Senior living marketers now have more options than ever before, and that’s great. The trick, however, is choosing solutions that serve your community’s needs best, then using those tools in the most effective way possible.
When it comes to senior living sales and marketing, we already know video is the most engaging format you can use. But I’m going to take it a step further and discuss a few specific video marketing ideas you can use in your senior living marketing to start driving occupancy rates today.
Thanks to today’s many social media platforms, it’s simple and convenient to reach your target audience across this big, interconnected world. But just because it’s easy to share information with prospects and their families doesn’t mean you should use social media without an underlying strategy.
Thankfully, social media algorithms happen to love video content, making your choice of what to share with your audience an easy one.
Remember, nearly 70% of people prefer to learn about a product or service through video while only 18% prefer text. Therefore, delivering noteworthy information through video content means it will stay top of mind to the viewer. And when your information stays top of mind, your community does as well.
Also, video allows you to be more human in your messaging. As simple as it might sound, small things like facial expressions, a tone in your voice, or just an emphatic delivery can go a long way in developing deeper connections with prospective residents and their loved ones.
A prospect deciding which senior living community to join is processing a monumental, life-changing decision. Oftentimes, it means leaving the home they’ve lived in for decades, so any hint of familiarity and comfort will help them feel more at peace with the decision-making process.
This is yet another area where video content can be so helpful, particularly when it comes to personalizing virtual tours and post-tour follow-ups.
Using the OneDay platform as an example, while it might only take a matter of minutes to create, edit, and distribute a customized video for a potential resident, that small investment of time can pay huge dividends for both your community and the prospect.
When you take the time to sit down and speak directly to a prospect, address them by name, and discuss the questions or issues that matter most to them, you’re creating a powerful human interaction through that video.
In many ways, such virtual tours or post-tour follow-ups allow the prospects to feel like they already know you and the community, even if they’ve never met you in person.
Continuing the previous point, your current residents can play a significant role in helping you create that critical feeling of familiarity and home for a prospect. Just as a personalized video follow-up can make a resident feel like they know you, video testimonials and introductions allow them to feel as if they are already a part of your community.
Simply put, by using video to introduce current residents with similar interests or backgrounds, you’re making a prospect feel at home and allowing them to connect with their soon-to-be peers much faster. In fact, nearly 90% of people trust online testimonials as much as personal recommendations from friends and family.
Finally, video is a much more efficient way to communicate with a prospect. Because the format engages at a deeper level, it naturally drives the two-way communication you need to speed up your sales process.
For example, when a prospective new resident or family member can immediately add a comment to a video or reply to a text message, you’re fostering a personalized connection and enhanced communication that creates the momentum you need to drive move-ins faster.
Here at OneDay, we absolutely love providing our community partners with the types of solutions and insights that make all of this possible. So take these ideas, integrate them into your own content marketing efforts, and give your senior living community a real competitive edge.