Care homes face an ongoing challenge of attracting residents, particularly private pay (self-funding) families.
Building and enhancing trust and credibility within their local communities is one strategy to help achieve this, and some care home providers are turning to marketing companies or agencies that specialise in promoting care homes.
Targeted marketing strategies
By enlisting the expertise of a marketing company you can develop targeted tailor-made strategies for your care homes to reach your target audiences effectively creating compelling marketing or PR campaigns that resonate with prospective residents and their families.
Whether it’s through media exposure and PR campaigns, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, search engine optimisation (SEO) a tailored approach ensures you reach the right people, maximising your chances of boosting occupancy.
“Amplifying” your reputation, including online
A good online reputation can play a significant role in securing the notice of prospective families.
Care homes are advised to actively keep record of – and manage – their online presence in a bid to enhance trust and credibility.
As well as advising on how to best utilise your use of online directories, such as carehome.co.uk, Autumna, Lottie and Trusted Care, a marketing company can advise you on Google My Business, and how to become dramatically more noticeable online via positive online media coverage, and associated listings under “Google News” searches.
Perhaps most vitally, Google Pay-Per-Click ads and Facebook ads can hugely increase both traffic to your website and leads and enquiries from self-funding families, sometimes by more than 300%.
Celebrating (widely) your care homes’ good news
Ongoing positive PR and, “getting the word out there” about your care homes via suitable channels (e.g. the press or Facebook) is key to capture the attention of prospective families, and showcasing the work of your care team.
A marketing company with the relevant experience can assist in developing a PR strategy that may include ongoing positive media coverage, “Accelerated Engagement” on Facebook, news stories for your website, events, e-shots, and engaging video.
By consistently “getting noticed” your care homes will be dramatically more visible, and indeed famous, so positioning your care homes as an expert in care provision within your catchment areas.
While there are immense benefits of hiring a care home marketing expert here a common mistakes we’ve seen care providers make in their selection of a marketing agency or company
- Not being experts in the care sector which, like any specialism, has its own required language, sensitivities, dos and don’ts, and unique factors.A specialist care marketing company should have deep familiarity on everything from how care homes are funded and regulated by the CQC (or Care Quality Inspectorate in Scotland) to the role of, for example, the care home manager and the activities co-ordinator. Plus the importance of consent for residents and their families
- How a clearly defined marketing strategy, often with 100% buy-in from all relevant stakeholders, underpins everything
- How, when it comes to PR and digital marketing, Google Pay Per Click ads and Facebook ads require specific set ups, use of copy, images, “assets” and “keywords” and how some care providers are better than others at following up on leads and enquiries from prospective families.
- Increasingly care home marketing companies should be able to provide a full tracking and data analysis of digital marketing campaigns, including cost to secure a new lead or enquiry from a family whether that comes via the website, Google, Facebook, Live Chat or a brochure download.
In summary, selecting the appropriate care home marketing company can at best be a game-changer for your care homes’ enquiry levels, occupancy, revenue flow, and perception from the public.
Do you think Springup PR could be a good fit?
We’re the #1 agency to help care providers attract more enquiries via tailor-made data-driven PR and digital marketing strategies to fill beds faster and increase revenue faster
Contact us on 0203 6370091 or hello@springup-pr.com if you’d like to see how we could help you.
See our free care home marketing and PR resources
FAQs: Your care home marketing questions answered
Facebook is often the social media platform of choice for care homes as it enables them to achieve objectives such as (i) communicating with their present residents’ families (ii) providing a window into their care home for prospective families and new care staff (iii) running Facebook ads to both get more leads from prospective families, and to also recruit new care staff. Tik Tok and Instagram can also come into play.
Care homes often thrive off a good reputation, so “amplifying” that reputation via ongoing press coverage, positive PR and associated “good news” online is often considered invaluable by some care homes.
While carehome.co.uk rules the roost for SEO under many keywords or phrases, care providers can utilise their own websites (everything from Google My Business to news stories) and links on directories as a strategy to improve their SEO visibility.
Care homes are often full of positive stories, whether that be the “human interest” stories of residents, dedicated care staff, interesting activities, examples of personalised care, or dementia care expertise. Getting those “good news stories” into the press and being seen by 100s of thousands of people on Facebook is what a care home marketing and PR company should be able to help with.
Is it necessary to hire a professional marketing company for a care home with less than 30 capacity?
It does depend upon the objectives. If it’s to secure more enquiries, particularly from self-funding families, then a specialist care sector marketing company may provide measurable positive ROI, whatever the size of the home.