Dreamscape Marketing has been working with healthcare professionals since 2005. In that time, we’ve built hundreds of websites and helped providers reach more people through effective digital marketing strategies. As we expanded and became a senior living marketing agency, we discovered a landscape that differed from other healthcare sectors in a number of significant ways. 

We quickly realized that the challenges in senior living community marketing were numerous, and that our knowledge and experience could positively impact the senior living communities we worked with.

In our experience working with senior living communities, we discovered three unique marketing challenges that need to be addressed.

Many Senior Living Communities Lag Behind Other Healthcare Providers in Embracing the Advantages of Digital Marketing

Many sectors of the healthcare industry are at the forefront of digital marketing. They are taking full advantage of what digital marketing has to offer and are growing, even in the midst of a pandemic. 

Senior living communities, in contrast, aren’t at the same level. The role of a senior living marketing agency hasn’t been what it is in other healthcare sectors. For example, there’s a noticeable lack of senior living communities using the latest SEO strategies for increasing web traffic. In this day and age, if a senior living marketing agency can’t increase web traffic, they aren’t fulfilling their most important purpose. Without leading-edge SEO strategies in place, a senior living community’s ability to leverage results from their website is compromised.

Senior Living Communities Aren’t Always Focused on the Right Target Audience

CCRCs and Assisted Living facilities know who they should be marketing to. Or do they? In some cases, the answer isn’t so clear cut.

Some would say that the obvious target audience for a senior living community is seniors. Others insist that the target is really the adult children. Who is right? Actually, they’re both right. In fact, Dreamscape Marketing would insist this is true, regardless of where a senior is on the spectrum of health and cognition.

Seniors and their adult children are the target audience, not one or the other. More than a few assisted living or memory care facilities might disagree. They might insist that they want to reach adult children because these individuals are often the sole decision makers regarding a move. Seniors moving to an independent living community might be thought to be the primary target audience. The truth is that you will always have two target audiences. It’s important for a senior living marketing agency to target the needs of both in content, even though the key concerns of these audiences usually aren’t identical.

Ethical Senior Living Communities Can Employ Unethical Marketing Without Even Knowing It

Senior living communities understand the enormous trust that seniors and their adult children must have in them. As a result, they naturally strive to meet the needs of residents as best as possible. They are ethical to a fault. Unfortunately, the same can’t always be said of their marketing. 

Obviously, no senior living community would ever want to be perceived as unethical. Imagine their shock when they are told that their senior living marketing agency may have been deploying what amounts to black hat marketing techniques over the years. 

Now, factor in the use of senior placement services. These companies use a method of acquiring residents in a method that’s very similar to what is called patient trafficking in addiction treatment circles. Although such techniques are legal in senior living, it’s worth noting that patient trafficking in addiction treatment is actually illegal. This should be a troubling thought to any ethical senior living community.

A Senior Living Marketing Agency Should Complement Rather Than Negate Your Community’s Mission

Dreamscape Marketing has a firm commitment to ethical marketing. In the field of healthcare, this commitment is especially important. The lessons we’ve learned in marketing in the healthcare industry benefits all of our senior living community clients. We can provide leading-edge SEO digital marketing strategies that bring qualified leads to your website and ultimately, to your front door. That’s our greatest priority.

If your senior living community is looking for ways to increase move-in rates, call us today at 888.307.7304. Let’s discuss your digital marketing strategy for 2021.