Great tips on optimizing search results for your community listings and tailoring your communications to convert the lead!
By Michelle Seitzer
Three million visitors a month . . . thatโs how many people visit Caring.com, a Senior Housing Forum partner, to browse senior care options for loved ones. But after the holidays, when family members have discovered older parents or relatives are not doing as well as they thought, these numbers really spike (you can track the trends here)โand more visitors will move from โsearchโ to โactive pursuit.โ
Wake up and smell the opportunities for your community!
To that end, Denise Graab, Caringโs Director of Industry Marketing, recently partnered with Ryan Schilling, Caringโs VP of Sales & Customer Care, to present an informative webinar โ as part of their Digital Marketing Academy โ on a timely topic: Get Ready for the Rush: Best Practices for Converting Internet Leads.
Eight Great Conversion Tips
Check out these tips and highlights to ensure your community listing gets prime viewing and traction so you can clinch conversion:
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Seniors and caregivers are more active online than ever. Print and direct mail campaigns are just not effective anymore, and among those Americans age 65+ with an annual income of more than $75K, 87% are using the Internet on a daily basis. So why would you even waste the paper? Of these active, engaged, and financially stable users, 81% own smartphones, 65% use tablets, and 57% use social networks like Facebook and Twitter. (Source: Pew Research Center)
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What they donโt know can hurt you . . . so make sure you know where the knowledge gaps are because therein lies your opportunity to both inform and inspire a next step in the decision process. Although more seniors and caregivers are active online, thereโs still a pretty big education gap in terms of what they know about their local senior living resources โ and itโs why many of them are going online to do the research.
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Thereโs something about Mary. To help you better understand whoโs looking at your listings, the Caring.com marketing team created a persona based on one of the most popular names for boomer women: Mary. Getting to know Mary will help you reach her with the information sheโs looking for or the information she doesnโt know she needs.
Some quick stats on Mary:
– Sheโs an adult daughter in her 50s, likely, not the only decision maker โ but a critical influencer nonetheless.
– After a parentโs health or medical event has forced the family to make some decisions, sheโs doing some digging in her downtime (because she probably works FT/PT).
As you craft your messaging, think carefully about when and how to reach Mary โ probably by email or an off-hours phone call โ and what to say based on the preferences indicated in any contact lead forms sheโs completed. -
Deck your digital halls. Sprucing up your online community listing will be well-worth your effort this time of year. If they donโt find what theyโre looking for, or if theyโre not inspired to stay and browse, theyโre probably not going to take that next step and schedule a tour. Mention awards youโve received. Talk about the unique programming that sets you apart from your competitors. Make your community listing look good using real pictures โ not run-of-the-mill stock photos โ wherever possible. Choose the best photos you have, and if you donโt have good ones, start snapping. Leave some mystery too, because you still want them to visit in person.
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Get on the phone STAT. While your online presence is significant, be ready to make that call once youโve got that lead. Your response time, aka โSpeed to Leadโ is everything here: it takes minutes to lose the lead to a competitor, or gain a prospective customer (check out Caringโs tips on improving your Speed to Lead time). Donโt believe me? Check out the graph at right.
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Itโs personal. Remember, choosing senior care is a highly emotional decision: Mary is considering your community to care for her beloved family member. That means sheโs looking beyond โbricks and sticksโ (a great phrase coined by Ryan Schilling during the webinar!) and wants to know more about how youโll care for said family member than what you serve for Sunday brunch. When you get Mary on the phone, engage her in conversation. Show empathy for the stressful situation sheโs in (this story from Caring offers great pointers for pitching with compassion). Use her lead form to guide your conversation, speaking to the specifics sheโs already inquired about.
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She said what?! If you don’t have online reviews from your happy customers and their family members, you need to address that gap right away. Mary is very compelled to submit inquiries, take tours, and persuade her mom or mother-in-law to move in when she hears or reads great feedback from others just like her. With online senior care searchers, this type of feedback is critical to driving interest. In one case study, the online reviews increased inquiries by 5x, increased tours by 7x, and increased move-ins by 8x! If you don’t have reviews, or you haven’t addressed negative reviews, you’re seriously hindering your community’s ability to attract and convert these online searchers.
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Get them through the door. Consumers who request a tour have a higher level of motivation, and Caring.comโs experts recommend that families and seniors visit the actual community as opposed to taking a virtual tour (virtual tours and apps are great for your website but cannot replace the value of the live visit).
For more great tips on optimizing search results for your community listing(s), tailoring your communications to convert the lead, and more, watch/listen to the Caring.com Digital Marketing Academy webinar recording here.
Not yet listing your communities on Caring.com? Learn more about becoming a partner today.
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