How to Increase Senior Living Lead Generation and Improve Conversions with Emotional Marketing

senior living lead generation

Do you remember the 2007 ASPCA commercial that made everyone cry? The one with the montage of neglected cats and dogs with Sarah McLachlan’s ‘90s ballad “Angel” playing in the background? The ad, designed to play on the emotions of the audience, was so difficult to watch more than once that many viewers instantly changed the channel when it came on.

But a lot of people didn’t change the channel. The emotional response evoked by the commercial was so strong, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) raised $30 million in the first two years of the campaign—their most successful fundraising effort in history. And the ad is still generating donations today.

Emotion is a powerful marketing tool and just might be the oldest trick in the promotional playbook. But a well-established method like advertising built on invoking strong feelings isn’t automatically easy to execute well. Before you embark on an emotion-centered marketing campaign, you should understand the reasons why these campaigns generally succeed at helping to increase senior living lead generation—and where they can fall short of delivering.

Why Emotional Marketing Works to Increase Senior Living Lead Generation

Emotional marketing is an effective strategy you can apply to almost any marketing medium. Print, TV, digital—they all allow for content built to elicit an emotional response in the consumer. Consumers respond to ads that inspire feelings, whether that emotion is happy, sad, or something in between. Advertising with an above-average emotional response increases sales by 23% compared to an ad that doesn’t invoke an emotional response.1 Numerous other studies have identified similar relationships between increased sales and emotional advertising.2

But marketing with emotion isn’t just a known conversion driver. Connecting emotionally with your audience also builds brand loyalty. When customers form an emotional relationship with a brand, their lifetime value to that brand is increased by 306%.3 Emotional connection cultivates loyalty in a way unemotional advertising methods simply can’t.

These emotionally engaged, loyal customers are also some of your best brand advocates. Consumers recommend companies and organizations they’re emotionally attached to 71% of the time.4 Customers with no such emotional attachment to a brand will recommend it only 45% of the time. And since 83% of people report listening to recommendations from friends and family, cultivating loyalty with emotional content undoubtedly pays off.5

Given these statistics, incorporating emotionally-driven content into your senior living community’s digital marketing simply makes sense. Today we’ll discuss different ways to build an appropriately inspiring digital marketing campaign that will increase your senior living lead generation.

Tell Stories

At the center of every emotional marketing campaign is a story. Storytelling is one of the best ways to market any business. And guess what? Stories are promotional content people actually want to see. Just over 90% of people say they prefer ads that have a narrative component.6 So an effective way to use emotional marketing when promoting your senior living community is by sharing the stories of the residents, families, and staff that make it a true community, not just a business.

Residents as Brand Ambassadors

When it comes to effective storytelling, your residents are some of your best assets. Sharing your current residents’ experiences and stories allows prospective residents and their families to form a connection with your community. Ask resident couples to share their love stories on Valentine’s Day, highlight their milestone anniversaries throughout the year, and celebrate family on Grandparents’ Day. 

Resident testimonials are always a powerful marketing tool to increase new resident leads. Personal endorsements resonate, not just with other seniors, but also with the adult family members who care for them and may ultimately decide where they’ll reside.

Staff Stories and Connections

Your staff is the backbone of your senior living community, and can be valuable brand ambassadors when sharing their experiences working with your residents and team. Highlight staff who’ve gone above and beyond, or ask the most personable to narrate a testimonial about how caring for the seniors in the community brings them joy. Post photos or videos of staff engaging with residents in daily activities or special events.

Your prospective residents and their families want to know who will be looking after them. Offering emotional anecdotes humanizes the staff and helps potential residents connect.

Highlight What Makes Your Community Unique

With so many different factors going into the decision-making journey for new resident move-ins, you need to focus on highlighting the value of your senior living community. What makes your community unique? What’s your differentiators? In short, why should I or my loved ones move into your community rather than the one down the street?

Take stock of the services and amenities your community offers that sets you apart from your competition, and share stories of how these offerings have contributed to your residents’ quality of life. Do you have an emphasis on activities and engagement programs for seniors with hearing loss? Does your community provide cooking classes or day trips around specific interests? Ask your residents who engage with the amenities and services that your community takes pride in providing to share what those opportunities mean to them.

Interested in creating emotional marketing campaigns that connect with your prospective residents and their families? Dreamscape Marketing can help. Call us today at 888.307.7304 to schedule a strategy session.

 

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