Brand awareness is vital if you want to reach out to more senior citizens and their families. The right marketing strategy can build your reputation within the community and help you maximize occupancy. Businesses in the senior care industry rely on modern software rather than outdated spreadsheets or paper and pen to track goals and manage customer relationships. You need to expand to the online world to reach more potential customers and to establish yourself as a trusted authority. It all begins with a website.
What Can a Website Do for My Senior Living Business?
There are many things that a senior living website can do to add value to your business. First, it gives you a stable point of communication on the web. This can be used as a central hub that potential and existing customers can visit to learn more about your services. It can also be used to spread the word about changes or improvements to your business.
Depending on your marketing strategy, you may branch out from your website to create social media profiles, blogs, and more. Each of these can act as a point of entry that draws leads in. They can direct visitors to your homepage or a targeted area on your website. From there, leads can contact you to answer questions or discuss services. The site is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even if your office is closed.
What Features Should My Senior Living Website Have?
Features will vary from one website to the next. You should consider what you would like to get out of your site and choose its functionality accordingly. For example, do you want to generate new leads? Then include a form to capture lead information.
Data collected from visitors can also help you make decisions about website design and marketing strategies. Through analytics, you can see which sources are producing the highest amount of traffic. You can also see which may not be working and adjust as needed so that your marketing funds are used as effectively as possible. Your senior living website can also be used to:
- Set appointments
- Share announcements
- Give virtual tours
- Request more information
- Display reviews & testimonials
- Share event calendars
- Search by location
- Display slideshows or videos
- Display awards and recognition
The Benefits of a Senior Living Website
How can your business benefit from having a senior living website? There are many ways that a site can help raise profits and keep your waiting list filled.
- Create a point of communication that’s available 24 hours a day
- Inform visitors of changes, updates, and events related to your facility
- Help you learn more about your target demographic & their behaviors
- Draw in leads with targeted ads and landing pages
- Gather data that allows you to personalize the customer’s experience
- Add convenience with live chat, contact forms & appointment-setting features
- Strengthen your reputation with a professional website design
- Entice in-person visits by displaying virtual tours, slide shows, & videos
How Do I Market My Senior Living Website?
Building a senior living website is an important first step. Once you have your website, you need to get it out there in front of the right people. That means you must come up with a marketing strategy. The internet is different than TV, radio, or newspaper advertising. Algorithms are used to determine what people see when they do an online search. You need to position your website so that it appears as high up on the search results pages as possible.
That involves a process known as search engine optimization or SEO. To do this, you will need to strategically place keywords within the written content on your page and within the metadata. Finding the right keywords involves research. They should be relevant to what you are offering but also not over-saturated. Vague or highly popular keywords will have more competition, which means it is much harder to be found.
By getting creative and knowing the desires and habits of your demographic, you can come up with keywords that are more likely to rank higher and get noticed. This can be a challenge for anyone who is not aware of SEO best practices.
If you aren’t sure where to begin, consider hiring an SEO expert. They can guide you through the process and offer long-term monitoring to build up website traffic and keep it up. In the end, the cost of hiring a good SEO professional is exceeded by the value they bring to your business.
How Do I Build a Senior Living Website?
Building a website from the ground up requires knowledge and skill. You will need to buy a domain name, find hosting for your site, design it, and then fill it with content. You will also need to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly. That’s a lot of new jobs, especially if you are already busy managing your senior care facility.
You can pay for a pre-made template, but this will be extremely limiting. Most templates cannot be significantly altered. If you want added functionality, then you will most likely have to install a third-party app or pay a developer to create it for you. It will be difficult to build pages that match your branding and message perfectly by using something someone else designed for a general audience.
The most effective solution is to hire a professional website designer. You can discuss your requirements and expectations and let them handle the rest. Some also offer additional services, like SEO. They can make recommendations to polish your site and give you the best chance at success on the web.
Should I Hire a Professional to Build My Website?
If you have the technical knowledge to build and manage a website and understand current SEO best practices, then you can do it on your own. That is also assuming that you have the spare hours to invest in the project. Otherwise, hiring a professional is going to be your best option. Look for a professional that can handle the website and marketing for you or just the services you need to generate leads and grow your business.
