(860) 251-9004

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/

How a Cursing White Rabbit is Why You Need to Monitor Your Senior Living Community’s Reputation



This is a guest post I wrote for RetirementHomes.com

This morning while watching the news, there was a segment featuring a video at Disney World. In this video, a girl ran up to someone dressed as the White Rabbit from Alice In Wonderland. She pulled and yanked on his tail, and ran away. It seemed innocent watching it on TV. Apparently, not so for the rabbit as he didn’t take the gesture kindly. He ran over to her, pinned her up against the wall, and had some choice words with her.

This was on national news!

5 years ago this incident would have either, ended right there, or been handled by customer service. Now, it’s on national news, repeating for a week, a PR disaster for Disney and probably the end of the line for this employee dressed as the rabbit.

In today’s digital world, it’s extremely easy for people to capture and share information. A disgruntled employee, unsatisfied resident or parent, or God forbid one of your employees doing something unethical on camera can easily get published online and hurt your community’s good reputation.

Full article: http://www.retirementhomes.com/library/how-a-cursing-white-rabbits-is-why-you-need-to-monitor-your-senior-living-communitys-reputation/

2 Must Know Senior Living Marketing Metrics. How Much Money is Your Community Leaving On The Table?



This is a guest article I wrote for NewLifestyles.com.

A good senior living marketing program is a combination of art and science. It is important to connect with seniors and caregivers on an emotional level, know their frustrations, desires, and motivators. Requiring them to take action involves the art of knowing them so well, you can write a page from their diary. On the other hand, there is the scientific aspect of senior living marketing. You must know the performance numbers of multiple marketing mediums, multiple exposures, and the results of any tests you happen to be performing. There are response numbers, inquiry ratios, tour ratios, and move in ratios. It is a difficult task knowing what the most important area to focus on with your senior living marketing. In this article, I am going to introduce some fundamental marketing metrics that will bring clarity to your marketing efforts and allow you to finally know the value of your residents.

In the Q & A section of a recent popular senior living publication, a reader asked what was the most critical marketing metric to pay attention to for a senior living community and why?

There were some good responses, including one senior living executive saying occupancy is the most critical element to know. Other executives responded saying the most important senior living marketing measurement would be a number of different elements including inquiry-to-tour and tour-to-move in ratios.

Full article: http://blog.newlifestyles.com/2013/03/20/most-important-marketing-numbers/

Marketing “Your Community” And “Senior Living” Can Lead To Terminal Failure



This is a guest article I wrote for RetirementHomes.com. 

First off, let me clear the air by saying I am not dismissing the idea of marketing. In fact, quite the opposite, I love marketing! But it is important to know the truth about marketing and how to create an effective message.

The other day I was visiting my parents, and sitting on the kitchen table, was a direct mailer from a nearby senior living community. As soon as I saw the mailer, I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I knew this community was throwing away good money.

I need to be blunt about something. A successful senior living community is dependent on cash flow, which comes from residents in your market…not from your community.

Can you guess the terminal mistake this community made?

They talked about THEIR community and what THEY do. Success does not come from your community. Marketing is about your prospect’s NEEDS, WANTS and DESIRES and never about your specific community.

Full article at: http://www.retirementhomes.com/library/marketing-your-community-and-senior-living-can-lead-to-terminal-failure/

The Senior Living Resident Gumball Machine, Important Senior Marketing Numbers



Today, I had an interesting conversation with a potential client. He found my website online and was looking for a consultant. We started the conversation and he was telling me about how his current pay per click marketing company is not doing satisfactory work. In fact, from what he was told me, they were awful. He ended up taking over the campaign, and with no prior knowledge of internet marketing, he was able to achieve lower advertising costs than this supposed internet marketing company.

[Read more…]