Home Care Marketing Plan: Creative Digital Strategies for Success

The right home health marketing strategies give you a win-win advantage. Why? Because you get the best of both worlds where you can attract lots of new customers and the most highly-qualified caregivers to care for them.

The good news is that even if you’re not a creative person, it’s easy to get creative with digital marketing when you integrate multiple channels into your marketing strategy.

If you consider the news from AARP that 87% of people over the age of 65 want to age in place in the home they love, and you consider that 73 million baby boomers fit into this category, it’s clear to see what a booming industry home health care is.

Getting creative with home care online marketing is the key to establishing your reputation as a top home care agency in the industry. The climate is ripe for you to attract new clients, hire quality caregivers, and increase your bottom line.

Home Care Advertising: A Current Window of Opportunity  

The U.S. Census Bureau refers to the current climate as the “gray tsunami”. That’s a creative and accurate description to describe the recent changes in the U.S. population.

Here are some facts that support the storm:

·   As of 2009, about 12 million people were receiving care from over 33,000 home care providers.

·   The 2000 Home and Hospice Care Survey showed that 69% of people receiving home care services were over age 65.

·   Baby boomers are reaching the age of 65 at a rate of 10,000 per day.

On a related note, the majority of those baby boomers use the internet at least weekly and they’re reading online reviews before making choices about products and services. About 90% of internet searchers rely on online reviews to form an opinion about a company’s reputation.

The demand for home care services has never been greater and that means that home care marketing will set you on course to strike while the market is hot.

Build the Foundation of Your Home Care Marketing Plan

Just as you have goals for growing your business, you also need to establish goals for home care digital marketing. Your business goals should dovetail with your home care marketing goals.

Social media platforms are bursting with activity. Your competitors are using them to grow their businesses and find the best local talent in caregivers. If you’re not doing the same, you’re missing a huge opportunity.

Another major part of successful home health marketing strategies is defining your target audience. In home care marketing, you generally have three target audiences:

1. Seniors

2. Adult children of seniors

3. Caregivers

A few home care marketing ideas will help you take that foundation and start building on it.

Adapt Your Home Care Marketing Plan to Industry Trends

Two things are causing great evolution in the field of home healthcare:

1. Advancements in health care

2. Advancements in technology

The really great thing for home care agencies is that these two developments work very nicely together. Tweeting and commenting online helps to develop an “online buzz” about the value your agency provides. Even the president of the United States pumps out tweets on a regular basis.

Your Mission Defines Your Unique Selling Point (USP)

Home health care is a niche area of the greater health care industry. As a home care agency, you have a very specific audience. That’s a feather in your cap when it comes to home care advertising because when you use the right marketing strategies, you can tailor your marketing messages to attract the right audiences.

Be clear on the issues that separate you from your competition. If that seems challenging, look to your mission to guide your path.

Your Agency as an Industry Leader: Home Care Marketing Ideas that Work

Chances are that you’re using technology in several different ways in your daily operations. Your home care marketing plan offers a convenient way to describe how technology makes it more efficient for you to deliver home care services.  

Blog about how you use software solutions to book appointments, track caregiver time, manage payroll, and automate billing. Your website, blog, and other online postings are the best platforms to get the word out that you prioritize health care services and you’re willing to invest in the latest technologies to maintain your reputation as an industry expert.  

Blogging: An Essential Tool in Home Care Marketing

Your clients and caregivers have a wealth of heartwarming experiences to share. By adding a blog to your website, it gives you the following ways to interact with your target audience:

·   Informs

·   Educates

·   Engages

·   Highlights solutions

·   Storytelling

·   Features use cases

Post content according to your designated marketing schedule to stay active on all marketing platforms. Drive traffic to your website with every post in ways that focus on generating leads and attracting potential caregivers.

Keywords and SEO Are the Heart of Homecare Online Marketing

To get people looking at your website, you first need to get Google’s attention. The way to do that is with search engine optimization (SEO) and using keywords properly. Something that should get your attention is that using SEO strategies is free, which means it’s easy on your marketing budget.

A little keyword research will give you the terms that will attract people interested in home care services. All you need to do is add them to your web pages, blog, and other home care advertising messages and reap the rewards in higher traffic and leads.  

Get Creative with Social Media to Bolster Your Home Care Marketing Strategy

If you’re new to social media marketing, start with one platform and add more platforms gradually so you can get used to how each platform works.

Some good social media platforms to start with are:

·   Facebook

·   Twitter

·   LinkedIn

SeniorCareClicks authored a great article on social media for home health care that can help you get started.

Use a tone that’s consistent and professional on all platforms. Here are a few ideas about home health care topics:

·   Talk about your expertise within the industry.

·   Tell about how you deliver on the promise of compassionate, personalized care.

·   Highlight the types of services you provide.

·   Showcase individual caregivers.

·   Feature best practices and new trends in home health care.

Using Paid Advertising for a Big Pay-Off in Home Care Marketing

While it’s smart to take advantage of free advertising whenever you can, you can bolster your SEO efforts exponentially by investing in the right paid advertising promotions. Paid ads and press releases, which are brief and easy to read are good tools to capture your audience’s attention for people that aren’t inclined to read full articles.

The best approach is to invest your marketing dollars in a few quality ads rather than many ads that aren’t eye-catching.

SEO, blogging, public relations, and social media are all components of a strong home care marketing plan. If that all sounds overwhelming to you, the right choice for you may be to outsource your home marketing plan to a professional marketing team that has the right tools and expertise to give your home care agency the greatest advantage.

Call SeniorCareClicks at (954) 401-9058 to learn more!