If you run or own an assisted living facility, you may be wondering how to get more clients into your doors. There are a few main takeaways that you should absolutely be focusing on. We’ll go over each main point and point you in the right direction so you can be successful in the long run.
Not only will we cover the three main points, but we will then break those down even further. We go into detail on everything and how to best attract the clients that you want. Some of them are more likely to pull in clients than others, but all together can make your assisted living facility look incredibly attractive, so keep reading to learn more.
Community Involvement
One of the biggest ways to find more clients and expand your reach is to simply be involved in the community you serve. There are so many options you can choose, such as open houses or even reaching out to social workers in the area.
Connecting with the community is one of the best ways to show that you want to serve the people in the area and that you have their care in mind. It will also get your name out there for people who may not even know your facility existed.
Another thing to add is that we see a lot of assisted living facilities come under fire in the news for poor management or conditions. You need to prove to the community that you are different and have their loved ones’ needs at the front of your mind.
Community Days
There are some options you can choose for community days. The best option is to have an open house-type of deal where you serve food and drinks as well. This allows potential clients and their families to see what type of facility you run and if it will suit their specific needs.
It also creates a greater sense of community and shows compassion. When potential clients see the effort you are putting into care and consideration, you will garner more interest that way. If you opt for a day of fun and information, make sure to have plenty of material to hand out so they know what your facility offers and what your pricing options entail.
Additionally, whoever runs the facility should be on-site for this event because people want to know who they are trusting their loved ones with. It also offers the chance to have a meaningful dialogue between both parties and get everything out in the open.
Attend Community Health Fairs
Most large cities should have community health fairs/safety days. These events will help you meet people who may be looking for an assisted living facility and network with professionals that can help you gain more clients.
During these events, make sure you have small things to give away with your brand name on them, such as:
- Pens
- Notepads
- Cups
Another important note is to have plenty of pamphlets or brochures to pass out so people can get all the information they need to make an informed decision.
These events can bring in many potential customers, especially if you are the only assisted living facility participating in these events. It’s a good idea to network and get your name out there as much as humanly possible. You can’t attract more people if they don’t even know you exist.
Connect with Social Workers
This point is huge. If you want to increase your numbers, make sure you are in touch with social workers that deal in people’s welfare. These can be everyday caseworkers or ones that specifically deal with patients in a hospital setting.
Social workers are maxed out with their workloads already, so having resources available immediately for people who need assisted living can be a huge time saver. Sell them on your specific facility and why it’s the best option for certain cases. With a good relationship, you can potentially significantly increase your occupancy.
If you prove that you are an excellent facility, social workers will talk amongst themselves, and you can network amongst them. Ideally, you want to be the first facility that gets recommended to any potential clients.
Marketing
Marketing is something you will have to get good at or hire someone who is good at it. You can target locally and a wider range as well. Search engine optimization and a solid website are going to do absolute wonders for the audience you’d like to target.
There is a lot of competition out there for assisted living facilities, and you need to be on top of it to attract more clients than your competitors. Plus, in the age of electronics, a lot of your traffic and business will come from people who saw an ad or a search result for your facility.
It may seem daunting at first, but as long as you keep on top of everything, maintaining the traffic after you’ve done everything necessary should be relatively easy. It’ll be a little bumpy initially, but it is an absolute necessity these days.
Website SEO
You can easily find people to do search engine optimization for your website to ensure you are coming up at the top of search results. It’s not helpful if your website is buried pages deep on a platform like Google.
Many people that are searching for basically anything don’t go past the first couple of pages. So, you can either learn how to optimize it yourself or find a company/freelancers to do it for you. Hitting the front page is ideal and will bring your website a ton of visitors and hopefully customers.
There is also this handy guide for how to begin your SEO journey. It’s a little bit of a learning curve but is absolutely doable by someone with the time to dedicate to learning it.
Update and Maintain Website
Nothing turns people off faster than a poorly made or outdated website. You can hire people to run the backend of your website for you and even the front end. However, with some websites, the front end can be easily managed by someone with a little bit of knowledge.
Your goal is to attract people and show them why they should choose you over anyone else. Use visuals and have easily located drop-down menus so that anything they need is available for them to browse through. It’s also a good idea to have some sort of FAQ on your website as well. Choose some of the most commonly asked questions you receive and add that in.
Advertise Locally
This is pretty easy to see why it’s crucial. You want the community you are in to be able to find you. You can take ads out in a local newspaper or, if you are in a larger area, see if there are any local senior-catered magazines. This will allow you to have a further reach in your ideal area.
Create a Newsletter
You can use a variety of different websites to send out email newsletters. Businesses around the world have used these with varying rates of success. If someone is looking for an assisted living facility but isn’t quite sure what to go with, having a monthly newsletter could be beneficial.
You should include information about your facility and even things such as upcoming events. It also wouldn’t hurt to include things pertaining to your target demographic, such as health and wellness information or tips and tricks to help solve problems. You are looking to engage people that are interested in your facility.
Make sure the tone is informative and also friendly. Try not to include too much fluff in these newsletters because that tends to steer people away. Do not send out too many newsletters via email because people will end up annoyed and sending it to spam, which is something you do not want.
There is also the option of sending out newsletters to people in your town locally. Simply ask if someone would like to sign up, or you could even try sending one out to as many people as you can, similar to other ads people receive via the mail.
Social Media
Social media is something that nearly everyone is involved in. You should look for things like:
- TikTok
Ideally, you want to show people that you are personable and have a well-run facility that will care for their loved ones.
Engagement is critical when it comes to social media. So, if people make comments or ask questions, it’s a good idea to reply to those in a kind and personable fashion. If someone is being rude or antagonistic, try to answer as helpfully as possible because deleting things like that can set off red flags for some people.
However, dealing with someone who is irate should be handled with care. If someone seems to have a personal problem with someone who works there, those should be deleted and handled privately. It’s a double-edged sword: social media can bring in tons of traffic, but you have to keep an eye out for people looking to smear you.
Maintain Social Media Accounts
Simply posting occasionally is usually not enough. When you make your accounts, be engaged and active, even if you make a silly post from time to time. Having dead social media accounts doesn’t look very attractive to people trying to get a feel for your facility and what they can expect for their loved ones.
You can choose basically any social media platform or all of them. Make sure someone is available to answer questions during working hours. Many people will now message directly on Facebook Messenger instead of emailing or calling. The world has changed to be more internet friendly, and that’s how the younger generations are communicating.
Use your accounts to advertise your events as well and what you’ll be doing out in the community. If people have to send a loved one to an assisted living facility, they are going to want to know that they are well taken care of and safe in your care.
Purchase Ads on Social Media Platforms
Ads on social media are very polarizing. Some will say that it’s been a game changer and others find they have no success. Make sure your ads are informative and helpful. Also, include a link to your website as well. Try to get the ads to be as targeted as possible. You don’t want to be advertising to the wrong crowd and get no follow-through.
Try a trial run if you don’t want to shell out a ton of money for something that may or may not work. This can show you if your ad is impactful and get people to click through to your website. If you find that it isn’t working, you can cut your losses or try to change the ad up and hope you hit your target demographic.
You can also hire people who are ad experts and can offer insight or outright write and run your ads for you. That obviously adds to your expenses, but it really could end up being a big hit. If you still notice that they aren’t working, it’s best to shelve the ads for another time.
Sponsored Content
You can also consider finding an influencer to make content that features your assisted living facility. The influencers you’d want to approach are going to be those in the health and wellness area. There are also older influencers on platforms like TikTok that you could approach.
You want to look for influencers that have a good following and active engagement on their posts or videos. If someone has a lot of followers but no engagement, be cautious because that says that their audience is not interacting or seeing their posts.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are several big things you can do in order to get more assisted living clients. Some are better than others, but the biggest one is community involvement. You need to be engaged and show care and support for the area you are located in.
If all else fails, you can hire someone to do marketing for you and organize events on a professional level. It’ll cost you more upfront but could increase your occupancy by a large margin.
Sources:
https://www.ssmaps.com/2016/12/how-do-i-get-more-clients-in-my-assisted-living-facility/
https://www.reliablesoft.net/10-social-media-marketing-tips-for-beginners/
