The 4 Top Home Care Marketing Strategies for Success

If you have been marketing home care for any length of time, you know all of the challenges that home care agency owners face…

Everything from the challenge of getting more professional referral sources, to "networking exhaustion", to yellow pages (to do or not to do), your website, your social media, your articles, photos, events, senior fairs, speaking engagements, opening cases, closing cases, staffing, weekends, Mondays etc. 

Oh and then there is following up with every lead, referral, referral source and on and on…..

The next reality TV show should document a day in the life of a busy home care agency owner. MAN oh MAN that would be a great show! 

As much as we would like to say that internet marketing can ease the stress and worry of the home care agency marketer or owner, it's not that simple. We know it. You know it. Not all leads are created equal, and not all leads come from one source.

Diversifying your home care marketing portfolio is the only correct answer.

1. Networking- Strike a good balance. 

My biggest "AHA moment" was when another elder care service provider looked at me and said, "I only attend networking events/groups that are going to generate leads and referrals." What she was telling me was that – all of the healthcare, home care and senior service groups I belonged to weren't worth a nickle, because frankly, they were filled with my competition- and my competition was NOT going to refer to me.  Take that with a grain of salt, because it is important to have community involvement, but she was right to some extent. Limit your networking to groups that you can really sink your teeth into.

Too much networking makes Jane a tired girl. Too little networking makes Jane an invisible girl. Strike a good balance.

2. Yellow Pages- Online and Offline

• Yellow Pages online- I'm a big opponent of this type of spending. Wouldn't do it. My opinion.
• Yellow Pages Offline- Depends on your market. You MUST calculate your ROI. If you are getting good leads, keep it , if not , save your money for something else.

3. Radio, Print, TV

They all have their place, but keep it simple. I would go for radio over print or TV any day. And never, never advertise home care on a sports channel or in the sports section of  the newspaper. Complete loss if you do.

4. Internet Marketing

Ahh, my favorite!! It should be yours too. In this fast paced world of instant everything, you should be taking advantage of every aspect of online marketing. 

1. You should have a home care lead generating website. Note that I did NOT say expense website, or graphically award winning website, I said HOME CARE LEAD GENERATING WEBSITE.

2. Important aspects of that lead generating website are:

a. Great call to action.

b. Great content.

c. Easy contact options.

d. Excellent organic keyword strategy.

e. Search engine optimization for better visibility.

f. REAL qualified backlinks to elder care and senior service oriented websites. (not just any backlinking will do, so BE CAREFUL)

3. Social Media is very important. For home care agency owners and marketers, this is the order of importance:

a. #1 is LinkedIn (surprised?)

b. #2 is Facebook

c. #3 is Twitter

d. #4 is YouTube

4. Back to Content- Great Content, Local Content, Unique Content.

a. Blog posting is not an option, it MUST BE DONE.

b. Posting to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter is super important.

c. Turning those posts into videos, creating videos, posting videos is essential in 2012.

Seems overwhelming, but generating leads online that are EXCLUSIVE to you and your office, and not SHARED with 5 other agencies in your area is not only smart, but those leads are much easier to close, and much more interested in YOUR services.

Team up with a company that specializes in exclusive home care lead generation and works closely only with senior services (not plumbers and painters). 

Good luck and let us know how we can help!

Regards,

Valerie VanBooven RN BSN

Owner/ Managing Partner

LTC Expert Publications

Phone: 888-404-1513

Email: valerie@ltcep.com

See our client samples: http://MySeniorService.com

Register for our webinars and marketing videos: http://LTCSocialMark.com

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