Senior Living Marketing

One of the tools that your senior living community can deploy to convert more leads with your digital marketing efforts is to implement an efficient booking system. When marketing to potential residents or their families online (whether through Facebook, Google, or other platforms) the idea is to get the family to visit your senior living facility in the physical world. Booking systems have made this process seamless. Especially if children are booking the tour, it makes their life easier. These kids are CEOs, community leaders, and have children of their own. Be sure to make life easy. These booking systems also enable you to scale your efforts without having to hire additional staff or increase overhead.

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Another effective way to bring leads into your senior living community is by utilizing the telephone and click-to-call buttons. A click-to-call button automatically connects the user to your community when clicked, making it a convenient option for families who prefer direct communication. If your target demographic includes older adults or their children, this strategy can be particularly advantageous. However, click-to-call is more challenging to scale compared to booking systems. Marketing strategies that rely on phone calls may require additional staff, such as call representatives or administrative workers. That said, phone interactions provide your team with the opportunity to personally connect with potential residents or their families, which can be a powerful tool in selling your community’s services.

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Some visitors may prefer to fill out a form and expect to be contacted. While including a form on your website is a good practice, relying solely on forms for lead generation is not advisable. Those who fill out forms are often less committed, and there is typically a delay between the initial interest and the follow-up, which gives competitors the opportunity to step in.

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Next, we must discuss a strategy so vital that it deserves its own section: local SEO. For local services, "near me" search terms are still highly relevant. Experts predict that these search terms will continue to be in high demand. Remember the importance of buyer intent? "Near me" searches often indicate that the user is actively looking for a senior living community nearby and is likely to make a decision quickly. Your marketing efforts should ensure that your community is the top choice for these searchers.

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Effective digital marketing can lead to increased occupancy in your senior living community. It’s arguably the most critical component in attracting new residents. Let's now explore in greater depth how we can market our senior living communities, focusing on attracting potential residents and their families through search engines, social media platforms, your database, and other online platforms.

With senior living marketing, there are two components that work together on a two-way street. The first component is the online world. You have people who are searching for senior living homes online and they end up scheduling tours to come see them in person. The other component is the offline world to the online world. This dynamic happens when a potential client or family views your center and check you out online. Both parts are extremely important in marketing your senior living facility and must be seen as a two-way street.

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How do we use marketing to get people from Facebook to come tour the facility? At the same time, how do we get our residents and their families engaged in our online communities. You should find ways to bridge the gap between the offline and online world. You can do this by engaging your residents and their families in activities that direct them to online platforms. For example, you could do review contests and community events and share those on your digital marketing channels. You might promote special dinner experiences or local events and tag family members on social media while doing so. You can encourage your residents and their families to follow your online pages, leave reviews, and share photos, all of which enhance your digital reach and online presence.

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Next, let's dive into an easy way to make this happen - QR codes. After COVID, QR codes became more and more popular. These QR codes can be placed throughout the community and on printed material. QR codes provide a way for people to access information about your services, events, and can even help connect them to your online platforms. When developing a QR code, it is important to have a dedicated landing page with special offers, photos, and verbiage that will  feel catered to your visitor. It is also important to use a dynamic QR code rather than a static QR code for marketing purposes.

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Specific tracking phone numbers are critical for offline marketing. Every printed ad, billboard, or TV commercial should have a unique tracking number that routes to the main senior living facilities line. This makes it possible to track offline activity just as well as we can track online activity. When use tracking numbers and a dynamic QR code you create tracking mechanisms to better understand what marketing activities are bringing the most traffic to your senior living home. Your marketing should be data-driven to ensure you are optimizing your marketing budget both online and offline.

The need for more marketing in the senior living industry is simply following the overall growth of this sector. The senior living industry has seen sizeable growth because of demographic changes and the increased demand for specialized care for seniors. In 2023, the global senior living market was valued at over $270 billion, and if current trends continue, it could surpass $500 billion in the next decade.

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Several key factors contribute to the growth of the senior living industry. One of the most obvious is the aging population. Advances in healthcare and medicine have extended life expectancy, resulting in seniors who require various levels of care and support. People are becoming more conscious of the importance of quality of life in later years. Today's seniors aren't just looking for care, they are looking for a culture. This shift in expectations has led to the development of more specialized senior living options, which cater to a variety of needs and preferences. The way to differentiate and show the specialization your senior living facility capitalizes on is with your marketing. Another factor contributing factor is the increased awareness of senior living communities. Over the last decade families share positive experiences, especially on social media. As communities are highlighted it increases the overall awareness of the industry, increasing demand.

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These trends are just a few of the many forces driving the growth of the senior living industry. Be sure to develop marketing strategies that align with these trends, effectively reaching both potential residents and their families. By understanding the growth senior living communities can position themselves to thrive in an increasingly competitive market.

Emerging Trends in the Senior Living Industry

There are trends that are growing, some that are leaving, and some that are emerging. Emerging trends provide a huge competitive edge if you are one of the first to spot them. Let's cover some of these marketing trends in the senior living space.

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1. Personalization of Care and Services:

With technology personalization has become easier and easier. Seniors and their families are looking for tailored services - whether memory care, wellness programs, religion, etc. This trend is creating ways for more centers to open up and cater to the unique preferences of their residents. This makes is it easier to market and keep the facility full and it provides a better overall resident experience.

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2. Integration of Technology:

‍Technology is playing a huge role in many sectors, including senior living. From telehealth services. This includes utilizing Telehealth, health monitoring, interactive games, or smart home technologies. The integration of these inventions enhances the quality of life for residents. If you are facility is using these technologies, it should be marketed.

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3. Holistic Living:

‍There is a growing importance on wellness and holistic living in senior communities. This goes hand in hand with providing a culture, not just care. Modern senior living incorporates physical fitness, mental health, nutrition, and social engagement. Market these programs! These programs tend to be a key differentiator for communities looking to attract residents who prioritize a high quality of life.

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4. Intergenerational Living:

‍A notable trend is the move towards intergenerational living. Senior living communities should connect residents with the community. Your facility could be offering programs and activities that encourage interaction with people of all ages. This approach not only helps the seniors but also making your community more vibrant and attractive to potential residents.

Introduction To SEM

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Here is the big difference between SEO and PPC - ABC and 123. SEO, or search engine optimization, is when you organically rank for something (such as us, a marketing company, ranking for "Senior Living Marketing"). PPC refers to paying for each click on your ad. Why would anyone one want to pay for a click when you can get them for free with an SEO strategy? As a leader in the senior living marketing space you know there's nor real free lunch. Marketing organically is a long-term game. It requires a solid foundation, extreme focus, and valuable content to rank. How much focus and effort does it take?

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We are pretty practical at MD Marketers. If you want to rank for "Best Senior Living in Las Vegas" search it. Click on the #1 organic result. Does your webpage cater to the search term better? Is your technical SEO stronger than theirs? If not, we can help. SEO takes time and requires expertise in both the industry and SEO. PPC isn't a bad platform by any means. PPC involves paying Google or Bing per click to put you at the top of the search results almost instantly. PPC can be a powerful tool to quickly increase visibility while finding a cost per acquisition. Whether a campaign will be profitable shows fast and shows clearly with PPC campaigns.

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When it comes to marketing your senior living facility the best strategies include both SEO and PPC. Do you have room for one more acronym? SEM. Search Engine Marketing is a strategy where you deploy both PPC and SEO to maximize visibility and attract more potential residents.

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SEO for Senior Living Communities

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Catering to your target is important in marketing, SEO especially. Let's say you want to market your centers services and amenities. You can create a specific landing page for each target. For example, a page on memory care or Christian facility could rank for keywords such as "senior living care near me" and "Christian based retirement home near me" respectively. You WILL NOT be able to rank both of those words to the same page. Many senior living facility owners believe they can rank one page (usually the home page) for several search terms. This strategy is not sufficient. Your SEO strategy should include terms like “luxury senior living,” “affordable assisted living,” and “senior care near me.” These search terms should be tied to specific pages. This will start to build an intentional marketing strategy that brings results.

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SEO is also great for inquiry-based searches. This means families are looking for an answer to a specific concern rather than directly searching for senior living communities. Someone might search for “how to choose the best senior living community” or “signs it’s time for assisted living.” You must include this in your SEO strategy to attract those who don’t yet know that your community is the answer. This page should address their specific concerns and links these concerns to relevant pages. Some will approach inquiry based keywords with FAQs. It can be a good strategy, but keep in mind that each page should be dedicated to one group of keywords. Another strategy is creating blog posts or guides. For example, search "How to choose the best senior living community" and see what the search results look like.

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PPC Campaigns for Senior Living

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Campaigns can be broken into either a service-based campaign or a problem-based campaign. When marketing a service your ad should focus on the specific service you offer using the visitor's verbiage (E.g. assisted living, memory care, etc.). These ads should lead to the corresponding landing page. Something to keep in mind is higher cost services will likely come with a higher marketing cost. PPC works on a bidding platform and you're bidding with your competitors. If you know that the search term "luxury senior living" is likely worth more than the average key term - so do your competitors.

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We suggest breaking down bids by keyword intent. It could be worth twice as much to bid on a keyword such as "senior living near me" vs "What is independent living?". One indicates a transactional intent. It will take less clicks to convert a lead making it easier to budget a higher cost per click. If you are dealing with an inquiry based key term it can take many more clicks to convert into a lead. It doesn't mean the keyword is useless, but our bid strategy needs to take that into account. Too many marketing companies ask, "what is our max cost per click", which is is not an effective strategy.

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Ad Copy & Landing Pages

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Your landing pages and ad copy are just as important as the bidding and the keyword strategy. Ad copy attracts clicks. If you notice you have a lot of impressions (the amount of people that have seen your ad) relative to clicks, then you know your ad needs work.

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If you are in this boat here are a few points to keep in mind

• Check your keyword list. Are you bidding on the right keywords?
• Are you marketing the highlights of your senior living center?  
• Do you have a strong call to action such as "Call Our Senior Living Experts 24/7"

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Once your clickthrough rate (CTR) is high we can make sure the click to lead ratio is where it needs to be. Keep in mind, the best way to convert visitors is a dedicated landing page that corresponds with their search term. For example, an ad about luxury senior living should direct visitors to SeniorCommunityName.com/luxury-senior-living. You are then able to cater the feel, language, and offer to the search term the visitor used. Focus solely on that service, eliminate ALL OTHER irrelevant information, and offer a clear call to action (e.g. schedule a tour).

Social Media Marketing for Senior Living Communities

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The senior living industry is increasingly becoming more competitive but there are several platforms where there is room for us to make a strong presence with a creative social media strategy.

A successful social media strategy can help you build awareness around your senior living facility and engage with potential residents. Although it is not the highest lead source in the industry, social media can also convert traffic into residents. There are other times where people will hear about your community through a family or friend and then look you up on social media to ensure your legitimacy. If you are consistent with your content you can ensure when people find you on social media they are looking at an active page that consistently posts valuable content for residents, their families, and the community.

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In this section we are going to talk about how we can nurture engagement. We will deep dive into how we can utilize an organic and paid strategy on social media (similar to how we did with search engines). If you are to follow these strategies, or better yet have MD marketers help you with these strategies, your senior living communities social media presence will certainly improve.

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Content Strategy

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When we were talking about search engines keyword strategy was the backbone of our campaigns. Content strategy is the foundational piece for a successful social media marketing strategy. In order to do this you want to create content that is going to resonate with your target market and highlight the unique aspects that you are trying to convey about your senior living facility.

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We recommend having a mixed-bag of content. Don't always promote yourself, or always post quotes. Post a mixed-bag of educational, transactional, and community-based content. Some examples could be - how to choose the right senior living community, behind the scenes look at your facility, resident testimonials, success stories, and the occasional marketing promotion.

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If you create multiple of these campaigns you are able to use a social media scheduler to schedule your post a month, 6 month, or even a year in advance. As the day-to-day becomes harder to manage you know that social media is already covered. For more on social media schedulers we recommend checking out LeadConnect.

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Paid Social Media Campaigns

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Similar to search engine marketing social media can be used organically and through paid campaigns. The best senior living marketing strategies include both. When you market organically on social media you are reaching your current audience. If they share it then you are shown to their family and friends, but that is the only possibility of marketing to someone new. Making "shareable" post in the senior living arena can be difficult.

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Paid social media strategies are a solution to this predicament. Paid social media campaigns allow you to target specific demographics such as adult children of potential residents. If that person does not follow your page they still are eligible to see our post. This post can be tailored to a specific demographic. This works similar to a search engine. You want your ad and landing page geared towards a specific interest, lifestyle choices, and location. You can also use geofencing which allows you to granularly target individuals within a specific radius. When we are targeting we are able to merge this criteria. For example, we would like to show our ad to adult children AND are within a 15 mile radius from our facility.

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Influencer Marketing

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Not a huge strategy in the senior living world, but it does happen. When you market with an influence it can greatly impact your social media. This approach only works if the influencer’s values align with your brands. Social media is a visual platform, and people pick up on subtle clues. If the influencer seems like a "paid actor" all trust is lost. For senior living communities be sure to partner with influencers who are already known for promoting senior care, aging, and health.

Implement a Booking System: This makes scheduling seamless, enables you to have post-appointment communication, and It will also cut down on any non-call no shows. By using a booking system you enable your CRM to send out time based messages. For example, a series of message before an appointment to limit no-shows. You can send a message 3 days after someone toured your facility asking what they thought. The idea is to use the appointment time to set up a campaign to be at the right place (in your leads inbox) at the right TIME. Expect families of residents to use a self booking system over the residents themselves.

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Click-to-Call Buttons: We recommend click-to-call buttons on your website to accompany this booking system. Some industries can rely purely on self scheduling systems, but senior living is not one of them. Click to call buttons offer quick and easy direct communication to a humans. This is often beneficial for older adults.

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Focus Your SEO Strategy Based On Your Needs: Focus on local SEO if you are a local senior living community. If you are a national chain of facilities your marketing approach may differ. If you have multiple centers that operate in multiple areas you can benefit from national SEO campaigns where as if you are a local retirement home you want to focus on optimizing your website for search terms relative to the local area. For example, we have this report that ranks nationally. We also have a Las Vegas Web Design Report that ranks for our local Las Vegas market.

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Tracking Mechanisms: If you are spending money marketing your senior living facility be sure you know exactly what you are getting for it. You should have a cost per acquisition for each new resident. You can do this by using tracking codes, phone numbers, and dynamic QR codes. This will ensure you can report on both offline and online marketing activities .

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Bridge Offline and Online: Encourage residents and their families to use QR codes to enter our "online world" and encourage those in our community’s online to visit us in real life!

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Specialized Marketing & Landing Pages: It is so important to create specific landing pages for different services. It is a rookie marketing mistake to send all traffic to the same page. You want a campaign and landing page designated for different services like memory care or luxury senior living. This will help increase SEO and improve PPC results. Niche marketing has proven to be successful since the early days and the world of digital marketing is no exception.

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Paid Campaigns for Specific Demographics: Be sure to create and ad and landing page for social media marketing as well. When targeting a specific demographic on social media, such as adult children, be sure to have a targeted ad to accompany it. For example, "Your Partners In Helping Mom & Dad". Targeted ads exponentially out perform general ads in almost every aspect. Be sure to tailor the messaging for your demographic.

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Personalize Communication: Use CRM data to send personalized messages. You can address a recipient by name in your marketing, but you can do so much more. You can also reference interests, services (e.g., memory care), and their last registered event. Deep personalization comes with a deeper connection. The more your audience is connected to your message the higher the engagement rate.

Implement a Booking System: This makes scheduling seamless, enables you to have post-appointment communication, and It will also cut down on any non-call no shows. By using a booking system you enable your CRM to send out time based messages. For example, a series of message before an appointment to limit no-shows. You can send a message 3 days after someone toured your facility asking what they thought. The idea is to use the appointment time to set up a campaign to be at the right place (in your leads inbox) at the right TIME. Expect families of residents to use a self booking system over the residents themselves.

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Click-to-Call Buttons: We recommend click-to-call buttons on your website to accompany this booking system. Some industries can rely purely on self scheduling systems, but senior living is not one of them. Click to call buttons offer quick and easy direct communication to a humans. This is often beneficial for older adults.

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Focus Your SEO Strategy Based On Your Needs: Focus on local SEO if you are a local senior living community. If you are a national chain of facilities your marketing approach may differ. If you have multiple centers that operate in multiple areas you can benefit from national SEO campaigns where as if you are a local retirement home you want to focus on optimizing your website for search terms relative to the local area. For example, we have this report that ranks nationally. We also have a Las Vegas Web Design Report that ranks for our local Las Vegas market.

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Tracking Mechanisms: If you are spending money marketing your senior living facility be sure you know exactly what you are getting for it. You should have a cost per acquisition for each new resident. You can do this by using tracking codes, phone numbers, and dynamic QR codes. This will ensure you can report on both offline and online marketing activities .

‍

Bridge Offline and Online: Encourage residents and their families to use QR codes to enter our "online world" and encourage those in our community’s online to visit us in real life!

‍

Specialized Marketing & Landing Pages: It is so important to create specific landing pages for different services. It is a rookie marketing mistake to send all traffic to the same page. You want a campaign and landing page designated for different services like memory care or luxury senior living. This will help increase SEO and improve PPC results. Niche marketing has proven to be successful since the early days and the world of digital marketing is no exception.

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Paid Campaigns for Specific Demographics: Be sure to create and ad and landing page for social media marketing as well. When targeting a specific demographic on social media, such as adult children, be sure to have a targeted ad to accompany it. For example, "Your Partners In Helping Mom & Dad". Targeted ads exponentially out perform general ads in almost every aspect. Be sure to tailor the messaging for your demographic.

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Personalize Communication: Use CRM data to send personalized messages. You can address a recipient by name in your marketing, but you can do so much more. You can also reference interests, services (e.g., memory care), and their last registered event. Deep personalization comes with a deeper connection. The more your audience is connected to your message the higher the engagement rate.