A Guide to Growing Assisted Living Census

Does your website generate enough inquiries for your assisted living community? Boost your census by following these tips.

titleimg-assisted-living

The term "silver tsunami" refers to the aging of the baby boomer generation and the expected increase in demand for long-term care and assisted living.

As the population ages, there will be a greater need for assisted living communities to provide housing, support, and medical care for seniors.

Rather than relying solely on referrals, assisted living communities can increase their census and meet the demand for these services by utilizing their own website as a resource for caregivers.

As the population ages and the demand for assisted living grows, caregivers may have many questions about the care options available for their loved ones. By providing thorough and accurate information on their website, assisted living communities can help caregivers make informed decisions about the best care options for their loved ones.

Additionally, an informative and user-friendly website can also serve as a valuable marketing tool, helping to attract potential patients and families to the community. By using their website as a resource, assisted living communities can effectively connect with individuals searching for answers and information about assisted living.

Let’s chat about how you can get more patients through digital marketing without relying on referrals.

Schedule A Call

1. Target Your Specific Audience

To ensure the success of your digital marketing campaign, it's important to properly target your audience. If your assisted living community is looking to get the attention of seniors and their caregivers, consider these tips to help you reach the right people:

Clearly define your ideal audience.

Who are the seniors, family members and caregivers you hope to attract? What are their characteristics, interests, and needs? Understanding these details will help you tailor your marketing efforts to appeal to them.

Ask current patients and their families.

By surveying current patients and their families about their decision to move to your assisted living community and the circumstances that led to that decision, you can gain valuable insight into the preferences and needs of your target audience. Use this information to refine your marketing efforts and more effectively target your campaigns.

2. Optimize Your Website

Are you ensuring that your assisted living community's website is providing sufficient information for seniors and their loved ones to conduct their own research? It is crucial to create an experience that offers the necessary information and also encourages visitors to provide their own information for follow-up purposes.

Here are three ways to achieve this goal:

By including a downloadable decision-making guide that answers frequently asked questions on your website, it can motivate visitors to leave their contact details in exchange for the guide. This serves as an excellent opportunity for you to initiate a conversation and convert website visitors into leads.

Lead visitors through the research process by adding clear calls-to-action on the website, encouraging visitors to move from anonymous browsing to providing their personal information as a lead.

Additionally, incorporating different forms of lead generation such as live chat, which can be used to collect leads in real-time, rather than relying solely on the Contact Us page which is only filled out by a small percentage of visitors.

3. Offer Great Content

If you want to effectively promote your assisted living community, it is vital to have a strong online presence and be easily discoverable through various online searches.

Research shows that a significant portion of the decision-making process, about 70%, occurs before a potential resident or caregiver reaches out. Having engaging and informative content on your website increases the likelihood of being found.

Prospective residents and caregivers are often searching for answers to their care-related questions, providing a valuable opportunity for communities to establish a relationship with them before they are ready to make a decision about moving to an assisted living facility.

By providing information that meets their needs, assisted living communities can establish credibility, foster a relationship, remain top-of-mind, and improve their visibility on search engines.

Examples of great website content include:

  • Educational and informative blog articles that address frequently asked questions
  • Video interviews with current residents (let them tell your story while learning what's important to the decision process)
  • Downloadable guides that help seniors make informed decisions about assisted living
  • Virtual tours of the community showcasing amenities and room sizes/layouts.

4. Advertise where people are searching for senior living options

To reach potential residents in the early stages of their research process, investing in advertising can be a beneficial way to increase visibility for your assisted living community.

If you're looking for ways to generate leads quickly for your senior care organization, running ads on search engines and social media platforms, such as Facebook, is an effective approach. Many people begin their research on these platforms, searching for nearby locations, care options, cost, and other relevant information.

Another reason why Facebook can be a valuable platform for advertising is the potential for people to ask for assisted living recommendations, which allows your community to reach a wider audience through word-of-mouth recommendations and targeted advertising.

Senior Care Guide to Lead Nurtures and Email Templates

Learn more about assisted living marketing at our Senior Care Growth resource section.

More assisted living marketing resources

5. Manage Leads With A CRM

Effective lead management is crucial for assisted living communities looking to convert website visitors into potential residents.

Linking your website to a customer relationship management (CRM) system can aid in the tracking and prioritization of leads, automating follow-up tasks and streamlining the sales process.

Older adults and their family members often have busy schedules and high expectations, making it essential for communities to respond promptly to inquiries. Waiting more than 24 hours to respond to new inquiries is simply not going to work.

Implementing automation through a CRM can boost your chances of acquiring new residents. Clearly outlining and mapping out your follow-up process can aid in automating the process and allowing for timely response to web inquiries.

6. Nurture Leads

Lead nurturing is a vital aspect of digital marketing. It involves engaging with potential patients or caregivers who have shown interest in your organization, typically through email or text message.

The aim is to better understand their requirements and determine if your assisted living facility can provide a solution.

Effective lead nurturing strategies include providing relevant and valuable content, actively engaging with prospects through in-person meetings or invitations to your location, evaluating their level of interest, and reaching out to them through phone calls or personal meetings.

It's crucial to keep in mind that the objective is to assist prospects in making informed decisions and finding solutions that align with their needs, rather than aggressively pushing your organization's services. Empathy and relationship building are critical.

7. Measure results

To make sound business decisions, it's essential for assisted living communities to track the effectiveness of their digital marketing efforts, which can be achieved by measuring return on investment (ROI).

Utilizing analytical tools enables assisted living communities to easily monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), gain valuable intelligence about buying signals, and evaluate the performance of website and marketing activities.

Collecting and analyzing this data offers a deep understanding of the success of marketing campaigns and identifies areas that require adjustments to achieve desired results.

Furthermore, through the examination of data, assisted living communities can make knowledgeable decisions in regards to allocating budget and resources.

Stay Informed

Subscribe to The Digital Slate newsletter from Whittington Consulting

Sign up View A Sample Email