Many senior living companies use a variety of contractors for support in marketing, PR, website management, social media, web lead generation and qualification, etc.Here is an excerpt from an email I received yesterday that is clearly typical of the marketing efforts in many communities. The only unusual thing here is the writer’s complete candor.
I see real value in what you do and I like your approach and the discipline and logic behind your program. What I don’t know is if I can afford you. I have to just be 100% up front. I’m currently coordinating the efforts of roughly 6 subcontractors (copywriters, bloggers, G5 web platform, social media person (she is handling pinterest, FB, website updates, etc…) an online media buyer, etc..etc..) and trying stay on top of collateral, PR, strategic planning, advising on advertising, etc…etc…etc…and managing a very very small budget to do all of this. This in total represents about ¼ of my job.
I don’t know what the right “configuration” is for all of this stuff. It’s getting to the point where I will have to hand it off, but I can’t see spending more than a couple of grand a month either on a part time person or an outside consultant given our budgets. What could you do, if anything, inside of that type of a budget? Just curious.
They hired good people and turned them loose
Like most companies that use outside contractors, this senior living community hired expertise as they needed it to handle various aspects of their marketing program. The goal of the marketing program is to provide good leads to the salesperson, so that she can convert them into move-ins. It makes sense to bring in people who have skills and knowledge (and time) that your organization doesn’t have.
Each of these contractors is probably pretty good at what they do, too. And they came well-recommended. They diligently spend the hours they committed to this client doing their best work.
No one knows what the others are doing
But each of these contractors is working in their own “silo” — the blogger blogs (and by the way she is not using keywords), the PR person creates press releases (sometimes posted online, but no keywords), and the website has nothing but the basic who-we-are and what-we-do content. What’s clearly missing is a plan, and the alignment of all the marketing-related people who are committed to the success of the plan.
The plan: inbound marketing for senior living companies
The inbound marketing methodology suggests a simple plan for this community’s internet marketing:
- Drive more traffic to the website
- Convert that traffic into prospects or leads by offering great content that they can get in return for their email address.
- Nurture those prospects with email and other offers to help educate them about your community and your awesome staff. Help them learn about your program and services, and what life looks like in your community from a resident’s point-of-view. Share testimonials from family members about how happy they are with mom and dad living in your community. These are things that people want to know about. This is what they came to your website for in the first place!
- These website visitors are now very interested in your community, so get Sales involved and welcome a new resident.
- Analyze what worked well and what needs adjustment, make the necessary changes, and do it again.
I see real value in what you do and I like your approach and the discipline and logic behind your program.
What really turns me on about inbound marketing, is that it’s not magic. It’s simple in concept, easy to understand, proven successful, and every step is measurable. Inbound marketing actually provides a real ROI that is quantifiable with real numbers.
We align marketing contractors for lead generation success
Two-thirds of our work involves:
- educating people about inbound marketing
- teaching them specific skills and best practices
- building teams of people (internal and external) to get the work done
Our work doesn’t involve any “secrets for success”; rather, it’s based on a solid methodology, a lot of best practices, and an strong analytics platform that tracks and measures every step along the way to success. There is no “guess work”, and certainly no “silos”.
As people learn the methods and best practices of inbound marketing, they start to integrate that learning into their own work very naturally, because inbound marketing makes so much common sense. We see this over and over with our clients.
We work with your internal team and your external team to get everyone working together on a common goal that’s clearly measurable. Your contractors and employees learn inbound marketing skills that make them more valuable and successful, and we get to partner with some great people who are highly motivated for success.
Keep your eye on the goal
At the end of the day, the goal is really simple: generate a steady flow of new residents or clients. It takes a good plan, great people and consistent execution to make it happen. Your marketing team consists of the right mix of internal staff and external contractors, all aligned on this common goal and sharing with each other every step of the way.
We’re privileged to be working with vibrant communities who have aligned their marketing team for lead generation success.
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