Achieving your senior living occupancy goals comes down to initiating and developing online and offline relationships with seniors, their family members, and their healthcare providers. Use the following four strategies to make sure that your community’s sales pipeline never lacks high-quality leads:
1. Partner with healthcare professionals
Build relationships with healthcare professionals, such as physicians, nurses, social workers, and discharge planners who are trusted resources for seniors and their families when they are looking to make a move. Offer to provide these professionals with educational sessions, tours, or other resources that can help them make informed decisions about assisted living options for their patients. Check out https://ralna.org/ral-networking-senior-living-advisors/ for more networking tips.
2. Attend community events
There’s nothing like showing up in person and meeting people face to face, especially as COVID-19 pandemic restrictions wind down, and society opens up. Attend local events, such as health fairs, senior expos, and other community gatherings. Take full advantage of opportunities to connect in person with potential residents and their families, share information about your facility, and collect leads. Check out https://www.seniorexpousa.com/#/ for a list of in-person events.
3. Provide an exceptional experience, and reward referrals
The best way to get the best occupancy results is to actually be the best at providing an exceptional lifestyle and outstanding care for your current residents and their families. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool. Satisfied families are likely to refer others to your community if you ask them to, and they are even more likely to if you develop a referral program that rewards them for referring new residents.
4. Leverage online marketing
In-person meet-ups and word-of-mouth referrals are great, but today an ever-increasing share of senior living sales are attributable to online marketing. Social media platforms and search engines offer a variety of ways to connect with potential residents and their families, from organic social media content and blog posts to paid advertising. Review sites like https://www.agingchoices.com/ and senior living-specific sites like https://health.usnews.com/best-senior-living will also drive traffic to your community online.
You’ll also need to make sure your community’s website is attractive, informative, and optimized with a tool like Waypoint’s Navigator that engages with visitors in real-time and provides relevant information, helps qualify leads and gathers contact information for follow-up.
Navigator reduces staff workload and improves efficiency by handling routine inquiries. And Navigator gathers feedback from website visitors by asking simple questions and providing surveys, giving you valuable insights into the needs and preferences of your audience.
To learn more about how Waypoint can help you make the most of your senior living community’s online presence, contact us today!
