Occupancy rates for senior living communities are at the lowest they’ve ever been in years across the US. A recent report by the NIC established a record low of 78% in the first quarter of 2021, and it’s a trend that continues to be a reality across the country, shoving many assisted living caregivers to the brink of failure. If you’re not too pleased about your occupancy rates, and every trick in the book proves futile, these 8 sure-fire assisted living marketing ideas will help save the day.
- Go one better over your competitor, website-wise
As with many other businesses today, the difference may just boil down to who has the better website. To ensure yours is in a league of its own, take into account the following checklist:
- Is your website cross-device friendly?
- Do you use high-quality imagery and videography to show your amenities, units, landscaping, etc.?
- Above all, is it easy to use for the not-so-tech-savvy population?
If your website comes up short in any of these areas, it’s time to seek web redesign, among a host of other important digital marketing services for small businesses.
- Make a killer first impression with a virtual tour
Virtual tours have become the latest eCommerce strategy for senior housing, and they can help to distinctively leave a mark on your target market. In particular, these tours provide excellent convenience and effectiveness when you’re targeting out-of-state leads.
Additionally, virtual tours are:
- Less demanding and less stressful compared to in-person tours
- Great for SEO as well
- A proven way to qualify your leads.
These types of tours also allow seniors and their children or family at large to explore your community, which goes a long way in reinforcing confidence.
- Revise your SEO game so you never miss a beat
The field of SEO is a fast-paced one, with search engine updates flying off the conveyor belt so fast it can make your head spin. Let’s consider the latest updates to keywords, for example. If you’re not setting up the right negative keywords in light of recent updates to Google’s broad keyword matching, you may be pulling in high traffic but have meager conversions to show for it.
So if it’s been a while since you took a look at your SEO approach or aren’t quite confident in your current SEO eCommerce strategy, it may be time to go back to the drawing board, and a good digital marketing agency for SEO services can come in handy.
- Make the most of your referral capabilities
Some of your residents love your community to bits, no doubt. These seniors, and by extension, their families, can serve as an excellent cornerstone for your marketing, in the following ways.
- Testimonial assurance: If your residents are up for it, online testimonials (videos have been shown to work best) are great for winning over first-time leads caught in two minds.
- Word-of-mouth appeal: You could also start a resident referral program, offering current residents and their families incentives for referring your community to their circles
- Don’t turn a blind eye to bad reviews
There’s no business that doesn’t contend with negative reviews at one point or the other. It’s a normal part of doing business in this century. What matters most is how you go about brand reputation management amid criticism. It does more harm than good to bury your head in the sand, but it helps to:
- Offer a public response to the review
- Be courteous and provide assistance to rectify the dissatisfaction
- Make improvements in your process if the complaints hold up
How you handle bad reviews may mean more to your market than leads simply reading through a heap of positive reviews. It also speaks to your management’s ability to own up to mistakes and provide assistance when things veer off plan.
- Get formal training for your entire sales team
From prospect tracking and technology expertise to strategy and etiquette, there’s a lot that goes into molding your perfect sales team.
It’s important to ensure that all your staff, even those just holding down the fort, get the right sales and eCommerce training to ensure there are no slip-ups and missed sales opportunities.
And by all your staff, we mean:
- After-hour reception
- Weekend staff
- Any roles beyond your 9-to-5 workforce
Basically, anyone who interacts with new leads in one way or the other.
- Stay on top of your prospects with a CRM solution
Do you solely depend on human reconnaissance efforts to track lead interaction? That’s not a great way to go about it, because mistakes are bound to arise. We recommend a customer relationship management system, which can help you:
- Know what marketing channels work best for you so can double down on those
- Personalize your marketing without mixing up names and other personal details
- Anticipate needs going by trends that would be otherwise hard to pick up and thus improve client retention
Additionally, a CRM system can help provide speedier communication and improve the quality of your customer service at the most critical stage of your lead nurturing process.
- Honesty is the best policy
When it comes to seeking contact information, many senior living communities often leverage information as a quid pro quo. It’s a distasteful tactic your business would do well to avoid. Instead, be upfront and provide full disclosure when it comes to:
- Care level costs
- Monthly feels
- Extra expenses beyond these
- Your amenities, services, and programs
More importantly, listen to your potential residents to determine what they truly need. Don’t get caught up in showing off your amenities, rather help them get to the bottom of what they want, and tend to any insecurities they might have.
Let the experts raise your occupancy
Are you at wit’s end about how to increase occupancy in your assisted living community? Is every effort hitting a dead end, and you just can’t seem to get those darn numbers up? These assisted living marketing strategies we’ve discussed today make for an excellent start, but there’s much more that needs to be done to halt those dwindling numbers. If you need a trusted and experienced digital marketing company for senior living communities to lend you a hand, Genexod is ready to help you out. Get in touch today.
