Most senior living marketing teams are already experimenting with AI. However, many are still using it in a fragmented way: one-off prompts, inconsistent outputs, and results that don’t always reflect their brand. Custom GPTs change that.
Instead of relying on generic AI responses, custom GPTs allow you to create tailored assistants trained on your brand voice, your priorities, and your internal knowledge. The result is a more consistent, more scalable way to support everything from content creation to lead nurturing to sales conversations, without reinventing the wheel each time.
In this Q&A, SLS Director of Brand Experience Kerri-Anne Pendergast shares a solid overview of what custom GPTs are and how senior living marketers can use them. We’ll also walk through what goes into building one.
Executive Summary: Custom GPTs Give Senior Living Teams a Smarter, More Consistent Way to Use AI
- Custom GPTs are AI assistants trained on your brand voice, messaging, and internal materials.
- They help standardize communication across marketing and sales so that your messaging stays consistent across communities.
- Teams can use them to speed up content creation, follow-ups, and campaign planning without sacrificing quality.
- They centralize institutional knowledge, making it easier for your team to access and apply what already works.
- With the right setup and ongoing refinement, custom GPTs become a scalable way to support both marketing and sales efforts.
Table of Contents
What are custom GPTs? How would you explain them to a senior living marketing team?
Can you create custom GPTs in any large language model (LLM) or only in ChatGPT?
How do you create a custom GPT?
Why should senior living marketers use custom GPTs?
What are some ways senior living marketers are using custom GPTs today?
What should senior living marketers keep in mind as they start using custom GPTs?
What are custom GPTs? How would you explain them to a senior living marketing team?
KERRI-ANNE: Custom GPTs are AI assistants that you create and train to work the way your team works. Rather than relying on a general-purpose tool, you’re building something that reflects your brand voice, your priorities, and your approach to engaging prospects.
They can be set up to handle specific marketing and sales tasks (for example, drafting emails or supporting lead follow-up) using the guidelines and materials you provide.
The key difference is that they’re not guessing. They’re responding based on your inputs, which helps ensure more consistent messaging and more useful outputs across your team.
Can you create custom GPTs in any large language model (LLM), or only in ChatGPT?
KERRI-ANNE: The idea of a “custom GPT” isn’t exclusive to ChatGPT. Most modern AI platforms give you ways to tailor how the model behaves. What’s different is how approachable that process is.
In ChatGPT, you can build a custom GPT through a guided interface, no coding required. You describe what you want it to do, add your instructions or documents, and refine it from there.
On other platforms, you can achieve something similar, but it typically involves more technical setup. That might include working with APIs or building out a more structured system to control how the model responds.
For most senior living marketing teams, that difference matters. It’s the gap between experimenting with AI and actually putting it to work in your day-to-day operations.
How do you create a custom GPT?
KERRI-ANNE: Rather than trying to explain the process step-by-step, it’s much easier to see it in action. In the video below, you’ll follow a full walkthrough of how to build a custom GPT inside ChatGPT. It starts with a simple prompt—describing what you want the GPT to do—and shows how the platform helps you shape it from there.
You’ll see how to define its role, give it clear instructions, and upload documents so it can respond based on your own content. The video also covers how to test your GPT, make adjustments, and control who has access to it once it’s ready.
Why should senior living marketers use custom GPTs?
KERRI-ANNE: Custom GPTs give your team a way to scale what’s already working, without losing control of your messaging.
Instead of relying on individual interpretation, you’re building a shared resource that reflects your brand voice and your approach to engaging prospects. That means whether someone is drafting an email, creating content, or responding to a question, the output stays consistent.
GPTs also remove a lot of the friction from day-to-day work. Tasks that used to take time, like writing follow-ups or pulling together campaign ideas, can be handled more quickly, which frees your team up to focus on higher-value interactions.
Over time, they also become a way to centralize your team’s knowledge. By building your GPT around your own materials, you’re capturing institutional knowledge in a format your team can actually use. Not to mention, GPTs will help new hires acclimate faster.
What are some ways senior living marketers are using custom GPTs today?
KERRI-ANNE: GPTs, if done right, can be used as your strategic partner. Give it context, a role, have it interview you, and task it to give you a certain output (we use the CRIT Model). There’s a wide range of use cases, but most fall into a few key areas:
- Content creation: Outlining blog posts, social captions, and other marketing assets that align with your brand voice and SEO strategy
- Email and nurture sequences: Building follow-ups for inquiries and tours, along with variations tailored to different audiences
- Sales support: Helping teams respond to common questions or objections with more consistent, on-brand messaging
- Campaign and event planning: Organizing themes, timelines, and content for initiatives like open houses or seasonal campaigns
- Reporting and insights: Interpreting performance data and suggesting areas to optimize
By the way, those are real examples of how we use custom GPTs with SLS clients to support both marketing and sales teams.
What should senior living marketers keep in mind as they start using custom GPTs?
There are a few things to be aware of as you start building and using custom GPTs.
First, think about data and privacy. If you’re uploading internal documents or sensitive information, make sure you understand how that data is used and who has access to it.
Second, these aren’t “set it and forget it” tools. The best results come from ongoing refinement: adjusting instructions, updating materials, and improving outputs over time, just like you would with any marketing campaign.
Third, there’s a big opportunity around integration. As these tools connect with systems like your CRM or marketing automation platform, they can start to support more of your workflows, not just individual tasks.
And finally, human oversight still matters. Custom GPTs can support your team, but they shouldn’t replace judgment. You still need people reviewing outputs to make sure everything is accurate and aligned with your brand.
Where should you go if you need help creating custom GPTs for your senior living marketing and sales teams?
Playing around with custom GPTs is one thing. Building an effective custom GPT that actually reflects your brand, supports your workflows, and delivers consistent results across your team is another.
At SLS, we help senior living organizations develop custom GPTs that are grounded in their messaging, aligned with their goals, and built for real-world use across marketing and sales.
