Archive for the ‘Assisted Living Marketing’ Category
Monday, August 23rd, 2010 by Angela Stringfellow
The August 19, 2010 edition of ALFA Update featured a case study focusing on social media, where two top senior living executives shared their tips and strategies for implementing a successful social media campaign. As both pointed out, social media is now an important component of word-of-mouth marketing, and it shouldn’t be ignored. 
Tricia Lilly Ourand, Director of Marketing for Brightview Senior Living, points out that staying focused on the objective is the first key to using social media effectively as part of your overall marketing strategy. Determine what you want to gain from using social media, and why your audience is using social media. You might be using it to gain visibility or brand recognition, to make sales, or even to recruit staff.
Your audience is probably seeking information — what do they want to learn or discuss? Do they already have knowledge of your assisted living facility or nursing home, or are they being introduced to your organization for the first time? From this point, Ourand says, you can create your strategy by developing policies that outline who can post content to what social sites, and ensuring that your posted content is search-engine friendly by using keywords.
Laura Ellen McAvoy, Operations Manager for The Arbor Company, recommends designating a specific social media point person who is in charge of posting regular updates, growing connections, and engaging your audience. She recommends setting your pages up with photos, details, and information before ramping up your fan base. Finally, utilizing family and friends who are already members of your social networks to start conversations is a great way to encourage initial interaction on your pages.
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Tags: Assisted Living Marketing, social media
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Home Care Marketing, Nursing Home Marketing, Senior Housing Marketing | No Comments »
Friday, July 30th, 2010 by Angela Stringfellow
The 2009 National Survey of Consumer and Workforce Satisfaction in Nursing Homes, conducted by My InnerView, reveals some interesting findings in support of word-of-mouth marketing. The fifth report produced by the company, the 2009 survey reflects the opinions of an astonishing 233,000 nursing home consumers (approximately) consisting of residents and families, and an additional 283,000 (approximately) employee opinions. Overall, the findings encompass one in three nursing homes nationwide. Pretty impressive.
This report is of vital importance to assisted living and nursing home marketers, because it demonstrates the importance of a balanced marketing plan. Acquisition is only half the battle; satisfied residents comprise an equally important piece of the successful marketing campaign, because word-of-mouth is the most effective form of advertising. It also helps administrators and executives choose where to allocate funds: the never-ending battle of acquisition vs. retention.
While this comprehensive survey stands on its own, there are a few key findings worth pointing out:
- Employee-consumer relationships have a big impact on consumer satisfaction. Therefore, addressing employee satisfaction (which ultimately leads to higher-quality resident care) directly is as important as focusing on resident satisfaction.
- Overall consumer satisfaction rose steadily from 2005-2008, and has remained steady since. Geographic areas and non-profit status were not influential on consumer satisfaction.
- 85% of consumers would recommend their nursing home facility.
- States with pay-for-performance systems have higher rates of consumer and employee satisfaction.
- Two factors drive consumer satisfaction: care and competency of staff.
- The third most important factor driving consumer satisfaction differs between residents and families. For residents, choices and preferences are most important (below care and competency of staff), but for families, nursing care is more important.
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Tags: nursing home quality, resident satisfaction, word-of-mouth marketing
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Home Care Marketing, Nursing Home Marketing, Senior Housing Marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 by Angela Stringfellow
The data keeps piling up that seniors are accessing the internet more than ever. The Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) discusses the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which indicates that 42% of individuals age 65 and older are now regularly accessing the internet; a figure that has grown 50% since the 2000 Census data. This population uses the internet to read email and access news online, but they don’t typically watch online videos or participate in instant messaging.
An AARP Bulletin Poll from December 2009 also examines Internet Use Among Midlife and Older Adults. The survey sample included more than 1,000 adults in the U.S. age 50 and older. 32% of respondents reported that they don’t use a computer at all, but 60% say they access a computer at home, while another 26% access a computer at work.
Of those who reported using the internet, 74% said they use it daily, and 38% said they access the net several times each day. In addition to reading online news and emails, purchasing products online, online banking, and travel reservations are among the most common internet uses for this population.
How long respondents have been using the internet varies. 42% have been using the internet for more than ten years, 32% between six and ten years, 20% between one and five years, and 4% for less than one year. Interestingly, most of those who reported that they’ve never used the internet aren’t interested in learning (71%). That figure is skewed by age; those over 65 are less likely to report being interested in learning how to use the internet (78%) than those between the ages of 50 and 65 (63%). It will be interesting to see how market saturation of web-enabled mobile devices impacts these figures in the coming years.
As the current 50-65 popualation continues to age, the number of individuals who are either already accessing the internet on a regular basis or are interested in learning how to use the internet will increase. Not only do assisted living providers and retirement communities have better chances of reaching seniors online, but those offering computer and internet access along with opportunities to learn technology will be more attractive to this technologically-savvy senior population.
Photo by Jakub Krechowicz
Tags: Assisted Living Marketing, tech-savvy seniors
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Home Care Marketing, Nursing Home Marketing, Senior Housing Marketing, Senior Living News | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 by Angela Stringfellow
The assisted living industry is experiencing regulation changes across many states, due in part to changes to funding and federal policy, but also due to shortcomings in current outdated regulations. Some changes, such as those set to occur in Pennsylvania over the next few months, can mean a big overhaul for facilities.
Interestingly, the state of Pennsylvania actually has no official “assisted living” category of assisted senior living. As a result, facilities with a wide range of capabilities use the term in advertising, and facilities housing four or five residents are regulated in the same manner as facilities housing more than 100 residents. Currently, 1,600 facilities are regulated by the Department of Public Welfare to provide non-medical care and housing to reside
nts.
Three years ago, Pennsylvania approved legislation that would create an “assisted living” category, but it was never implemented due to objections to the proposed changes by industry and consumer groups, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. So the Department of Public Welfare (DPW) made some changes that were approved on June 3rd by the state’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission, and expect to implement the new regs within the next six months.
The DPW anticipates that about 150 facilities will apply for approval as an assisted living facility in the first few months after legislation takes effect, says spokeswoman Beth Myers — most likely the largest of the facilities currently regulated by the department. A facility denied approval may not use the term “assisted living” in their marketing efforts.
One welcome change is the utilization of federal funds — Medicare and Medicaid — to help residents pay for assisted living care. Currently, Pennsylvania assisted living facilities are considered largely private pay and are therefore accessible only to more affluent residents.
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Tags: assisted living regulations, Pennsylvania assisted living
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Legal News, Senior Living News | No Comments »
Friday, July 16th, 2010 by Angela Stringfellow
Assisted living facilities frequently make the mistake of segregating their online and offline marketing efforts, considering them two entirely separate entities. Learning how to integrate your online and offline efforts delivers a more cohesive and consistent message, enhances your brand recognition, and boosts your ROI (return on investment). 
An obvious way to integrate your marketing efforts is to include your facility’s website url on business cards, letterhead, and other printed collateral. It’s also very important to ensure that your messages are complementary; for example, if you send out a mailer to promote a community event, your website should reflect the same information. Why? Word-of-mouth is still a powerful component of marketing, and news of your event may spread throughout the community. Someone without a printed mailer will probably visit your website for the details, and might get frustrated when they don’t find what they’re looking for.
An even better way to integrate using this example is to send out a teaser mailer, and direct people to your website to get the rest of the details. Why? You’re creating a trail, in a sense:
- Mailer directs them to your website.
- Your (professional, frequently-updated) website has all the details, and they look around (seeing pictures and descriptions of all the fun and exciting happenings at your facility).
- They visit your facility for the community event you’re hosting.
Now, they’ve had three separate contacts with your facility and you’ve begun to build a relationship. Those visitors shouldn’t be directed to your home page, however, unless you’ve customized your home page to emphasize information related to this promotion. If possible, create a custom landing page for the purposes of your promotion that lets your visitors know they’ve reached the right place. Display the necessary information and then lead them to explore other areas of your website.
This is, of course, the tip of the iceberg as far as ways to integrate your online and offline marketing campaigns. When developing your marketing campaign, consider all components as one cohesive unit and plan how it will all tie together.
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Tags: offline marketing, online marketing
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Home Care Marketing, Nursing Home Marketing, Senior Housing Marketing | 1 Comment »
Thursday, July 1st, 2010 by Angela Stringfellow
Selecting the appropriate keyphrases is the first step in a successful SEO strategy. It’s an easy process, even if you’re doing your own SEO.
The first mistake many website owners make is to choose the most obvious keyphrase. For example, deciding to optimize your website for the term “assisted living” without first conducting any research. In many cases, a broad term like assisted living isn’t the best choice. For example, if your company runs one facility in one location, you’ll spend a lot of valuable time trying to optimize for a highly competitive term that won’t offer you the most benefit.
A few easy steps can help you determine the most appropriate keyphrases for your assisted living website.
- Make a list of possible keywords and keyphrases. Include geographical terms, such as Bellevue assisted living or Washington assisted living. Senior care is a very localized industry, and geographical terms are usually easier to rank for. If you have multiple facilities in different cities or different areas, you can optimize a page on your website for each geographic location. In order to simplify the process, research keyphrases for one area at a time.
- Use a tool, such as Google AdWords Keyword Tool or SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool (free registration required) to find the most frequently searched for keyphrases on your list. For example, a search for Bellevue assisted living on the Google Keyword Tool shows that there are 1,300 average monthly searches for that term. Also listed are closely related terms, which may give you more ideas. Narrow down your list to those with 1,000 or more monthly searches.
- Use Google’s search page to find out how many relevant websites appear in the search engine results page for each keyphrase. Using the example of assisted living, we find 1,200,000 results. Bellevue assisted living brings up 139,000 results.
In general, it’s easier to rank for terms with less competition. But you should also consider the quality of the competition by looking at the first page or two of Google search results. If you see low-quality or spammy sites in the top 10 or 20 results, it might be easy to beat those sites for ranking.
You should also consider the number of searches a term is getting. Obviously, the more searches, the greater your chances are of having visitors click through to your site. However, with greater search volume comes greater competition, so finding the right balance is key. There’s no hard or fast rule, and it really depends on your goals. For a longer keyphrase or a geographically-focused term, close to 1,000 or more monthly searches is a good number. For broad, general terms, you should look for a considerably higher search volume.
You can always hire an outside SEO agency to conduct research and optimize your site, and it’s likely that they would use a much more complex process to determine the best keyphrases for your assisted living website. But if you’re going the do-it-yourself route, these few simple steps can help you select keyphrases that will bring you good results.
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Tags: assisted living websites, search engine optimization
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Online Media | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 by Angela Stringfellow
Despite the widely held belief that senior citizens aren’t making use of the internet, recent data shows otherwise. Inside Elder Care cites a 2004 study by Pew Internet that indicates that seniors’ online habits are much like those of the younger generations. Two-thirds of seniors (66%) use the internet for product research, almost half (47%) purchase goods online, and 100% visit government websites.
The Pew Internet study is a few years old, but indicates promising future trends. In 2004, 22% of seniors were using the internet — a figure that jumped 47% in the four years prior to the study. More recent data shows that the rising trend continued; a 2009 report from CTAM (cited on the AARP Global Network) finds that 77% of seniors (65+) shop online, a whopping 94% use email, 71% seek out health and medical information online, and 70% rely on the internet for daily news.
Inside Elder Care notes that both seniors and caregivers can benefit from being online. For one, long-distance caregiving can be easier with the use of daily email communication. Caregivers have peace of mind, and seniors who are able to connect with their families more frequently are less likely to be depressed. Making use of all the internet has to offer can maintain cognitive function, not to mention the sense of accomplishment that comes with mastering technology.
Senior care marketers take note
This data is also great news for senior care marketers. We’ve known that caregivers are using the internet to find information, which we discussed in a related post, but the fact that seniors are also researching online means they can play a more active role in making decisions regarding their care.
Marketers should be aware that online strategies should be designed to appeal to two audiences:
- The caregiver market — the families, children, and spouses of the aging or disabled who have traditionally made care decisions.
- The senior market — the seniors themselves, who are now also actively researching health and medical information online.
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Tags: internet usage, Senior Housing Marketing, seniors online
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Home Care Marketing, Nursing Home Marketing, Senior Housing Marketing | No Comments »
Friday, June 18th, 2010 by Angela Stringfellow
In December 2009 and January 2010, Econsultancy, in cooperation with ExactTarget, conducted a survey of 1,000 marketers from the United States and the United Kingdom. The study aimed to identify marketing budget increases for 2010 and the allocation of marketing budgets across media channels. They found that nearly half of respondents (46%) planned to increase their overall marketing budgets in 2010, and two-thirds (66%) planned to allocate more funds to digital media.
More interesting, though, is the number of marketers who reported plans to actually shift some of their budget from traditional to digital channels — 28%. Why? Well, for one, it’s easier to track results from digital media than from traditional advertising. It’s significantly less complex to obtain definitive numbers of leads generated from an online ad, using simple tracking mechanisms, than it is to determine how many leads were generated from a print ad.
The study also found that companies who consider their brand reputation an important measure of marketing effectiveness were the most likely to be shifting more marketing dollars to digital media.
The blog Online Marketing cites several studies, all of which also indicate a shift to online media usage. For example, Strong Mail’s 2010 Marketing Trends survey showed that 90% of 1,000 respondents planned to increase or maintain their online media spend in 2010, with social media marketing and email campaigns topping the priority list. Among offline marketing tactics, trade shows and events are still considered strong contenders.
Our prediction? We’ll continue to see marketers shifting their traditional advertising dollars to the more controllable and measurable online marketing tactics as companies learn how easy and effective internet lead generation can be.
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Tags: marketing budget shift, online media marketing
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Home Care Marketing, Nursing Home Marketing, Online Media, Senior Housing Marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 by Angela Stringfellow
Websites have come a long way from the standard brochure-style sites of the past. Websites now have the capability to be engaging and interactive — and it’s these sites, known as “sticky” websites, that tend to keep visitors around and coming back. It’s possible that many of your competitors still feature the standby, brochure-style site offering essential information on an attractive (or unattractive) background. Adding a little engaging content is all it could take for your website to stand out from the crowd.
Here are a few easy and inexpensive ways to ramp up your content:
- Host a blog. Your blog can be hosted on your domain, or on a free platform, like Wordpress or Blogger. It’s generally a better idea, from an SEO perspective, to host your blog on your own domain, because the constantly updated content and any links that are attracted will boost your site’s rankings. If your website is designed using Wordpress or Joomla, hosting a blog within your own domain is easy. If you have an HTML site, you may need the assistance of a web developer to set it up, and if you don’t want to deal with that, you can simply sign up for a free Wordpress or Blogger account and link to it from your main website.
- Feature articles on topical content. Many website owners make the mistake of providing information related to their business, but not their industry. People browse the web searching for information — give it to them. The more keyword-rich content your site has, the better your search engine positioning. And guess what? The next person looking for information on “paying for assisted living” could come to your website, have their question answered, and learn about your facility in the process.
- Let your visitors make your content viral. Use a service such as Add This to create buttons for your visitors to share your content (all that topical content from #2) on Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, and more. If your content is good, your visitors will literally build backlinks for you while driving traffic to your site.
- Don’t be afraid to link out to relevant sources. Linking snippets of your content out to relevant, reputable, and valuable resources isn’t bad. Many website owners get hung up on the importance of inbound links and become fearful that outbound links will hurt you. Choose your outbound links carefully, with the mindset that your goal is to provide value to your site visitors, and link only to relevant pages. Outbound links to the appropriate sources can actually help establish your credibility and authority.
- Link your content to relevant pages within your own website. This practice makes it easy for your web visitors to quickly navigate around your site as they read and look for information. If one of your pages is optimized for the key phrase ”activities of daily living“, and you use the phrase in another article, use the phrase as anchor text and link it to your optimized page. Links from within your own site don’t carry as much weight as links from another website, but they don’t hurt you, either.
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Tags: engaging visitors, website content
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Home Care Marketing, Nursing Home Marketing, Online Media, Senior Housing Marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 by Angela Stringfellow
We showed you in an earlier post that your target audience is using social media. SocialMediaExaminer.com’s 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report provides similar information and further outlines exactly how marketers are using social media to grow business.
The report reveals that over 90% of marketers are using social media, and among them, 56% are spending more than six hours per week and 30% are spending eleven or more hours per week on social media, although many have been using it for only a short time (a few months).
The report answers many of the common questions marketers have about using social media, but perhaps most importantly, names the benefits of social media from a marketing perspective. The benefits include:
- Increased exposure
- Increased traffic or subscribers
- Forging new business partnerships
- Improving search engine rankings
- Generating leads
- Sales
- Reduction in marketing costs
Increased exposure, lead generation, and improved search engine rankings are arguably the most important benefits for senior living marketers. 85% of respondents said that social media helped to increase exposure for their business. 54% said it helped to improve their search engine rankings, and 52% said social media helps generate qualified leads. Increased exposure is somewhat intangible, but search engine rankings and leads are concrete benefits that are pretty easy to measure.
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and blogs led the pack of most-used social media tools. For marketers who have been employing social media for years, YouTube and other online video also becomes an important component — and 73% of overall respondents said they plan to increase their online video usage in the future.
Tags: social media marketing
Posted in Assisted Living Marketing, Home Care Marketing, Nursing Home Marketing, Online Media, Senior Housing Marketing | No Comments »
