And we’re back this week with another Ten Minute Senior Care Content Marketing Tip! As is the case with most of our blog article topics, this one comes from a question we receive often from senior living or home care clients and colleagues.
How has the Internet Changed the Senior Care Sales Funnel?
For those of us who have worked in the senior care industry – especially on the housing side—the sales funnel is something that was traditionally focused on in ad nauseam. (BTW, don’t you love that little Latin term? It just nails it!)
The sales funnel used to look like…well… a funnel. If you worked for one of the big providers like several of our team members have, you probably sat through many proprietary sales trainings designed to teach you how to sell and market for each successive drop down the funnel.
We developed our sales, marketing and PR strategies to support working a home care or senior living lead from the top of the funnel to the bottom. It typically ended once a resident moved in or a start of care happened. Some service-savvy providers had retention programs designed to prevent a move-out during the sometimes bumpy transition but there were few real strategies for encouraging families to become brand evangelists. We all knew happy residents were the best word-of-mouth but had limited means of showcasing them outside the community’s walls beyond testimonials.
Then Came Digital Marketing, Social Media & Reviews
The rise of digital marketing, social media and senior care reviews has changed all that. Here are just a few factors that may be contributing to the collapse –or at least the flattening – of the senior care sales funnel:
- 82% of families have looked you up and checked you out online before they call or visit you, say industry researchers. How they heard about you can likely be tracked back to a Google search or some type of word of mouth whether it be a Facebook friend, a physician or a colleague at work. Are you being eliminated as a choice without even knowing about it because of what is being said –-or not said—about your brand online?
- Social media and what “Friends” say influences the choices a family makes throughout the senior care decision journey. That includes becoming Advocates for your brand after their senior loved one is settled, safe and happy. Sharing photos of a visit to their loved one’s senior living community for a family dinner or event can help promote your brand in the most positive of ways.
- Senior care reviews are important throughout the decision journey. They have interrupted the traditional funnel. A family might use reviews to decide who to initially inquire with and/or to narrow down the choices after they have visited a few assisted living communities. Families are 550% more likely to inquire about a provider who has reviews on their listing on Caring.com than those who do not. That is a big number to ignore, folks!
- Having a CRM helps deliver the right message at the right time. The notion that seniors and caregivers aren’t online is completely inaccurate. Read any of the findings from Pew Internet Research and you will discover some fun facts. Like 80% of seniors use email. Or that 49% of online adults over the age of 65 are on Facebook. Having meaningful automated messages can help you connect with families even when you aren’t at your desk. Onboarding series and targeted messaging works.
Bottom Line as our Ten Minute Buzzer Sounds?
Think beyond the funnel.
Sure it’s important, especially the content designed to attract families at the top of the funnel. But it is more important now to consider the journey in its entirety and map your senior living and home care content accordingly. Including creating brand evangelists who do your work for you by sharing the love with Friends and Followers on their social channels and on review sites.
As always, drop us a note if you need some help creating a strategic content marketing plan…
On a side note for all my colleagues still obsessed with Scandal — no new episode tonight. Bummer right? Instead, Shonda Rimes will be amping up the tears for all those Dr. McDreamy fans who are despondent over his demise. Rumor is he was turning in to something of an onset diva so she killed him off. Don’t mess with writers, folks. The pen really is mightier than the sword… Ugh. Couldn’t help it. Sometimes a cliche just works.