When it comes to digital marketing, knowing your audience is everything. Speaking directly to your audience goes a long way to enhancing the effectiveness of your message.
So, do you know who your audience is?
One of the key characteristics of potential assisted living residents is having difficulty performing the activities of daily living, or ADLs--such as bathing, dressing, cooking--and the instrumental activities of daily living, IADLs--which include more complex tasks like shopping, transportation, and paying bills.
This means that important decisions, such as whether or not it’s time to move into an assisted living home, are most likely not being made wholly by your potential residents, but with the help of whoever is looking after their overall well-being. For many seniors, this person takes the form of an adult child. More specifically, research shows it is more often the adult daughter, as opposed to the adult son.
Digital Marketing for Assisted Living
While many seniors are on the internet, not many of those who qualify for assisted living are going to be looking up in-depth information on assisted living options. It’s going to be the adult child who is searching the web. Does your online content speak directly to them?
Understanding your audience—what gets their attention, what are their concerns, how they make decisions—is key to creating effective online content that truly appeals to those who are reading it.
Also, keep in mind that since your online audience is the adult child, you can’t ignore the importance of social media in your digital marketing plan. They’re on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest—and your future residents just might be on there, too. Apparently the oldest Facebook user was 116!
While talking to your audience, don’t forget the customer.
While the adult child may be your online audience, the customer is still the senior. It’s the senior who is moving in after all, not the adult daughter.
You don’t need to look up any statistics to tell you that the main concern of an adult child looking for an assisted living home is their parent’s happiness. Few children would put their parent into assisted living without discussing the options with them first. Remember that just because a senior isn’t capable of performing certain tasks doesn’t mean they don’t have their own concerns, desires, and opinions.
During a conference of the Assisted Living Federation, a daughter described looking for an assisted living home for her mother. She told how an executive director “ignored the actual customer—her mother—and only tried to sell the community to her, the adult child.” She said this experience “turned them both off.”
Understanding the adult daughter audience is important for assisted living, but you still need to know and understand your potential residents just as thoroughly. It’s really like having two audiences. Gear your online content towards the adult children, but don’t neglect to address the seniors themselves. They are still very much part of the decision process.
Is your online content made with your specific online audience in mind? What are you doing to tailor your digital marketing plan to attract the right customers? Marketing Essentials is an inbound marketing leader that specializes in the senior living industry. Learn how we can help you generate more online leads and close those into sales. Call our office at 419.629.0080 and speak with a Digital Strategist today.
