I almost wrote this piece under a pseudonym because the initial subject matter put my safety at risk . . . with my wife.
I almost wrote this piece under a pseudonym because the initial subject matter put my safety at risk . . . with my wife.
Here is the story:
Last week, my wife was attempting to set up iTunes on her new iPhone and somehow managed to delete her entire library of songs from her computer.
Don’t ask me how she managed to do this!
I already made that mistake.
After she consulted with technical support (my 14 year old son), she finally broke down and came to “the Professor”. Yes, that’s what they call me around the house when it comes to technological issues . . . well, at least that’s what I ask them to call me.
After several tense minutes during which I peppered her with mystifying questions like, “well, what’s your password?” and receiving the familiar death glare in response, I managed to restore my wife’s collection of Gosh Grobin and Michael Buble.
As part of this process I noticed other contributing problems; operator error NOT being among them. . . perish the thought.
Wife: “What are you doing, now? I thought you fixed it.”
Me: “I did, but your computer hasn’t been cleaned or defragmented in a long time, and I’m trying to make it run faster.”
Wife: “I thought you just did that.”
Me: “That was a year ago.”
Wife: “Well, how often do you have to do it?”
Me: “As often as it’s needed.”
Death Glare.
The Need For Reorganization
Just how often do you need to defragment, organize and make sure your programs and files are in sync, backed up and aligned?
As often as needed!
Doing so makes for a more efficient, more cohesive experience. Yes? A life truism.
What is True In Life is True in Sales and Marketing
Defragmenting, reorganization, rethinking marketing should be a regular part of your marketing efforts . . . as often as it is needed.
Start with this: Think of your online presence via Facebook, your website, blogs, etc. Then consider print, radio and television ads. Next add in your collateral materials, sales pitches, incentives, special events, community messaging and position. Finally, compare against exactly how well your community delivers on all these messages and promises operationally.
Is your community correctly perceived? Is your position in the market where you think it is? Or are the messages being sent to the public disjointed, or fragmented? If the latter, your community’s occupancy may be suffering.
Integrated Messaging
In today’s “integrated marketing world”, it’s critical to ensure your community’s messaging – on all levels – is cohesive and unified. Consider an orchestra where some musicians are playing from one sheet of music, but here and there you have instruments playing from another. Even a small number of “out of sync” players has the capability of ruining the entire song.
For maximum effectiveness, as measured by new prospects, increasing occupancy and sustained growth – your message must be compelling to your customers and ALWAYS consistent. All of your marketing channels/media need to be playing in harmony. Only then will you produce a coherent message that will be music to the ears of mature adults and their adult children.
Evaluating your community’s full width and breadth of marketing messages, campaigns and strategies is imperative if you don’t want your audience confused – or worse, covering up their ears because, while you think your making music, all they hear is discordant noise.
Take the time to review your community’s musical “score” and have the instruments tuned up and playing in time with each other. The end result will set you apart, just as a well-rehearsed orchestra stands apart from an eighth grade beginner’s band class.
While this may seem a daunting task, many resources are available to help you get started and take control of your marketing messaging for maximum results.
Free How To Webinar
I highly recommend an upcoming webinar on 1/29/14 offered by Sage Age Strategies, a Senior Housing Forum Partner, on “The 7 Ways Integrated Marketing Builds Occupancy.” It will answer questions such as:
- What is Integrated Marketing?
- How does it work?
- What tools do I need to run an Integrated Marketing Campaign?
- Why is Integrated Marketing so important?
Sign-up Details
Price: Free
Date: January 29, 2015
Time: 8 AM Pacific, 9 AM Mountain, 10 AM Central, 11 AM Eastern
John
