Why Local SEO Is important for Your Senior Care Business

local seo for senior care business

Potential clients for senior care live right within your community. When you learn how to improve your local SEO, the right digital strategy will put them right in front of you. Internet search engines have become the “go-to” place for locals to check out care for seniors. Internet visibility is vital to let people in need know that you’re available and willing to help.

Why use local SEO, or search engine optimization? It’s a strategy that incorporates the kinds of keywords that people looking for to find senior care in your local area.

Much like how to plan general SEO strategies, how to improve local SEO is similar, but it focuses on the target audience within your local geographical area. It’s an ideal strategy for your senior care business to draw their clients from within your regional area.

Using keywords that mention cities and towns near you will attract seniors that need care in your area. Their families may also be searching for senior care on the internet because they want their senior relatives to be close enough to visit and be available for emergencies.

Local SEO for Senior Living Facilities

The care and attention that you’ve put into your Assisted Living Facility show by the way you maintain your grounds and by the welcoming interior that greets your visitors. When you make a similar effort to develop a local SEO strategy, the people living in your area will be able to find you easily when they’re doing a search online for assisted living in (zip code) ( near me) ( city), etc..

There is great value in learning how to improve local SEO.

Why Home Care Agencies Need Local SEO

There are important reasons to learn how to rank on Google maps, especially if your home care agency uses multiple offices in different geographical areas. Keywords that include names of local towns and cities will drive internet traffic to each facility.

Read along to discover local SEO tips that work.

How to Optimize for Local SEO

To start the process of learning how to rank on local SEO, you’ll need to get familiar with some digital marketing terms and their meanings. These are the strategies that will help you get the most out of your local SEO efforts to draw traffic to senior home care agencies, senior living facilities, and nursing homes.

·   Local link building

·   NAP

·   Google my business

·   Reviews

·   Location page

·   Citations

GMB Optimization

GMB is an acronym for Google My Business. Google set up this platform for businesses to advertise their locations and contact numbers on Google search and maps, but it doesn’t happen automatically. You need to go into Google My Business and claim the physical location of your senior care agency. There you can create a business listing and when someone does a search, it will be shown on the front page of Google. You’ll be able to add a photo of your facility and contact information including your hours of business.

By creating a Google My Business listing, Google will also put your business on Google Maps. These listings will boost your SEO efforts and increase visibility with search engines. Other platforms, like Facebook, also give you opportunities to claim local business opportunities.

Local Link Building

Link building is a strategy that will enhance local SEO. A backlink is when another website mentions your site and links it back to your website. In a sense, it’s like an endorsement or referral from the website that carries your link. Search engines view backlinks from other businesses within your industry as relevant items when ranking your home care agency in search engines. Large local businesses are sure to rank high in search engines when other area businesses also link back to your website.

NAP

NAP is an industry term for name, address, and phone. A simple thing that you can do to improve local SEO is to keep your contact information consistent and identical across all online business listings, social media platforms, and citation listings.

Review Collection

Google reviews are a valuable resource for people looking for evidence that your home care agency provides kind, compassionate care. That’s a good reason to encourage current clients to leave you a good review. The second reason to strive for lots of good reviews is that Google views reviews as important criteria when ranking your listing.

By encouraging satisfied customers to give you a review, seniors or their adult children will have the motivation that they need to consider using your agency for senior home care. Five-star reviews are a good reflection of your reputation.

Local Page

Home health care agencies that have several locations within the state or across the country can increase the local SEO performance for each office by creating dedicated location pages for each office. Doing this may give you an edge over your competition because your competitors may not be doing it. By having local online business listings for each location, it brings localized customers directly to a particular office and you get the added benefit of highlighting job openings in the same area.

Citations

Citations are similar to business listings. Essentially, it’s anywhere that your NAP is listed online. Some of the places that you might find citations are:

·   Listing directory

·   YellowPages-style listing

·   Business profile on social media (Yelp, Facebook, etc.)

Structured vs. Unstructured Citations

When you’re working on your plan for how to do local SEO better, try to make the most of citations by setting up postings for structured and unstructured citations.

Structured citations take the form of formal online directories that allow you to input your NAP and other information like hours and a few details about your company.

Don’t overlook the benefits of creating unstructured citations as well. These entries take the form of mentioning your business’ NAP and other information on other sites like:

·   Blog posts

·   Websites

·   News sites

·   Wikipedia

·   Anywhere else that Google deems to be a quality source

Post Local Events on Online Calendars in Your Community

People in your community love coming to events, so why not consider hosting one of your own? When you advertise a community event such as a health fair or job fair, Google views it as a quality backlink from an authoritative source to your site, which improves local SEO. As you promote events through social media and other platforms, you get even more quality backlinks.

News outlets often have online calendars of community events and this is yet another excellent place to advertise your event and get a few more online mentions. It’s a great SEO strategy even if few people see your NAP on a community calendar.

A Digital Expert Is the Key to Simplifying SEO

The fact that Google is always evolving is to your benefit because it continually gives you new opportunities to tap into your target audience.

The problem with a digital landscape that’s continually changing is that it’s difficult for business owners to keep up with it and still meet the daily demands of their businesses. That’s why hiring a digital marketing professional can be one of your greatest assets. A professional marketer is current on the latest local SEO strategies which will get your business listed on the Google maps local tri-pack, which highlights the top three local businesses during a local search. Investing in an expert marketer will continually give you more online exposure for local SEO which is the ultimate key to getting more customers and give you a formidable edge against the competition.

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10 Senior Care Experts reveal How Digital Marketing helps During Covid-19

COVID-19 has drastically changed the way we live and work, but it pales in comparison to the harmful effects it has brought to our elderly population.

The pandemic forced businesses within every industry to spring into action, quickly reinventing themselves to stay afloat. Some businesses adapted more successfully than others, and the marketplace separated the winners from the losers. Despite the fear the virus has created, some industries have discovered new opportunities among the chaos. Sparked by the desire to help people find relief in these trying times, the senior care industry has risen up in response to the call to help keep seniors safe and healthy.

As we support senior care businesses with digital marketing with the goal of helping seniors and their families connect with the care they need, I wanted to reach out to experts in the senior care industry to learn more about how they were adapting to the challenge that COVID-19 has brought into our world.

The senior care industry has relied on traditional marketing strategies for decades. Most senior care agencies are still putting their faith in printed collateral material, magazine ads, and paid advertisements in local newspapers to continue building their businesses. While it’s possible to have some success with print ads and in-person sales calls to retirement communities, those aren’t necessarily the best strategies for getting referrals.

In today’s world, it’s vital for senior care agencies to have a digital presence. If we’ve learned anything from COVID-19, it’s that the world continues to change and evolve, even when we become static and hang onto outdated marketing practices. The pandemic has demonstrated that it’s prime time to bring the senior care industry into the 21st century, from a marketing perspective.

Franchises within the senior care industry have led the way by taking advantage of the great value that various digital marketing channels offer. Senior care agencies that are resistant to making the switch to digital marketing are missing the new opportunities that COVID-19 have brought right to their front door.

In light of recent developments, I decided to reach out to CEOs, owners, marketing directors, and industry leaders working in the home care and assisted living care industries to ask them this question:

“What is the impact of COVID-19 in the senior care industry, and what role does digital marketing play in it?”

Their answers were nothing short of enlightening.

Heather Freemont– Cleveland/Akron, Ohio

Vice President Marketing, Regional Director of Operations


Digital Marketing has always played a significant role in how we connect with seniors, but during this pandemic, it has become apparent just how indispensable its role is both within our operations and the overall Senior Care industry. With COVID-19 came a complete shift in the ways through which we connect with seniors, forcing us to quickly adapt and pivot our approach in various aspects to accommodate the challenges presented during this unprecedented time.

Among the largest difficulties were the limitations posed by social distancing and isolation. Without the ability to physically tour seniors through our communities and have them experience the renowned amenities, programs and culinary offerings firsthand, we quickly transitioned to using digital means including slideshows, electronic brochures, videos, Facetime tours, meal drop-offs and photos to demonstrate the newly-created engagement opportunities offered at our communities. Recognizing the challenges posed by visitor restrictions, we helped supplement family visits by developing a plan to facilitate virtual visits through the introduction of 12 iPads at each community and the creation of electronic newsletters, email letter templates and quadrupled social media postings; all with the goal of keeping loved ones connected and up-to-date with one another despite the distance.

We quickly adapted our website and other communication streams to make health and safety resources readily available to families and to deliver pertinent updates and information on our practices and protocols of safety, sanitation, infection control and prevention. To bolster our commitment to being a resource for seniors and their families, we increased email marketing and created various electronic booklets, tip sheets, blog posts and guides to help seniors navigate COVID-19-related concerns, encourage a continuously active and healthy lifestyle and mitigate a variety of other challenges faced during this time. Our consumer-centric marketing and sales approach became more focused and important as we increased our education and support groups and offered online classes and stimulating and engaging programs virtually.

While many providers chose to completely stop or halt their marketing efforts, we did quite the opposite. We doubled our PPC and increased all of our digital campaigns to have a large reach in the community, knowing that many seniors were in serious need of our support and assistance during this challenging time.

Lucie Barry-Punches– San Diego, California

Director of Social Media Digital Marketing


The impact of COVID-19 in the senior care industry has been tremendous and it has altered marketing while keeping the basic principles the same. Marketers will continue to build strong relationships and establish trust, but must adapt and utilize alternative methods. The role of a Digital Marketer has become more prominent and integrated and we continue to be more strategic.

While not conducting in person tours, and instead sharing digital tours either by text or email is more responsive. This gives families the ability to share information amongst themselves. Due to the pandemic, prospects are no longer able to drop in when the sales teams could accommodate. By bridging the physical gap and reaching those in the comfort of their homes, we are able to share with more prospects in a more efficient manner. By virtually sharing video messages and directing prospects to our content-rich social media pages, we are able to share the true heartbeat of our communities.

All marketers, but especially those in senior living, have had to reevaluate past strategies and creatively come up with a “new normal.” When strategic with social media posts, we are better able to provide a more comprehensive window into each of our communities’ daily happenings. Those who did not see the value or know how to utilize Facetime, Zoom, Google Duo and social media to their advantage hopefully do now!

While the strategies may have changed during COVID, the people building strong relationships and establishing trust have adapted.  

Carey Lingenfelter– Fayetteville, Arkansas

Chief Engagement Officer


This pandemic has certainly developed this unprecedented time in all our lives. The impact of staying home has been felt by many. The anxiety and pressure most of us have felt is similar to the silent pandemic of social isolation effects we’ve seen in the Senior Care industry for the last 25 years.

At Home Instead Senior Care®, we have been enhancing the lives of aging adults and their families by providing companionship, personal and memory care services. We provide the services that enable our most vulnerable population to stay safe, independent, and secure in the comfort of their own home. Most of our clients are in their 80’s. Many of them have multiple chronic conditions and about 2/3s of them are managing some form of dementia.

Although there may never be a full replacement of the type of personal, in-home, human touch care that we provide, we have been pioneers in the virtual visit space. Our current movement toward transforming care delivery by including virtual care capability has been validated during this crisis. We have been very focused on innovations in technology to continue those enhancements and provide the highest quality of care.

With our Integrated Care approach, we have utilized GrandPad technology to have a direct connection with clients in their homes. It combines highly personalized, traditional CAREGiving with the high-tech features of GrandPad. Virtually connecting them to their loved ones and our staff. Reducing the effects of isolation, reducing unnecessary risks and increasing the speed of care delivery.

We have leveraged our social networks to create a community call to action, “Ready to Care”.  Focused on making the world a better place for seniors, Ready to Care is a social media platform designed to inspire care through small acts of kindness for seniors.

We feel that our marketing efforts should ensure that Home Instead Senior Care® is top of mind to anyone considering home care. Now more than ever, a comprehensive marketing strategy that includes online components (e.g., social media, SEO, SEM, PPC, email, text, blogs, banners, PPC, etc.), will enable us to continue our community outreach and direct networking.

Pedro Gonzalez Soto M.D. FAAPMR– Tampa, Florida

Owner/President


What’s the impact of Covid19 in the Home Care Industry and what is the role Digital Marketing Plays?

Coronavirus outbreak will impact almost every aspect of how homecare businesses operate and, most importantly, life as we know it. It has made us aware of how vulnerable and human we are. However, with my experience and knowledge as a doctor, I’m confident that if we provide proactive type care, our industry will thrive.

Our mission is to support more patients at home amid nearly nationwide stay-at-home orders. The question now is, how do we protect our seniors during these difficult times we are living? While there’s not a simple answer to this question. It’s crucial to follow all CDC and WHO guidelines while finding ways to assure patients, families, and our referral partners that we are implementing all of our COVID19 protocols and that our caregivers are working in an environment that they feel safe.

Older adults are among the most vulnerable, and unfortunately, that’s our reality. Families are concerned about the safety of their loved ones and how to reduce the risk of exposure. To support and care for more patients at home, it’s vital to have a strong marketing and online presence. Many people are still working from home, which gives them time to do more research. Being active on social media is key to our business. Clients want to know what we are doing daily to care for their loved ones; it’s our time to connect and educate about the benefits of Home Health Care.

I think home health care has enormous potential to help in the COVID-19 crisis. Older adults that are going without care are likely to see some deterioration in their condition, which may require emergency services and hospitalization. Having a passionate caregiver will give our elderly continuation of care, and it can help keep patients away from the hospital and minimize the risk of contagion.

Mike Miller – San Diego, California

Owner at Home Care Service


Covid-19 has changed a lot in everybody’s lives. The most affected are our seniors and their families.

This pandemic has increased the need for help to keep seniors safe. The nursing home crisis has added to this need because many families have decided to bring their loved ones home. With parents homeschooling kids at home, the need to hire senior care services has skyrocketed. The fact being that we can’t conduct in-person sales has created an immense need to implement digital marketing strategies that align with the current needs. We have started to work with a digital marketing agency that focuses on the senior care industry only because we feel that is not a better time to invest in marketing than now. The digital marketing strategy for At Home Care Service is the following:

Create a new SEO friendly website with a clear message for seniors and their families. It is key to communicate clearly that we are here to support them in these difficult times. We also stated that our caregivers follow CDC protocols and we are more than prepared to assist them. Our website features a landing page- funnel where we offer an ebook to generate leads. We will acquire new clients by running a hyper-targeted Facebook ad to send traffic to the landing page.  An email marketing campaign with automation will follow the leads in the funnel of sales and we will also call them as soon as we get them. Due to the lockdown, we know that people are looking for services online. Furthermore, the agency that we are working with has proposed to focus on local SEO to boost our presence in Google Maps. This makes complete sense for us. We are also adding blogs and acquiring links to boost overall SEO. Therefore, we are confident that with this digital marketing strategy we will be able to increase our sales by assisting people in need of home care services in San Diego. 

It is common that the decision-makers in the senior care industry were neglecting to accept the need for digital marketing and relying on traditional marketing only. Now, due to the pandemic and the loss of human touch, Digital Marketing has become a huge need and a great way to connect with potential clients in order to grow our business.

Roger L. Benedetti, RPh, BPharm – New Jersey

President


COVID-19 impact on the Senior Care industry was sudden, changes had to be made immediately, and were not anticipated when planning the budget. Some examples include:

• For both clients and caregivers, many resources, including money and time, were spent locating and putting protocols in place for:

• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
• Personal sanitization supplies
• Testing such as temperature equipment and supplies

• Technology changes in business operations: 

• Establish teleworking capabilities
• Migrate to virtual meetings for client assessments, registered nurse supervision, as well as for interviews to hire caregivers
• Conversation to electronic/digital forms
• Software enhancements to record and document employees health screen prior to start of work each day
• Emails and website updates to inform of company’s COVID-19 polices and procedures

•  Personnel costs:

• Additional employee training to ensure compliance with state and federal CDC guidelines
• Increased payroll burdens related to paid sick, medical, or family leave
• Staffing issues that could only be solved by paying a premium or overtime to existing employees

• Hiring new caregivers, already extremely difficult normally, was make even more challenging by:

• Potential employees making more on unemployment than by working
• Fear of catching the virus while working in a health care environment

•  Property Expenses incurred while business office was closed or unoccupied: 

• Rent
• Utilities 

Most of the above was part of the immediate focus to mitigate infection risk while still ensuring providing reliable and safe care. However, it was also important to not forget about changes in sales and marketing efforts:

• Sales visits with potential new clients were shifted to virtual meetings

• Marketing representatives were restricted from rising key accounts in person

• This lead to changes in marketing practices, such as doing inside sales and increasing digital marketing efforts (website, SEO , blogs, social media, etc.)

Douglas Kennedy – Swarthmore, Pennsylvania

Marketing and Communications Coordinator


COVID-19 has prompted digital marketers and communication experts to take a step back and think about how we communicate to both our patients and our employees. The senior care industry at large is now looking to develop sustainable home care, which provided a solid safety net for those in the senior care industry who wanted to receive quality and professional services in the safety of their own home. The way we provide transitions of care in the age of COVID-19 has shifted, with home health care at the center of the conversation.

•  As a digital marketer, the primary responsibility is to tell a story and invite others to be a part of that narrative with your company, in my case Blessings4Ever. You invite clients and patients to join you, not just to receive services, but to unite with your purpose and benefit as a result. COVID-19 has caused every marketing expert to go back to their mission and vision. All your communication, messaging, and content has to revolve around those two things. When everyone asks, “How did Blessings4Ever handle COVID-19?” then there is a story to tell that fulfills a mission and casts an overarching vision, and people are inspired and feel safe joining you on the journey.

Francis LeGasse – Denver, Colorado

President/COO


Covid-19 challenges the senior care industry to exam our current practices and ideas.  With the emergence of the first nursing homes over 50 years ago, many in the industry attempt to beautify or create a resort style living.  The Senior Care industry is more enamored by the building and grounds itself and less with care models.  Covid-19 highlights the importance of care.  The forward thinkers must focus on high quality care models along with a beautiful environment.  Further, it highlights the importance of highly trained staff who are not only skilled but compassionate.  Leaders are emerging who will disrupt the status quo senior living.  For those of us who push the envelope on creativity, we are at a tipping to truly shape and alter the way we age.  No longer will our older adults have to just accept the way we but be active in designing and implementing the new care models.  Care is the most important aspect!  

Additionally, Covid-19 gives the industry a moment of pause to truly ask the question; should we have 100 plus older adults living together? This is both a practical and philosophical question to answer.  Are we doing more harm by segregating and isolating those who are aging? Should we be working to create an inclusive community that meets the physical care needs but also the emotional and social? The time is now to challenge are views of aging.  Leaders in Senior Care must do more for our older adults by having thoughtful discussions that lead to meaningful action. Discussion without action is fruitless.  Leaders must focus on action in order to have a positive impact on the way we age.  Now is the time to ignite hope for our older adults! 

Role of Digital Marketing

An untapped arena for those in aging services.  Our ability to accurately connect with our prospective residents and their families is second to none.   Our targeting capabilities through ads and media is critically important to showcase the level of care.  It truly is an underused area of marketing but also one that must create stories.  Our mission on social media must be one to connect and highlight the love and compassion for our older adults.  The senior care industry must create thought provoking content that connects with the viewer.  Senior Care must not highlight the beauty of the facilities but the positive impact it can have on our residents.  We must shift from an industry highlighting the resort style living to an industry focusing on the people we impact. In the end the experience we provide for our clients and residents is what matters.  We must never forget our services have been selected to provide care for someone’s best friend! 

Beth Moeller – New York City

VP Marketing and Sales


Covid-19 has significantly impacted the senior care industry in terms of food, engagement (in terms of enrichment and health status)  and hourly care.

Food: With many senior centers shuttered, the main meal for many seniors was eliminated….much like school age kids are dependent on in school lunches.  This is why at the outset of the pandemic, The Griswold Home Care’s Foundation focused donations on helping our communities address meal insecurity for seniors. Interestingly, each town has organized differently to get their seniors the groceries and meals needed for sustenance. 

Engagement:  Senior living facilities are still figuring out the right balance between quarantines, social distancing and community engagement.  I’ve heard of cognitive decline and increased social anxiety in the senior living facilities as communities strive to keep seniors safe.   Beyond the walls of the senior living facilities, while many in our society are turning to digital solutions for stimulation, our oldest seniors at home are not technically inclined to take advantage of these offerings. Further, hearing impaired seniors are having a hard time with senior center remote learning activities and hearing others behind their masks so there is feeling of increased isolation. This is why our agency has focused care plans and community calendars offering ideas for engagement of the mind, body and spirit and offers focused on non-digital activities to elevate the daily experience.

Health Status: With risk of contagion from hospitalization, our HandOff remote health monitoring application in the hands of our caregivers has been  a game changer for its ability to spot and proactively address potential health issues.  While HandOff has been a differentiator outside of the Covid Pandemic, it has been especially important in helping our most fragile seniors remain safe at home. In that the results are visible to approved stakeholders, it has also helped families retain peace of mind that loved ones they can not visit are well cared for.

Hourly Care:  Our live in care contracts are strong and hourly care is just beginning to rebound. Of course, there was reluctance to expose clients and caregivers to variable living arrangements.  Our digital lead cultivation efforts continue to focus on live in. With the caregiver shortage due to school age kids at home, risk of contagion and generous unemployment practices, we have also leveraged digital marketing to recruit staffing. 

David Wigodner – West Palm Beach, Florida

 
Regional Director of Business Development


The impact of COVID 19 in the senior care industry has been comprehensive and affected everyone. Some have seen tragic outcomes like Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing facilities who were at the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic and saw catastrophic results. Numerous Homecare, DME and other providers that support the senior population saw decrease in referrals, census, revenue, and many have had to close permanently or look to be acquired. As a result, the landscape of senior care and the way people think about retirement has been changed. People want to remain at home where they are comfortable, familiar, and not confined. Caring People has been able to adapt with progressive strategies to assist our clients and the community with initiatives that allow them to receive care and services in the comfort of their home. Our Caring On Demand, Care Management and SNF to home diversion programs are just a few that allow them to age in place and get the support they need. 

The impact of COVID 19 has also played a vital role in the increase and importance of digital marketing in the senior industry. The days of walking in a hospital, SNF, ALF or even a physician’s office like we did pre covid are gone and might not return. The expanded hurdles on face-to-face business, create enormous challenges and the businesses that can pivot quickly and leverage digital marketing will survive and grow. With uncertain times, social distancing and people working remotely the use of digital strategies, incorporating a fresh website, social media campaigns, SEO are critical to reach referral sources, clients, and new customers. 

I greatly appreciate all the contributions I received. I invited over 30 leaders in the senior care industry to be part of my expert roundup. Many showed interest initially, but they ultimately opted not to participate. This wasn’t overly surprising considering the senior care industry is still getting acquainted with the benefits that digital marketing can offer their businesses.

Whenever I’m invited to contribute information about digital marketing in the senior care space, I always accept. As a marketer, I believe in the power of building a brand using an online presence.

There’s no question that the onset of COVID-19 has had a major impact the world over. Companies that would never have considered allowing their employees to work remotely under any other circumstances, adapted abruptly. As challenging as it’s been to change the entire business model they’d become so comfortable with, large numbers of companies managed to do it successfully. They relied heavily on technology to stay connected with employees and customers.

Senior care agencies that fail to embrace digital marketing during this time of unprecedented opportunity are bound to fall behind the competition. The pandemic has highlighted the benefits that digital marketing offers to senior care agencies to help them reach their goals of helping others by growing their businesses. Senior care agencies and assisted living facilities will still likely welcome sales calls, especially if salespeople are willing to wear a face-covering as they arrive. However, such agencies are missing the thousands of potential leads of people that are using electronic devices to search for “home care services near me”, “assisted living facility in Brooklyn, NY”, and other related search terms.

In the interest of helping senior care agencies help others during this crucial time of need, I’m dedicated to educating the industry that I care so deeply about on how they can use digital marketing strategies to maximize the potential to grow their businesses while serving their communities.

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Top Solutions for Recruiting and Hiring Caregivers

hiring caregivers

For hiring and recruiting caregivers during times when it’s a top priority, you need top marketing solutions to fit the bill. Every caregiver agency is facing different circumstances. While you have access to several communication channels for recruiting caregivers, they’re not all equally useful. Certain marketing channels will benefit caregiver agencies than others. 

How can you be certain that the communication channels you’re using are reaching your target audience efficiently? The people that you’re looking to hire may be of a different generation than managers that stem from the baby boomer generation. That’s an important concept to consider because Gen X and the millennials are typically influenced by different communication channels than the baby boomers. 

The most recent generations are characterized by being active on social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter. They’re not apt to be looking for ads in the classified section of the local newspaper. Today’s job seekers are scouring the internet looking for their next employer. You’re better able to find the most skilled caregivers by tailoring your marketing strategy for recruiting and hiring around the channels that your target audience uses daily, rather than the ones that you have the greatest comfort level with. 

This article provides as many ideas as possible so that you can make your own decisions about the types of communication channels that will yield your agency the best results. Getting stellar results takes a bit of time, but don’t worry too much. It’s easier than you might think.

To continually refine your process, it’s important to track the following data for each channel:

  • Cost-per-hire
  • Number of applicants
  • Turnover rate

Consider the following options for communication channels that you can use for home care hiring and recruiting solutions to get new hires:

  • Organic traffic through social media outlets
  • Paid ads through social media outlets
  • Google ads
  • Email marketing
  • Online hiring platforms and job boards
  • SEO for caregiver recruitment
  • Referral programs
  • Open houses for caregiver recruitment
  • Caregiver training events
  • Hiring automation platform for recruiting

Organic Social Media 

A strong social media presence is your key to hire more caregivers. Facebook ads for hiring is resource where individuals in the generations that you want to hire will see every day. 

Facebook ads for employment allows you to set the geographical location of where your future employees reside. Posting jobs every day on your company’s Facebook page is a valuable way to attract caregiver talent. The job features only allow you to post one position at a time, but your post can work in your favor when you attract lots of followers because it will give you organic visibility. 

You can also run your posting as a Facebook ad to target potential recruits. Facebook automatically fills out the application with the jobseeker’s profile which allows them to edit it as necessary. 

Instagram is yet another social media platform that you can use strategically to hire more caregivers. You might consider running a contest asking your followers to tag others that might be interested in a caregiver job offer. You could offer a gift card to them for their efforts. People love contests and free rewards. They’re a great way to help you increase engagement on your social media pages and build thousands of followers. The more that you can build the momentum of the buzz about your jobs and your company, the more likely you will be to attract caregiver recruits. 

Paid Social Media Ads

You have two options for posting paid Facebook ads. 

  1. Boost a post 
  2. Create a paid campaign to promote your job post

Facebook also owns Instagram and it uses the Facebook Ads Manager for ad posting. If you’re interested in segmenting your audience further and tracking analytics, Facebook Manager is a better option than boosting a post because it gives you more call-to-action options. Click on Facebook Ads Manager where you can set your ads up according to your marketing plan. 

Facebook Ads Campaign to recruit caregivers

If you plan to have your staff run Facebook ad campaigns, they can take an exam to be certified. The Facebook Blueprint Certification for advanced-level proficiency in running ads on Facebook’s platform.  

Once you get into the Facebook Ad Manager, you’ll need to clearly define your target audience. Shoot for the broadest audience possible while setting reasonable parameters to attract those that you want to apply.  The placement feature is something you should give careful consideration to. Your selection tells Facebook where to place your ads on Facebook and Instagram. 

I find that the most reasonable budget for small-to-average home care agencies is between $350-$500 per month. That might sound high, but you’ll likely get a good return on your investment. This kind of budget works well for more than just recruitment ads. In my experience, Facebook ads are the most cost-effective way to recruit caregivers. I’ve run many ads on Facebook for recruiting caregivers for clients and the results have been nothing short of amazing. 

Case Study

Google Ads for Recruitment

Google ads give you another top opportunity to identify and engage with potential caregiver recruits. Google’s platform offers extraordinary options for creating hyper-focused ad campaigns. When you set the right parameters, you’ll find that their platform will attract caregivers within certain cities, towns, or zip codes. You can even set a parameter for a specified radius from your facility. 

To maximize your efforts, make certain to spend some time doing keyword research. Your job seekers will likely be putting things like HHA, CHHA, or CNA into the search box when they’re looking for a job. 

To get the most clicks, write great ad copy using clear and simple language. Google ads work similarly to Facebook ads in that you pay for every click. If you have a high-converting landing page, you’ll know that your Facebook or Google ad campaign was a success. You can expect the cost of each caregiver that you hire to cost between $200 to $300 depending on the location. 

Generally, digital marketing requires a lot of testing, and setting up social media ad campaigns is no different. Your goal is to get the largest number of recruits for your marketing budget. Bear in mind that Google ads target a different audience than Facebook ads and the Google ads tend to cost a bit more than Facebook ads. It’s wise to do some testing and calculate your investment for ads for both platforms against your return on investment. 

In addition to posting ads on social media platforms, it’s also a good idea to look at some other strategies for home care hiring and recruiting solutions. 

Job Boards

You may have used sites like Indeed, Craigslist, and some others to hire more caregivers. Jobseekers are certainly combing those sites, and you may get a few recruits from those efforts. It’s wise to keep using them because you want to cast the widest net possible. 

Beyond the concept of getting your company’s name out in front of jobseekers, it’s essential to evaluate the quality of your ads. Your ads should be attractive, eye-catching, and readable. 

It’s very time-consuming to create jobseeker ads on a host of different sites. Some caregiver agencies may decide that it’s more cost-effective for them to hire a recruiting platform to automate the process for you. 

The following sites offer job boards to help you find top talent in caregiver jobs:

  • Indeed
  • Monster
  • Glassdoor
  • US Jobs
  • Adzuna
  • Careerbuilder
  • Craigslist
  • Jobaccept
  • Simplyhired.com
  • Snagajob.com
  • Care.com
  • LDS employment service
  • Caregiver List
  • Caring.com
  • Jobing.com

Email Marketing for Recruiting

As you acquire new applicants, ask them to please “opt in” to your emails so that you can communicate with them via email. You may also want to ask them to “opt in” for text messages from your agency. Getting their permission gives you the right to send them emails about recruiting even more caregivers. 

You may receive 100 applicants in response to your social media ad campaigns or from other sources, and if you only have 60 positions to fill, you’ll still want to maintain a connection with the other 40 applicants. 

Your next step is to respond that you’ve received their applications and you’ll contact them as soon as possible. As you’ll be communicating with them via email moving forward, also ask them to “opt in” for your emails. 

You’ll proceed with hiring 60 of the applicants and you can continue with an email marketing campaign for recruiting to the other 40 applicants. That will give you a pipeline of potential caregivers. 

Mass marketing software like Mailchimp and Constant Contact are valuable tools for creating caregiver recruit lists. These software solutions allow you to create multiple lists for different email campaigns. This feature gives you the ability to create segments for recruits and the candidates that you hired. Your CRM software may connect with mass email marketing software so that you can create automated, customized email campaigns.  

Caregivers also tend to know a lot of other caregivers. Even if you can’t work things out to hire a particular caregiver, they may refer another caregiver to you. Referral programs can be quite successful using this strategy. 

SEO a Recruiting Channel

The caregiver resource section of your website can be a valuable lead generation tool for your Human Resource department. 

SEO can be one of the best tools to help you get qualified home caregivers. Create content on your blog or company website that targets topics like “Caregiver Interview Questions.” Quality caregivers want to be “in the know” about blog information, articles, free courses, and videos about home caregiving. By posting informative information that’s targeted to the caregiving population, it tells workers that you’re proactive in the field and that you care about educating your workers so that they’re always at the top of their game. 

Quality home caregivers are on the hunt for positions where agencies provide them with value. If your home care agency has a stellar reputation, it’s to the caregiver’s benefit to list your agency on their resume for future employment if they ever need it. 

Post content with titles like “How to Become a Home Caregiver with Specialization in Parkinson’s Disease.” Articles on other topics like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are also issues that home caregivers will be interested in. 

You can make your blog articles do double duty by turning them into an eBook and giving them away in exchange for collecting contact information. 

You’ll have the best success in using your agency’s website for recruiting caregivers when you add contact forms to all the pages of your website that are related to caregiver job-seeking. 

Ad banners are another useful tool for promoting caregiver job opportunities. 

With so many digital tools and strategies at your disposal, along with having to spend many hours on keyword research and writing good content, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and do nothing at all. Your best option may be to hire a digital marketing agency to take the work off your hands and perhaps, even get better results than you could do alone. 

Make the best use of the time you spend creating content by using it as a resource for creating videos and infographics. If your budget allows, promote your blog articles on your social media platforms and send them out to recipients via email marketing campaigns. 

Recruitment Platform Solution

Posting on multiple job boards is tedious and time-consuming when you’re trying to run a business. Nevertheless, it’s important to make the effort to give your time and attention to caregiver recruiting and hiring to keep your agency fully staffed with quality home caregivers. By posting on as many communication channels as possible, you’re certain to find the best match between your agency and the types of caregivers you want to employ. We offer a recruiting and hiring platform that will increase the reach for your job post. The recruiting solution that we offer will automate things for you such as each time you post a new job the automation will post your new job on Facebook, Twitter, Indeed.

If your senior care business needs to hire staff such as Caregivers, HHA, CNA, RNA, or any other talent; We can help. Just send us a message by using our Contact form.

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How to Use Facebook to Recruit Caregivers for Seniors

How to use facebook to hire caregivers

Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with family and friends because it’s the largest online meeting place. Perhaps you haven’t considered that it’s equally productive for business purposes for exactly the same reason. In fact, if you’re in the market to do some hiring, you’re bound to find your next employee on Facebook. 

 

Here’s why—Facebook has been online for 16 years and they had almost 1.7 billion active daily users by the end of 2019. That means there are millions of men and women between the ages of 18 and 65 on Facebook every day. People are drawn to Facebook, in part, because they enjoy how interactive it is. That makes Facebook a huge resource for hiring and recruitment for home health care staff.

 

Recruiting Top Talent with Facebook

 

Facebook’s platform is evolving in ways that get better and better for business. Over 60 million businesses have active business pages and you should too. Hiring and recruitment with Facebook are virtually effortless when you know how to use Facebook for the task. 

 

If you don’t have a Facebook business page, it’s as easy to set up as it is to set up a personal Facebook page. Just follow this 4-step process:

 

  1. Go to facebook.com/pages/create. Select the box for business/brand. 
  2. Add your business name to your page and write up a summary of what your business does for the “about” section. 
  3. Add a profile photo and a cover photo. Many businesses like to use their logo for their profile photo. The cover photo can be anything that you feel best represents your business. 
  • Your slogan
  • A photo of your business
  • A group photo of your staff

This link will help you get the dimensions of your photo right for various mobile devices. 

 

  1. A call-to-action that asks your visitors to visit your website, call your number or inquire about a career. 

Post the Right Content for Caregiver Recruitment on Facebook

 

As a general rule, whether it’s a blog article, an event, or anything else, your visitors will be more responsive to soft-sell content. Remember that people pull up their Facebook accounts mostly or entertainment. Good business content will distract them from it, but a hard-sell will likely be a turn-off. 

 

Here are some things to keep in mind when writing a social media job post:

 

  • Make it relevant
  • Let your brand shine
  • Offer a soft call-to-action by asking them to “comment,” “like,” or “share”
  • Don’t use job postings every day
  • Answer their questions in your ad-hiring right away, all shifts available, etc. 

Here are some ways to apply those tips:

 

  • Add short videos of your staff talking about why they love their job (and your brand).
  • Short videos of your clients expressing appreciation for a particular caregiver.
  • Give a shout-out to your newest employees.
  • Photos of cheerful, hard-working staff doing what they do best.
  • Sharing blog content that’s geared toward caregivers.
  • Lead them to other relevant content like education opportunities or additional training.

Creating a Great Social Media Job Post for Home Care

 

In keeping with the soft-sell approach, list the essential information, but don’t give everything away in one post. Here’s a tip for what to include:

 

  • Job title
  • Location
  • Link to where they can apply
  • Call to action link to see the job description or apply today

You can post your job ad as a regular post. Facebook lets you post a job as an official job post. 

 

if you have room in your budget and you want greater visibility or your job post, you can also use a paid ad or your job post. To run a paid ad, you can “boost a post” or go into Facebook Ads Manager and create a paid ad campaign to highlight your job post. 

 

To boost a post, just click on the “boost” box and follow the intuitive steps. Limit your boost to about a week for the best results.

 

In setting up your ad, pay attention to the geographical radius that you want to attract talent from. Choose the broadest audience possible while being mindful of your budget. 

 

Support Human Resources with a Winning Facebook Recruitment Campaign 

 

If you want to expand or segment your audience for hiring and recruitment a bit more, you can also run ads on Instagram (just FYI, Facebook owns Instagram) by using the Facebook Ads Manager. This makes it easier to track your analytics to assess your results and it gives you more control over producing and maintaining your ads. 

 

The same soft-sell rules apply:

 

  • Define your audience broadly.
  • Think strategically about whether to place your ads on feeds, stories, videos, on Instagram or inside Messenger.
  • Review your analytics and make changes to your ads two or three times a week.
  • Expect your results to vary quite a bit. Take note of ads that aren’t performing well.

Analyze Your Results and Revamp Your Hiring and Recruitment Strategy

 

When you put the right content on social media and properly optimize it, it can be a real asset for recruiting senior caregivers.

 

Remember that there are thousands of people looking for jobs on Facebook, so it pays to engage with them in on a platform that they love and already have a comfort level with. Be sure to follow up with prospects for employees as quickly as possible. If you don’t respond in a timely manner, you may appear disingenuous and it could damage your brand. 

 

When you use Facebook to recruit senior caregivers, you’re meeting them where they’re at and you’re introducing your brand at the same time. Even if it’s not the right time for them to answer your ad, they will know where to find you when they’re ready, and they make like or share your ad for now. 

If you need help hiring Caregivers. Senior Care Clicks can create a winner Pay Per Click Campaign on Facebook to recruit quality caregivers for your Senior Care Business.

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Paid Advertising Helps Generate Leads for Your Home Care Agency

Pay per click options for home care

Paid advertising strategies for home care agencies can be a real asset in your annual digital marketing plan. Pay per click marketing is an online ad that you pay for. As broad and simple as that sounds, the right strategies will help you reach your marketing goals, attract quality caregivers, and bring new clients to your door. 

 

You’ve put a lot of time, thought, and energy into your website and it can do substantially more for your brand than paint a pretty picture. The cost of pay per click campaigns for home care can be worth their weight when you use the right strategies. 

 

One tool that works well for lead generation is Google AdWords. Using an algorithm and bidding model that automatically structures the order and appearance of the ads, pay per click home care ads are a snap. One word of caution with Google AdWords is that it’s sometimes harder for small, local home care companies to rank against huge companies that bowl the market over by investing a huge amount of money and bidding high on top keywords.

 

If you’ve ever shopped online for a product, you might see that product reappear before you on different sites. This is a strategy called remarketing. It’s an effective pay per click home care strategy for several reasons:

 

  • It places your ad front and center of people that have already expressed interest in your product or service. 
  • It keeps your brand in front of your audience.
  • It increases awareness of your brand. 
  • No matter which sites your prospects click on, your remarketing home care ad keeps nudging them to click on it. 

 

Social media advertising can be especially good for home care agencies in specific markets. You can do some experimenting with Twitter and LinkedIn, but you get a better return on your investment with Facebook paid ads. Social media advertising isn’t exactly searching engine marketing, but it’s an effective way to generated leads through PPC ads.  I can guarantee you that pay per click marketing for home care works.

 

Paid Ads for Home Care Companies Help You Reach Your Business Goals

 

When making decisions about paid advertising campaigns for home health care, it’s important to consider:

 

  1. Your goals
  2. Target audience
  3. Budget

 

Facebook ads give you a lot of exposure for the cost. Here are some good ways to use them:

 

  • Attract more caregivers
  • Improve brand recognition
  • Get videos in front of your target audience
  • Provide specific home care services
  • Drive traffic to your website

 

Here are a few more tips to make Google Paid Ads for Home Care work better for you:

 

  • Bear in mind that PPC will steer clients to you, but caregivers will click on them too.
  • Don’t use “caregiver “as your keyword and limit the word in your ad description.
  • Optimize your campaign for the best time, device, keywords, and ads.
  • For Google AdWords, optimize your campaign daily, check search terms, and add ane exclude keywords.
  • Add extensions to make your ad attractive and draw your audience in.
  • If your budget allows, use a 24/7 call center. 

 

In my experience, we get an increase in organic conversions when we run home care PPC advertisements. If they don’t get the service the first time, but come back later, it counts as organic traffic. ( usually organic traffic and “organic conversions increase when running PPC ads)

 

 Is Investing in Paid Advertising a Good Choice for Home Care Agency?

 

Because Google ads have a varied performance depending on your specialization, they tend to work well for home care companies. PPC ads are an easy way to grab their attention. 

 

Choosing the Right Keywords for Your Google Paid Ads

 

Spend the bulk of your time researching keywords that work. 

keyword for home care services

 

 

 

  • Keep your niche in mind and target your campaigns.
  • Choose relevant keywords and discard others.
  • Steer away from one-word broad keywords that are highly searched-they’re very expensive to bid on. 
  • Go for “phrase match” and “broad modified” keyword type when setting up a Google Ads Campaign.

 

For example, “home care” as a keyword will also trigger your ad for “home care job” which isn’t what you’re after. You’ll have less competition for bids on “long-tail keywords”  which helps your budget. Consider terms like:

 

  • Homecare for my parents
  • Home health care agency in NYC
  • Need care for elderly
  • Senior care services near me
  • Cost of home care for seniors

 

Track Your Success with Your Landing Page

 

Since Paid ads will impact your budget, you’ll do well to create high-converting landing pages. Try these tips to fill up your sales funnel:

 

  • Use the campaign keywords in your landing page to have a good Quality Score
  • Make your offer clear on each page.
  • Use service-oriented headlines.
  • Include your phone number, contact form, and testimonials.
  • Use contrasting colors.
  • Keep important information near the top.
  • Use scarcity techniques.
  • Be straightforward on your call-to-action button.
  • Optimize your landing page.
  • Keep A/B testing. 

 

Another good tip is to create a thank you page and set up Google Analytics to track users that reach it so you can track conversions.

 

Paid Ads for CDPAP Home Care Agencies

 

Have you considered the benefit of advertising CDPAP during the pandemic? Seniors are a high-risk population for COVID and unemployment is rising. This is a prime time for family members to ensure that they’re seniors aren’t at risk and they get paid to take care of them. The best way to get the word out on this is to run PPC ads on Google and Facebook. 

 

Is the Cost of PPC Worth Using for My Home Care Agency?

 

PPC campaigns are always worthwhile when they’re effective. If you have a low budget, Facebook ads can be very cost-effective. They work great for home healthcare and private duty home care, as well as for recruiting caregivers. 

 

With 3.5 billion searches on Google every day, Google AdWords might be a good option to help you meet your goals. Be aware that Google AdWords cost more and that your bids are apt to be competing with large home care companies and national companies. LinkedIn is also quite expensive, but in my experience, it’s worth the cost when pursuing B2B clients for referrals. 

Finally, consider this—it can cost you big bucks to rely fully on your sales team to bring in new clients. You have to pay the salesperson, a commission, expenses, and the cost of sales events. By comparison with a solid PPC marketing campaign, you can get valuable results on several fronts. A well-constructed PPC home care advertising plan will help you attract caregivers, acquire new clients, and enhance your branding efforts. So, it’s definitely worth making it an integral part of your overall marketing plan. 

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How to Know if my Home Care Agency Website Needs an Update

Home care agency website

Your home care agency website is one of your most prominent marketing tools. That’s why it’s so important to make sure that your home care website design really works for you. Before you get started on setting it up, you need to get a few things in order. 

 

  • Know your home health care website’s purpose.
  • What is your brand’s personality? How should your customer feel when they land on your home page?
  • Who are your target audiences? (will determine your content and layout)
  • What attributes will your target audience be looking for in a home care website?
  • What questions will they want to be answered?
  • What are your goals?
  • How will your website achieve your goals?

 

The information gathering that you do in the beginning forms the scope of your overall marketing plan. As you set to work putting all the various pieces together, you need to decide what the top-level pages should be and which subpages should go below them. Setting things up this way will help to make your site intuitive and user-friendly.

 

Building a Great Home Care Agency Website

 

Just as your customers are looking for certain information on your home care agency website, search engines are also crawling all over it and they’re making decisions about whether the content on your website is relevant and helpful. Your main goal here is to develop the highest quality website in the eyes of your customers and the search engines. 

 

A successful and responsive website is comprised of the following 10 features and functions:

 

  1. The home care website provides relevant information about services and other important pages 
  2. It has a design, look, and feel that tells your brand story.
  3. It’s uniquely different from competitors within the same industry. 
  4. It loads quickly and looks great on all mobile devices. 
  5. It’s built on SEO and uses an SEO-friendly content management system like WordPress.
  6. It’s built to attract customers and search engines efficiently.
  7. It includes an informational blog that will assist in SEO efforts.
  8. It has built-in security and maintenance systems. 
  9. It’s conducive to implementing a wide variety of digital marketing tools-blogging, social media, email marketing, and online reviews.
  10. The blog gets updated regularly about aging care topics and it includes relevant keywords and topics.

 

 

The Importance of Updating Your Home Care Company Website

 

You have to put a lot of time, money, and effort into your website to make it valuable. What’s trendy today is outdated tomorrow. By measuring your website’s performance, you can ensure that your website is continually relevant, updated, and responsive to your company’s goals. 

 

Following are some great reasons that you need a new website:

 

  • Your website isn’t responsive-check it on all mobile devices to make sure your site is visible and loads quickly.
  • The content on your website is outdated-if your blogs are using statistics from 10 years ago, it’s time to update them.
  • You refreshed your brand but not your website-your brand is a reflection of your company. If you invested time and money in refreshing your brand, be sure to carry the look and feel over to your website. 
  • Your website loads too slowly-no one is going to wait around for your page to load. Check it on various devices from time to time. If it doesn’t load for you, your customers are moving on.
  • Your website has a high bounce rate-you want people to spend as much time as possible looking at your pages. If people land on your page and leave quickly, it’s possible that your site is uninteresting and static. Some engaging content will keep your customers lingering longer. 

 

Google Analytics will help you to track and measure the source of your leads and how your visitors navigate your site. If your site is effective, you should be able to see that your visitors are filling out contact forms on the back end. 

 

Essential Elements of Home Care Web Development

 

You have many options of things that you can add to your home care agency website. Be cautious about adding things that sound like they’re nice to have but don’t do anything for your company to draw in new customers. Consider adding the essential elements first. It doesn’t hurt to experiment with some other strategies later on or from time to time to see what works.

 

  • Craft an engaging home page-make sure it tells who you are in the first 10 seconds. Make your first paragraph a total standout!
  • Inspire trust with your About Us page-seek to impress while being factual and humble. This is the page to highlight your credentials, certifications, awards, and community service.
  • Clear site navigation and structure-your visitors should be able to easily and readily find the information they need.
  • Clear Call-to-Action-your call-to-action is the key to lead generation, so make it visible and prominent. 
  • Use a functional CRM program-keep your content fairly simple so that it’s easy to update across all mobile devices. WordPress is a good choice because it’s SEO-friendly, has a fast loading speed, has built-in security, and is backed by a wide range of designers and developers.
  • Add a place to sign up for a newsletter–this is a great way to capture new leads. Use the link on your website and in email campaigns. Infographics make nice additions to newsletters.
  • Automate your reviews-use a reputation management tool that shows reviews, updates new reviews, and collects reviews automatically. 

 

Your home care agency website is the hub of your digital marketing strategy. It’s of prime importance because it forms the basis for a comprehensive multi-level digital marketing strategy. 

 

Do you need to create a new website for your home care agency? Are you ready to revamp your existing site to be more mobile and SEO-friendly? Do you need a fresh set of eyes to review your website so that it’s current and virus-free?

 

No matter what your needs are, leave the design of your website and website management to a senior care marketing agency.

Senior Care Clicks offers Home Care website design, development, and management. Check our home care website design service.

 

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How to Market Home Health Care Services

how to market home health care services

If your home care agency has been growing at a steady pace, you’re doing a lot of things right. When you don’t give your overall digital marketing strategy a regular review, your steady growth can begin to slow down to a snail’s pace overnight. Past strategies can become disconnected and even the best marketing plan can become stale and outdated over time. Then you have to do the changes needed to market home health care services in the right way.

 

Change is a good thing and there are certainly a lot of changes going on right now in our industry, marketing technology, and social media. Each one of those things has a strong bearing on creating a home health care marketing strategy. It’s time to update your marketing strategy to make it more connected and prime it to meet the business challenges of today.

 

Marketing for home health care services is more than just bringing new clients into your sales funnel. In addition to sales, a strong home care digital marketing plan incorporates customer service and hiring.

 

Why Your Home Care Business Needs an Updated Digital Marketing Strategy

 

When marketing home health care services, there’s no better time than today to take a more strategic review of your master digital marketing plan. The gradual aging of the baby boomer population is a big reason for that. 

 

 

We have to also be honest about the lessons that we’ve learned most recently from the COVID-19 crisis that can help prolong the lives of seniors and also improve the quality of life for seniors. The National Council on Aging (NCOA) surveyed nursing facilities and assisted living facilities on how changes they’ve made to protect the spread of the disease. The survey shows the following:

 

  • Just over 80% of the facilities are closed with some staff reporting and they’re limiting the programs they normally offer. 
  • A bit over 15% of the facilities reported that their centers are closed, and no staff is reporting. 
  • Slightly over 4% of facilities are open and are operating a limited number of programs. 

 

It took a rapidly spreading, often deadly disease of a pandemic proportion to call our attention to the need to protect high-risk, vulnerable populations. There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 crisis has shone a spotlight on the benefits of the increased safety that can be provided through home care.

 

How To Market Home Health Care Services

 

Every day, 10,000 baby boomers celebrate their 65th birthdays. That means that the home health care industry is booming right along with them. As the industry expands, it creates a concurrent need to train and recruit a qualified workforce of senior caregivers. 

 

With unemployment on the rise and a workforce shortage in this area, recruiting and hiring will continue to be a challenge for the foreseeable future. Your website can be a vehicle that lands the best talent right at your door. 

 

Don’t forget to consider the growth of your competition. They’re taking advantage of local and franchise opportunities and they’re investing heavily in media and marketing promotions to capture a market share. 

 

When making your review on how to market your home health care services, be sure it includes the following four marketing tools:

 

  1. Facetime
  2. Earned media
  3. Advertising
  4. Digital marketing

 

Facetime

Facetime is a handy tool for salespeople in the field to pursue community outreach, client and family referrals, and institutional referrals. As you’re busy managing caregivers and clients, you can outsource the printing design to an experienced agency that focuses on senior care marketing which will connect you in a personal way to influencers that will send you new business. 

 

Earned Media

Use this tool to connect to your community in a meaningful way. Use traditional and digital press to make your brand shine. Enlist the help of a professional writer to write press releases to attract those baby boomers to your agency when they have the need. 

 

Advertising

Advertising is a good area to put in extra marketing budget dollars, but that doesn’t mean that you need to break the bank. If radio and TV ads are out of reach at this time, invest in social media, pay-per-click, and Google adwords, all of which will give you valuable data. 

 

Digital Marketing

Spend a fair amount of effort on inbound marketing that includes quality content, SEO, social networking, social ads, video (add in social media), mobile ads, email, e-news, and websites. 

 

Make it easy on yourself and work with a home care marketing agency to maximize your time and budget with advertising and digital marketing.

 

How to Market a Home Care Marketing Agency Using Digital Marketing Channels

 

Have you considered that the way that people look for services of all kinds has changed? Does your digital marketing strategy connect your home care agency directly with the channels that prospects are pursuing? 

 

Take a moment and put yourself in your customer’s shoes. If you’re like most people, when you get a referral for a business, you grab the nearest electronic device and check it out. 

 

The landing page offers up the first impression so make sure it’s great! As a customer, you’d want to know more about their services. If you were impressed, you’d take the time to check out the reviews and ratings and find the contact information. You might even glance at the FAQs to gain further insight. 

 

How does your website measure up to the expectations of your future clients?

 

  • Is it mobile-responsive? How does it look on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop?
  • Does it utilize SEO effectively? Can you manage it on your own, or would it be better by hiring a home care digital marketing agency?
  • Is it conducive to attracting attention from consumers and search engines?
  • Are you sharing helpful information via regular blog articles? This will enhance your efforts to attract consumers and search engines. 

 

Marketing Tips for Things to Avoid

 

Be aware of some of the things that won’t help your marketing efforts. Best practices hint at a few things not to do:

 

  • Craft a website using limited skills. Your website is a major reflection of your brand and it’s the most important place for it to shine. Some things are better left to a professional digital marketing agency that will design an engaging website and commit to keeping it current.
  • Create a website that’s too similar to your competitors. Your goal should be to develop a well-crafted brand story that uniquely connects your customer base to your agency.
  • Limit your marketing strategy to your website alone. Blogging, social media, email marketing, reviews, and other tools will expand your SEO efforts exponentially. 
  • Forgo investing in security and maintenance systems. It won’t help you attract clients if your website is down or poorly functioning. The last thing your reputation needs is to get hacked which could cost you far more than the cost of security measures. 

 

SEO for Home Care Agencies

 

The home care industry is racing to meet the demands of society for today and in the coming years. Quality home care services are in command more than they’ve ever been in the past. For many people, enlisting the help of a home care agency is new territory and they have lots of questions. Your website is the solution to finding the types of services they need.

 

The home care industry is fiercely competitive. The only way that your company can compete is to have the strongest SEO strategy possible. 

 

Google Map Presence for Local SEO

Local SEO

 

 

Unless your home care agency is nationwide, you need to have a good assessment of the geographic boundaries of your service area. Be certain on the radius of how far your providers can travel to home locations and how far loved ones will travel to your facilities for on-site visits. A local SEO strategy will help you focus your marketing efforts only within your designated locations. 

 

Business Listings to Enhance Your Location

 

When prospects search for a home care agency, they may pull up a few business listings. An easy way to improve your digital presence is to claim and enhance online business listings. Outdated or inaccurate listings are bound to hurt your brand. As online business directories expand and the SEO landscape evolves, it’s crucial to ensure that your business listings are accurate and consistent. 

 

Build Your Online Reviews and Testimonials

 

Consumers appreciate reviews because they provide a genuine first-person experience with your brand. A good personal experience speaks volumes when your prospects are considering opening up their homes and trusting their care to a complete stranger, no matter how qualified they may be. 

 

As important as reviews are, they’re not always easy to track down. A home care marketing agency has the necessary expertise to implement reputation management automation tools to collect reviews efficiently. Let a home care marketing expert take care of the marketing details so you can focus on running your business. 

 

Content Marketing to Promote Your Home Care Services

Because there are many moving pieces, marketing for home health care services can be a daunting task. That said, be careful not to put content marketing on the sidelines. 

 

Bear in mind that most people do careful research on small and large purchases. You can count on your clients to do their homework when researching home care for themselves or a loved one. Consumers are often motivated by their emotions to make a purchase or enter into a contract. Draw them in with engaging content using:

 

  • Videos-helps to form an emotional connection and instills trust and transparency.
  • Informative blogs-increases your organic search and expands your reach via social media, referral links, and email. Also, it serves as outreach for hiring.
  • Facebook-is an outlet that helps you develop trust, so you need to give it the necessary time and patience to build the right audience. 

 

Facebook also gives you the opportunity to connect with your own community using Facebook paid ads. If you have multiple locations, you can create a Facebook page for each one. 

 

While the marketing tips for Facebook and other digital marketing strategies are worthwhile, it’s obvious that many of them are also time-consuming. When you’ve exhausted your ability to devote the time and attention to your marketing efforts that your company deserves, it’s time to give it over to a qualified marketer or marketing agency that can truly give your marketing efforts justice. 

 

Putting All the Pieces Together for Your Home Care Marketing Strategy

 

Are you aware that health and healthcare information are the second-largest topics that consumers look for when they search on Google, Bing or Yahoo? By leveraging the internet, social media, and electronic data you can rank on the first page of all the major search engines. In the mind of your future clients, the home care agencies that appear on the first page are the top experts in their field and they won’t find that on page two. It’s not enough for you to know that you own one of the top home care agencies in your area. You want new clients to have the same assurance. 

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Digital Marketing Strategies for Senior Living in Times of Coronavirus

Digital Marketing strategies for senior living

admin Karina has spent most of her career working in the senior care industry, mostly as a digital marketing manager for home care and nursing home facilities. With 8+ years of hands-on experience in digital marketing to her credit, Karina also worked as a consultant for senior care businesses. As someone who cares deeply for […]

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