Senior Living Websites: 3 Proven Ways To Improve Your Lead Conversions

Five seconds. That’s all the time most people spend on a web page before exiting, according to Jason McCloud, now Director of Digital Marketing at Benchmark Senior Living, and presenter at the 2016 Senior Care Marketing Sales Summit (SMASH). Luckily, there are easy ways for senior living websites to effectively capture anonymous site visitors and convert them to leads, McCloud noted.

The most important takeaway from this session is to optimize visitors’ time with a three-step strategy: Design your landing page for conversion rate optimization, add compelling imagery and calls to action, and conduct A/B testing to pick the design that produces the most favorable responses.

1. Design Your Senior Living Website to Optimize Your Conversion Rates.

Use eye-tracking “heat map” software as a “quick and easy way” to assess where website visitors look. People generally scan web pages in either an “F” or a “Z” pattern. Providers should design their landing pages accordingly.

In addition, consider how folks are going to scan: The right information needs to be in the right place. Place logos in the top left corner, with a prominent call to action and other important information in the web page’s “hot spots,” where people’s eyes—followed by their mouse—are generally drawn. And when it comes to information, less is more. Stick with the basics: Company logo, relevant photos, a phone number, pricing.

Most of the tracking software is affordable, according to McCloud, and some even offer free 30-day trials.

2. Add Quality Images and Compelling Calls to Action.

Design should revolve around what shoppers want to see: What the community looks like, and how much it costs. Here is McCloud’s advice for images and design:

• Invest in professional photography. Choose renderings over lifestyle images, and limit use of stock photos. Adult influencers shopping for a senior living community for their parents don’t want to see generic photos of smiling seniors — they want to see what the community actually looks like. If you post a gallery of photos, allow for manual click-through rather than quick-paced auto-rotation to let visitors peruse at their own pace.
• Keep it simple. Don’t make it difficult for a visitor to perform the desired action. McCloud noted that you “always want your main call to action — what you want them to do, whether it’s calling a phone number or filling out a web form — within three clicks of any given entry page.”
• Create a sense of urgency. Compel action by using language that denotes a sense of urgency, with phrases like “Check availability and pricing today” over “Contact us” or “Request a brochure.” Similarly, for forms, swap out the “Submit” button for “Request Information Now.”
• Train your team to make leads count. If you’re going to the trouble of designing or redesigning your page to maximize lead conversion, your team must be properly trained to handle inquiries. Make sure the person answering the phone is qualified to take the lead and transmit it properly to the sales or marketing team. In other words, don’t let the lead die on the vine.
• Don’t forget the smartphones. Many adult influencers are glued to their phones. Your landing page design strategy should expand beyond desktops to mobile devices as well.

3. Test Which Design Works Best

If there are two web page designs that you’re having trouble choosing between, test them both. For example, if you’re not sure whether to utilize the F or the Z pattern design, you can experiment to see which one gets better conversion rates.

McCloud also suggested testing each design for one to two weeks, then choosing the data-driven winner. Converting existing web traffic into a lead is more valuable than spending resources on trying to generate more traffic.

If you drive traffic to your page without capturing people’s attention for more than five seconds, you’re flushing money down the drain, McCloud said, advising providers to “work on bettering conversion rates before spending more money to drive traffic.”

Need help doing any of the above? That’s where WE come in.

We’re experts in marketing and senior living website design. Plus, we have decades of senior living industry experience to boot. Let’s chat about your website.