As senior living operators and communities strive to cultivate a supportive, healthy environment that gives residents purpose in their aging days, there are a number of considerations to make. With a product or service designed for the senior living industry, it is important to understand the ins and outs of daily operations, challenges and needs of the teams running a community. If your product provides a solution, it’s imperative that companies are able to tell their story in an efficient way to win the business of the senior living communities they are looking to partner with.  

So, for a B2B organization (product or service) looking to market to the senior living industry, where does digital marketing fit in? While it may not seem like a top-of-mind concern, digital marketing actually has considerable importance for your brand. An effective go-to-market plan is the first step. 

Digital Marketing for B2B Brands in Senior Living: An Overview

As you seek the best strategy to develop a go-to-market (GTM) marketing plan, it may be worth considering some core definitions. Especially important is the distinction between digital marketing and inbound marketing.

These two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but they’re not exactly synonyms. Basically, inbound marketing refers to the methods used for attracting customers who have already shown an interest in the products or services you’re offering… so, in this case, customers who are already researching solutions to their operational challenges. Common tactics used for inbound marketing include website optimization, informative blog posts, and engaging social media feeds.

The term “digital marketing,” on the other hand, is used more broadly to denote any kind of marketing activity that unfolds on the internet. Inbound marketing is a subcategory of digital marketing, but digital may also include efforts to connect with decision-makers at the corporate level to aid in their consideration of products or services that could improve efficiency, productivity or budgetary items. 

Why is Senior Living-Specific Marketing So Important?

It’s not hard to understand why digital marketing is so important for companies selling to the senior living industry. One big piece of the GTM strategy is positioning your brand as the answer to the problem your product or services addresses. This must be determined early in the strategy phase then evaluated frequently. In addition to the public facing messaging, making sure the sales teams have a good understanding of industry terminology, community procedures and industry knowledge is key to success.

Beyond the messaging and PR of your brand, it’s important to have a content strategy, sales strategy, and target market strategy. The senior living industry hosts a variety of communities based on acuity, geography, and market demand. Not every B2B product or service is the right solution for every community; therefore, it is necessary to understand the complexity of your brand and its solutions. 

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As part of the GTM strategy, you’ll want to understand your target market and employ a wide range of tools. Some key marketing tools include:

Having a user-friendly website

Not only should your website be properly optimized to show up in relevant search results (including proper SEO, keywords and feature images), but it should also be highly functional, offering a positive user experience on all types of browsers and devices. It goes without mentioning, your branding and messaging should clearly paint the story of your company.

Delivering useful content

Give potential clients the information they need to make a judicious decision. Consider incorporating an explainer video, virtual demo, testimonials of happy clients, or photo galleries, etc.

Use email to your advantage

‍It is critical to keep your audience up to date on the progress and updates surrounding your ventures. Email marketing has been one of the most consistent avenues to reach your audience over the past 20 years. Once you have curated a contact list of your audience, it can be as valuable as gold.

Creating plenty of opportunities to connect

Make sure your website, social media platforms, and communication methods provide clear calls to action, including easy ways for leads to request additional information.‍

Cultivating online reviews

Encourage current clients to leave a five-star review on Google, Facebook, and other platforms. Take the time to offer polite and professional responses to positive and negative feedback alike.

Developing a pay-per-click (PPC) strategy

‍A thoughtful approach to PPC ads can ensure that your senior living company is present in social media newsfeeds, in search engine results, and in email inboxes. Don’t forget LinkedIn. This is one platform that dominates the senior living industry, plus it’s a great way to connect with your ideal prospect.

What are the Benefits of Senior Living Marketing?

There are several benefits to having a comprehensive marketing strategy in place when launching your brand into the senior living industry.

A robust digital marketing plan can take the burden off your sales team

Your sales reps can’t work around the clock cold-calling leads. And even if they could, that wouldn’t be the most cost-effective strategy. But your website and other digital marketing assets can be active around the clock, providing information to potential leads and bringing them into your sales funnel no matter the hour. And if you use your digital marketing tools to collect contact information, then your sales team will have a much easier time doing outreach.

Good marketing plans are easily replicable

Once you find the right types of PPC content, or the most effective automated emails, you can deploy them at any time, perhaps making slight tweaks as your senior living company grows and evolves.

Digital marketing makes it easy to measure your success

‍Ultimately, the goal of your marketing campaign is to close deals. But the right strategy will enable you to track all of the other benchmarks that lead to the sale.

Is There Someone Who Can Help?

Taking on a task like this can be daunting. There are countless resources available to help. Choosing to do it yourself or using outside resources does not have to be complicated or difficult. 

As a specialized marketing service in the senior living industry, we know how to market senior living communities and capture the attention of the key decision makers while also providing unique touchpoints and data that your in-house team may not have access to.

There’s more to email than text and photos

‍While text and images are important, properly formatting the content for electronic delivery, as well as maintaining a clean contact list is crucial. By utilizing leading email technology to optimize your database and create properly formatted email content, we execute campaigns quickly with complete reporting metrics for future testing/optimization.  

Creating trust through PR and media

‍Knowing that your audience includes decision makers means you must share credible and valuable information to set your brand apart.

The power of video‍

Whether it’s using video to describe your product or service, or sharing testimonials of happy clients, video is a sure way to invite your viewers to invest in their decision making.

‍Digital is the new normal

‍As senior living marketing specialists, we understand the importance of traditional types of marketing including print, direct mail and expo/conference marketing, as well as the significant impact of digital marketing. Integrating current ways to reach your audience allows you to continue to tell the story of your brand and solution.

“I don’t know why you would work with anyone else other than Solinity Marketing!”

Choose Solinity Marketing as Your Partner

At Solinity Marketing, we have a proven track record of developing effective, data-driven marketing strategies for clients of all kinds, including startups and vendors. We’re especially proud of our depth of knowledge of the senior living industry. We would love to get to know your needs and help develop a go-to-market plan that will help you establish your reputation and get the clients you desire.

Ready to chat? Reach out to Solinity Marketing today.