AI and Home Care Marketing: What’s Working for Recruitment & Growth

AI and Home Care Marketing: What’s Working for Recruitment & Growth

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Hello and welcome to CareSmartz360 On Air. I’m Erin Cahill at CareSmartz360. AI is changing how home care agencies attract caregivers, reach prospective clients & show up when families search for care. But with new AI tools appearing almost every day, it can be difficult for agency owners to separate practical opportunities from the hype around AI. Our guest for this podcast has spent more than a decade working across digital marketing, partner success, business growth & franchise strategy. Amanda Jerele is the Chief

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Operating Officer at ChoiceLocal, where she works with teams and partners to build scalable strategies and drive growth. Her experience also includes leading partner success and digital solutions teams and working with franchise brands and franchisees to support their growth. Through her work with franchise and home care businesses, Amanda has seen how agencies are approaching marketing, recruitment & growth in an increasingly digital landscape. In this episode of the CareSmartz360 podcast, we discuss where AI

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is creating real opportunities for home care agencies. How it can support caregiver recruitment and client growth. And what agency owners should actually prioritize. We also explore how AI is changing the way families search for care. What agencies need to do to remain visible. And what the future of AI-driven home care marketing could look like. Welcome to the podcast, Amanda. >> Hi, Erin. Thank you so much for having me. Excited to be here. >> So, we’ll jump right into it. My first

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question for you, Amanda. Recruitment is often treated as a workforce problem, but there’s also a marketing problem. Agencies need to reach the right people and give them a reason to apply. where can AI make the biggest difference in that part of the recruitment funnel? >> Yeah. So, I think the first thing that’s really important to consider is that um you first need to treat it more like a marketing funnel, right? Not just an HR problem that you’re trying to solve or seats that you’re trying to

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fill. You really need to constantly think about that in the home care space. It’s a true balancing act. Um, and I remember, uh, I used to work a lot one-on-one directly with agency owners, and that was always the opening conversation was, okay, what where are we at right now, right? What’s the what’s the issue today? Do we need more care leads, more more caregivers? So, um, so that’s really important um, in the first place. And then really understanding um your best caregivers, where they come from um what that looks

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like to you um what that perfect world is um and tailor that messaging accordingly. Now when we talk about AI, where that really comes into play is that speed to lead, right? So, the follow-up process, the stuff that maybe some of us are really good at, some of us not so good at, uh, depending on the person, depending on the day, but if we can take that off the table and really focus on, um, you know, the the human element, that’s what makes that really important and and makes you stand out

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because you can pour all of that energy into that. And you’re really going for um, not just more applicants, but you’re going for the right applicant. So, anything that you can do to really focus in on that is really important. Um, I think another thing that is often overlooked is you want to think about how um AI plugs into the gaps in your own organization, right? So, it’s not always cookie cutter. It’s not the same for every organization. just like you would do with like a leadership team or, you know, any sort

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of hiring. Um, you want to complement what it is that you’re really good at >> and use AI to support, right? So, if you’re a a very, you know, tech focused CEO and you’re in the weeds, you’re probably going to hire somebody to go out and talk to people. If you’re a relationship person, you’re probably not spending all your time coding. So when we talk about where can AI fill those gaps um a lot of times it is that speed to lead but it also might be helping with the messaging um or helping with

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those things that um or weaknesses for your team currently. So really think about um not just what works for everybody but what helps you know kind of complement your team in a really smart way. >> Right. Absolutely. And Amanda, there’s no shortage of AI tools promising to help agencies grow. How should a homeare owner distinguish between AI that solves a real marketing problem and AI that is simply another tool to manage? >> Yeah, this is increasingly difficult, right? So, uh it used to be a couple

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years ago this seemed >> so simple, right? You would see a tool and say, “Hey, that solves that problem. That’s perfect. It’s exactly what I need.” >> Uh now, you’re faced with um hundreds of tools that are aimed at solving that problem. So, it gets really tricky. Um, but I think the first thing is is starting with just that. Starting with the problem and really making sure you’re solving for the right problem. Um, we’re doing a lot of this internally right now with our own processes and as

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we look to develop solutions say, okay, you know, we could do this and that and the other and we can build this. Um, but one thing that’s really helped us frame this out is we’ll kind of pause and say, “Well, let’s think about what our perfect day looks like.” If we think about um, you know, we’re sitting down in the morning and we have our perfect day doing all the things about our job that we love most, what is it that we’re doing? What is it that we’re no longer

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doing or that just is kind of handed to us to support us in that role? And going through that exercise uh both as an individual but also with our teams is super beneficial because you also find the overlap and what tools and solutions can really help not just the individual but the entire team and and how do we prioritize from there. So I think that’s a really good way to look at it. It’s not necessarily what it does but it’s what do I want to do, right? And then you kind of fill it in from there. Sure.

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And many home care agencies rely on the same job boards, social platforms, and recruitment messages to reach caregivers. How can AI help agencies make their recruit recruitment marketing more targeted rather than simply increasing the amount of content they produce? >> Yeah. And the the amount of content is a, you know, something that I I think a lot of people fell into that because it all of a sudden did become so easy to do that and to produce content in bulk. Uh, and that was really great and exciting

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at first. But again, just like with a lot of tools, a lot of people are doing that now. >> So, you really have to dial it back and focus on that um that quality. I think where AI really plays in here is you have a chance to better analyze what is working and what’s not working. you can kind of, you know, look at your own data and say, “Okay, this this has generated a lot of really great applicants who we’ve been able to hire and bring on board and they’ve um, you know, stayed

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kind of past that 60 or 90day mark. So, how do we take that level of insight, right, the retention piece months down the road and bake that into what worked really well to attract those folks?” So I think you know that that rather than focusing on you know the initial uh application count right which is where a lot of people tend to go hey I got x amount of applicants from this ad um they’re really looking at did we hire them and did they stay so AI can be really really helpful in understanding

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that data a little bit deeper um so that’s a great way for for you to kind of plug in with AI. >> Sure. Yeah. And when a caregiver sees an agency’s job posting or social content like we’re speaking about, what makes the difference between someone scrolling past it and someone actually applying and where can AI help improve that part of the journey? >> Yeah, so this is really tough because you do, you know, by nature of the role, you’re going to have messaging that’s

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really similar. So you do want to think about um, you know, how can you stand out? Um, it can be something small though. I think people tend to overthink this, right? So test things constantly. we have the ability to test at a more rapid pace um and understand that information and digest it a little bit faster. So, always make sure you’re looking um you know, you’re not just kind of settling for, hey, this worked. We’re going to do that in perpetuity. Always be testing what’s winning against

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um something new that that could be better. AI can really help you with um understanding that or generating those ideas. Um, and then ultimately any point where you can remove friction is key. Make it easier for them, right? Make it easy for them to apply. Make it easy for them to move forward. Um, that’s really what you want to focus on is how do I make this a seamless process so I can get to that conversation faster with the right person. >> Right. And Amanda, on the client side, families often compare several home care

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agencies before making contact. How could agencies use AI to understand what families are looking for and make their marketing more relevant to those needs? >> Yeah, so this um this is so this has changed so much and this is so important on the client side. Um the the shift here especially for local agency owners. Um I think people used to think of uh search as more transactional. You know people are searching for home care, right? and they still are, but that starts earlier on. That starts with a

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problem, right? So, um you know, mom has dementia or um dad’s getting discharged or uh they’re worried about falling. We a lot of times would see this, you know, in January, we’d start to see, hey, a lot of these questions are coming in because they’re recognizing maybe after the holidays that something’s a miss and they need to start considering what those options look like. uh with AI people are having those conversations um you know whether they’re doing that on Google or they’re doing it through

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chat GBT or claude or whatever platform they’re using they’re starting those conversations and they’re getting answers to those questions well before they’re even getting to your website >> but what’s important is your website is really informing you know those engines what to use and what to say about you so you know we used to have uh you know if I looked at a strategy for a new partner, it would say, “Okay, well, we’re going to cover the basics and kind of optimize these

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pages first and and do these things first and maybe down the road, hey, we’ll we’ll add or update that FAQ section on your website.” Well, now that’s super important, right? Because not only are you paying attention to the questions that they’re asking, there’s also a technical element baked in as well. So, you’re looking at both technical and content in your optimization, and that’s helping to shape how they’re searching. Um so it’s really important um from an optimization

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standpoint to understand those questions to do that to really understand what they’re asking. You know we have tools like we can use in Google to write see what they’re searching for all of that jazz but it’s also really great exercise to get with your team and go through hey let’s think about the top you know 20 questions that people are asking us >> uh when they call. Um you can also you know mine that information right leveraging AI kind of compile those insights say okay let’s whittle this

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down and prioritize those questions as well so we know how to tackle those and how to answer those questions appropriately. Um, it’s a really great exercise to to go through and and really get people thinking because not only from, you know, a lead generation type standpoint, but even just the way folks answer those on the phone, the way that they talk to people, the more confidence they have around what they’re going to be asking and the best way to address those, it’s going to improve just the,

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you know, operations of your business as well, >> right? Absolutely. And for agencies that are already using AI to create content or run marketing campaigns, what’s one mistake you see them making that can actually make their recruitment or client growth efforts less effective? >> Yeah, I think the biggest thing is, you know, you can’t use AI to replace um it does accelerate, but more content isn’t always better marketing. Um and you know, generic AI content, it’s more

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easily identifiable, right? going to continue to be more easily identifiable. Um, and so AI doesn’t truly know the essence of your brand and everything behind who you are. It can’t fully capture that human element. Humans are still going to provide the the judgment and the context and everything that goes with that. And anything that you pour into AI that is incorrect or rushed or, you know, bad data in, it’s going to be bad information out. So, you really need to make sure that um in the grand scheme

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of things, they’re using AI to kind of do the grunt work, so to speak, or the things that they maybe don’t want to do and can allow the humans to do that higher value work and build those relationships. Really focus on that. It’s easy to get caught up in, hey, I can do this now, I can do that, just because you can, but it’s really important to focus on um what you you should be doing and ultimately that end goal of making sure that you’re helping your clients. >> Absolutely. And Amanda, my last question

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here for you. Looking ahead, how do you think AI will change home care marketing over the next few years? >> Yeah, so I think we’re going to see a lot more personalization, >> right? everyone’s going to start to have a much more, you know, unique experience along the way. Uh, which is which is really exciting because we all want that, right? We all want to have a really personalized uh, experience with um, with any brand or any business that we’re working with. Uh, so I think we’re

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going to see a lot more of that. I think another thing is that kind of the speed to lead, the automated tasks, those things um, are, you know, going to become table stakes. So, we just have to be doing them. You have to get really good at those. If you’re not doing um you know, those things that are are kind of more black and white when it comes to how you operate and really nailing those down, your competition is going to jump far ahead of you. So, that’s going to be super important. And I think, you know,

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the other thing is that I find really exciting is that um the human element is going to be more important than ever. and we’re going to be freed up to spend more time in those meaningful conversations to get to know people to talk to people which is really refreshing I think uh especially after you know we hear everything about AI and you think about the tech side but it’s really refreshing to think hey this is going to help me so that I can truly spend the time getting to know more people and having the chance to help

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more people and I think that’s that’s really cool >> that’s amazing and Amanda thank you so much for being here. There’s a lot of actionable takeaways uh that I think our agencies tuning in will be able to to work within their business. So, we really appreciate your time. And for all of our listeners, this has been CareSmartz360 On Air. We will see you soon.