped communities of all sizes improve their email marketing. Let’s chat about the email marketing challenges facing your community.