Do you have a solid content marketing strategy?
We realized not long ago how many of our newer clients came to us without one. Sadly, most were working with agencies.
What does that mean?
In most cases, they were creating and pushing out content without having a purpose for each piece.
Why is that happening so much, we ask ourselves…
Could be for a variety of reasons:
- The senior living industry hasn’t fully mastered the basics of content marketing
- General agencies might not be familiar enough with senior living to know how to do this
- Because it takes a considerable amount time to do (translation: more money)
Just how many companies have made the commitment to developing a content marketing strategy?
Only 33% of B2C marketing teams have a documented content marketing strategy! Yikes…
What can you do if your senior living community or home care agency is part of the 67% of those who lack a solid plan?
We have some tips to get you started on a more productive content marketing track.
Developing a Senior Living Content Strategy Plan
Here’s a quick overview to help you create senior living content that connects and engages older adults and their families:
- Audience: Do you know who your audience is? We often make the mistake of assuming we do. While not everyone is wild about senior care personas, we’ve been successful in creating ones that allow us to thoughtfully target content. You can start out with 2 or 3 personas, and continue to build more. Whether you interview or survey current or past family leads is up to you. Just don’t skip this step.
- Goal setting: What do you want your goal(s) to be? Generating more qualified leads? Creating brand awareness? Keeping families involved with your community? Attracting professional referral sources? A combination of these? Document and set goals.
- Research: This is usually a lot of tedious but important work. Visit your competitors online. Run their site through some keyword and ranking tools. SpyFu and SEMrush have good tools to help with this.
- Keywords: The death of keywords has been greatly exaggerated. While they aren’t the only factor to consider in creating content, they play an important role. Spend some time researching keywords for both the personas you use and every page on your website. This includes your senior living blog.
- Map topics: The agency you use to create your website will likely recommend the site architecture. Moving forward, it will be important for you to map new topics you want to cover. Blend evergreen articles with trending topics. Make sure your strategy includes a means of doing this so your site is constantly pushing out fresh, relevant content.
- Publish: In the days of yore, Google liked sites that had been around a while. It didn’t matter so much if you added fresh content. Today, Google gobbles up fresh content like the crew in our office mows through a bag of Mint Milano cookies. A blog is the easiest way to do this.
- Promote: The content marketing machine never stops. Simply publishing a new article or tool isn’t enough. You have to promote it. Use it in email newsletters. Share it on social media. Send it to referral sources. Encourage residents and families to subscribe to your blog and share articles.
While this is a simplified version of how to create a senior living content strategy, it’s enough to help you get rolling.
As always, drop us a note if you have questions or need a little help!
Until next time,
Shelley