Keeping the Home Care Marketing Ethical – A Complete Guide
Marketing ethics is perhaps the hottest debate topic for the home care industry in the past decades as it is a huge business in itself.
Whether it is a well-established home care agency or a startup striving to create a decent market presence: millions of dollars are spent every year promoting personal care services.
When we talk about the aspects associated with successful marketing, many businesses aren’t practicing ethical ways to attract potential clients. It is crucial to understand the basics first and then plan a strategy that brings consistent results in the long run.
We’ve compiled a few efficient ways home care agencies can get the best out of their marketing campaigns to scale business growth with better ROI.
Don’t Just Create Online Presence – Maintain it
Even if you think that the elderly population isn’t tech-savvy, don’t forget that their kids and grand kids are the ones who are always active over the social media platforms.
No one even bothers about your advertisement in the newspapers or flyers rather searches a business over the internet.
An informative website could be the one that can be a game-changer in this regard. But you already know that, don’t you? What’s new then? Building an informative website isn’t just the key to a successful online marketing campaign: you have to maintain & update your website regularly!
Yes, a full-fledged website with updated content is the one that you see in the top results of Google and other search engine’s search results. Also, adequate emphasis on other factors like-website loading speed, domain authority, bounce rate, and responsiveness shouldn’t be ignored.
Here’s how you can do it:
- Update the content
- Provide latest stats and figures
- Interlinking of sources of information
- Repost and share old content on social media
Moreover, think about the information that is actually useful for your clients. Everyone is searching for an information-packed in a simple design that quickly solves the purpose.
Focusing on what people generally search, their queries, possible solutions, and placement of the right call to actions could surge your conversions considerably.
Never Ignore Your Local Audience
The success of any home care business entirely depends on the way they capture their local market. It’s quite obvious that anyone would begin their marketing from home and thus, one shouldn’t miss it.
List your home care business in both online and offline directories, which would help in increasing your local client reach. Most of the businesses don’t understand the importance of local marketing, which can eventually thrive-in organic leads.
Don’t forget to target the areas where your potential clients are likely to search for you. It could be a nursing home, a hospice, or even a therapy center where you can get enough marketing opportunities.
It would be a great option to consider a tie-up with the local pharmacies, elder communities, and social groups. This would help you in creating a presence in the local market.
Connect Through Social Media Channels
Social media is perhaps the strongest mode of interacting with your targeted audience in a way that builds the credibility of your brand.
Almost everyone is active on any of the social media platforms. Be it Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, you can generate ample leads by utilizing the best marketing practices.
Interactive content in the form of images, videos, and infographics helps in engaging an audience like never before. Ask them about their queries, issues they are facing, and provide them the most feasible solution that solves their purpose.
You can always get enough leads if you:
- Join elderly communities on social media
- Engage with the audience
- Offer tips
- Share insightful videos
People love to interact on social media channels if you have already established a channel that responds to every query quickly. We are talking about a brand that strikes the mind of any individual with any doubt related to care delivery, home care, or hospice.
Once you are able to reach your audience, you can take advantage of paid advertisements. Pay per click campaigns helps in targeting the audience that is actually looking for a similar service that you offer. Paid marketing may consume a little time, but would surely bring fruitful results.
Most of the agencies don’t leverage the potential of paid campaigning, which is the reason they skip quality leads, which their competitors don’t. Also, some of them even don’t use paid to campaign wisely!
You have to analyze certain aspects including the location, timing, and availability of people of different age groups. This would be the icing on the cake if you need to get maximum benefits through your paid campaign.
Don’t Forget Voice Search Optimization
Your website is perhaps the source of information that your audience is seeking. You can try many ways to optimize your official website but search engines like Google have already changed the paradigm.
Your website needs to be optimized for advanced voice search that can showcase results by analyzing the speech of the user. Google is now on a verge to give more preference to the websites that are voice search optimized.
Now, the question that arises is – how you can optimize your website for voice search? For this, you need to emphasize the content of your website. The phrases used on your website in any form must be long and should be in the flow of a regular speech preferably in the question mode.
Google analyzes a series of linked questions by utilizing the potential of natural language processing and displays the top-matching results on the first page.
The sentences that individual searches through a voice command are generally long while the same isn’t in the case of a text-based query. The textual search is generally short. For instance, a person would use voice search and ask: “which is the best home care agency in Texas”. On the other hand, the same would be searched “home care agency in Texas” through textual search.
Make sure your sentences are long and in the form of natural language, which is more likely to be searched by an individual along with equal emphasis to shorter sentences that would both help your website rank in the top results.
Engagement through Video Content
Since your targeted audience is mostly elderly, you need to think about the ways you can grab their engagement. The elderly individuals aren’t in favor of reading long stories, which is also quite challenging for them when they are searching for some information.
This implies that a quick information source would be the game-changer that would not only convey a clear message but would eventually leave an impression on them. The elderly adults are always on a hunt for the insightful content that not only solves complex issues related to aging but eventually provides tips for making aging less difficult.
This can be an opportunity for home care agencies to market their services through a soft pitch through video marketing ideas that seems helpful for the targeted audience.
Sharing insightful videos on your social media channels or website is perhaps the best way to build trust and credibility over the potential clients, which would help you in generating quality leads.
Blogging- Be a Source of Information
A simple website won’t just be enough if you aren’t delivering the right content through a blog section that most of the people are seeking. Be a source of authentic information for the elderly, their kids, and even their caregivers.
This simply means you need to cover all the aspects of queries, doubts, and crucial information that anyone would often search.
Tips for Home Care Blogging:
- Focus on building an irresistible call to actions
- Get ideas from your targeted audience itself
- Maintain consistency
- Make your email list
- Write catchy headings and sub-headings
- Make a content that is worth a share
Figure out the areas that need more clarification for the elderly. Help them understand- how, why, and when. As when you do, you’ll witness a surge in organic traffic of your website. This would also improve the bounce rate of your website as the search engine analyzes that your content is relevant and people are interested in reading & they spend a good time on your website.
While you are writing blogs for your website, make sure to consider the topics that the elderly individuals could relate to. Cover the health-related issues along with a solution that can be quite helpful for them.
Also, it would be a great idea to add daily tips covering most of the issues, which can always get a good response. Topics like incontinence, Alzheimer’s, and Dementia are always searched by caregivers caring for the elderly.
Start a Newsletter
You can always capture quality leads through a newsletter. This is also helpful in spreading your agency-related news to your existing clients for better engagement. The thing that you need to consider is that your newsletter should be a combination of images, text, and infographics that builds engagement.
Furthermore, don’t forget to add offers and giveaways for your readers that would not only bring organic traffic to your website but would surely give you some leads that you can convert in the future.
Here’s what you need to focus while creating a newsletter:
- Keep it in the form of news
- Decide the headings wisely (it should grab attention at once)
- Support your text with adequate graphics
- Maintain a schedule
Experts recommend the use of eye-catching designs for the newsletter is crucial these days. The one that looks attractive would automatically aid brand credibility without putting external efforts and increases the click-through rate.
Giveaways
Your potential clients are always on a hunt for freebies. Yes, the home care industry isn’t untouched with the influence of giveaway marketing. Organize a webinar or a session that enlightens the caregivers, clients, and even the family members of the ones caring for their loved ones.
This would boost engagement for your audience and you would surely get enough quality leads. Provide free checklists containing detailed information for the readers along with a soft pitch to consider relying on professional home care agencies for enhanced care delivery.
Cover the aspects that people would love to read and can relate in a way that builds credibility on your brand. Also, you can provide guides to aid seniors living with lesser hassle.
These kinds of content are likely to get enough response and there are chances when you can collect contact details of the targeted audience to pitch them for your services.
Start a Referral Program
The references that you get from your existing clients could be the best part of your marketing campaign. Even though you are delivering excellent services to the elderly and making aging less difficult; you definitely have to put extra effort into getting references from them.
No one would ever recommend their acquaintance if you aren’t offering them the best, which should be both in terms of quality of services as well as a reference bonus. Monetary benefits are considered to be the best way to get enough references that you can consider converting into clients.
Some Helpful Referral Tips
- Keep it simple- Referral process shouldn’t be more than a 3-step-procedure
- Offer a lucrative reward
- Integrate your program with social media networks
- Use lead magnets on your website
Furthermore, as a home care agency owner, one must keep another option of providing benefits against references available. This can also include the services that you are already offering to your clients. Provide them extra for which they are already paying or have got covered through Medicaid. This would again make them think about a reference for your agency.
Conduct Awareness Drives
As a home care agency, you need to invest smartly in organizing awareness drives that cover crucial aspects associated with elderly care. These can be either client-specific or caregiver-focused, which would ensure that your adequate brand awareness for your business.
You can also consider conducting free health drives and awareness programs where you can quickly promote your services. Distributing flyers containing detailed information about your services and how it transforms elderly living could significantly affect your local marketing.
Conclusion
Home care marketing isn’t a piece of cake in today’s era. The agency needs to consider several aspects that individually contribute to the establishment of a reliable brand name. Smart decisions coupled with the right approach can enhance both online and offline marketing.
Related blog posts:
What are the Best Marketing Ideas for a Home Care Agency?How do you Market a Non-Medical Home Care Business?