For new senior living communities, the hustle for future residents begins pretty much as soon as you start drafting your blueprints.

By Susan Saldibar

For new senior living communities, the hustle for future residents begins pretty much as soon as you start drafting your blueprints. A lot is at stake. You’ve done the preliminary demographic work, money is being spent on construction, and financial commitments have been made. But, everything is predicated on having rooms and beds filled on opening day.

Game Changer: Hyper-targeted Automated Marketing

This kind of pressure, according to Tom Goldman, COO of SoftVu, a Senior Housing Forum partner, causes communities and developers to overspend, sometimes by millions of dollars. The simple fact is that the marketing industry has no incentive to change this model because the communities don’t feel like there’s another option. But there is, and word is getting out about an approach called “targeted automated marketing.” SoftVu leads this effort with its flagship product, SeniorVu, whose mission is to align future residents with their new homes at a fraction of today’s move-in costs.  

Are You Paying to Market to Seniors Who Will Never Move into Your Community?

“In effect, the operators are paying these firms about three times more than they should be, just to get their initial 100 residents,” says Tom. “That’s because a) they are paying overhead for high-end marketing firms, and b) they are paying a lot of money for lead generation to seniors who statistically will never move into that community,” he adds.

So, if you could hit the reset button, what could you do differently to save money, time and wasted effort?

Here are four things Tom recommends for starters:

  1. Resist the impulse to blindly turn your lead generation over to an agency. If you must, however, insist they use available technology to create a finite, very targeted list of truly viable future residents in your specific market.

  2. Decide to forgo inexpensive lists with 10,000 names and take a more surgical approach to identifying your future residents. You should only pay for what you use.

  3. Engage your team in truly customized future resident-centered marketing programs.

  4. Develop an automated lead nurturing platform that works from day one onward without adjustment or expensive integration work.

Yes, you need technology and big data working together to be able to do all this. But Tom is finding that the new communities are starting to use these tools. And those that do, according to Tom, are spending less than half of what they might otherwise; and with better results.

Message to Established Communities: Don’t Get Mad. Get Even.

Yet many established communities, still saddled with legacy systems, continue to hold back. Unfortunately, that reluctance keeps them pinned inside the lead aggregator shuffle, paying out large sums of money at each move-in. And, all the while, their younger, more agile competitors down the street are deploying automation platforms that allow them to call the shots and choose from residents that have been pre-selected for them.

“In this day and age you shouldn’t be paying for everyone else’s leads on top of your own,” says Tom. “Let big data and marketing automation get to work for you on the front end. Then, when you open your doors for business, you’ll already have a system in place and won’t have to change marketing gears.”

As for the established senior living communities? “Don’t let the cool, new operator down the street get the better of your well-respected, well-run community,” says Tom. “Use technology to fight back.”

In the first month after launch, SoftVu is already onboarding over 100 new clients on its SeniorVu platform, their groundbreaking new lead generation and nurturing platform. For more information on how SeniorVu is helping communities automate lead generation without breaking the bank, click the button below.

Connect with SeniorVu and never let a lead hit the ground again . . . ever. Call 816-759-2586 today.