In order for senior living communities and operators to thrive in the modern day marketplace, senior living marketers must adopt a digital-first marketing strategy.
According to WelcomeHome’s Case Study on Best Practices for Winning Online Leads, “Online leads are a critically important source of prospects in senior living sales. 39% of leads are from online sources, and today’s online lead volume is 11% higher than this time last year. Over the past year, online has become the most significant contributor to total leads as more operators shift dollars away from aggregators.”
There is no disputing that digital channels continue to be the fastest growing channel for driving traffic and inquiries.
But…do you know the TRUE IMPACT of having a holistic digital marketing strategy for your senior living community?
In this three-part series, we are going to explore how one operator saw improvements in their lead volume, lead quality, and costs by taking the reins of their digital channels.
So often we see operators struggling to find a digital foothold for several reasons.
→ First, they are missing key components necessary for a seamless digital customer journey.
→ Second, they don’t have a clear path towards implementing a full funnel approach to their digital strategy.
→ Third, they focus too heavily on bottom-of-the-funnel metrics (…which can get real expensive real quick).
→ Finally, investing in the right internal marketing stakeholders with key strategic partners is often overlooked for a faster more hands-off approach to digital.
At Smart Girl Digital, we’ve seen how strategic partners work with operators. We understand the balance it takes to serve a multi-location portfolio in a way that drives leads and creates value. Find out more about our Smart Senior Living Strategies.
In this three-part series, we are going to share specific takeaways we have seen that work based on our client work from a holistic digital strategy perspective.
Results achieved include:
- 47% increase in organic traffic year-over-year
- $76k+ saved in Google Ads spend in 9 months
- 963% increase in Google Ads conversions
- 80% reduction in cost per inquiry
- 50% lower cost per move-in
- 71 move-ins facilitated by consistent nurturing with value-add content
- Post inquiry engagement rates that are 50% higher than industry average
For senior living operators looking to find the same level of success in their strategy, let’s dive into part one for achieving better results with your digital marketing strategy.
In this article, we will cover:
- The Three-Legged Stool of Your Digital Foundation
- The Importance of Owning Your Digital Foundation & Data Flow
- Tips for Integrating Your Marketing Tech Stack
Foundations for Digital Success – The Three-Legged Stool
The three-legged stool that is the foundation of your digital success starts with these three platforms:
- Your Website
- Your Sales CRM
- Your Marketing Automation
For these foundations to work well, they must work together. Your website is the digital front door to your community. As visitors come to your website, you must deliver to them the information they are looking for and make it easy for someone to request more information.
From your website, those requests for more information can come in the form of:
- Phone calls
- Web Forms
- Chat bot conversations
All three of these inquiry types should seamlessly push to your sales CRM platform to help reduce the sales team’s need for manual data input.
Data Flow & MarTech Integration Tips
Once the data is in the sales CRM, having a Marketing Automation Platform (MAP) integrated to your CRM creates tremendous opportunity to continue conversations with your lead base through nurture campaigns that deliver the right message at the right time.
All three of these systems make up your MarTech digital foundation. Taking the time to understand how these systems (and any other feature you add to your website, like Roobrik, Further, MoneyGuage, etc) connect and share data points is critical to long term success.
Make sure your organization owns the accounts and contracts for all pieces of your digital foundation.
As you consider your technology stack, here are some quick tips:
- Choose tech stack partners with direct integration with each other.
- Bi-directional data flow between your CRM and automation platform is preferred.
- Set a realistic budget for the right technology…AND support for adopting the technology (this includes training and time to learn the platform).
- Choose a tech partner who has expertise in each platform of your stack.
- Consider supplemental automation tools, like Zapier, to connect the parts of your tech stack without needing custom API coding.
- Give yourself time to learn and launch any new digital platform.
One final tip… Avoid allowing your third party partners to implement systems or tools that you don’t directly own or have access to…this creates future problems and limited visibility into your digital strategy.
Final Takeaways…
For senior living teams who partner with multiple agencies, you are the hub of your company’s marketing wheel. Bring your partners together with open communication to ensure your holistic approach to doing digital right involves everyone who is making an impact on your strategy.
We work with other agency teams on behalf of clients all the time. A rising tide lifts all ships. One part of your digital marketing strategy can have an impact on another part. So we all must work together to help community teams reach their occupancy goals.
These takeaways are grounded in our work with one senior living operator who is thriving with more qualified leads at a lower cost because of these steps.
Make sure to check out Part Two of this series on The Impact of Solving for Better Search on Your Digital Strategy, and Part Three the Benefits of Adding Automated Lead Nurturing & Reporting on Your Digital Strategy.
Want More Out of Your Digital Marketing Strategy?
Let the Smart Girl Digital team help you elevate your content plans. Our client strategies have years of experience working on the operator side of marketing. We specialize in serving senior living communities and their digital strategy.
Book a Discovery Call to learn more.