The senior living industry is highly competitive, especially in New England and the Northeast, with hundreds of residences in nearly every state. In order to break through all the noise and stand out from your competitors, it is important to establish “unique value propositions” (UVPs) that showcase what your organization does better than everyone else. Within the senior living industry, this could mean the dedication of your Assisted Living associates, or the quality of your Memory Care services, or the exceptional dining and amenities that you offer. It is crucial to understand that your sales funnel and future success depend highly upon not only what you identify to be your UVP, but also how you highlight it among your target audiences.
Effectively promoting your senior living organization and what makes it special requires a clear and comprehensive public relations gameplan that leverages media relations, thought leadership, and community engagement strategies in order to increase your brand visibility and drive sales results.
Media Relations
Earned media is a fruitful way of boosting awareness of your organization within the markets where your target audiences live. Seniors have among the highest percentage of news consumption compared to any other generation, which means if you have a story in the media about your organization, the chances are good that a senior will see it. Media placements enhance your organization’s visibility and reputation within the public, and that brand recognition is advantageous when it comes to people looking for senior living residences.
Successful media relations is all about impactful storytelling; news organizations are looking for “news” to cover, not fluff pieces. This is not to say that “soft” stories, such as a feel-good feature, won’t ever get coverage, but they need to be positioned in the right way. This goes back to what was mentioned above about UVPs – Even when pitching a feature story, it needs to tie back to the aspects that make your organization special and sets it apart from the rest. These unique elements are what create impact and make stories memorable. If you can achieve these things in your media pitch, then the media is much more likely to be interested.
Thought Leadership
To succeed in the senior living industry, you need to have the best people in the field; from Memory Care to Assisted Living to resident engagement, you want top-of-the-line experts throughout every level of your organization. As such, it makes perfect sense to show off all the great employees and expertise that exist within your organization – That’s where thought leadership comes in.
These efforts might entail writing an op-ed about the long-term benefits of Assisted Living, or speaking on a panel about best practices in Memory Care, or applying for an award within the senior living industry. Thought leadership showcases the dedicated employees and their tremendous work within your organization, which then becomes an additional selling point. Releasing an op-ed about Assisted Living, for example, means that people will begin to associate your organization with Assisted Living. Subsequently, if a senior is contemplating moving into an Assisted Living residence, your organization will likely be top-of-mind for them because they remember your op-ed.
Community Engagement
As a senior living residence, you don’t want to simply be a property that sits in the middle of a town, but you want to truly be a member of the town’s community. By becoming more involved within the surrounding communities of your residences, you are helping to increase awareness of your organization, but also improve its reputation. Community engagement efforts should include outreach to civic-minded groups and organizations that are working to better the local area. The objective is to partner with these groups and offer resources with which your organization can assist them. For example, if there is a local food bank hosting a food drive ahead of the holidays, your organization can offer to be a drop-off location where people can donate food. Or if there is a community farm in town, you can offer to host a plant sale at your residence to benefit the farm. In addition, if there are any seniors living in your residences who wish to be more active in their communities, you could encourage them to volunteer at these local organizations as a way of further building partnerships.
When people see your organization participate in community events or other initiatives, then they understand your efforts in supporting the town, and as a result will be more likely to consider your organization when looking for senior living residences.
Overall, public relations strategies including earned media, thought leadership, and community engagement can greatly benefit your senior living residence by increasing public awareness and perception through the highlighting of the services you offer, the care you provide, and the local partnerships you build. If you want to boost your public relations efforts, consider partnering with an agency like Belfort Group. With multiple years of public relations experience in the senior living industry, Belfort Group can help you develop strategies designed to grow your brand visibility and increase sales.
Learn more about Belfort Group’s impactful work within the senior living industry here.
About Belfort Group
Belfort Group is an integrated public relations and marketing agency with more than 40 years of experience in dealing with crisis communications across multiple industries, including: education, health care, real estate, and many more. Our BG Strategies Team consists of former journalists and media relations professionals who handle crisis incidents successfully and protect our clients’ reputations. We help you develop a Crisis Communications Plan to prepare you before an incident arises.