Industry Resources

Simplifying Transitions with Senior Living Advisors

A senior living care recipient’s transition from home, or another residence can be a tricky time. Often, these transitions are uncomfortable for new residents. Simple tasks like learning their way around the community or deciding where to sit during meal service can be unsettling when they’ve previously had deeply ingrained routines.  

Smooth transitions can reduce the stress experienced by a resident and their loved ones and help them feel like a part of your retirement community. 

Ensuring that these transitions go well can be challenging, but the support of an experienced Senior Living Advisor can help. Since Senior Living Advisors are not directly affiliated with your residence, transitioning seniors have a sense that the support and recommendations they receive are trustworthy. Along with SLAs’ deep insight and years of experience to support their credibility, their relationships with your ideal residents often result in higher placement satisfaction for you and your clients.  

3 Cs of Digital Marketing for Senior Care Providers

Digital marketing is a challenging new frontier for every industry, including senior living. With nearly a quarter (23%) of senior living sales coming directly from online sources (Creating Results, 2018), prioritizing the growth of a healthy digital footprint can push your leagues ahead of your competitors.  

Focusing your residence’s digital marketing efforts on supporting your business’ brand and reputation by leverage value-rich content creation and positive reviews can help you: 

Build Your Residence’s Credibility 

93% of consumers on Facebook and 90% on Google have indicated that they're at least 'a little’ suspicious of the honesty of the reviews they see (Brightlocal, 2022). Using a vetted third-party review platform can help your prospective clients and their loved ones feel more confident engaging with your residence. 

Creating and sharing educational content helps position your residence as an authority in the senior living space, inspiring trust in prospective residents, their families, and senior living professionals. 

Support a Healthy SEO Content Strategy 

Rich, user-generated content helps your residence show up higher in search results, making you easier to find and interact with. In addition, positive reviews and testimonials can be repurposed on your social media channels to help inspire other prospective clients to reach out. 

Collaborating with other trustworthy senior care authorities by offering guest posts on blogs or social media shout outs or offering yourself up for interviews creates a healthy network of backlinks to your residence’s website. This series of links helps search engines like Google recommend you to those searching for care providers like you. 

Drive More Senior Living Sales 

 72% of consumers trust businesses more if they read positive reviews about those businesses (Digital Strike, 2022). A glowing review from a current resident, their loved ones, or another senior living professional can encourage a prospective client to choose your residence over a competitor. 

A solid foundation of useful, valuable content helps future residents, and their families build a sense of trust in you as a care provider since you’ve been able to support them throughout their search for care. In addition, senior care professionals, like Senior Living Advisors, will be more likely to recommend your services to their clients if they’ve been able to find relevant information about your residence easily online.  

To maximize the efficacy of your residence’s digital strategy, there are three key marketing goals to keep top of mind:  

Increasing Occupancy with Digital Marketing & SLAs

You’ve already pulled out all the stops in your retirement residence; you have a beautiful space, your staff are excellent caregivers, and you roll out the red-carpet during tours for prospective residents. Despite your efforts, your vacancy rate is still higher than you would like it to be. Leveraging your network of senior care professionals and Senior Living Advisors, spotlighting your community online, and providing certainty to residents transitioning from home or other residences can meaningfully improve your occupancy rate.  

As a senior living provider, you’ll want your occupancy rates high or steadily increasing. Below, you’ll find specific senior care sales and marketing key performance indicator (KPIs) to track your occupancy rate progress, along with tips on how you can maximize your relationships with Senior Living Advisors to support more move-ins. 

Crafting a Competitive Edge with Senior Living Advisors

Senior Living Advisors (SLAs), sometimes referred to as Senior Living Consultants, Senior Living Care Professionals, or Elder Care Advisors, are not affiliated with specific care facilities, working independently to match your ideal residents with your care services. Each Senior Living Advisor is equipped with a wealth of experience in the senior care industry and with your support, will have access to information sometimes unavailable to families. Their goal is to empower residents and their loved ones’ retirement care decision making.  

How Senior Living Advisors Benefit Care Providers

Seniors, their loved ones or other senior living professionals have arrived at an important conclusion–it’s time to seek additional support or start looking into their senior care options. While independent research is a critical first step in finding their perfect residence, it can quickly become overwhelming. 

With 75% of senior living consumers using search engines to find out more about their options (Google, 2015), showing up first in search results can create a competitive edge—but it’s certainly not the only way.  Why not partner with someone who knows the senior living industry as well as you do? 

Senior Living Advisors can help prospective residents and their loved ones navigate the digital maze of care providers’ online resources.

Connecting with a Senior Living Advisor can help demystify the process, since they’re here to guide your future clients through the entire process; from initial research to movie-in day. Senior Living Advisors (SLAs), also known as Senior Living Consultants, Senior Living Care Professionals, or Elder Care Advisors, do not work directly with your residence, instead working as independent agents to help match your ideal residents with your care service. 

Every Senior Living Advisor holds a wealth of experience in the senior care industry and has access to information sometimes unavailable to families, loved ones or other senior advocates. Their goal isn’t to rush seniors or their families through this stressful, life-changing decision– they’re here to provide the senior care resources they need to empower their decision making.   

What Should Be on My Website? On-Page SEO for Senior Care

Three in four senior living consumers use search engines to find out more about their care options (Google, 2015, and a whopping 83% of nursing home consumers don't have a specific care provider in mind when beginning their search (Invoca, 2021).  

These insights highlight the importance of search engine rankings for building a strong, intentional online presence, and ultimately helping prospective clients to find and choose your residence. 

With the right tools and strategies, you’ll have no trouble nailing and iterating on your SEO strategy to keep your online presence growing, thriving, and a step ahead of your competition. 

What People Are Searching For When They’re Looking For Care

Standing out from other care providers is no small feat, especially in the digital age. While it may seem like many of your prospective clients may not be online, 75% of senior living consumers use search engines to find out more about their options (Google, 2015).  

In addition, an overwhelming 83% of nursing home consumers don't have a specific care provider in mind when beginning their search (Invoca, 2021), making search engine ranking a powerful way to access your ideal residents. 

While Search Engine Optimization, or SEO strategy, is as unique as your residence—there are a handful tactics you can implement to support your digital outreach efforts. 

Before we dive too deeply into the technical aspects of SEO, we’ll be exploring the necessary (and very human) high-level planning that builds the foundation for success. 

Will My Residence Be Easily Found Online?

Your retirement residence’s website can be one of the most powerful tools your business has to help future residents, their families, and other senior living professionals learn about you, your services, and amenities before they reach out. This, however, is only true if the individuals searching for you land on your website in the first place.  

An effective SEO strategy will result in your residence showing up higher in search results, making it easier for prospective residents to find the retirement information they’re looking for, and to choose you as their care provider.  

SEO, or “Search Engine Optimization”, is a set of strategies implemented on an ongoing basis that help search engines like Google find your website and show your listing in the search results. More than 25% of people click the first organic search result, and over 55% click a result in the first three (Search Engine Journal, 2020).  

Unfortunately, there’s no perfect formula for search engine optimization. Instead, there are specific strategies and tactics you can test to see what works best for your senior living residence. As you start implementing some of these strategies, keep in mind that it will take some time before you see the results of your SEO efforts. 

Reaching Senior Care Clients: SEO for Senior Living

Your business’ website is a powerful tool that helps prospective residents, their families, and other senior living professionals learn about your residence, services, and amenities before they reach out. However, this is only true if your prospective clients end up on your website in the first place. 

Helping your ideal residents find you online begins with an understanding of how search engine optimization works to support your business’ discoverability.  

SEO is a collection of ongoing strategies that help search engines like Google find your website and show your listing in the search results. More than 25% of people click the first organic search result, and over 55% click a result in the first three (Search Engine Journal, 2020).  

An effective SEO strategy will result in your residence showing up higher in search results, making it easier for prospective residents to find the information they’re looking for, and ultimately, choose you as their care provider. 

Connecting with Families to Empower Prospective Residents 

With choosing a senior living provider being one of the most important decisions a senior and their family will make, understanding how seniors, their loved ones and other advocates approach senior care research is imperative to your residence’s success.  

Internet-savvy future residents are educating themselves about senior living with thorough online research. This means that by the time they’re ready to reach out to your sales team, they’re likely much better informed about your residence than they would have been just a few years ago.  

Embracing digital marketing for your senior living residence can help you better connect with the loved ones of prospective residents who are curious about your community. With a little effort, you’ll be able to gain a deep understanding of what family members or senior advocates are looking for, how to communicate, and provide them with educational resources they need to help them choose you as a care provider.  

How Cared Upon Can Help Grow Your Senior Care Business

Standing out from other residences has become increasingly difficult, especially in the age of the internet. While many of your prospective clients may not regularly be online, 75% of senior living consumers use search engines to find out more about their options (Google, 2015).  An overwhelming 83% of nursing home consumers don't have a specific care provider in mind when beginning their search (Invoca, 2021), making search engine ranking a powerful way to access your ideal residents. 

In addition to a robust SEO strategy, more and more seniors and their loved ones who are searching for a senior living solution are interested in the insights from residents already in your care. 83% of potential clients deem reviews for healthcare and care services ‘important’ or ‘very important’ (BrightLocal, 2022), and 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations (BrightLocal, 2020), making positive reviews one of the most valuable tools for growth that your residence can attain. 

Ensuring that vetted, credible reviews are distributed across your online presence can help you generate even more leads from prospective residents. Specialized third-party platforms like Cared Upon, your business’ website, Facebook Page, and Google Listing work together to create a credible image for your residence. 

How to Increase Your Rating on Cared Upon

After claiming your residence’s profile on Cared Upon’s platform, you’ll have the opportunity to add photos, videos and other details to your listing.  

Ensure that your listing is populated with high-quality, up-to-date information about each aspect of your residence and the care that you provide. This should Include:  

• “About Us” Section  
• Medical Care Available 
• Meal Information 
• Amenities, Services and Activities  
• Vacancies  
• Monthly Price Range for Care  

Having this information easily accessible to seniors and their families who are seeking care can encourage current clients to leave detailed reviews of your services, while helping prospective clients get a sense of your residence. 

Nurturing Trust Online with Senior Care Clients

With choosing a senior living provider being one of the most important decisions a senior and their family will make, understanding how adult children and other advocates approach senior living research in the digital age is imperative to your residence’s success.  

Internet-savvy adult children are educating themselves about senior living in a completely new way—with online research. By the time they’re ready to reach out to your sales team, it’s likely that they’re much better informed about your residence than they would have been just a few years ago. 

“The way we reach [an adult child] is driven today by social media, it’s driven today by the Internet, it’s driven today by our ability to analyze and understand the data, search engine optimization, search engine marketing,” explains Pat Mulloy, Chairman & CEO of Elmcroft Senior Living. “None of that stuff existed 10 years ago.” (PointClickCare, 2017).  

Embracing digital marketing for your senior living residence can help you better connect with the loved ones of prospective residents who are curious about your community. With a little effort, you’ll be able to gain a deep understanding of what family members or senior advocates are looking for, how to communicate with them more effectively, and provide them with educational resources that help them choose you as a care provider. 

Why Seniors and Their Families Want Access to Reviews

79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations (BrightLocal, 2020), and 37% of consumers said that details from other reviewers’ experiences help them decide if a product or service is right for them (Fan & Fuel, 2016).  

With so much weight placed on the experiences of others, getting and sharing high-quality reviews for your residence can act as a major support for clients seeking a senior care provider. 

How to Build a Bank of Positive Reviews

An accessible bank of positive reviews acts as social proof for your brand by letting prospective residents and their families know about the best-in-class care and experiences your residence has provided to others. Positive testimonials create valuable, scalable touchpoints to nurture a sense of trust in those seeking care providers like you. 

Additionally, reviews from satisfied residents, their loved ones, and other senior living professionals also work to help support a healthy SEO strategy, making your residence even easier to find on search engines like Google. 

With 23% of senior living sales coming directly from online sources (Creating Results, 2018), boosting your online visibility and perceived trustworthiness can provide a serious benefit to your business’ overall success.  

How to Protect Your Residence’s Reputation Online

Your residence’s brand is who you are in the eyes of seniors, their loved ones and other senior living professionals.  

Your residence’s reputation is one of your business’ biggest assets, and one of the most challenging assets to maintain in the digital age.  

Failing to prioritize how others perceive your residence online can have major repercussions for your credibility, trustworthiness, and ultimately the success of your entire business.  

With 83% of potential clients deeming reviews for healthcare and care services ‘important’ or ‘very important’ (BrightLocal, 2022), ensuring that you’re leaving a glowing impression on your clients is paramount to maintaining a great reputation. 

Below are 4 steps to building and protecting a reputation to be proud of:

7 Step Negative Review Toolkit

Can you remember a time where a poor rating or negative reviews influenced you not to buy from a particular business? In 2021, just 3% of consumers said they would consider engaging with a business with an average star rating of two or fewer stars. That's down from 14% in 2020 (BrightLocal, 2022). 

Fortunately, like issues raised in-person, negative online reviews don’t have to result in lost business.  

Each business faces negative reviews at one point or another, so know that you’re not alone. 

The secret is keeping a cool head and taking a proactive approach to poor reviews; with a little forward thinking you can turn them into an opportunity to attract new residents and build positive relationships with current ones. 

Here are 7 steps you can take to effectively manage negative online reviews. 

Where Should Senior Living Reviews Be Posted?

The short answer is “everywhere”.  Choosing a senior living residence or senior care provider is one of most important decisions a senior and their family will make. 

With 72% of consumers trusting businesses more if they read positive reviews about those businesses (Digital Strike, 2022), an accessible bank of positive reviews can make this important decision even easier for families.  

The real challenge is ensuring that your residence and its positive reviews are both easy for prospective clients to find throughout each stage of their senior care journey. Having reviews and testimonials present across your social media accounts, on your website, and on specialized review platforms creates a trust-building digital ecosystem that benefits your residence in three ways: 

1. Reviews help support a healthy SEO strategy, making you even easier to find via search engines like Google. 
2. Creates valuable, scalable touchpoints for future residents and their loved ones to develop a positive outlook of your residence and nurture a sense of trust. 
3. Gives you access to one-on-one correspondence with your biggest fans. 

How Online Discovery Can Boost Senior Living Move-Ins

The connection between SEO and move-ins begins with an understanding of how search engine optimization functions. SEO is a collection of strategies implemented on an ongoing basis that help search engines find your website and show your listing in the search results. More than 25% of people click the first organic search result, and over 55% click a result in the first three (Search Engine Journal, 2020).  

Depending on your residence’s goals, these visitors become the leads that eventually turn into residents. The shift from “visitor” to “client/customer/resident” is known as “conversion”.  Ranking high in search results helps attract more website traffic, giving you more chances to convert visitors to move-ins.  

High rankings also ensure that your residence is in a visible position in the search results, making it easier for your ideal residents to find you.  

Your business’ website is a powerful tool that helps prospective residents, their families, and other senior living professionals learn about your residence, services, and amenities before they reach out.  

Among the most important pieces of information that clients are seeking is where your residence is located. This is especially meaningful considering that 46% of all Google searches are for local information like events, goods, or services in a particular neighborhood. With respect to consumers, 97%, or nearly all prospective clients are searching for businesses in their area (SocialMediaToday, 2019). 

How to Get Referrals at Scale

A little proactivity can go a long way when you’re developing a rolodex of care professionals. While relationships with hospital coordinators, discharge coordinators, social workers and independent Senior Living Advisors do serve as powerful sources of referrals, you can also think of them as a multifaceted expansion of your business.  

Professional referrals support the development of a strong, trustworthy, and credible brand image. 

How to get and stay connected to local senior care professionals in your area:  

• Be Genuinely Curious: The goal of your networking shouldn’t simply be to get as many contacts as possible, but rather to learn about how you can benefit each other, and ultimately benefit your shared clientele.  
• Old-Fashioned Networking: Attend industry events, touch base with existing connections with a phone call or email, ask to be introduced to new connections by others in your network. 
• Digital Networking: Research individuals and elder care service providers in your area, get their contact information and reach out!  

How to Maximize Revenue from Your Suites

Maximizing the value of your suites in the eyes of your ideal residents starts with their needs in mind. One-size-fits-all solutions rarely command premium prices because they’re rarely a part of premium experiences. Developing an intimate understanding of the wants, needs and desires of prospective clients allows you to exceed their expectations. Categories where going above and beyond is achievable may include:  

• Meals: Quality meal-service is a given, but needs-based, personalized nutrition services are a cut above. 
• Personal Services: From housekeeping and laundry to haircuts and manicures. 
• Staff Relationships: Assigning specific staff members to residents allows your staff to create deeper relationships and efficiently anticipate your clients’ ongoing needs. Medically, this may look like using notes to decide when or if a resident’s care needs should be reevaluated. This high-level personal attention also includes remembering personal details and inviting existing residents to programs that match their interests, or social groups they’ve become part of. 

Your ideal residents didn’t stop being individuals when they moved in with you; the better you can accommodate their unique needs, the more luxurious and premium their experience becomes. 

7 Ways to Build Occupancy in Senior Care Communities

Upgrading your facilities to attract new residents doesn’t have to mean a major overhaul of your suites or amenities. If you’re committed to a bigger change, you may consider: 

• A fresh coat of paint for suites and shared areas 
• Updated window treatments 
• Refreshed landscaping to amp up curb appeal. 

Even small improvements can improve how others view your residence, like: 

• More frequent cleanings of shared areas 
• Higher quality linens 
• New uniforms for staff  

Moreover, your current residents will appreciate the intentional improvements to your space– leading to increased pride, satisfaction, and resident referrals.  

Why Digital Matters in Retirement Care Marketing

Historically, older adults and their families primarily found retirement residences through recommendations from friends, family, and healthcare professionals.  Old school word-of-mouth was king.  To supplement this, care operators focused on traditional media to get the word out about their residences and services.  It was common to see newspaper/magazine advertisements, billboards, and even radio/tv commercials promoting local retirement residences and home care providers. 

Over the last 20 years, media consumption has drastically changed amongst all generations of Canadians. Streaming services are creeping into the market share previously owned by television and digital media is eating away at the captive audience that newspapers and magazines once held.  What does this mean for senior care operators who are evaluating what they need to do to ensure they are top of mind of older adults looking for support in the future? 

A sharp marketer will be mindful of where their audience is spending their time and how they want to engage with companies offering products and services they are interested in. The audience, in our case, is older adults and their families.  A recent study by AgingChoices in the US, highlighted that approximately 53% of care enquiries were from someone looking for care for themselves with the remainder shared between family members, friends, and advocates supporting an older adult.  You may be surprised to learn that their preferred next step after an initial enquiry was to be emailed more information (41%) or to attend a virtual tour (22%). The majority of individuals looking for accommodation at a retirement residence or access to care services wanted to be engaged digitally! 

What about the myth that older adults are hesitant to use technology or need help from their children or grandchildren to access it?  Well, that may have held some truth 15 years ago, but not today.  Recent statistics from Canada and the US show that 73% of seniors regularly use the internet.  Statistics from Mintel, a global research firm, show that 97% of seniors have access to a desktop or laptop computer and 76% use digital platforms for things like e-commerce. 

As for how people are using digital platforms, Benedict Evans, a technology thought leader who regularly presents to audiences of global technology leaders, in his 2021 outlook on technology, shared statistics showing fewer consumers are going on the internet to find the cheapest of something.  They are going online with the intent of research to find the best of something.  This leads to an obvious question, what can the senior living sector do to highlight their services as the best retirement residences or long term care homes in their regions? 

Below, are a selection of tactics that all Senior Care operators should consider as they plan how they intend to engage with their residents of the future. 

Cared Upon | How We Can Help You

Our team at Cared Upon is on a mission to improve the quality of life for older adults across Canada.  We aim to fulfill that mission by ensuring that older adults and the families have access to all the information they need to make informed care decisions.  As we become go-to resource for those searching for care, Cared Upon also becomes a wonderful channel for Care Providers and Operators to connect and communicate with their future prospective clients.