Top Long-Term Care Marketing Strategies to Consider

Evan Berglund, senior partner, Gonzberg Agency

Marketing your senior care services is an ongoing challenge, and certain platforms may help you to connect with your audience better than others. Finding the most effective marketing strategy can require some testing and experimentation, but it can also pay off with increased, better leads for your sales funnel.

If you want to improve your marketing, you might want to consider the strategies suggested by two marketing experts.

Best Practices for Developing Your Senior Care Marketing Strategy

Evan Berglund, senior partner at the Gonzberg Agency in San Francisco, explains that developing your marketing strategy is really a three-pronged approach involving market research, strategy development, and crafting a plan of marketing tactics like platforms and tools.

Your marketing plan will vary depending on your market segment, which is affected by your geography, pricing, and the services that you offer.

He suggests that businesses follow these steps in developing their marketing strategies:

1. Competition and Market: Perform a 360-degree analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) on available market data as they relate to paid advertising, PR, and all web-related properties and activities.
2. Objectives: Perform a situation analysis of your current direct response and branding objectives, and include recommendations for new, realistic, and measurable goals, if those are needed.
3. Targeting: Perform a situation analysis regarding the demographics, psychographics, sociographics, and all phases of customer journeys, and include recommendation of how to hone in on the most profitable targets.
4. Positioning/Branding: Perform a situation analysis of the current positioning/branding strategy, and include recommendations about how to strengthen your position and brand in customer journeys relevant to your target audience.
5. Creative Solutions: Perform a situation analysis of your current creatives, and include recommendations for improvements, like potential design concepts and mockups for cross-platform activities.
6. Media: Performa situation analysis of all relevant paid advertising, PR, and web-related properties and activities, including, but not limited to, social and legacy media and CRM efforts. Include recommendations for integration improvements and a new media plan.

How to Implement New Marketing Strategies to Your Existing Efforts

Lauren Reed, APR, president and founder, REED Public Relations

Lauren Reed, APR, president and founder of REED Public Relations, has found several marketing strategies to be highly effective in the senior living industry.

“Facebook is a wonderful tool to reach residents, family members, and staff,” she says. “It can be facilitated by a few trusted staff members and makes quickly responding to inquiries easy. The fact that you can post updates without visuals also makes it a superior choice to Instagram. Facebook is a simple tool that allows facilities to communicate important updates and build brand personality all at once.”

Reed notes that she has also found webinars to be effective. She explains that hosting them regularly allows facilities to connect with prospective residents, ease concerns, and answer questions about the facility.

If you’re planning to incorporate a new marketing strategy into your existing marketing, Reed recommends that you start by doing some research. “Make sure the strategy will fit seamlessly into your staff’s schedules. If you don’t have a dedicated marketing team, select two to three trusted team members to implement the strategy.”

She also recommends that you roll out the new strategy slowly and collect data. If a technique isn’t working, then you’ll need to make adjustments. Reed recommends doubling down on tactics that are highly successful. “Starting slow and building upon your strategy is a great way to ensure marketing will become a natural part of your team’s daily activities,” she says.

When it comes to marketing practices and schedules, Reed suggests that you try to post at least three times per week, per platform. You can add diversity to your content by sharing facility updates, event photos, and educational content. She also notes that honesty and transparency in communication can resolve most issues, and it’s important to keep them in mind when developing your new marketing strategy.

As you implement new marketing approaches, don’t forget to review your results. Reed suggests that you review results monthly and quarterly. With time, you’ll be able to identify which strategies are most effective, and adjust your marketing to continue improving its performance.

Paige Cerulli

Paige Cerulli is a contributing writer to i Advance Senior Care.