Marketing Tips for Retirement Homes and Communities | Marketing to Seniors

1www.ComfortLife.ca www.dialogueplus.cawww.ComfortLife.ca

Marketing Tips for Retirement Communities

2www.ComfortLife.ca www.dialogueplus.ca

What are your marketing challenges?

1. Exposure - people don’t know we exist

2. Negative stigmas - location, nursing home, dementia

3. Attitude - stay at home, stay in the garden

4. Online growth - how do we get found in Google

3

100

Source – eMarketer

% of people using the internet

CANADA 2008

60

62

64

66

68

70

72

74

76

0

75%

78

68%

63%

U.S.A. 2008

CANADA 2010

www.ComfortLife.ca www.dialogueplus.ca

Canada’s Online Population - Largest in the world

4

Source – Experian Hitwise


Google has 71%

5

Your website

Toronto Retirement homes

Ontario Retirement homes

Luxury Retirement homes

Retirement Communities

Downsizing

Assisted Living


80% of website traffic begins with search engine queries

6

Source – Experian Hitwise


Seniors online (Nov 2009)

.1 Google (10.3 million)

.2 Windows media player (8.2 million)

.3 Facebook (7.9 million)


What’s New? What works?

Blogs

Websites

Social Media

Newspaper

Magazine

of online searches are driven by offline channels

TV

Radio

Signage

Community centers

67%


Word of Mouth

Referrals

Suggestions

Amplify your marketing to increase word of mouth communication


Empower your network and trust them Give them something to talk about

newsletters, print and online

resident blog

photo gallery

expert handbooks

"My mom moved into a retirement community"

"My friend works with seniors, I'll ask her"

Delmanor Retirement Communities

RT@brad_dawg My grandmother’s retirement home has so much drama.


Benefits of social engagement Drive traffic and generate leads

develop branding

increase traditional media exposure

lift search engine results

connect with media


Social Media and Social Engagement

Definition

Listening to your customers, being helpful by sharing your knowledge and giving them interesting content to share.


Platforms and Tools

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

YouTube, Flicker

Blogs, Message boards, Forums

Podcasts

13

"One of the greatest challenges or losses that we face as older adults, frankly, is not about our health, but it’s actually about our social network deteriorating on us, because our friends get sick, our spouse passes away, friends pass away, or we move."

—Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab at MIT


What do your current residents to

Stay connected

Email friends and family

Share photos and videos


How to get started

1.KNOW WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING about you

about your company

about your competitors

about the industry

TOOLS:Google alerts, SocialMention, Twilert

RSS and Email subscriptions


How to get started

2. EXTEND YOUR REACH Look at what you’re already doing

Find channels to distribute content

Get connected to your community and networks

Engage your community


Examples

ON FACEBOOKGoogle search: “talking to parents about retirement”

#3 results in Google: Caroline Place, Hamilton


Examples

OTHER RETIREMENT COMMUNITIES ON FACEBOOK

Truro Retirement Village, Halifax, Nova Scotia

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Truro-NS/Welcome-to-Truro-Worlds-Largest-Retirement-Village/331218177834

Oaknoll Retirement Residence, Oaknoll, Iowa

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Oaknoll-Retirement-Residence/120329451312363

Paliside Gardens Retirement Community, Coburg, Ontario

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cobourg-ON/Palisade-Gardens-Retirement-Community/104426429615901

Once you have 25 fans, you can create a custom URL

facebook.com/username

TIP:

18

Source: wordstream.com (http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2009/05/20/seo-is-dead)


Online Marketing Trends Search queries for SEO, PPC and SOCIAL MEDIA


Reality: Marketing only generates leads

People sell to people

Customer service is most important

Invest in your sales team

Have a consistent message and friendly staff

Respond and follow-up all leads

TIP:

Q How solid are online leads?


What is your lead response time?

The two factors that enable you to speak to more leads are

“Inquiry response time” which is the time it takes you to connect by phone with the lead from the moment they hit submit. If you can respond within the hour your sales conversion rate will increase drastically. All inquiries should be responded to with 24 hours.

Persistence of your re-attempts to connect by phone. Attempt to call them up to 6 times until you reach them. You’ll reach more than 70% of you leads within just two attempts.

TIP:

Business

Marketing Tips for Retirement Homes and Communities | Marketing to Seniors