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How to Nurture New Residents from a Website that Runs Itself



This is an article I wrote for Retirementhomes.com. Full article here http://www.retirementhomes.com/library/how-to-nurture-new-residents-from-a-website-that-runs-itself/

Have you ever had to tell someone they have something stuck between their teeth? It’s embarrassing right?

I have that similar feeling in the pit of my stomach. I’m about to tell you the equivalent of having a poppy seed between your teeth in a crowded restaurant. What I’m about to say is a little controversial, and may offend you. But I truly care about your success. So, I’m going to come right out and say it.

A fancy website from a marketing company is nothing more than a digital brochure. I know you might be mad and upset. You’ve paid good money for your website.

The company that sold it to you said it would grow your business. You need it to “brand” your community. You believed it, feeling the site would generate new leads and business.

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How To Value Your Residents, Form Realistic Marketing Budgets, And Cut Expenses By Understanding The Lifeblood Of Smart Senior Living Marketing.



Stop Money Sucking, Mind Numbing, Wasteful Marketing Strategies

The definition of the word investment according to dictionary.com is as follows:

Investment – The investing of money or capital in order to gain profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value.

Imagine for a moment, that I were to approach you with an amazing investment opportunity. I’d tell you about how much money you’d make, and all you’d have to do is give me a couple thousand dollars.

But there’s one catch….

During the life of that investment, we would have no clue how it performs, no way to track it, and we would only know how much money was made after the investment was sold.

Would you invest in that?

Of course not.

Marketing Absolutely Must Be Viewed As An Investment!

If you were to invest $5,000 in a marketing campaign, and you get 2 new residents out of that campaign, then obviously those residents are going to be worth more than $2,500. On average, the value of those residents are worth anywhere from $60,000-$70,000. Talk about a great return on investment!

This is where the lifeblood of smart senior living marketing comes into play. At SeniorMarketing.com we focus exclusively on senior living and home care, and the fundamentals of everything we do is based on the lifeblood of smart marketing. We eat sleep and breathe it!

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How to Capture Online Prospects in the Senior Living Buying Cycle



This is an article I wrote for Retirementhomes.com

Just like our eyes can capture only a sliver of the full spectrum of light, the keywords our prospects type into search engines are a sliver of a conversation inside their heads.

Understand this conversation and you’ll be able to beat out your competition the majority of the time. The rest of this article is to help you uncover this conversation.

What Do Keywords Have To Do With The Buying Cycle?

When your prospects begin searching for senior living, they may or may not be educated in the market. Very rarely are they going to make one search, call your community and become a member.

They will do many searches! And their searches are going to reflect their level of education into senior living.

Keywords tell a story within someone’s head at that very moment. And what a valuable moment it is for us when they’re searching for senior living.

I want you to stop for a minute and think about the conversation inside someone’s head when they make a search for senior living. Really imagine the emotions they’re going through when they are typing into the search engines.

Maybe their parent just had a fall and they need a rehab community, or maybe a person is so overwhelmed caring for their spouse that they can’t handle it anymore. They’re in pain, tired, fed up, looking to get their relationship back with their loved one, and not be the caregiver any more.

Here’s what your prospect’s search patterns may look like. An adult child in Middletown CT may start searching “different types of senior living communities.” Later, once they’re a little more educated, they may come back and search for “assisted living in Middletown CT”.

Then, they may come back and search “skilled nursing in Middletown ct,” and then even later, when they realize their parent with dementia needs a community with specialized care, “dementia care Middletown CT.” Once they have found a specific community, they may end the process with “The Community name” they want to schedule a tour with.

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4 Rules For Senior Living Search Engine Marketing Campaigns



This is a guest post I wrote for Carebuzz.com 

There’s no denying having a strong internet marketing presence helps grow your senior living community or senior care business. With more and more adult children and seniors using the internet, it’s hard to survive without an online presence.

Over the past few years, there has been a flurry of marketing and referral agencies popping up in this industry. Some provide an honest service, and I would recommend testing their services, while others may not be so honest. Because these referral companies are very good at internet marketing, is using their service the only way we can gain search engine real estate?

This is where having a strong search marketing campaign can help. And pay per click marketing is one of the fastest and most powerful ways to reach seniors and caregivers the moment they need your community or care services. With pay per click advertising, you bid on “keywords” which are phrases people are searching on a search engine, and anytime someone types one of these phrases your ad will be displayed. The best part is you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

If your website is Google compliant, you can have a campaign running by this afternoon bringing you qualified leads.

However, as powerful as pay per click marketing is, if you do it wrong you can lose your shirt. And today’s pay per click systems have as many dials and knobs as a commercial airplane.

I’ve written this article to list out the 4 most important areas a senior living community or senior care company needs to pay attention to when building out a campaign.

Full article at: http://carebuzz.com/rules-for-senior-living-senior-care-search-engine-marketing/

Residents Are More Important Than Clicks



This is a guest post I wrote, that was featured on NewLifestyles.com. It's loaded with lots of great info and I would take a good read.

Imagine this scenario. You are on a gameshow competing with 8 other people for a $100,000 cash prize. You and the other people have no experience, but you’re asked to shoot a bullseye 70 meters away with an arrow. You have the choice to use a traditional bow and arrow like Robin Hood, or you can use a new compound bow and arrow that has a super powerful scope, is easy to operate and shoots incredibly fast and accurate.

This is a no brainer… Right?

You would choose the compound bow!

If advertising on Google is just like this gameshow, then why do many senior living communities choose the old Robin Hood type of bow and arrow with their online marketing campaigns?

Seniors and caregivers are on Google’s search engine to research their problems. Maybe an adult child is looking into the different options for their parents, wants to know more about a specific community, or their parent just had a bad fall and they desperately need to find a community.

Whatever the reason, if they click on your ad, you have less than 10 seconds to give this person what they are finding, or they will hit the back button.

Full article at: http://blog.newlifestyles.com/2013/02/13/residents-are-more-important-than-clicks-are-you-a-blind-archer-with-your-senior-living-online-marketing/

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