Even though the demand for senior living and care communities is growing, the online marketing reach of these companies is often very limited. In today’s environment, inbound marketing can provide a more reliable and cost-efficient method for attracting leads.
What Exactly is Inbound Marketing?
Traditional marketing consists of tactics in which you are reaching out, or trying to grab a person’s attention at the right time. These are often strategies that require casting a wide net, using print advertising, direct mail marketing and broadcast media. Inbound marketing attracts those people most interested in senior living and care to you by providing the content and information those individuals need and want.
Inbound marketing will make use of your blog, social media channels and email newsletters, and produce content for your target at every stage of the buyer life-cycle. This means capturing a person’s attention at the earliest point in the decision-making process, holding their attention, becoming a trusted resource and guiding them to become customers. However, it does not end there. Inbound marketing will also turn your customers, fans and followers into promoters as they share the useful and helpful information you create.
Below are some steps to help you get started:
- Create Customer Personas
You likely have a good bit of information on demographics. Customer personas take that information to the next step of identifying specific wants, needs, values and essentially the things important to your ideal customer. What things does the majority of the people living in your community have in common? Are the more interesting in on-site activities or group travel? Essentially, you are identifying what is important to your ideal customer for the basis of your content creation.
- Develop a Content Calendar
This will include social media posts, blogs, newsletters and other digital marketing methods. Take time to consider the questions your personas are asking and the kinds of things they love and talk about. As an example, you may want to write content talk about social opportunities for senior singles, highlight a popular 60s cover band, or list the best local restaurants. You can then blend in other content with a more traditional marketing message.
- Design a Distribution Plan
No matter how well-crafted the content is, it has no value if people are not reading your posts or watching your videos. Make sure you are sharing your content across multiple channels. Post a link to your blog on your social feeds. Embed your video in a blog post with a corresponding article. Additionally, don’t be afraid to re-share content a week, a month or even a year or more after initially published. While it varies based on the platform, the half-life of online content is very short. Anything you can do to extend it will add value.
- Convert Your Audience
Throughout the process, your audience will likely need several conversion events. Visitors will convert into prospects, prospects into leads and leads into customers. You will need a well- designed website that helps guide prospects to strong calls-to-action and optimized landing pages. Provide incentives encouraging visitors to subscribe to your e-newsletter, follow on social media or schedule a visit. This gives you the ability to market directly and with a more personalized message.