With the population getting older the market for both independent living and assisted living communities is getting larger and larger. As the population gets older an increasing amount of demand will result in an increasing amount of online searches for independent living communities. In order to stay ahead of this trend, and ahead of competition, we've quickly put together 3 independent living marketing ideas to help your facility generate leads online.
The look, feel, and usability of your website is becoming more and more important. Google even penalizes sites for being slow, poorly optimized, or not responsively designed to look good on mobile devices. If you do not keep ahead of the changes in website design you can actually be hurting your websites chances of getting found in searches online. Run your existing website through free online tools such as https://website.grader.com/ and see which areas of your website need improvement. Try to prioritize the issues and strategically attack them one by one.
Once your potential customers have found your website they will be in research mode. They'll want to know what your facility has that other's don't. They'll also want to know that your facility has the knowledge and know-how to care for their loved ones once they've become a tenant at your facility. In order to gain trust and show them that you know your stuff you need to create content on your site that your visitors will actually find useful. This could be a e-book guide to "How to choose an Independent Living Facility" or a blog post on "how to know if your loved one needs assisted living." Whatever the content is it should be informative, helpful, and useful to whoever is visiting your website. You'll want to think of yourself as an educator rather than a sales/marketing person. In the end this will result in more trust for your facility, more on-site visit requests, and more leads online through your website.
Once somebody has downloaded some content or requested an on-site visit through your website you'll want to make sure you nurture them into a customer. The way to do this is by providing them with more valuable content and also HELPING them to qualify if your facility is in fact the best solution for them. This is counter-intuitive to many salespeople's advice of "sell, sell, sell!" By qualifying whether or not your facility is the best choice for them based on budget, location, amenities, etc you'll be gaining their trust even further. Even if they decide to join another facility their experience with yours will have been so good that they will refer others to you. If you can think of your staff as tour guides/helpful assistants in the decision process you'll have much more success than by trying to hard sell ever potential customer that shows interest in your facility.
These are just three ways that you can generate leads online and help convert them into customers. At Next Wave we specialize in creating customized programs for inbound marketing for independent living facilities that make the most sense for you. Contact us or just request a FREE website audit and we can give you some free advice on options for improving your senior living lead generation today.
