Savvy boomer shoppers are relying more and more on the Internet for initial research on senior living and other health care products and services. The senior living communities and health providers who lean to local professionals for leads are missing a huge source. And if you depend on direct mail and print advertising, the ROI is 1.7% close rate whereas SEO (web) leads have a 14.6% close rate (SEJournal 2012).

Savvy boomer shoppers are relying more and more on the Internet for initial research on senior living and other health care products and services. The senior living communities and health providers who lean to local professionals for leads are missing a huge source. And if you depend on direct mail and print advertising, the ROI is 1.7% close rate whereas SEO (web) leads have a 14.6% close rate (SEJournal 2012).

According to Andy Cohen, the co-founder and CEO of Caring.com – about 50% of the senior living industry’s referrals are coming from the web to “well over half.” In the recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project (2012), Baby Boomers and Digital Technology, it shows how boomers use technology. Director Lee Rainie presented at the “What’s Next Boomer Business Summit” where he explored the generational differences in use of the internet. In Rainie’s presentation, he shows that close to seventy-seven percent (77%) of the boomers, ages 47 to 65 are Internet users. According to the same study, ninety-one percent (91%) of that age group (47 to 65) use the Internet for Search Engine activities and eighty-one percent (81%) use the Internet to Research products and services. Research proves why it’s important to be found online, and better yet to be found on page 1 of search results. Why? According to HubSpot (2012), seventy-five percent (75%) of users never scroll past the first page of search results. The pressure mounts. What do the senior living communities need to do to get found on page one? Here’s how organizations gain top placement – either buy your way to page one with an ad, or earn your way to page one via organic listings. Since seventy percent (70%) of the links search users click on is organic (SEJournal, 2012) and seventy to eighty percent (70-80%) of users ignore paid ads, focusing on organic results (SEngineLand 2012), organic should be the focus. Organic listings are acquired by link popularity (inbound links), click popularity, and keyword density. And since search engine robots crawl through text – they use the content on your site to determine what your site is about, which in turn will help to decide how highly your site will be ranked for specific keyword phrases when visitors type them into the search engines. The magic of content – engages your audience and draws them into a conversation with you. How to gain Organic Listings – BLOG A blog allows you to create large amounts of articles and content (magic word) that keeps the audience engaged by providing discussion, interaction and comments; these interactions help forge a sense of community that can be strengthened both online and off. Think of a blog as the hub, and the traffic sources as spokes on a hub. A blog provides multiple routes for customers and prospects to get in touch. It shows that the company has a human and approachable side, allowing better customer interaction, and improves customer service.

Compelling stats:

  • Small businesses that blog get 126% more lead growth than small businesses that do not blog. (Source: @ThinkCreative)
  • Blog frequency impacts customer acquisition. 92% of companies who blogged multiple times a day acquired a customer through their blog. (Source: @HubSpot, State of Inbound Marketing, 2012)
  • U.S. blogs get 25 billion page views a month (Source: @Bloggingdotorg)
  • B2C companies that blog generate 88% more leads per month than those that do not. (Source: @HubSpot)

How to create content for a blog:

  • Get your staff and residents involved and create interesting stories about the community giving reasons why and how you offer a life worth living.
  • Engage the target consumer in relevant discussions – If they place a comment on a blog article, be sure you respond to them within 24 hours with useful advice or tips.
  • Offer solutions to their problem often by providing rich content that addresses their pain and needs – Your intake staff may have wealth of information on the problems – they hear most often – about “why” a potential buyer is looking to move.
  • Build trust using your resident or customer reviews – About eighty-seven percent (87%)  U.S. consumers trust local businesses after reading positive online reviews.

The ultimate accomplishment for a business is when clients are so happy with a product, community or service that they become advocates, telling anyone who will listen how great you are. This is a fine achievement and a worthy goal. Keep asking your customers how you can improve, what you can do differently, and keep aiming to please. You will get there. And the feeling you have when people are advocating your services is wonderful – a reward in itself. Guest blogger, Carol Marak, is a copywriter for the adult living, senior and health care space. Carol coaches businesses to enjoy blogging: to find their voice and tone, to deeply understand their customer’s challenges and motivation, and to create mouthwatering content that grabs attention & increase word of mouth referrals. Find her work at Carebuzz. Connect with Carol Marak on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/carolmarak). 


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