Effective Marketing Techniques for Homecare Services

Effective Marketing Techniques for Homecare Services

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Erin Cahill: perfect. So welcome to CareSmartz360 On Air,a home care Podcast. I’m Erin Cahill, an account executive at Caresmartz in today’s increasingly competitive landscape. There are many innovative approaches and time tested methods to attract clients, build trust and grow your home care business from leveraging digital platforms to nurturing client relationships. In this episode you’ll get actionable insights and expert advice to help you stand out in the home care industry

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Erin Cahill: Together, we’ll explore innovative approaches, case studies and emerging trends that will empower you to attract, engage, and retain clients effectively whether you’re a seasoned home care provider looking to refresh your marketing approach or a newcomer seeking guidance on where to begin. This podcast is just what you need to listen to. So tune in, take notes and embark on a journey toward unparalleled access. In marketing your home care services.

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Erin Cahill: Today we sat down with Alexandria Edwards, who is the founder of the Caregirl Agency, a company that helps healthcare professionals and local businesses get found online and also provides senior care and in-home care placement services. Welcome to CareSmartz360 On Air, Alexandria.

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Alexandria Edwards: Hi, thank you for having me. I really appreciate being on. And I look forward to dropping any gems that I can.

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Erin Cahill: Yeah, we’re excited to speak with you. So we’ll jump right into it in your experience. What are some of the most effective digital marketing strategies for reaching and engaging potential clients in the home care industry.

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Alexandria Edwards: So let’s talk about the industry. Today. I’ve been doing home care since 2,012, and it’s not 2,012. I did a video the other day about how the market has changed significantly, and you used to be able to open up, you know, print a few flyers to tell the church members, you know. Go to the firehouse and say, Hello, Hi! We’re open, you know, and then you’re getting clients, and you’re getting caregivers

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Alexandria Edwards: out of nowhere. So that’s the one thing I want to make known, like, it’s a totally different market now, and you have to actually establish yourself as an industry expert, and you and you really want to get away. More word of mouth mouse versus paid advertising. So that’s kind of like what I promote and what I teach the people that I consult in digital marketing.

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Alexandria Edwards: And I got into that lane because I branded myself as a caregirl about 4 years ago, and I got a lot of traction on Linkedin. A lot of track turned on Instagram Tik tok a lot of followers, and I just started talking about in home care and just like dementia, just different struggles I had, and just different questions family families had so ideally

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Alexandria Edwards: from. So I get leads from social media. Linkedin, you know, word of mouth just front organically. So that’s what I would like to talk about really is more of establishing yourself in your industry locally as well versus a bunch of paid advertising. Because I think a lot of people when they talk about digital marketing.

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Alexandria Edwards: You, you talk about okay, Facebook ads, and they’re like, Oh, well, I don’t have the money to do Facebook ads. I don’t have the money to do this, and I don’t have money. Do that. But what you can do is get your video. Get your phone, record yourself. Talking about your expertise, for example, if you are a nurse and you have your own homecare agency. You should definitely be creating some type of content.

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Alexandria Edwards: talking about your experience as a nurse, and why you went to home care because people do business with others who they know, like and trust. So if they don’t know you. 9 times out of 10. They’re gonna ask their neighbor, hey? Do you know anybody who is good at home? Care? Do you know a nurse who can help dad? You know a caregiver. They’re gonna ask a friend. So if nobody has heard of you.

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Alexandria Edwards: then they won’t. Even if they find you online through a paid ad. They’re going to be skeptical of doing business with you. So I think, starting with a starting with some type of online presence, organically and and just working from the bottom up is the way to go. Because, like I said, I built traction from my first agency to this agency here, from just organically social media. And that’s a free way to do it. Another way would be

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Alexandria Edwards: power partnering. So just like I said, if I’m a new agency. What I would do is I would go with a I would go to a company who may be a bit bigger than me, and they may be Hospice. They may be home health, and you know, maybe volunteer and kind of build a relationship. I think a lot of people have the idea of. They’re just going, you know, once again, pop open, and, you know.

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Alexandria Edwards: pay their way to be on the top of Google. And then they get a lot of clients that way. No, you don’t have any reviews or anything like that. People are not going to do business with you once again, or you’re not going to be able to retain clients at all. So I think

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Alexandria Edwards: right now, the first step, I would say with digital marketing is

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Alexandria Edwards: establishing your brand online, and that could be through Facebook. Whichever platform you want. It could be one at a time, one at a time. That’s what I always direct my people to do, because it’s the least cost effective way. And once you do that, you can move over to the paid, the paid things, you know, such as Pr and just featuring yourself in different things and and

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Alexandria Edwards: ads on Linkedin ads on Facebook. But honestly, I don’t run ads

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Alexandria Edwards: for my company. So I just, I just totally 100%. I’m just totally organic. And I’m and the number one thing number 2, thing I want to say is add value period.

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Alexandria Edwards: You know, you have to add value. You can’t just be online. Hi, y’all, we opened last year, and we need some clients, and da da da da da. You know what I’m saying. You’re just like almost begging for business. You should have a wait list. You should. It’s a term that I like to use called. I wanna have so many people wanting to do business with me. Because they know that I bring in value, and I bring the caregivers, and I bring the home care

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Alexandria Edwards: to them right? So, being able to articulate yourself, which a lot of people are afraid to do online. I’m just more clinical. I don’t wanna be online. And and and they have so many reservations about being online. But it’s like you’re scrolling through other people’s stuff. Other people’s content. You follow people you buy from them. So that’s the same thing that you wanna do when you have your homecare agency as well.

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Erin Cahill: yeah, that makes sense, I think you’ve already touched on a few of these, but can you share your insights on the unique challenges that homecare services face when it comes to marketing. And how can providers overcome those challenges? You know particularly you mentioned about that fear of being online? How do you get around that?

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Alexandria Edwards: So when you jump into business? It’s such a home care for you? You have to really develop yourself as a leader.

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Alexandria Edwards: You have to understand that you have somebody else’s life in your hand, and you have to also market yourself as a good leader for the caregivers and nurses who want to work for you. So you’re not only marketing to the client you’re marketing to the power partners. You’re marketing to the caregivers as well. So you have to develop yourself. I would say my first book that I wish I had right here in front of me. The first book, I would say Read, is how to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie.

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Alexandria Edwards: And people like, Ok. The title you want to win people over like it’s not really that, like the basics of the book. So I’m not going to spoil it for anybody. You know, you get to know people, and sometimes, when you go to a networking event or something like that, you may be afraid to kind of introduce yourself. But everybody is not the ideal client for you or the ideal referral source.

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Alexandria Edwards: But you just want to make sure you have energy, and that you believe in what you, what you what you do so much that you want to tell people about it a lot of times. We’re getting in it for the wrong reasons. You’re not gonna be a million dollar home care agency in the first year. It’s impossible, right? Unless you’re taking over an agency that was doing 3, 3 to 600,000 a year, and you, you know, have systems in place to take it to a million, right? So I think realistically being

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Alexandria Edwards: excited about what you do, helping people and actually be an advocate for care is a good start, and just constantly developing yourself, being around other entrepreneurs who can actually vouch for you and give you some type of insight and inspiration, because there will be times where you are discouraged, or you may be afraid to promote. But think about it this way. If I don’t promote what I do.

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Alexandria Edwards: somebody can’t. People can’t use my service, and I can’t help anybody right? So just think about you know, Sam, Sam, over there across the street is, you know, dying, and I can’t even give him my service or help him out, because I’m afraid to tell people what I do. So I tell people like I got my shirt right here. I am a caregirl. I’m gonna go to the grocery store with this shirt and tell you what a caregirl is. Right? So just even

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Alexandria Edwards: so, even if it’s a T-shirt with your name on it, or your logo, or something, and you put yourself out like you know I love seniors. I love taking care of seniors, or something like a conversation. Starter is always a plus, you know people love it when you go out to market. People love cubs and different things of that nature. But I know a lot of people are on type. Biz, and that’s another thing I want to mention is that you do need to understand. You need to allocate some type of money towards your business

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Alexandria Edwards: for marketing purposes, because you will be in competition with bigger companies who have a way bigger budget who can actually show up and be there. So you know, energy.

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Alexandria Edwards: add value. Read that book, how to win friends and influence people, because what you don’t want to do is read, just regurgitate what you do to everybody. That book taught me how to actually engage with people and actually have interest in what they do like. Remember me, I couldn’t remember people’s names. So I looked up a way, how can I remember people’s names? So when I go to all these network events

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Alexandria Edwards: that I constantly see the same people in my industry. So a trick that they gave me was, Hey, ask them a story about their name. So you know. Oh, are you named after someone? Or you know a lot of times. People they love talking about themselves, get them to talk about themselves so much, even if you don’t have a great memory of putting your notepad, you know, solid with the red hair, she does. This is her

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Alexandria Edwards: email and guess what? Go back home

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Alexandria Edwards: The next day or 2 days, 2 or 3 days, hey? It was so great meeting you at the event, Sally, I love your story about your name, whatever whatever, and you have to make yourself memorable. But you have to gain the confidence in and understand your reason why you’re doing something while you’re doing this. You’re not doing it. If you’re doing it for the money you’re gonna quit very, very soon. So establish that and grow yourself. And then in turn, you’ll be able to lead and and grow, your business

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yeah, that makes sense, the confidence piece is crucial. The Client trust is also crucial in the home care sector. How can providers utilize marketing to establish and nurture trust with both current and prospective clients. I know you touched on making yourself a thought leader in the industry. Can you touch on that some more?

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Alexandria Edwards: Yeah, so I love Linkedin, because you can actually, you know, put your thoughts on there. And when other people like case workers or social workers, they have different things that they say you can actually chime in. And that’s the way to kinda start establishing yourself as a thought leader. Other than, of course, posting your content. And also there’s an easy way to do that, too. When you collect emails, you can have a newsletter, or you can have a some type of email,

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Alexandria Edwards: blog, or something that shows your expertise, but gaining the trust of clients is crucial because there’s a lot of agencies. People like, oh, the market is saturated, saturated with bad agencies, so, being honest and having super super clean and clear communication, is important when it comes, when it comes to taking your first 10 clients.

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Alexandria Edwards: and then you get 20. You know you keep going from there. But when the number one thing is when you mess up, don’t go radio silent. Apologize, and understand. Hey, we’re human. I’m so sorry about your no show, and sometimes you want to be so hands off. But when you’re new

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Alexandria Edwards: And nobody knows you. you as the owner. Are you having a key person that maybe you know Co. Owner, or something like that. That is the clinical person that actually goes in. And you touch that family’s hand, and you shake their hand during that assessment, even if it’s your nurse that does the assessment. But are you going out letting know, hey? I am your liaison for care, and actually, you know, weekly check ins survey. Hey? Are you satisfied with your caregiver

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Alexandria Edwards: and actually having good communication and good skills with your caregivers? Communication skills with your caregivers as well, because a lot of times companies aren’t treating their caregivers well, and that translates over to the care that they provide for you for your clients. So you know, establishing trust. And when you do a good job, ask for a review, because that is how you gain the trust of maybe a particular prospect.

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Alexandria Edwards: You say you know what, hey? I had a guy get hit with dementia similar to you. This is a letter that they wrote a recommendation that they wrote because people are going to want to see receipts. I call them receipts. They don’t want to see social proof. And if you can get that on video. That’s amazing. Right? Don’t put up 10 fake reviews. People can sense when there’s no realness, right? You want to make sure that you’re coming across as a real company.

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Alexandria Edwards: Real business. You don’t want to go get 1,000 fake reviews, and you know, from a review company illegally right.

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Alexandria Edwards: a nurse. And you want to do it for all cancer patients. The more you talk about that and show your level of expertise, be very resourceful in any resource you come across. They may have kept the family

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Alexandria Edwards: That’s outside of them paying you.

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Alexandria Edwards: They love it, they absolutely love it. They’re like, Oh, my God! She just! She just sent me this free medical supplies, and she’s had this other company come in and provide this service, and you’re going over and beyond when you go over and beyond. You not only keep their client long term they’re going to, they’re going to say, Oh, my God! This company is the best company I’ve ever worked with in my entire life. So starting one client at a time, just really, really

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Alexandria Edwards: establishing the connections, and they will by bring you way more clients than you can handle

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Alexandria Edwards: right, and that actually leads me to my next question. So client retention is often as important as client acquisition in the homecare business. So what are some innovative approaches or tactics for fostering long term relationships with clients through marketing efforts

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Alexandria Edwards: So client retention when it comes to marketing effort, I would say, is not a hard thing. When it comes to holidays and things like that. You give them a gift. You make sure that their birthdays keep saving those. So those are little things that you can actually automate through different marketing systems. There’s this app that I like. It’s called Thank you

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Alexandria Edwards: no pun intended. I don’t have any affiliate with them or anything. And I’m just able to go on my phone and order food for a client. I’m able to send coffee to a client like a receipt like Starbucks, a gift card. Just do little things, little thank yous here or there, and that even if they didn’t do business with you. Right, you say. Oh, well, you chose another agency, but I’m sending you this. Thank you for

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Alexandria Edwards: considering me, and then guess what? When that agency messes up, because they always do make a mistake, and they, you know, they usually try to make a big mistake, or whatever. So you know, that’s something that nobody has ever done, because you’re not thanking them because they didn’t

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Alexandria Edwards: do business with you right? So you’re grateful for the opportunity. Gratitude will gain you a lot of favor, and people will remember you so I think making efforts to be way more memorable than the next person is also important. I come from a very musical family. So you know, I have like a little video

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Alexandria Edwards: that my mom made, and she’s playing piano, and I like singing or whatever, and I like singing in a jingle like for seniors, and I send it video sometimes, especially like the clients that I haven’t ganged, and they see me. I’m like in front of, like some seniors, and we’re like singing and all that. And it’s just something that’s different. So just kind of like making sure you’re being unique in the field that way.

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Alexandria Edwards: The retention, the retention factor, is just being memorable and people understanding the brand and what you bring. And even if you don’t close the client, you’re still marketing to them through. Hey? What can I add you to my email list?

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Alexandria Edwards: And you’re this email is going out weekly you’re giving. So you’re giving so much knowledge. Hey? Have you heard about this new Medicare program that came out? Have you heard about this new foundation that came out, or you, or you, or you talking about your experiences or your caregiver spotlights or or nurse spotlights that if you, bringing on a new nurse practitioner, hey? You know our current clients and our, you know, a potential client.

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Alexandria Edwards: This is the nurse practitioner from so and so and so, and she has all this experience, and then somebody, and you know, always puts a link in there. Hey? Book a free consultation, or call me anytime to talk right? I just. I’ll go through my phone and I have like a Crm and I’ll I’ll go through the phone on the computer, and I’ll just type a quick, hey, you know. Just wonder how you’re doing and

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Alexandria Edwards: how things are going. I know you didn’t go with us, but I just wanted to check in because I thought of you know, Margaret. How’s she doing over there she is! She is behaving, you know, like just adding human humor and just being a sweet person and not being. It’s already like these caregivers. These family caregivers are going through so much and like, I said, wanting retention on the marketing side.

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Alexandria Edwards: It’s not not like you can do as far as online, I would say, but creating those systems and using systems

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Alexandria Edwards: automation online to keep following up with them, and also that human following up with them, too. You may want to have one even if it’s your 17 year old teenager. I can’t hire everybody you are you’re you’re my client, my 17 year old. He’s my client’s manager, was that you, Colin? And you’re making sure that they are caregivers if you have a new family starting, and they, for one, didn’t ever know that they would ever have a caregiver in their home ever.

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Alexandria Edwards: They didn’t never know Dad was going to follow you to the caregiver. They’re scared. They’re afraid they don’t stay in the state you calling you, calling that daughter or sending her a picture of their caregiver while that caregiver is there, and they’re miles and miles away and say, Hey, you know Dad walked better today or this and that, updating them weekly until they can gain that trust with you. And you’re like, Oh, my gosh! I know that my dad is

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Alexandria Edwards: anxiety is gone. So just really being solution and problem driven and just super clear communication, and just really working on building that relationship. And I think big agencies lose that touch. And that’s what the smaller agencies have

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Alexandria Edwards: the advantage of being able to foster that and nurture those relationships?

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Erin Cahill: Right? Yeah. As the industry continues to involve what emerging trends or technologies do you believe will have the greatest impact on home care marketing in the near future. And how can providers prepare to leverage them effectively?

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Alexandria Edwards: I think there’s going to be a shortage. There’s still going to be a shortage of caregivers and nurses everywhere. There’s going to be more technology infusing the home to where, you know, there is a care companion, you know, maybe virtually so, creating some type of aspect spec of a tele visit, or, you know, a care companion virtually. That can remind a person, you know, maybe a tablet there, and you know they can click on it

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Alexandria Edwards: And it automatically says, Hey, did you take your medication today, you know, having one person in your office, that is, that person that checks on that person, those people, because not everybody’s going to be able to afford private pay. And then some insurance programs. Also, I see they’re rolling out something similar to where it’s a digital care campaign. So just actually researching and stand ahead of the curve and being involved or

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Alexandria Edwards: in your own line of digital companion type services. And just anything that can be automated, you shouldn’t be doing any paper anything software like yours, creating a client system, some type of client management system for new clients, old clients

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Alexandria Edwards: and current clients as well, having that having that going so just totally being digital. I see everybody being digital, even. I don’t see the State constantly coming in like physically, I see them being more of a digital side and coming in and kind of like seeing how you’re doing and even partnering with some of the software is to make sure you’re compliant in all of those things. So the more you can infuse technology and

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Alexandria Edwards: way and also add the television aspect or the care Companion. I’m giving some free games right now. I’m actually working with a company now to come up with our digital side as well, because there’s going to be a loneliness epidemic.

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Alexandria Edwards: so providing that care companion for a person digitally could be a win for you, and just staying on top of trans going to these. Going to these healthcare companies takes place as well as conferences. So just stay ahead of this. So I. My prediction is, everybody will be digital no matter what. Cause I mean, I guess I still run into companies. They steal our paper. They’re

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Alexandria Edwards: they’re in a rural area, and they’re just shuffling through all those things. But I think the digital way is to go. And just just nothing like, where technology hasn’t impacted home care. And being able to kind of develop something yourself is also a good thing, too.

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Alexandria Edwards: Yeah, absolutely a lot of actionable insights there. Thank you, Alexandria, for your time and sharing those great insights. I’m sure these motivated our audiences to Update Andy in terms of devising digital marketing strategies for their growth. And to you, my wonderful audience, thanks for tuning in until the next episode. This is Erin Cahill, Signing off. Thanks again, Alexandria. Thank you.

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Alexandria Edwards: Bye, bye.

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Erin Cahill: for best.