Happy New Year to our senior care clients and colleagues! And what a way to kick off the New Year. We are buried under about a foot of snow with wind chills in the negative numbers… Pretty until you venture outside. 
Love the “work from home” option!
Speaking of pretty, thanks for your patience as we continue to work on our own website. It is definitely not looking pretty today. Oh to have an in-house developer… When I tell some of you that I feel your pain as we are helping you develop the content for your new site or site upgrade, know that I mean it. I have had a tic in my left eye from this painful process all week!
We’ve had some interesting emails over the past few weeks from senior living and home care clients and prospective clients. We thought today would be a great day to hunker down and share some of them with our blog readers.
Q: What percentage of leads are most providers getting online?
A: That is a tricky one to answer… Some of our senior care clients and colleagues that have fully embraced digital are seeing as much as 70% of leads coming through select online avenues. In that percentage, we include their own website and their partnerships with online referral agencies. Almost everyone we work with hits at least the 50% mark.
Q: What do the most recent Google algorithm changes mean for senior care websites? Is the news good or bad?
A: If your site is more than just an online brochure, it is a good thing. The senior care decision journey can sometimes be a long one. Most experts tell us that on the whole, decisions that require more research and consideration begin online about 70% of the time. A family might not use your contact form, but chances are good that they have researched your site before they pick up the phone. If your site is a content rich one, full of genuinely helpful information for families you will be a winner with Google! By the way, are your community relations teams asking if the family visited their site before calling the first time? That is good information to know.
Q: Why do we need more than our locations and services on our website? We want people to call us and if we tell them everything online they might not call.
A: Believe it or not, we get that question a lot. Part of the beauty of Inbound Marketing is that having the right content — blog articles, senior care guides and resources that meet families at each step of the senior care decision journey — means qualified families will find you. Sometimes that is early in the game, like after an aging parent has taken a tumble at home or had a fender bender with their car. If you have content that addresses how to help a senior fall proof their home environment or how to talk to a parent about giving up the keys, you have the opportunity to engage them and build a relationship with them. Sure they might be a “C” lead or a “Cold” lead depending upon what system you use, but they are a lead. Would you ignore a call from a daughter if she called because her Mom was in the ER yesterday getting stitched up after a fall? I doubt it. So why ignore her when she engages online? It means a longer selling cycle, but we all know that is what marketing and sales in our industry does. We help families move through the process and find the solution that best meets their needs.
We’d love to hear your questions! Drop us an email or use our contact form to send them our way. And if one of your 2014 resolutions is to pump up the helpful content on your site, we’d love to help. We have one more opening in our Q1 lineup…
Read More on These Fun-filled Topics:
The Senior Care Decision Journey
What Google Changes Mean for Senior Care Content
Northern Michigan Ski Report – OK…I never miss a chance to share my favorite places and I wanted to see if you were still paying attention!