Senior living communities are a service that will always be a social need. Aging is a natural part of life, and seniors will need a safe, supportive, and low-maintenance place to call home only senior living communities can offer.
Operating and marketing your senior living community is a constant cycle. Despite the aging population, senior living communities need to market themselves wisely to thrive and provide the ultimate care for residents.
- Identify Your Target Audience
The first step to marketing your senior living community is to identify who exactly you’re marketing to. Your marketing goal is to speak directly to the residents, answer their questions, address their concerns, and solve their problems.
For your assisted living community, you may reach older adults who want to maintain their autonomy but need help with everyday personal services. If you’re marketing your independent living community, you may want to emphasize the social connection and engaging activities they’ll enjoy.
To find your audience and answer their questions, you need to determine:
- The age and alertness that matches your care levels
- What your current residents like or dislike about the community
- What your sales team and staff have learned about residents’ preferences and opinions
- What your competitors are doing
- The current market trends
Once you grasp your target audience, you can craft your ideal customer in a buyer persona to actively visualize who you’re marketing to.
- Update Your Website
Your website is often the first impression. A well-put-together website helps establish your credibility and offers a positive initial experience with your community. People want to see up-to-date, informative websites with aesthetically pleasing branding. Distinctive Living can help senior living communities reap the benefits of a great website, including:
- Differentiation: a high-quality, customized website helps you stand out from the competition
- User experience: an interactive website that’s easy to explore makes your brand’s values easy to communicate to potential residents
- Brand recognition: creating positive connections through your website helps build brand recognition, influence, and loyalty
Don’t underestimate the value of a comprehensive website. May seniors are tech-savvy, and their younger family members are also visiting your website. A functional website that answers questions with an easy click can put you ahead.
- Host Events for Residents and Potential Residents
Encourage community connection, both with the current residents and prospective residents. If seniors can participate in an event or activity hosted by the senior living community, it can help them imagine what life could be if they lived there.
By offering potential residents a practical experience within your facilities, seniors and their families can see what’s available in a senior living community. For those more resistant to moving, a short visit can foster confidence in the decision.
- Take Advantage of Social Media
Implementing social media into your marketing strategy is a low-cost way to build brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. Older adults over 65 predominantly use Facebook, but other social media channels are valuable to get on the radar of other family, community members, and other businesses who can complement your services.
Some social media content can include:
- Announcing community events
- Featuring new amenities and services
- Engaging current and potential residents
- Question and answers
- Live videos and videos of events or the community
Software can help you manage several different platforms and maintain consistent posting schedules. Responding to direct messages is essential to engage with your audience and forging connections. Distinctive Living can help eliminate the confusion of marketing your senior living community with social media.
- Target Marketing Towards Adult Children
Adult children of seniors do lots of research on senior communities for their parents and contribute to the final decision on which community is best for their parents. Use some of your marketing materials to appeal to them and answer their questions. They’ll likely be the ones bringing information directly to their aging parent.
Choosing a senior living community is an emotional decision, and if your marketing material can inspire trust in the seniors’ families, you make the decision easier for them.
Let Distinctive Living Elevate Your Senior Living Community
Get Distinctive Living in your corner to manage, operate, support, and develop your senior living community to reach new heights of success. Contact us to learn how you can incorporate Distinctive Living’s expertise into your brand.
