Marketing Events for Assisted Living: 5 Fresh Ideas
We asked our awesome team to brainstorm fresh marketing events for assisted living. The constant theme: Get people together. It’s been a long pandemic (we don’t have to tell you that!). Now’s the time to ramp up in-person events.
Marketing Events for Assisted Living: Give Them a Free Lunch.
Free food will always be an effective way to draw in a crowd. We don’t care what demo you’re catering to.
There are two keys to making this idea work, however.
First, be super targeted. Send invites to your ideal buyers. Second, make sure you have a plan for what happens before, during, and after lunch.
- Before: Assemble packets/marketing materials to share with the attendees.
- During: Get to know the attendees (keep notes!) and share the welcome packet.
- After: Send the attendees home with a goody bag (maybe some nicely boxed pastries with your name emblazoned on the box) and FOLLOW UP with them via email. (Use marketing automation to make it easy.)
Marketing Events for Assisted Living: Open Up Popular Activities to the Public.
Consider any popular activity that you can reasonably open up to the public. For example, maybe you host a classic car show in your community’s parking lot the first Saturday night of the month during the summer months. Or maybe once a week, you offer a free matinee in your on-site movie theater. Events like these help build brand awareness and let people experience your community in a low-pressure way.
Families tend to flock to these events as well, which is another bonus since you’ll be reaching adult children—a good thing since they are often the drivers behind parents moving into assisted living.
Plus, current residents will also be present and interacting organically with guests. (Remember, happy residents are your best form of advertisement.)
Marketing Events for Assisted Living: Team Up with a Partner.
Financial planners, real estate agents, insurance agents—all of these folks often have their own small businesses (or franchises) and are looking for added value to give to their clients and prospective clients.
You could team up with a partner and host a free dinner or lunch-and-learn at a local restaurant. For example, maybe you collaborate with a local financial advisor and they invite a select number of their clients nearing retirement age to a free dinner where you give a short presentation about senior living—what it is, what it isn’t, how to pay for it, etc.
Follow the same strategy we mentioned above: bring marketing materials, meet and greet the guests, and enter guests into an automated lead nurturing workflow.
Marketing Events for Assisted Living: Give a Class.
Continuing education classes at local colleges and technical schools often include options geared toward older adults. Think people with extra time to devote to new interests, hobbies, or topics they want to understand better. The latter is where you come in.
You could offer a class (either free or for a nominal fee) around topics like . . .
- Navigating the Veterans Aid & Attendance Benefit.
- What Happens If You Outlive Your Retirement?
- What is Long-Term Care, and Do I Need It?
You could either have someone from within your community, like a sales rep or financial guidance counselor, or you could create a panel discussion with several experts (including someone from your community).
Again, the key to these classes is the prep and follow-up. Don’t simply “present” and hope that people will eventually call you. Have helpful info packets, gather email addresses, and send follow-up emails. If people linger after class with questions, take the time to get to know them and where they are in their lives.
Marketing Events for Assisted Living: Simply Invite People in.
Sometimes the best marketing event is the simplest and most straightforward, like doing an email blast to your prospect database and reminding them that your doors are open for in-person tours.
And, of course, within that email, you could also highlight “Other Ways to Experience Our Community.” Then, in that section, you could promote any events you have planned, like the free lunches, the classic car show, upcoming classes, etc.
Need Help Developing Effective Marketing Events for Assisted Living?
Work with an agency that gets marketing and senior living. Get in touch and let’s chat about your needs.
