This post is one of those fill up your cup of coffee, grab a snack or two, and pull up a comfortable chair kind of articles. It’s a little longer than usual, but hopefully you will find it helpful!
If you’ve followed our blog for any length of time you know a few things about us:
- We love all things Michigan from our Great Lakes to Zingerman’s
- We’ve been known to indulge in a chocolate martini or two
- We are devoted to the aging services industry both professionally and personally
- We talk a lot about the senior care decision journey and mapping content for it
It’s that last one that has become a real buzz phrase. Some of the information I’ve seen go out about it is spot on. Some of it is so far off I wish there was a digital police force to report these self-serving crooks to!
Team SCS thought we would use our weekly blog post to share a little more information on the senior care decision journey and how you develop content for it. Just the facts. Not the fluff.
Planning for 2015 Senior Care Content
One of the things we do this time of year for each of our clients is a content inventory. We use it to map out what we have, where it falls on the senior care decision journey and what we need to work on for next year. It’s a little bit different for each of our clients based on:
- What levels of care they offer
- Where they are located
- Whether they are targeting the adult child, the independent senior or both
- How long their average close rate is – for some it is less than a month for others it is closer to two year
Touchpoints on the Senior Care Decision Journey
Since almost all prospective families use the internet to research senior care decisions now, it is important to have content that meets them wherever they are on their individual journey. These touchpoints provide you with an opportunity to connect and engage if you have digital content at each of the stops on the journey. The key is remembering the content a family decision maker needs today is different than what they need in two weeks, four weeks, six months… however longer it takes them to make this decision.
Here’s what you can do to make the journey and mapping process easier to understand:
- Think about what usually sends an adult child to their keyboard to look for answers. Is it because their parent had a bad fall that required a trip to the ER? Maybe it’s because they had a knee replaced and will need therapy afterward. Whatever creates that first whisper of need is a touchpoint.
- Moving forward from there map out what else can happen NEXT. Sometimes it’s that they try living with an adult child for a while or using in-home care to help until their house is sold and they move to assisted living. That provides content topic opportunities ranging from evaluating an in-home care provider to how to select a senior certified real estate agent.
- Remember your goal is to engage and escalate the relationship as the journey continues. Guides are a great way to do that. They provide a stronger call-to-action and help you gather more information about the prospect as you go.
- Don’t overlook other opportunities such as participating in online review sites and social media.
- Utilize your online news room (you do have one right?) to showcase media attention and really tell the story of your company. Stories matter in the business of providing care. Yes, they take a little longer to put together but they matter with families and with the media who can help you paint the picture.
- Make your online resource center rich with information, guides and checklists that position you as the expert. Adult children need to feel confident in your expertise before they trust you with someone they love.
Finally, remember the adult child is playing a greater role than ever before in making senior care decisions. And we know they are online using a variety of platforms from Netflix on their iPad to Skype with their own children who are away at college. Don’t miss the opportunity to meet and engage them where they already are.
We’d love to hear your questions! While we have set our Comments to allow us to approve them first (crazy spammers make that necessary!), we are quick to do that. It seems many of our followers are a little on the shy side though. So feel free to send us a direct message and we’ll get back to you…
And if you need help mapping your senior care company’s content and developing a plan for 2015, let us know! October is a great month to do that…
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