Editor’s note: This article was revised and updated in December 2025
At the end of 2024, we asked our team to gaze into their crystal balls and make predictions about senior living marketing trends for 2025. Let’s take a look at what we got right and wrong.
Go here to check out our predictions for senior living marketing in 2026.
Hint: AI dominates the conversation.
Deborah Howard, CEO
Debbie’s Predictions as We Moved Into 2025
AI will ramp up in senior living marketing.
Debbie sees 2025 as the year AI will gain a strong foothold in senior living marketing across all channels.
Here are just some of the AI opportunities that Debbie’s excited about.
- Building comprehensive buyer personas by lifestyle and role. Debbie explains, “The goal will be to get AI to identify each community’s ideal resident and create customized marketing campaigns to attract new prospects that align with their ideal buyer.”
- Integrating all prospect engagement touchpoints to create personalized brand experiences. “Many new conversion tools, such as virtual sales assistants, assessments, chat, and financial calculators, have been introduced over the last several years,” Debbie says. “While each has some value individually, there is far more value when the information is integrated into the prospect journey.”
- One word: Video. “AI video is getting better every day, which makes the development of meaningful video content more accessible and affordable,” Debbie says. She also notes that video consistently outperforms across all channels in senior living marketing. “AI video will be a game changer.”
A bigger focus on post-sale marketing will boost reviews and referrals.
Debbie cites a recent study of 1500 prospects researching senior living from November 2024. Personal referrals had the most impact, while professional referrals also played a crucial role.
To encourage more of these all-important referrals, Debbie predicts that 2025 will be the year operators really focus on building consistent brand experiences from first brand engagement through move-in.
“Marketing will not end with delivering a sales-qualified lead to the community team,” she says. “Operators looking for a differentiator will need to create a consistently positive brand experience that will result in positive reviews and increased participation in resident and family referral programs. The experience of transitioning successfully into a community sets the stage for the rest of the relationship. Social proof like testimonials, reviews, and personal recommendations are today’s currency.”
Eliminating blind spots will provide better visibility into the prospect’s journey.
Debbie says one of the goals for senior living marketers in 2025 should be to eliminate blind spots in the prospect journey and ensure there are no “dead ends.”
Debbie explains, “In the past, sales and marketing data were typically siloed in different reporting platforms that weren’t connected. Marketing only had visibility into how prospects engaged with marketing channels. This led to a disconnect when the prospect advanced to tours, deposits, and move-ins, making it difficult to evaluate which marketing channels and campaigns generated the best results.”
Meanwhile, aside from the attribution source, sales had no visibility into prospects’ behavior before receiving the lead.
Luckily, there’s no reason for things to operate like this now.
“Today, we can integrate sales and marketing data and touchpoints to eliminate these blind spots,” Debbie says. “This gives us full visibility into the entire prospect journey, from first-touch attribution through move-in. Improving the alignment between marketing and sales increases conversions from prospect to resident.”
How Debbie’s Predictions Played Out as We Close Out 2025
Debbie’s predictions captured where the industry should be headed—and in many cases, where SLS clients who embrace innovation are already seeing results. But 2025 played out as a year of progress with caveats, especially around AI and post-sale engagement.
Here’s how her insights aligned with what actually unfolded:
AI is advancing, but it’s not plug-and-play.
Comprehensive personas are possible with AI, and SLS proved this through multiple client projects. But these outputs don’t come from pressing a button. They require skilled prompting, human review, SME oversight, and a strong understanding of senior living buyer motivations. AI is a powerful tool, just not an autonomous one.
AI journey-mapping is emerging but not fully realized.
AI can help integrate prospect touchpoints and support more personalized journeys. But adoption varies widely across operators. Early adopters are experimenting with it; most are still figuring out how AI fits into their existing workflows. Think “early innings,” not a fully transformed funnel.
AI video isn’t a game changer yet, and authenticity still wins.
Debbie was directionally right that AI video would improve, but it didn’t become a dominant force in senior living in 2025. More importantly, nothing replaces real people, real interactions, and real community moments, especially in an emotionally driven category like senior living. AI video may assist with scripting or ideation, but authenticity remains the gold standard.
Post-sale marketing remains the biggest missed opportunity.
Debbie’s hope that 2025 would be the year operators embraced full-journey marketing didn’t fully materialize. Some moved in that direction; most still under-invest. Yet the principle holds true:
Keeping current residents happy—and turning them into ambassadors—is easier and more economical than constantly finding new prospects.
This is even more critical now that search is shifting toward a zero-click landscape where AI Overviews reduce organic traffic.
Eliminating blind spots is still more aspirational than reality.
The ability to connect sales and marketing data exists, and operators who do it outperform. But widespread adoption continues to lag. SLS continues to champion this work, and the release of our latest book about the Boomer prospect journey has helped operators understand the importance of a fully integrated journey map. Still, this is a multi-year shift, not a one-year transformation.
Andréa Catizone, President & COO
Andréa is doubling down on two predictions in our 2024 article: the need for more personalized content and voice search optimization.
More personalized content
Andréa says, “Tailoring marketing messages to address the specific concerns and interests of seniors and their caregivers enhances engagement and builds trust. Understanding the demographics and preferences of this group is critical for crafting effective marketing strategies.”
Better voice search optimization
Andréa says as more seniors adopt voice-activated devices, optimizing content for voice search has become essential to improving accessibility and visibility.
“Senior care providers can enhance their voice search performance by targeting long-tail keywords and ensuring their websites are fully mobile-friendly,” she explains.
How Andréa’s Predictions Played Out as We Close Out 2025
Andréa’s predictions landed in familiar territory: personalization and voice search. Both remain essential, but the forces shaping them in 2025 looked a little different than anticipated.
Personalized content continues to outperform generic messaging.
While we don’t have a way to measure this industry-wide, communities that tailor their messaging, rather than treating all leads the same, consistently see higher engagement and better conversion over time. This isn’t new, but 2025 reaffirmed it: personalization is still one of the most reliable levers operators can pull.
Voice search optimization mattered, but the real disruptor was conversational search through LLMs.
Andréa was right that optimizing for long-tail, natural-language queries is increasingly important. But 2025’s wildcard was the rapid rise of LLM-driven search and the shift toward Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
In other words: The same strategies that support voice search also support LLM search—operators just feel the impact more clearly on the LLM side.
Paul Trusik, VP of Operational Technology
Paul agreed that AI is going to be huge in 2025, especially for senior living, but he’s coming at it from a different angle than some of his SLS colleagues. “My focus will be more from an integrative approach vs. ideation and predictive enhancements,” he says.
Leveraging HubSpot’s AI-driven lead scoring could help do the following:
- Prioritize prospects most likely to convert based on their interactions, such as visiting the pricing page, filling out a survey assessment, or requesting a tour
- Focus sales efforts on high-value leads, which will help improve conversion rates
“For example,” Paul says, “adult children who engage with multiple blog posts about senior safety and family decisions might be flagged as high-priority leads for follow-up.”
He says there’s also a lot of opportunity with HubSpot’s conversations tool, including AI-powered chatbots that can:
- Qualify leads by asking questions about care needs or timelines
- Offer instant answers to common inquiries (e.g., “Do you provide memory care services?”)
- Schedule tours directly through the chatbot
“A prospect visiting the site late at night can interact with a bot to explore services, book a tour, and even receive a follow-up email.”
Additionally, Paul and his team are exploring how to use AI to summarize the prospect’s journey, marketing touchpoints, and intent before updating sales teams. “The idea is to help paint a picture about potential leads and provide a more custom experience for families,” Paul explains.
How Paul’s Predictions Played Out as We Close Out 2025
Paul’s predictions zeroed in on AI-driven lead scoring, nurturing workflows, and conversational tools. While hard to quantify across the industry, communities that leaned into these technologies generally saw clearer priority-setting for sales teams and more efficient follow-up.
AI-assisted lead scoring proved helpful—when paired with thoughtful human oversight.
Operators who embraced HubSpot’s AI-driven scoring gained better visibility into which prospects were most likely to convert. But, as Paul anticipated, the quality of the results depended heavily on human refinement: reviewing signals, adjusting thresholds, and validating what “high intent” really looks like in senior living.
The chatbot landscape was more nuanced than expected.
While Paul highlighted the potential of AI-powered chatbots, 2025 revealed a more mixed reality. Chatbots can be valuable if they’re deployed thoughtfully, with the right guardrails and clear escalation paths. As we noted in our recent blog post, not all chatbot experiences serve seniors and families well, and poorly configured bots risk frustrating rather than helping.
Communities that succeeded with chatbots focused on simple, high-value tasks: answering FAQs, routing questions, and offering easy pathways to book tours rather than trying to replace human interaction.
Doug DeMaio, Director of Client Success
Doug’s 2025 Predictions
More AI predictions . . .
Doug says broader use of generative AI should allow for more specific and contextual lead nurturing at scale.
“Think more personalization and more connection to different buyer personas at different points throughout the buyer’s journey,” he says.
A shift toward aspirational marketing
Aspirational marketing involves positioning senior living as a desirable choice rather than a decision made out of crisis.
Doug says he expects more communities to embrace this approach. “This shift will include focusing more on a younger demographic and bringing the ‘me’ generation into well-appointed communities that match their wants just as much as their needs,” he explains. “This will help populate communities with long-term residents who are enthusiastic about where they live, which can be positively transformative for communities.”
How Doug’s Predictions Played Out as We Close Out 2025
Personalization remains one of the most reliable levers operators can pull.
Doug’s prediction held true: When communities use AI thoughtfully—pairing automation with human insight—they’re able to nurture different personas more effectively and deliver messaging that truly resonates.
Aspirational marketing is gaining traction, especially with Boomers.
Doug’s call for a shift toward more aspirational, lifestyle-driven marketing aligns closely with the insights in our latest book about the Boomer prospect journey. Successful operators in 2025 leaned into messaging that emphasizes possibility, empowerment, and choice—an approach that speaks directly to Boomer expectations and will only become more important heading into 2026.
Kerri-Anne Pendergast, Director of Creative Services
Kerri-Anne’s 2025 Predictions
Kerri-Anne says that she and Lois Warden (one of SLS’s digital communications specialists) think we’ll see an uptick in user-generated content (UGC) from the boomer generation since they’re more tech-savvy.
“Because of this, communities can really push for post-sale marketing to make those new residents into influencers and brand ambassadors,” Kerri-Anne explains. “People who love their community tend to write reviews and make referrals.”
Kerri-Anne also believes creating strong brand experiences is going to play a bigger role. “Communities should look at their brand experience through the entire journey,” Kerri-Anne says. “From first touch to post move-in.”
Finally, Kerri-Anne notes that short-form videos will continue to be the most engaging and important form of content while Facebook continues its reign as king.
How Kerri-Anne’s Predictions Played Out as We Close Out 2025
UGC remains a valuable trust-builder for senior living communities.
Kerri-Anne’s prediction held steady: communities that encourage residents and families to share authentic stories, photos, and reviews benefit from stronger credibility and higher engagement. Nothing performs quite like genuine, real-life experiences. And video content absolutely remains king!
Brand experience continues to matter at every stage of the journey.
Her emphasis on delivering a consistent brand experience from first touch through move-in proved especially relevant in 2025. This aligns with the broader themes across our team’s predictions and with what we discuss in our book: The SMART Marketer’s Guide to the Senior Living Prospect Journey: How to Keep Boomers Satisfied Every Step of the Way.
Christopher Zook, Director of Search
Chris is our search guru. He’s also an expert in paid ads and AI. So, it’s no wonder he has predictions about these three areas.
Chris’s 2025 Predictions
Will Google remain king?
Chris says, “SearchGPT is the first earnest challenge to Google’s domination of online search in history. With it, we may see SEO transition from a Google-centric strategy to multiple platforms.”
What about pay-per-click (PPC) advertising?
“With the advent of SearchGPT, it’s reasonable to expect that some form of advertising will come with it, similar to Google Ads,” Chris explains. “Again, this presents a major market challenge to Google.”
And about that elephant in the room, AI . . .
Chris says that unless AI is regulated at some governmental level, it will continue its rapid expansion, growth, and self-improvement to enter an enormous amount of business and consumer verticals.
“OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are naturally at the forefront,” he says, “but this also entails open-source AI software that individuals can use, refine, and further develop. As a result, the people who learn how to use AI—and adapt their processes to include it—will likely thrive while non-adaptive competitors struggle.”
How Chris’s Predictions Played Out as We Close Out 2025
Chris’s predictions were among the most accurate.
His callout about the changing search landscape has already proven true. The rise of generative engine optimization (GEO), AI Overviews, and other LLM-driven search features reshaped how operators think about visibility and content strategy.
Zero-click content is now part of the equation.
More searchers are getting the answers they need directly on the platform they’re using—Google, ChatGPT, or elsewhere—without ever visiting a community’s website. Chris anticipated this shift, and it’s now shaping how we guide operators in creating content (and a paid strategy) that meets prospects where they are.
His prediction about AI adoption was also spot on.
The communities that leaned in—learning how to use AI safely, ethically, and strategically—are the ones making the most progress. This aligns directly with the themes from our AI Readiness: Trust & Transformation for Senior Living webinar, where Chris and our team break down what it really takes to adapt and thrive.
Need help with your senior living marketing next year and beyond? Get in touch.
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