Here’s what you’ll learn:
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Here’s what you’ll learn:
In today’s job market, the candidates have the upper hand. We know that 95 percent of the people that companies want to hire for critical roles are not actually looking for a job. As a result, companies are competing for the best candidates. In order to effectively vie for great talent, you need the right tools.
As part of their recruitment strategy, many companies are using outbound marketing. This involves reaching out to potential candidates through job postings, paid advertising, or a third-party recruiter.
But today’s recruitment efforts need a more advanced strategy—one that you’re likely already using to attract residents: inbound marketing.
With inbound marketing, you create content that attracts new prospects to your company. From there, you can engage with them and determine if they’re the right fit. It’s an opportunity to establish a dialogue with passive and active job seekers, create a unique candidate experience, and build relationships with top talent.
Here are five quick ways to get started with inbound marketing as a recruitment tool:
Before you start, decide on which positions you are trying to attract. Do you want to focus on executive level and above? Or do you also want to also use inbound marketing to source your nursing and care staff?
Once you know which roles you want to recruit for, you also have to determine the characteristics that you are looking for in your ideal candidate. You should start with educational background, previous experience, and any technical requirements (licensure, software knowledge, etc.) that you may want in a candidate. Then dig a little deeper. Look at employees who are successful in their roles and identify traits and skills that help them prosper.
Think about your company culture. How do you define success in your company? What are the company non-negotiables when it comes to character and performance? What are the top 10 words you would use to define your culture?
According to Career Builder, 75% of job seekers start their search on Google. So you should create search-friendly content that will attract the ideal candidates to your site (which is one of the reasons you develop the candidate personas).
Content can include why you are the best company to work for, associate testimonial videos, and educational info. Find the best channels to connect with your prospective candidate. This could be Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, You Tube, as well as industry sites.
Get creative where you share this content. Based on chats with your current successful employees, is there anything that most have in common? For example, maybe most are members of the local YMCA. If that’s the case, see if you can conduct an informal job fair there or post some info about open positions on the Y’s bulletin boards.
Applying for a job is an investment. Today’s candidates want to know more about the company culture and role before they commit to the process. If a candidate isn’t ready to apply, create opportunities to engage them and develop a relationship. Give them opportunities to learn more about your company. This can be done with additional educational content, blog content, company resources, or signing up for a “keep in touch” newsletter.
It often takes many touch points to influence a decision, so invest the time in these relationships now to reap future rewards.
Learn more in this webinar: Inbound Marketing: Your Secret Weapon In Winning the Recruitment Game →
If you don’t know the answer, start thinking about it. Because understanding why your company is a great place to work will help you attract great staff.
It’s no secret that it’s a competitive hiring market in senior living. Many companies are vying for the same candidates, from care staff to executive directors. So when you find a candidate you like, how do you convince them that they should work for you? You have to market your community to potential job candidates with the same intensity you market to prospects.
Which is why knowing the top five reasons candidates would want to work at your community is a great way to engage prospective employees and stand out from the crowd.
How do you come up with your list? Start by asking your current employees why they work for you and what they like about their job, the community, their co-workers, their managers, and even the residents. You’ll probably get some valuable feedback and great insights into why staff members stay with your community.
When you’re talking to job candidates, share these insights with them and ask which one is most important. Then, talk about that particular topic in more depth. For example, if a collaborative workplace culture is important, show them the ways your community and team foster this sort of environment.
I sometimes miss working on the operations side of senior living, so much so that I’ll do occasional sales trainings and coaching projects to stay sharp. Whenever I dip my toes back into sales, the thing that surprises me most is this: marketing is like The Jetsons – innovative and exciting. Sales, however, is still like that Bill Murray classic: Groundhog Day. It’s as though time has stood still over the last 15 years as sales reps continue to struggle with the basics.
So let’s change that for good, shall we? Here are some ways to improve the sales process and results.
1. You never get a second chance to make a first impression.Look at your community through prospects’ eyes and be honest about the basics. Start with the experience of arriving at the community. Can you improve the locations, landscaping, and visibility of signage (even at night)? Will zoning allow you to add feather banners or A-frames? Is there dedicated parking reserved for tours near the front door or are prospects circling endlessly? Is the landscaping inviting year-round? Is the outdoor furniture clean and arranged?
These small details can make a huge difference between your tour arriving relaxed and feeling welcome or stressed out and frustrated.
Bonus tip: Personalize your tour parking signage to add the names of expected guests so there will be a parking spot with their name on it.
Prospects are typically looking at four to six communities. And let’s face it: most communities are very similar in design, services, and amenities. Prospects make decisions emotionally, which means you must build a strong sense of belonging from the minute they walk through your door. This starts with planning the visit to incorporate their life story, preferences, wants, needs, motivations, and non-negotiables.
Spending time as a team to plan every step of the visit will pay off with higher conversions. The better the discovery call, the better the planning and conversions. It takes the whole team to create a sense of belonging. For example, be sure the front desk is notified of all visits and has all the information they need to personalize their greeting. Also, provide notification to the line staff so they can participate more personally in the tour – and reward them when they do a great job!
Bonus tip: Use our turnkey “Red Carpet Tour” kit with all the resources needed to plan and execute the perfect tour.
It now costs an average of $1200 to get a family to tour. This is an emotional decision and families will be sharing personal concerns, so setting up a hospitality suite with refreshments is a must. Conference rooms and offices are not conducive to sensitive and personal conversations.
And let’s get rid of Styrofoam, paper cups, and plastic cups and plates once and for all! The average resident lifetime value is usually greater than $100,000, so let’s roll out the glassware and china. Please use name-brand beverages. Store brand and generic brands shout “cheap.”
Bonus tip: Here is everything you need to create an inviting hospitality suite.
I can’t tell you how many times I find the model apartment at the farthest end of the building. Why? So the maintenance department will not have to move it! The result? By the time the family gets to the model, they are already questioning if their loved one will be able to manage due to physical or memory deficits.
Always think of your prospect first—and what will be convenient to them. Ideally, the model apartments should be located in proximity to the hospitality suite. The model apartment should engage all senses: lights on, music playing, scented plug-ins, soft fabrics, and refreshments available. This is a place to linger, so have calendars, newsletters, floor plans, and menus out to create meaningful conversations.
Bonus tip: Use this model apartment checklist to see if your models are up to snuff! (download model apartment checklist)
Once the visit is wrapping up, it’s time to get a commitment to advance the relationship. This will be different for each prospect based on their unique situation. For earlier stage leads, a home visit, luncheon, or upcoming event may work best. For those closer to making a decision, a deposit, assessment, or re-tour with other decision-makers would be appropriate. Giving prospects something special is a memorable way to part ways, so consider having a swag collection available so you can find the right gift for each prospect. I recommend having dog/cat treats, teas/coffees, mugs, candies, small books etc. so I can find just the right gift for each prospect.
Bonus tip: Walk all tours out to their car to end the visit with a personal gesture.
Execute the perfect tour with planning tools, including forms, signs, staff recognition & post-tour gifts and followup resources.
The Veterans Pension Aid & Attendance Benefit, commonly called Aid and Attendance, is for veterans and their surviving spouses. Some important changes and updates happened in October 2018.
We interviewed Patty Servaes, founder of Elder Resource Benefits Consulting, a VA accredited agent and expert on the VA Pension. Here’s what you need to know about the changes:
A: The big change everyone is talking about is the three-year “look back” for assets transferred or annuities purchased after October 17, 2018. If a veteran purchases an annuity or transfers an asset and then applies for the benefit, the VA will add any transfer made after October 17, 2018, back to their assets when determining if total assets are less than $127,061.
This change is fantastic for those folks in their 80s and 90s who were failing the life expectancy test for assets. People who had in excess of $100,000 but less than the new asset limit (and who thought they needed to wait to have assets below $80,000) were able to file with confidence on October 18, 2018.
As of October 18, 2018, if veterans and their surviving spouses are living in independent or assisted living or a nursing home and they have a primary home they wish to rent, the VA will not count the house as an investment, but will keep it excluded as their primary home. While the rental income will count as income, the exclusion of the home as an asset will allow families to maximize the earning potential of the home to pay for care while retaining the home for later sale or inheritance by the veteran’s heirs. I think this will result in more veterans aging in place.
Unfortunately, with the addition of the three-year “look back,” the VA form that collected financial data has gone from 4-5 pages to 19 pages. When you add in the other forms and supporting documents, most of our applications are now in excess of 40 pages!
A: Because the VA is adopting the Medicaid Community Spouse Resource Allowance as the assets an applicant can have (which is $127,061 as of Dec. 1, 2018), many applicants will qualify earlier without having to transfer assets—this is a good thing.
For veterans and surviving spouses with assets in excess of $127,061, it’s important to understand how long it will take for their assets to be below the maximum and to realize that transferring assets may keep them out of the pension program longer than waiting for their assets to decline naturally.
Since the primary home doesn’t count, many of our clients qualify the day they contact us. Others pre-pay their funerals and qualify. And still others might just need to wait a few months. And you would be surprised at how many people have no desire to transfer assets in order to qualify for a government program!
A: It’s hard to say what the new myths are going to be after these sweeping changes. I still hear that you can’t get the benefit in independent living—I imagine that myth will continue. Veterans and their surviving spouses rated Aid and Attendance (meaning they need regular supervision or assistance with two activities of daily living) are allowed to use independent living expenses.
I would think that a new myth would be that the look-back period works the same as the Medicaid look-back when in fact it is much more generous.
And of course, I am sure we will continue to see folks who were told they didn’t qualify and they assume that means they won’t ever qualify. The truth is that eligibility changes as medical conditions, income, and assets change over time. It’s not a “yes or no” award, but “if and when.”
A: Yes, Social Security increased by 2.8% for 2019, and we will see a similar increase for the VA Pension. The VA likes to round down, so these figures might be off a dollar or two, but we are looking at monthly maximum awards for Pension with Aid and Attendance of approximately $1,197 for a surviving spouse, $1,881 for a single veteran, and $2,230 for a married veteran.
A: Yes, it does! In fact, it starts with home care and can stay with the veteran through their move to independent living and all the way through skilled nursing as long as they continue to meet the medical, income, and asset criteria. For skilled nursing providers, qualifying patients with a veteran status for the Aid & Attendance benefit may increase the time of private pay status.
A: Absolutely. If an applicant’s income minus home care and residential facility costs leave them with a positive number (known as “Income for VA Purposes”), but one less than the Maximum Pension Benefit, they can receive, approximately, the difference between the Maximum Pension and the calculated Income for VA Purposes figure.
A: Well, at over 40 pages long, it’s significantly harder than doing your taxes!
A: Our average time to award is fewer than four months, which is significantly less than the 12-18 months the VA tells you to expect.
A: The Pension benefit has the ability to significantly increase the buying power of our senior veterans. This allows people to stay in assisted living longer and allows them the peace of mind they need to move into the senior care community of their choice.
Just last week, I was working with a family who thought their 89-year-old dad could never afford assisted living since his income was only $1,500 per month, and he only had $30,000 left in assets. He’s living in Florida and with an estimated assisted living fee of $3,000 a month, he would be out of funds in under two years.
We were able to show them that with the $1,830 in Aid & Attendance benefits per month, he would not have to access his assets to pay for his monthly fee. They could not believe it and called me on Saturday to tell me they had chosen the room with the pond view for him at $3,200, were going to buy him a new couch, and that they hadn’t realized how stressed they had been worrying about how he was going to pay for this care.
A: It all starts with a free no-obligation phone call where we assess the medical and financial situation of the veteran or surviving spouse. If the potential claimant resides in a community that advertises on Elder Resource Benefits Consulting website, we assist them pro bono with the analysis and application.
If a resident doesn’t reside in an advertising community, they can hire us privately for a one-time pre-application analysis fee of $800 ($700 for Senior Living SMART members!) and then we assist them pro bono with the VA benefit for the remainder of their life.
Check out Elder Resource Benefits Consulting
Elder Resource Benefits Consulting has been helping families understand the cost of Senior Care since 2005.
It’s that special time of year. Dreams of sugar plum fairies and winter wonderlands are interrupted with the seasonal realities of Q4. A blizzard of demands grows our To Do list. And all of a sudden, it’s next year. Still a bit hazy from some holiday cheer, you might rush to cobble together a senior living marketing plan for Q1.
It’s fine, you think. After all, look at all those online and aggregator leads coming in!
But is it really OK?
Maybe not, especially when you consider the following…
So what can you do to make sure you’re not panicking on January 1?
Here are some strategies to follow NOW so that you can hit the ground running with an effective senior living marketing plan for the upcoming year, quarter, or month…
Number-driven goals are best, since it’s easier to measure their success. Move-in volume is a typical, measurable sales number (or, at least, it used to be pre-COVID). Set a realistic move-in goal for each month. If you’re not sure, look at the last 12-24 months. (You’ll want to consider 2018 and 2019 numbers to get a realistic sense of what the numbers look like during “normal” times. Then, you’ll want to consider 2020 numbers, too.) And set a monthly marketing budget. You need these numbers to plan.
Once you have a move-in number and a budget number for the month ahead (or better yet, the upcoming quarter or even the whole year), planning becomes easier.
For this exercise, let’s say the move-in number for January is 4.
Based on a budgeted 4 move-ins, how many leads do you need? Leads will equal the number of move-ins divided by your community’s lead-to-move-in conversion rate.
So let’s say your average lead-to-move-in conversion rate over the past 12 months is 12.8%. The math: 4 move-ins divided by .128 = 31 leads. So, in general, you’ll need 31 leads to produce 4 move-ins.
But is that really the number? Probably not for January.
So, most likely, you will need more than 31 leads.
All that said, 31 leads is a good starting point. From there, you can develop a senior living marketing plan that will generate these leads. Then, you can let lead aggregators produce gravy for you.
How do you bucket the various types of people contacting you and sitting in your CRM? Keep your various buyer personas in mind, including where they might be on their journey:
Some of you may have more sophisticated lead scoring in place. Your hot and warm leads should be a enjoying a very personalized sales approach based on your discovery.
Now that you’ve bucketed your targets, what will you do to generate new leads, nurture your various lead types, and influence professionals and residents to refer to you?
Event promotions are designed to work hard to encourage someone to visit your community and experience the lifestyle you offer. If you are promising an event, you need to ensure you can pull it off successfully. Events are valuable for lead generation and lead nurturing. However, you can also leverage daily resident activities, clubs, and outings as lead nurturing events once you better understand the various interests of people in your CRM.
We recommend one event a month for lead generation. Yes, they are time consuming, but if executed well, you really drive home the value of what you offer to residents. (Psst. Need help creating collateral to promote your events? Check out SMARTbrand.)
Product/brand promotions focus on people on the early side of the buyer’s journey. So your message should focus on things like what you do and what makes your community different/better than your competitors. In essence, you’re making the local market aware of your community. This might involve placing advertisements in places that reach your target audience, both online and off.
Price promotions. We don’t recommend price promotions for lead generation. It cheapens your product and really confuses potential leads about how pricing works at your community. Price promotions are good sales closing tools for a part of your lead base already aware of all you do to offer value, quality, and peace of mind.
First, get a calendar of all the holidays during the year. Second, bring your community leadership team together to discuss promotions, especially event promotions. You’ll need their help to pull off successful events for lead generation purposes. Third, you can look at all the promotional options in a “brand-on-demand” system. These systems typically have a catalog of postcards and flyers, and you simply add your branding, event details, and community details. From there, you get them printed and distributed. (A great option is SMARTbrand.)
Once you’ve figured out your promotions each month for your various targets, you’ll need to determine how you’ll get the promotions to them. This is where budgets are necessary. Some things you can do very inexpensively. For example, with SMARTbrand, you can easily customize digital banners, download them, and place them on social media or your website. But for lead generation, typically you’ll want to look at direct mail, advertising, and online services, too. You’ll also want some materials to hand out to residents and professional referral sources.
How will you measure success? Remember, it’s import to record every inquiry. You may have criteria on what determines who goes into your senior living CRM, but knowing a postcard, print ad, or web page works to generate an inquiry is critical, even if the person ultimately isn’t interested or doesn’t qualify for your services.
You can use things like call-tracking numbers and special website landing pages for direct mail (there are seemingly countless ways to measure—we’re just mentioning a couple).
Bottom line: over time, this information will help you identify media and promotions that give you the biggest bang for your marketing buck.
You’ve come to the right place! We have decades of experience in the senior living industry. Let us help you create a strategic marketing roadmap that achieves the goals you’ve identified. GET IN TOUCH NOW!
Let’s face it: one of the least favorite tasks of senior living sales and marketing professionals is updating their lead management database or healthcare CRM.
They prefer building relationships with seniors, families, and professionals. Or maybe they gain energy from personal interactions rather than administrative tasks. Entering data, updating notes, and documenting activities . . . not so much. However, for sales managers, this documentation is crucial to identifying trends, barriers, and opportunities. Not to mention creating effective strategies.
Reduce resistance and improve healthcare CRM adoption:
Include all user groups and stakeholders in the vetting and decision-making process. Create focus groups comprised of community, regional, and corporate sales and operations team members.
Once you’ve made your selection, you need to prepare your team for implementation. Here’s what to do.
Choosing new senior living CRM software can be a daunting task. But it can also be an opportunity to discover new features that can enhance your sales culture. Below, you’ll find helpful tips for choosing a new CRM.
Before you schedule demos, make a list of what you like about your current CRM and everything that frustrates users. Create three lists: Must Haves, Would Be Nice to Have, and Non-Negotiables.
Make sure the vendor you select can seamlessly move your data, including your waiting lists and prospect activity history. Ask potential vendors the following:
Learning a new system requires training, reinforcement, and on-going support. Here are some questions to ask before you sign a contract with a new CRM provider:
Regardless of which CRM you choose, you will experience a learning curve. Embrace this fact and go with it. Fear of change can be paralyzing and inhibit the ability to accept and retain new information. Remember, the impact of learning a new system will be far less scary if each member of your team is open to change.
Finally, don’t let the fear of change keep you from diving into the search. The process of vetting, selecting, and implementing a new CRM may take longer than anticipated. Budget at least 90-120 days for the process.
