Marketing Assisted Living Today

Many communities have resorted to reduced entrance or monthly fees, free or discounted upgrade packages, moving allowances, home staging assistance and other tactics to encourage sales. Some assisted living communities are offering other deals as well to make the sale: a month free, waived community fees, help with home sales and more.

Assisted living communities need to borrow a page from the independent living marketing playbook and implement strategies that track more along the lines of independent living marketing; that is, become more proactive and apply similar salesmanship tactics: discovery, education, relationship building, customer service and—most importantly—follow up. Moreover, assisted living marketing needs to shift from a social worker mentality to a sales mentality. That means employing more proactive tactics for tracking and managing leads; applying protocols for timely follow up; setting goals for callouts, appointments and tours; and using analytics to develop a marketing scorecard. How many callouts does it take to get an appointment? How many leads to a sale? It means having a staff position dedicated to marketing assisted living, meeting with families, working with outside referral sources, building relationships within the community and communicating your message consistently and effectively.

TARGETED STRATEGIES

Of course, all this also means increased marketing budgets and marketing plans with strategies designed specifically to target the adult child caregiver—a market difficult to reach and hold the attention of. A direct mail postcard might not work, but a targeted email message may. Messages must be straightforward, educational and aimed at problem solving. Don’t waste their time. It isn’t enough simply to talk about your community—you must demonstrate that you know what their problems are and that you know how to reduce their challenges and stresses. Just as in independent living, consumers need good information to make a buying decision. They want someone that they can trust; they want help, not hype. They need to understand what the assisted living level of care can provide, why your community is different and, more importantly, what they can expect in terms of outcomes.

As one frustrated caregiver put it, “I get it. You have a lovely facility, a caring staff and it smells nice but what can you really do to help my mom?” They are searching the Internet for answers. Your website should be their textbook on assisted living with information and links to other resources and services. Chances are if you help them in other ways (e.g., finding adult day care programs or transportation, or providing links to Medicare or other helpful information), they will turn to you for their care needs as well.

Adult children also need assistance in recognizing the signs that their parent needs help. Do you have a checklist of warning signs to watch for on your website? They want tips on how to start the difficult conversation with the parent as well as dealing with siblings and other family members. Do you have a social network site where they can communicate with other families who have had similar experiences? Do you have resources, articles, publications or books to recommend? And just like in independent living, they will likely need assistance in downsizing, getting the home ready for sale, help with the moving process at both ends and easing the transition from home to your community.

CONCLUSION

The assisted living community that is prepared to offer these services and adapt a more proactive salesmanship approach will likely be more successful in assisted living marketing in today’s tough economic environment.

Patti Adami has 20 years’ experience in marketing senior living and is a director at ThirdAge, a division of LarsonAllen. She can be reached at (717) 774-6920, email

padami@larsonallen.com, or visit

www.larsonallen.com. Long-Term Living 2011 July;60(7):20-23