When Marketing Plan A doesn’t work for your community, that doesn’t mean marketing does not work. It simply means that the marketing currently being deployed is not working for your community right now.
When that happens, it’s critical to evolve your marketing strategy. There’s no such thing as “failure” in marketing. Even if the strategy you chose didn’t translate into the exact number of new occupancies needed, it likely gained you added exposure and increased the community’s brand equity. Further, every “mistake” in business is a learning opportunity. At least now you know what doesn’t work for your community.
Consider your options moving forward:
Option 1. A la Carte. Perhaps you’ve been burned in the past, your wait list is not as long as you would like it to be, or you’re wary to invest a great deal of money in a new plan. Or maybe you would like to take a few projects off your team’s plate and work with a marketing agency to formulating the right marketing mix for your community. If this sounds like you, then a la carte marketing is the best option.
These marketing efforts can be usually deployed individually, or alongside the marketing tactics your team may already be implementing, to work incrementally toward your goals:
- Custom website development
- Google AdWords online advertising
- Yelp advertising
- Facebook Advertising
- Direct mail
- TV/radio advertising
Look for a marketing partner that starts with market research and a provides strategic marketing plan so that you are investing only in those tactics that are right for your community, not wasting more money on trial-and-error marketing. Do your research and track your efforts to note where your marketing dollars are best invested in order to reach your goals. Keep in mind that a la carte marketing results are typically not as strong as with integrated marketing.
Option 2. Integrated Marketing. You are ready to nail marketing once and for all. Perhaps you prefer to outsource the marketing to an agency and focus the team exclusively on resident care and impeccable customer service. If this is the case, integrated marketing is the right choice.
Integrated marketing encompasses all that you need for marketing, and is highly strategic. An integrated senior living marketing agency will complete market research (surveying resident families, competitor analysis, etc.), develop a strategic marketing plan based on those findings, and deploy that marketing plan.
There are essentially 50 different marketing tactics that a senior living community could deploy, yet only a handful of those is right for the community at any given time. A reputable integrated marketing agency will detail for you exactly how to determine and document which senior living marketing tactics are right for the community right now, as shown by the market research. Investing in integrated marketing means you will get the biggest bang out of every single marketing buck.
No matter what happens, never stop marketing. Marketing is the oxygen to your community. With it, you will keep attracting a steady flow of new and happy residents, and you will keep families loyal to your community.
