Strategies to Highlight Value in Your Senior Care Marketing

Effective marketing strategies are key to building a senior care organization’s brand. By following marketing best practices, an organization can increase the return on investment it sees from its marketing. Being able to convey the value that a senior care organization offers to residents and their families makes marketing more compelling, but defining that value can be challenging. Thinking deliberately in terms of value can help reframe marketing and make your senior care organization’s marketing strategy more effective.

The Importance of Demonstrating Value

Tina Kies, owner & CEO of Chikara PR, LLC

When potential residents and their families evaluate a senior care organization, they weigh the perceived value against the cost of the services. Marketing efforts can help define that perceived value.

“Perceived value of anything is unique to the individual observing it,” explains Tina Kies, owner & CEO of Chikara PR, LLC. “The value of what a senior care organization can offer its residents and families is no different, which is why broad messaging can pose a challenge in an organization’s marketing efforts.”

Kies encourages senior care organizations to demonstrate their value through their actions. She says the first priority should be “developing and nurturing a positive, highly functioning, and thoughtful environment first, and building an infrastructure that speaks for itself.” Kies notes that a senior care organization should “offer transparency, confidence, and encourage a trusting relationship with its constituents. That foundation of trust can be established through repetitive and successful action.”

How to Discuss the Value in Senior Care

When it comes to discussing the value in senior care, Kies encourages organizations to focus on emotion. “Regardless of age or physical condition, transitioning your life into a new environment offers its challenges,” she says. “Every new resident has just walked away from their home, a home that they’ve shared with loved ones and created memories within. I would say that the key factor to consider when discussing an organization’s value with anyone is emotion. How are they feeling? How will this move impact them emotionally and mentally? Are they ready for the move or is it being done out of necessity? What are their fears? What are their anxieties? And most importantly, how will the care team, the environment, and existing resident population help ease these emotional strains?”

The organization’s ability to see each resident as unique will affect the value that a resident receives. Personalized care has distinct value and importance in the senior care space. “A senior care community is not a one-size-fits-all type of place, and once that is realized and care is given thoughtfully, it will enhance its value to everyone,” says Kies.

In fact, approaching value from a black-and-white standpoint is a major mistake. The standpoint that all resident needs are the same can be ineffective and even damaging. “What is valuable to one person may be of no consequence to another, so sticking to a script, per se, is doing yourself a disservice,” Kies explains.

Instead, it’s important to find ways to showcase the personalized care an organization offers, allowing your audience to identify the value they perceive in the content. Kies suggests using social media posts, including images and video, which can capture the emotions that residents experience, as well as different areas of service that are provided. That content can also highlight the facility and its amenities and provide a look into what daily life consists of within the community. “Any online marketing done well will exude an emotion — a voice that is representative of the environment being provided to its residents,” she says.

Helping Staff to Discuss Value

In addition to portraying value in digital and print marketing efforts, it’s important that staff also understand how to speak about the organization’s value. “Everyone employed within a senior care facility is a marketer so ongoing training is important for everyone to receive,” says Kies. “Happy employees generally equate to positive morale within a building, which then equates to authentic interactions with a potential resident and/or family member.”

She suggests that staff who might receive phone inquiries or lead facility tours should also receive training in all of the organization’s services and amenities. Such training will help staff deliver accurate and consistent responses. Kies also suggests that appointed team members be on site for inquiries, including after hours or during the weekend. Additionally, all other employees should receive training so that they understand how to take an inquiry and deliver it to the appropriate staff member.

Highlighting the value a senior care organization offers can make for more powerful and more effective marketing. Whether creating social media posts or talking points for in-person tours, consistently returning to value – particularly, value as emotion – is an excellent strategy to create cohesive and impactful messaging.

Paige Cerulli

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