Email Marketing Strategy to Maximize Home Care Agency Referrals

email marketing strategy

Home care agency referrals are hard to come by, but the right email marketing strategy will keep them coming in regularly. If there’s any doubt about the benefits of email marketing campaigns, take a look at this research by Statista:

·   There were 3.9 billion email users in 2019.

·   Email users are projected to increase to 4.3 billion users in 2023. (half the world’s population)

Email marketing is a low-cost way to connect with referrals in a targeted manner. A home care referral program is something that’s sure to attract the attention of quality caregivers and help you build a team of providers to be rivaled by other providers.

Here are a few more statistics that give you an idea of the importance of continually recruiting a strong pipeline of home caregivers:

·   Employment for home care providers is projected to grow by 34% by 2029. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

·   34.2 million adults in the U.S. are caregivers to an adult over the age of 50 (AARP)

·   Recruiting caregivers edges out caregiver turnover as a top concern for home care agencies (2018 Home Care Benchmarking Study)

Getting Referrals from Your Employees

In the home care business, your reputation depends on finding and recruiting the very best caregivers. The challenge is, where do you find them? When you implement an email marketing campaign you won’t lose sleep over finding caregivers to serve your clients.

You might be surprised to learn that the best source of referral comes directly from your existing caregivers. Why not tap into their network of peers and friends? A strategy that’s highly effective for is senior care referrals is building a caregiver referral program that offers rewards.

All you need to do is set up an email marketing workflow to inform your caregivers about your home care referral program and set an amount to offer as a reward.

Here are some tips for a successful referral marketing program:

·   Set a reasonable and affordable reward amount. Home care agencies typically offer around $100.

·   Establish a timeframe for how long your caregivers have to submit referrals. It’s common to limit the campaign to between 1-3 months for hiring.

·   Log your referral activity and track the candidates. Keep your referring caregivers in the loop regarding the status of hiring.

·   Work to get strong visibility for your referral campaign.

Here’s Why Email Marketing Solutions Work

Social media campaigns work well, but email marketing campaigns for home health care referrals can work even better.

Here are three reasons why:

1. Facebook sets limits on the number of times your post appears in the news feed. They do this because they want to drive brands to buy paid ads. As a result, only 2% of your Facebook fans will see your posts in their news feed. With an email marketing campaign, 90% of your messages will be delivered to the intended inbox.

2. Your email subscribers have not opted out of your email campaign. Most people are aware of the laws and regulations around SPAM emails. If they’re still getting your emails it’s because they are interested in reading them.

3. An email marketing campaign is a marketing strategy that gives you a return on investment over the long term.

The primary purpose of social networks is to communicate online with friends and family members. By contrast, most people tend to view email as a more professional type of communication. In general, people tend to look for information about products and services in their email messages and that means there’s a good chance they’ll open your emails.

Imagine your caregivers’ joy and surprise when they read about your home care referral program and learn about an opportunity to earn some extra cash.

Referral marketing is a win-win situation for you and your caregivers. It helps you find quality caregivers without digging too much into your budget, and your caregivers get to make some extra money along the way.

Communicate Your Home Care Referral Program with Caregivers

As a home care agency business owner, your days are jam-packed with important tasks and activities. Due to the nature of home caregiving, and the fact that your caregivers are working variable shifts, it’s not generally possible for you to have regular in-person meetings with all of your caregivers at once. With an email marketing campaign, you can communicate your home care referral program with your caregivers, and they can read it at their convenience.

In any industry, professionals network with people in similar industries. Caregivers are no exception. They become acquainted with other caregivers during educational and training classes. Often, they touch base with other caregivers as they start or end a shift. Naturally, they’ll be talking about the companies they work for. Happy caregivers will be happy to share the news that your home care agency is hiring. A reward program will motivate them to tell other caregivers about the positive experiences they’ve had serving the clients within your agency.

As a word of caution, it can be a bit of a double-edged sword. When caregivers aren’t happy, it can harm your reputation. It’s vital to engage with your caregivers and support them so they can be successful. They’re the lifeblood of your agency and you want to make sure they feel that way.

Here are some tips for how to get your caregivers involved in your home care referral program:

·   Verify that you have accurate contact information for every caregiver Including their preferred email address.

·   Ask them to register for company emails and updates by text.

·   Ask them to follow your social media platforms.

It goes without saying that the more quality caregivers you can employ, the more cases you can take on, and the more profitable your home care agency will be.

Utilize all your communication channels to promote your email marketing campaign including emails, texts, and social media postings.

Creating a Winning Senior Care Referrals Program

Once you set up your email marketing workflow, you need to set up a plan to fulfill your promise to deliver the reward to your caregivers. Set up an email marketing workflow that insurers your caregivers will remain motivated to keep preferring quality caregivers.

The following five steps will ensure a successful home care referral program:

1. Emphasize that you are only looking for the most qualified caregivers.

2. Offer an initial bonus at the initial hiring for caregiver referrals that work more than 35 hours per week.

3. Offer a second bonus when the referred caregiver remains in your employment for a specified period of time, perhaps a year.

4. Incentivize your caregivers a bit more when they refer three or more high-quality caregivers. It can be a monetary reward or some other gift such as a shirt with the company logo or other promotional item along with a sincere thank you note.

5. Pay your rewards to your caregivers in a timely manner. They’re going to the trouble of referring caregivers to your agency and by paying them promptly, your caregivers are building trust in you as their employer.  

Your caregivers care about their job and they’ll likely refer other caregivers within their circle of peers that they consider to be high quality. A home care referral program gives you an opportunity to reward them for helping you find the best caregivers within your community.

Establishing Your Email Marketing Workflow

An email marketing platform will help you set up a sequence of emails for caregivers and set timeframes for delivery.

Here is a list of some of the more popular email marketing platforms:

·   Mailchimp

·   Constant Contact

·   AWeber

·   GoDaddy

·   Sendinblue

Here’s a step-by-step plan to start your email marketing campaign:

1. Create a list and label it “Home Care Referral Program”.

2. Create various segments for active referrals and inactive referrals.

3. Enter your caregiver emails and set up an opt-in request so they have to accept it to receive emails.

4. Create some eye-catching template designs.

5. Write a sequence of emails to promote your referral program.

As for the content of your emails, explain how the program works, and clearly spell out who is eligible to participate in the program. Explain how the rewards work and be clear about the timeframe they have to work with.

You might also consider using text messages to promote your campaign. Your caregivers may forward them to other caregivers they know. Post information about the reward program on your social media platforms. When the opportunity permits, take advantage of the chance to talk to your caregivers about the program in person.

Do your best to build excitement about your home care referral program. Get a little buzz going by sharing referral success stories and recognizing employees that have earned rewards. SeniorCareClicks knows that it can be difficult to set up an email marketing campaign for senior care referrals, but you don’t have to do it on your own. We have access to the right tools and platforms to make the process easy and cost-effective for you. Call us today!

/by

Best Practices for Website Maintenance for Home Care Agencies

Best Practices for Website Maintenance for Home Care Agencies

With tasks piling up on your to-do list, website maintenance is something that continually falls to the bottom of the list. Do you remember the last time you did a review of the pages on your website and checked all the links to ensure they work?

Try to think about website maintenance in the same way that you think about home maintenance. If you don’t check the batteries in your fire alarms, you run the risk of not being alerted in the event of a fire. By not changing your furnace filters, you run the risk of running your heat inefficiently. In much the same way, you need to give your website regular reviews to ensure that everything is working properly. And that’s something that should be at the top of your to-do list.

Here’s a rundown of some of the things that could go wrong if you’re not maintaining your home care agency website properly:

·   Security vulnerabilities

·   Broken links

·   Viruses

·   Malware

You’ll save yourself a lot of time and money by making a commitment to regular website maintenance. If you encounter a major problem, you may have to hire a developer to help out, which could make a significant dent in your marketing budget.

Maintenance of Website: Do These Excuses Sound Familiar?

In my work with home care agency clients, I hear a lot of excuses about why home care agency marketers never seem to get around to the website maintenance.

Do any of these excuses sound familiar to you?

1. I’ve noticed my website runs slowly. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. The reality is that website load speed is a huge factor in SEO, as well as the user experience. If you don’t get to the root of the problem quickly, your pages will take a longer time to load. You’ll surely see the effects of that in higher bounce rates and lower average time spent on your pages.

2. Hackers aren’t interested in attacking homecare websites. Be careful not to fall for this misconception. Hackers consider small businesses in every industry low-hanging fruit. They operate under the assumption that you don’t have the funds or resources to keep your site secure. Regular site maintenance ensures that your security protocols are always up to date and that you’re protected against viruses and malware.

3. I’ll deal with the problem of viruses or malware when I have it. If you find yourself making this excuse, see what see CNBC cited from an Accenture study about the risk of website attacks on small businesses:

·   43% of cyberattacks occur at small businesses.

·   Only 14% of small businesses are prepared to defend themselves.

·   Cybersecurity risks cost businesses of every size an average of $200,000 annually.

·   Over half of small businesses suffered a breach in 2018.

By regularly checking your website load speed, you’ll be alerted to potential threats early and that could save you a lot of time and money from having to clean up infections that significantly impact your marketing efforts.

Website Load Speed: Is It Really That Important?

In a word, yes. You can run into lots of trouble if your site is running too slowly.

For example:

·   A slow load speed leads to loss of traffic and lower lead generation.

·   Your rate of conversions will drop.

·   Your site visit visitors won’t wait for pages to load.

·   It has a negative effect on SEO marketing.

·   You run the risk of Google blacklisting your site.

Research varies a bit on the best page loading speeds, but in general, you should aim for around 2 seconds for your pages to load.

Website Load Speed: Think Like a Consumer

If you’re tempted to put website maintenance on the back burner, put yourself in your customer’s shoes. If you were ordering a pizza or buying electronic equipment online, you wouldn’t be impressed if the pages took too long to load. In fact, you’d probably just try a different site.

A fast loading speed tells your site visitors that you run a professional business and that you care about your brand. You have to think about your website in the same way that you would think about a retail storefront. If it captures your attention right away, people will want to enter.

How to Speed Up Web Page Loading

The task of maintenance of your website doesn’t have to take a long time.

These are some tools that can give you a breakdown of what needs attention:

·   Google PageSpeed Insights

·   Pingdom

·   GTmetrix

Read on to learn more about 7 ways for how to speed up web page loading.

1. Compress text and images.

To speed up website loading, a good place to start is to take a look at your images and video files. Decrease or convert your image scales and sizing to significantly speed up your pages. Also, get rid of any video content that isn’t essential to your page content. Another strategy you can use is to implement “lazy loading”, which refers to images that become visible as site visitors scroll down the page. Refresh your pages after you make these changes to see how much better the user experience will be for your families that are looking for your home care services.

2. Optimize for mobile.

According to Pew Research, 96% of people now use mobile phones. That’s a high percentage that should tell you much about the importance of optimizing your website for mobile devices. To be successful in home care agency marketing, you have to be accessible on the devices that your customers are using. Be sure your website is designed to be responsive to various mobile devices and screen sizes.

3. Check your hosting provider.

You might find that slow website speeds are connected to your server. It pays to shop around for a good web host that offers strong customer support. When hosting companies take on too many customers, it overloads their servers causing slow page speeds. We suggest using dedicated hosting. Better yet, host it with SeniorCareClicks where we specialize only in senior care websites. Why is this so important? Shared hosting can put your website in jeopardy. Imagine if you were server shared your site on a server that also hosts gaming websites and adult-only websites.

4. Cache up.

The term caching refers to the process of storing data on someone’s device so that it can load faster. It’s an easy method for increasing load speeds for people that regularly return to your site. Your software may be able to store a static version of your website which can be the initial load to your browser.

5. Reduce CSS and JavaScript.

Another way to decrease the initial load time for your users is to move code from the top of the website into the footer. The top code gets loaded first, so your site visitors will see the top of your website normally while the browser finishes loading the code near the footer. Take caution as you take these steps. If you make a mistake, parts of your website will not load or function correctly. Another alternative is to insert a plug in to minimize JavaScript code to eliminate “code bloat.” 

6. Delete unused plugins.

WordPress has lots of plugins available. Be aware that too many backend installations will slow down website load speed. This can be a problem when you’re installing plugins overtime to integrate new features. An overabundance of plugins will overload your site’s memory. Review your plugins and delete or deactivate any plugins that are no longer relevant.

7. Host your content on external sites.

Large video files take up a lot of space. Rather than embed large video files on your site using your site-builder, consider putting them on YouTube or Vimeo. You’ll find that your pages load faster and cut down on lag when your videos are uploaded to external platforms. This strategy also gives you the benefit of creating new sources of traffic to your website. YouTube channels are popular places for consumers to check out home care agencies. If creating a YouTube channel is more involved than you have time for, SeniorCareClicks can create one for your home care agency.

In summary, just as it takes time to keep your home in good working order, it takes a bit of time and effort to develop a website maintenance plan to keep your home care agency website running optimally and securely. You’ve already put in the time to create a beautiful website and you want to maintain it so that it optimizes SEO, ranks high in search engines, and creates a good user experience.If you need assistance with website maintenance services and ensure that your site is continually safe and secure, contact the web maintenance experts at SeniorCareClicks. Our web maintenance services team has the latest updates about WordPress security, and we can help you keep your site secure and functioning well.

/by

How to Respond to Reviews: Best Practices to Boost Your Reputation

respond to senior care reviews

You take pride in your senior care agency, just as you should. Great reviews are sure to bring a smile to your face. On the other hand, it’s surprising when someone leaves a bad review, especially if they never told you they were unhappy in the first place. Either way, it’s appropriate to respond to reviews.

What are review writers and readers looking for in a review response? Reviewers have two motives for writing reviews. They want others to be aware of their experience, and they’re looking for your agency to take some type of accountability for whatever caused the bad review.

First, respond to all reviews whether they’re positive or negative. It’s important to show visitors that you read your reviews and you care about your agency’s reputation. The right approach for how to respond to reviews will boost your reputation and let readers know you’ve addressed any problems that are reflected in your reviews.

Responding to Bad Reviews with Star or Number Ratings Only

Be aware that not all review sites allow comments. A star or number rating may be all that you get. With no information to go on, it’s challenging to know how to respond. A good rule of thumb is to keep your response short. It’s appropriate to ask the reviewer to contact you privately about the rating and offer a phone number or email address where they can contact you privately. Since there are no details on either the rating or the response, most readers won’t consider it a bad reflection of your services.

Negative Feedback Can Be a Good Thing

As tough as it is to read, negative feedback has a positive side. The comments that your former clients leave come from the heart. Negative comments aren’t usually intended to hurt anyone, so try not to take them personally.  

Bad reviews give you opportunities to learn where to make improvements. Often, the feedback you receive tells you that your caregivers need more training in a particular area. Without negative reviews, you could be left in the dark, and that could lead to even more negative reviews. Look for feedback that’s specific and objective. Take what you learn, and make some appropriate changes.

Prospects are apt to check out your reviews before deciding to do business with your agency. That said, negative feedback won’t necessarily send them running in the other direction. Most people understand that it’s nearly impossible for a business to have perfect feedback every time.

All positive reviews make some people skeptical. What they’re looking for is how you responded to negative reviewers. They’re also looking for what steps you plan to take to address the negative comments. Always be courteous and professional as you manage reviews.

7 STEPS TO CRAFTING THE RIGHT REVIEW RESPONSE: NEGATIVE REVIEWS

1. Personalize Your Response

Online and offline, people like it when you use their name. If you don’t know their name, do a little digging on Facebook or other social media sites to find it. Use a salutation with their name such as, “Dear Susan”.  If you can’t find their name, it’s okay to use “Dear client”.

2. Courteousness Counts

Saying please and thank you is just as appropriate in writing a review response as it is in person, so be sure to use your manners. Think about your response before you begin writing. Do your best to craft a response that’s genuine and courteous.

Here’s an example of a response you could use:

“Dear Jane, Thank you for taking the time to write a review. We value your feedback and welcome your comments. I’m happy to discuss your concerns personally. Please contact me at this number so that we can address the issues you raised.”

After speaking with the client, consider the steps you can take to prevent similar negative feedback, and improve your services.  

3. Be Sympathetic and Offer an Apology

Try to imagine the emotions a review writer is going through as they wrote the bad review. There are many factors in senior caregiving that could contribute to negative comments or a pessimistic tone.

Be sympathetic and determine whether an apology is in order. By stepping into the writer’s shoes, it gives you a different perspective. It should help you respond in a kind, professional way.

Be aware of any restrictions on what you’re allowed to say. It’s okay to used scripted wording as long as you make it sound natural and genuine.

4. Be Accountable

Oftentimes, a person that leaves a negative review just wants someone to be accountable. It’s best not to offer up weak excuses. Lots of things can go wrong in senior caregiving. Some situations are isolated and never happen again. On occasion, accidents happen, and no one is to blame. Regardless of the issue, be sure to take responsibility, and point out your commitment to quality caregiving.

5. Describe How Their Feedback Helped Make Your Agency Better

A review response is a good place to demonstrate your willingness to make things right. Give a brief description of the changes you made as a result of their feedback. They’ll appreciate a specific response, when you can. It’s not always possible to change their experience, but they’ll be glad they responded if it prevents a similar situation from happening again.

6. Redirect the Discussion Away from the Internet

While it’s always appropriate to respond to negative comments online, customers usually appreciate it when a representative of the agency also takes the time to call them personally. Direct communication often diminishes strong emotions after a difficult issue. A personal phone call or email to someone tells them that you’re taking their concerns seriously.

If you’re able to smooth things over, you may be able to leave a more specific response describing that you touched bases since the review. It’s a win/win situation for your former client, future clients, and your agency.

7. Strive to Keep the Relationship Open

When you become aware that a client isn’t happy, it doesn’t mean that you have to close the door on the relationship. Don’t assume that they’re not open to giving your senior caregiving services another chance. It’s totally appropriate to invite them back. Don’t be surprised if they take you up on it. If they do, welcome them back, and commit to doing better. Then, make sure you follow through on your promise.

Share negative feedback with your caregivers and with your other employees. As they learn of negative reviews, your employees will be more conscious of their duties and how their role impacts your clients. Share positive feedback as well. Emphasize that quality caregiving is part of your mission and culture.

Responding to Positive Reviews to Enhance Your Brand

Don’t make the mistake of overlooking positive reviews. If your clients are taking their time to give your agency a compliment, they deserve a kind response. Think of it this way—if they paid you a compliment in person, you’d be sure to say thank you, so why not do the same in an online review?

Responding to positive reviews gives you a chance to express your gratitude for their business. It’s also a way to show your passion and enthusiasm for senior caregiving. As you respond to positive reviews, you’re making it clear that the customer experience is very important to your business. That will speak volumes to anyone reading your reviews.

5 WAYS TO CRAFT THE RIGHT REVIEW RESPONSE: POSITIVE REVIEWS

Positive Responses Demand Thanks Too

People are very busy. If they’re taking the time to give your caregiver agency a positive review, it should have special meaning for you. They may not be expecting you to thank them, but they’ll appreciate it if you take the time to do it anyway. Positive reviews and strong ratings will attract new clients to your agency. That alone is worth taking the time to say thank you.

Reiterate Their Comments in Responding to Positive Reviews

Don’t be surprised if customers describe their positive experiences with lots of specific details. That gives you a chance to repeat those comments, and in so doing, you get the chance to boost your marketing efforts over specific services.

For example, you can mention that their caregiver is also a favorite of many other of your clients.

Share Positive Comments with Caregivers

Your caregivers work hard to give quality care to your clients. Caregivers are sure to appreciate knowing their services helped a client in need and that a client appreciated the help enough to write an online review. Mention that you shared their comments with the caregiver in your response. For example, “Dear John, We were happy to learn that Mary exceeded your expectations. We’ll be sure to pass along your kind words.”

Extend an Invitation to Positive Reviewers to Call Again

If they were happy once, they’ll be happy again. A personal invitation in your response will inspire them to use your caregiving services again and refer others, as well. Those that read your reviews will learn that your clients are loyal to your service, and it’s a good start to building trust.

Give a Mention to Additional Services

In your response to a positive review, it might be an opportune time to highlight other services that you provide. For example, you might respond with something like, “We also offer companionship and transportation services if you ever have the need.” Just be careful not to be overly promotional or self-serving.

Responding to Neutral Reviews Is Also Important

Reviews aren’t always positive or negative. Once in a while, you might get a 3-star, middle-of-the-road review. What do you do with that?

Neutral reviews might contain a few negative comments along with something positive. You might also get neutral reviews that don’t say much at all. The reality is that something prompted them to leave a review, and for that reason, they deserve a response.

CRAFTING THE RIGHT REVIEW RESPONSE: NEUTRAL REVIEWS

Always Thank Neutral Reviewers

Start every neutral review with a thank you, just as you would for a positive or negative review. Remember, they took the time to write something up, and they deserve to be thanked for taking their time to do it.

Focus on the Positive When You Manage Reviews

Build on any positive feedback that the reviewer mentioned. Repeat it in your response even if the reviewer also included negative feedback. Readers generally give the most weight to your initial comments, so focus on positive comments before addressing other feedback.

Don’t Overlook Negative Comments in Your Review Response

Respond to negative comments in neutral reviews much the same as you would a wholly negative review. Thank them for their input, be accountable, issue a brief apology, and commit to making it right. Offer an opportunity to speak with someone at your agency and give contact information.

Address Specific Issues Offline

You wouldn’t address problems in your agency in front of others, so avoid airing your dirty laundry online. Ask them to provide details via phone or email.

Your branding and reputation are on the line when clients review your services. They have multiple online sources where they can give you star ratings and comments. It’s not only what you say in your responses to them that counts. It’s whether you choose to respond and the impression they get from your response. You have little control over positive, negative, and neutral reviews. The right responses enhance your brand greatly and improve your bottom line.

There’s a little skill involved in crafting the most appropriate responses. The suggestions listed here will help. Bear in mind that posting responses takes time, effort, and thought to get it right and keep track of all the review sites. Professional marketers at SeniorCareClicks are familiar with the sources where senior caregiving clients leave reviews. You can take the hassle out of review responses when you leave them in the hands of experienced digital marketers. Call us at 954-401-9058 today to get started.

/by

10 Best Practices for Senior Friendly Websites

senior friendly websites

If you’re like a lot of people, you’re more inclined to equate technology with millennials or the Gen X, Y, or Z set. The reality is that the internet has become a central force in the lives of every generation, including seniors.

You read that right! Seniors are getting better acquainted with internet technology because it’s an easy way to shop, get information, and connect with family members and friends. In fact, a study by the Pew Research Institute in 2019 showed that 73% of people over the age of 65 are using the internet.

Here’s another fun fact—many site-owners don’t create senior-friendly websites. The Nielsen Norman Group did a usability study and found that the success rate of navigating websites for people over the age of 65 was 55.3% as opposed to 74.5% of younger people. What that means for your business is that you can expect 35% more revenue from the senior crowd by creating a website that focuses on senior accessibility.

Here are 10 best practices for the most effective web layout considerations to accommodate seniors’ design preferences:

1. Increase the Font Size for a Senior Friendly Website

The Nielsen Norman Group study showed that 18% of people over 65 struggled to read content with smaller fonts. Vision deteriorates in many people later in life. Use at least 12-point font and offer the option to enlarge it for readability. The best seniors’ designs make it possible to resize links, commands, and logos to increase your chance of getting clicks.

2. A Senior Friendly Website Is Easy to Navigate

Use more white space and break down large blocks of content into shorter sections. Use headings and subheadings for easy navigation. Use white space to segregate content blocks. Greater navigation means better readability, and it avoids accidental clicks on the wrong content.

3. A Good Senior’s Design Has Bullets and Numbered Steps

Don’t use language that’s flowery or overly wordy. Be concise and direct. Use bullets or a numbered list wherever it makes sense. It’s easier to read down a column than to follow a list that’s separated by commas. Use active verbs in sentences rather than passive verbs as in the following examples:

Active:  Seniors enjoy visitors.

Passive: Visits are enjoyable for seniors.

4. Avoid Tech Terms and Jargon for Better Senior Accessibility

Seniors are apt to get frustrated with technical terms or jargon they don’t understand. If you have to use a term that seniors might not be familiar with, give it a short definition or explain it by way of example. If space is tight, you can use roll-over bubbles to pop-up an explanation.

5. Set Links for Single Clicks for Senior’s Designs on Websites

Seniors may not be aware that they need to double-click on links to move to another site. Set up your links so visitors can navigate them with one click. Also, set links to change colors once seniors click on them. Seniors that can’t figure out your links will be inclined to give up and look for a more senior friendly website.

6. Senior Friendly Websites Pop with Color

When seniors find your website, you’ll want them to find it again. Vibrant colors and contrasting colors will help them recognize your brand easily. Black and white works well. Stay away from monochromatic themes with layered shades of the same color.

7. Use Speech Functions for Greater Senior Accessibility

Some of your senior visitors will appreciate visiting your site more often if you activate a speech function. That way, if they can’t read, they can still benefit from your content.

8. Your Best Senior’s Design Minimizes Scrolling

Seniors are more likely to read all the content on a page rather than skim over it and move on. Large amounts of content tend to frustrate elderly people. If they have to scroll too much, they may think the content goes on forever. Even younger people get turned off when they have to scroll endlessly. If you consider the importance of needing to use larger fonts, it leaves you less room to post content, but there are workarounds for that. Break up blocks of content into sections and use forward links at the end of each section. The best layout for senior’s design is to place content so it fits vertically and horizontally without scrolling.

9. Senior’s Designs for Websites Make Error Message Bold

No one likes to get an error message. Error messages especially confuse seniors. They don’t understand the terms and may not know what to do when they get one. To prevent problems with error messages with senior website design, clearly spell out what the user needs to do to resolve the error. For example, in addition to stating that there’s an error or the entry is invalid, describe what action they should take such as turning off the caps lock or how to change the format.

10.  Senior Friendly Websites Are Consistent

Google likes to see fresh content and new content will keep seniors returning to your site, as well. Keep your site up to date but avoid rebranding the pages too drastically. Be aware that some seniors jot down notes on how to navigate their favorite sites, and too much change will frustrate them. Worse, they may not recognize your site at all and resort to searching for another site. Keep your site as friendly and familiar as possible.

By following best practices for senior friendly websites, seniors will begin to build trust in your brand. Seniors enjoy browsing websites that are easy to read and navigate. A senior’s design is also user-friendly for all age groups. Family members and friends of seniors may be visiting your site as well.

Obviously, there’s a lot to consider when setting up a senior friendly website design. SeniorCareClicks has the knowledge and expertise in the senior care space to design pages that are optimized for SEO and attractive for senior visitors. Contact us at 954-401-9058 for a quote today!

/1 Comment/by