Lessons in Marketing Assisted Living From a Real Family Experience

Published On: March 10, 202614 min read
Lessons in Marketing Assisted Living From a Real Family Experience

Today, one of ​​our regular writers at Senior Living SMART will share her experience moving her mom into assisted living.

She’ll discuss what operators, marketing, and sales teams can learn from her search and selection of the community (hint: Q4 incentives work!) and why the move-in process matters a lot more than you might think.

Executive Summary: Lessons in Marketing Assisted Living From a Real Family Experience

  • Families often start with location. If you’re not visible locally, you may never make the shortlist.
  • Incentives influence urgency. Q4 promotions and transparent offers can accelerate decisions.
  • Every interaction matters, from the receptionist to the executive director.
  • Slow responses, vague answers, and poor handoffs create unnecessary stress during an already emotional time.
  • The move-in process is part of your marketing. It shapes satisfaction, retention, and word of mouth.
  • Communities should aim for satisfied residents, not just full occupancy.

​​Table of Contents

My Family’s Search for an Assisted Living Community

Here’s What Assisted Living Operators, Marketers, and Sales Teams Can Learn from My Experience

How We Came To Our Final Decision

Why Senior Living Operators Shouldn’t Overlook the Importance of the Move-in Process

The BIG Takeaway: Communities Shouldn’t Simply be Aiming for Full Occupancy. They Should be Aiming for Satisfied Occupants.

When my 93-year-old father died in October 2025, we moved quickly to get my 93-year-old mother into assisted living. My mother is mentally sharp and “all there” cognitively, but she has mobility issues. She’d been famously “furniture walking” for years in the home I grew up in—a house with a ton of stairs and rooms that were hard to navigate because of clutter.

We needed a safe, clean, one-floor environment, ideally with meals included. My mom is an excellent cook, and, in theory, she could manage it, but not as safely as I would have liked. She doesn’t need assistance with activities of daily living, but having a safe and secure apartment with a dining room and regular meals made sense.

So, I began the search for assisted living communities near me (literally).

Here’s What Assisted Living Operators, Marketers, and Sales Teams Can Learn from My Experience.

Don’t underestimate the power of location in your marketing.

The first place I looked at was the community we ultimately chose. The reason I started with it? Location, location, location. It’s super close to where I live (I need Mom to be close to me since I’m her primary caregiver). It has a gorgeous corner apartment (meaning fewer shared walls, which had been a sticking point for her) and a lovely courtyard view.

I think my experience is typical more often than not. I didn’t focus on anything beyond a 10-minute drive from my own house.

Takeaways for senior living operators, marketing, and sales teams:

The goal is to ensure your community’s name is the first that comes to mind when someone in the area suddenly needs senior living for a loved one.

Use Q4 marketing incentives. Why? Because they work.

I started looking in October. The marketing director at the community we chose said that if my mom moved in before the end of the year, they’d waive the multi-thousand-dollar entrance fee. They also said they would knock a thousand off the monthly rent for the corner apartment.

From a monetary perspective, this was a huge incentive.

Takeaways for senior living operators, marketing, and sales teams:
  • Promote incentives. Don’t wait until someone walks through the door to tell them about your Q4 incentives, either. Adding a simple banner on your home page that says, “Move in before the end of the year, and we’ll waive the community entrance fee,” can be a great way to entice people to visit sooner rather than later.

Train your receptionists.

At SLS, we’ve written quite a bit about why you can’t expect your receptionist to be a salesperson. But your receptionist should know the basics for scheduling a tour and when to transfer callers to the sales team.

For one of the communities I called, the receptionist answered, and I asked to speak to someone in sales. She sounded surprised and abruptly asked: “What’s this regarding?”

Honestly? She should have just connected me. When I told her I wanted to set up a tour for my mother, she put me on hold. Then, she came back and said, and I quote: “OK, who do you want to put in here?”

Who do I want to “put in” here?

That did not give me warm fuzzies.

Takeaways for senior living operators, marketing, and sales teams:
  • Train your receptionists to schedule tours. Coach receptionists on what to say. Provide scripts. If someone asks to speak to sales, make sure the receptionist knows how to connect them without making it awkward.
  • Watch your language. Words matter. Use the word “community,” not “facility.” (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard staff use the F word to describe the assisted living community my mom is living in.) Don’t make it sound like you’re sending someone to prison when a prospect calls in.

Make sure your sales team responds promptly to high-priority prospects.

The marketing and sales director at the community we ultimately went with was slow to respond to my emails. (And this isn’t a large community, either.) Her answers were sometimes bare bones at best, which only prompted me to send MORE emails and ask MORE questions.

Takeaways for senior living operators, marketing, and sales teams:
  • Respond to prospects promptly using their preferred communication method. Listen, I get that marketing and sales folks are busy. But their job is to sell, right? You should be responding to emails within 24 business hours. And if you’re dealing with a hot prospect, you should be responding even faster whenever possible.
  • Answer questions thoroughly. Doing so is best for the prospects and will also make your life easier. I doubt you’ll receive too many first-time questions (and when you do, GREAT – add it to your list of FAQs). You’ve likely answered many of the same routine questions dozens of times before. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Keep a running list of thorough answers that you can copy and paste into emails.
  • Anticipate prospects’ questions. Trust me, if you attempt to anticipate prospects’ questions by simply sharing answers to common questions—not all at once, necessarily, but over time—you will demonstrate that you’re on the ball and that you want to help. “It’s like you read our minds,” is the reaction you should be going for.

Keep in mind that what’s routine for marketing and sales can be a significant source of stress for a prospect and her family.

A couple of weeks after the tour, my mother had many more questions that hadn’t come up during the tour. Her major concerns were about issues that likely wouldn’t have occurred to me.

  • What’s the nursing assessment going to be like? Nursing assessments are routine in assisted living, but for a 93-year-old independent woman who hates going to the doctor, a nursing assessment can sound scary. My mother actually said to me, “What if I don’t pass?”
  • How will she get her food in the dining room? My mom understood that she’d be going to the dining room, but she was concerned about carrying a tray of food to her table on her own since she uses a walker. Fair question, right? During the tour, we didn’t discuss specifics, likely because it’s obvious to everyone in the community how the dining room operates: aides plate the food and serve the residents. But it wasn’t obvious to my mom because we toured between meals.
  • How will she empty her trash? How does laundry work? How does housekeeping work? All simple, basic questions, some of which we discussed during the tour, but my mom had forgotten the answers and was looking for something to refer to (like a list of questions and answers).
Takeaways for senior living operators, marketing, and sales teams:
  • After the tour, send an email summarizing everything discussed. Even better? Include a PDF or a link to a website page with FAQs. I’m not talking about marketing FAQs, but FAQs about daily living in the community.
  • Don’t brush aside concerns; learn to read between the lines. For example, after my mom brought up the nursing assessment, I asked about it multiple times, which should have signaled to people that this was a sensitive topic for my mother, and I’m sure she’s not alone. Why not whip up a one-sheet called “Why We Conduct Nursing Assessments: What to Know & What to Expect”?

How We Came to Our Final Decision

For my family, we chose the community based on its location, cost savings, and the building’s hominess. I checked reviews (there weren’t many, and nothing stood out as problematic).

I knew I’d be involved daily in my mother’s life and ongoing care needs, so the community’s location and cost savings were the biggest motivators.

Now, let’s discuss the move-in process and its impact.

Why Senior Living Operators Shouldn’t Overlook the Importance of the Move-in Process.

The move-in process begins the moment a prospect confirms they’ve chosen your community. This experience, which culminates with move-in day, will set the tone for the first 30 days. You already know how critical the first month is for a resident’s (hopefully) long-term stay in your community.

Below is a recap of my family’s experience.

Immediate next steps were lacking after we alerted the community that we wanted to move forward.

I repeatedly asked about a deposit or whether we needed to sign anything to secure the apartment. Apparently, the community didn’t require a deposit.

A no-deposit policy might sound great, but honestly, I was worried until the moment we signed the lease that we’d actually get the apartment we wanted. It would have helped if there had been communication about next steps, what to expect, and related details.

Takeaways for senior living operators, marketing, and sales teams:
  • People crave order during chaos, so give it to them. Even if your community doesn’t require a deposit, it should have a clear workflow of next steps. For me, it was 1.5 months from when we decided to move forward to when we signed the lease. It would have been extremely helpful and reassuring to hear from the marketing director first (and from other relevant team members, such as the executive director) during this time. (Remember, you can automate helpful email workflows.)
  • PRO TIP: Here’s a podcast episode we did about digitizing your move-in packet.

There was little guidance about the move-in process.

We received one document: a short list of items to pack. It was a printout with faded ink, the text crooked, and the list included obvious items like “toothbrush.”

I didn’t receive information about the Wi-Fi password, how to hook up the cable, when and how my mom would receive her fall-alert pendant, or who to contact for any maintenance issues (note: there were several). I had to ask all those questions (in some cases, multiple times) via email and wait for answers.

Takeaways for senior living operators, marketing, and sales teams:
  • Create a “move-in” workflow. Some nice touches: a “thank-you for choosing us” welcome letter from the executive director; a “what happens next” timeline; exact dimensions for the person’s new apartment; key dates; key phone numbers; who to contact with questions; etc. Marketing automation can make this seamless. Once someone says they’re ready to move forward, the sales rep can simply add them and their family to the automated workflow.
  • A FAQs page is your best friend. Use a robust FAQs page as your main repository for all questions and answers. Keep adding to the questions over time as well.
  • Communicate, communicate, communicate. Moving into assisted living is a significant step for prospective residents and their families. Treat it as such. You don’t want to overload people with unnecessary info. But you need to communicate the basics—and do so more than once. Offer relevant info in a variety of media: printed pieces, website pages, even helpful videos. Make all these items easily accessible and include links to everything in every email you send (add a simple “in case you missed it” section at the bottom of each email before your signature).

Keep in mind that your community might need several sets of move-in packets if you offer multiple levels of care. The move-in protocols and specifics for memory care will and should be different from those for assisted living.

Move-in day was anticlimactic.

On move-in day, no one walked my mom through the big things, like how to get her fall-alert pendant or who she’d be sitting with at dinner.

At 5:00, an aide arrived to walk my mom down to dinner (I walked with them), but 5:00 is considered late, so everyone else was already seated in the dining room. The aide glanced around, pointed to an empty seat, and said, “You can sit there.”

There was ZERO forethought as to whether this was a good spot for my mom, and there were no introductions. My mom ended up at a table with a woman who preferred eating alone and in silence.

Takeaways for senior living operators, marketing, and sales teams:

Make move-in day special. Confirm the day and time with the family. Make sure you plan for and coordinate any additional items, such as paperwork or the pickup of fall-alert pendants. Consider leaving a gift in the apartment, like a welcome basket. Have key people stop by to say hello, such as the chef and the activities director.

Get other departments involved. The handoff from marketing to sales, and from sales to resident care coordinators, should be seamless and orderly (and not a surprise to anyone involved). People should understand their role in the process, and all department heads should be involved.

Consider organizing a resident welcome committee to keep the momentum going for 30 days (at least). I know this will depend on your community’s culture and the population makeup at any given time. Still, a formal welcome program for new residents can make a significant difference in helping people acclimate. Ideally, your new resident should be paired with a longer-term resident who will visit them, sit with them at lunch and dinner (and introduce them to others), and show them the ropes. Even people in their 80s or 90s will get nervous walking into a room full of strangers. It’s like eighth-grade lunch all over again.

This first day set the tone for the first month, which has had its share of challenges. A better move-in process and plan for the first day and first month would have helped ease the inevitable bumps and adjustments that come with such a monumental move.

The BIG Takeaway: Assisted Living Communities Shouldn’t Simply be Aiming for Full Occupancy. They Should be Aiming for Satisfied Occupants.

Aiming for satisfied residents should be the goal because it’s the right thing to do. But from a business standpoint, truly satisfied residents and their families are among the best forms of advertising you can get, since happy residents and their families tend to be great referral sources.

Building that sort of satisfaction starts a lot sooner than you think, from the moment a family says, “We’re ready to move forward.”

So, would I recommend this community to friends or family? The jury is still out since my mom is still adjusting, but if I had to base it solely on what I’ve experienced so far, the answer would be no, which is a shame. Because with just a little more coordination and effort, the whole experience could have gone much more smoothly.

If you’re serious about doing a better job with your assisted living marketing, sales, and move-in process, check out these articles: