Residential assisted living business owners should be flexible and learn to adapt, in order to prepare for a rapidly changing future.
Are you up-to-date on the latest marketing tips, tricks, and techniques to stay ahead of your competitors?
Many owners and operators are receiving a wake-up call that “business as usual” has grave impacts.
The future is now when it comes to technology.
Business owners who expect to gain success must come to grips with some important realities about how technology is changing the game.
Five Game-Changing Perspectives
I. Senior living isn’t immune to change;
II. Word of review is more powerful than word of mouth;
III. The days of “build once and done” websites are over;
IV. Get serious about content marketing;
V. Fear of change will kill you.
1. Senior Living Isn’t Immune to Change
Media ubiquity, allowing your assisted living home to appear everywhere and maintain a common brand, has changed how people relate.
Ubiquity also affects how people interact with one another and obtain information.
The residential assisted living industry often functions as though it exists in a bubble reality.
The truth is our use of technology, in how we market and communicate, is not any different for the seniors and their families that we seek as prospects.
Assisted living is equally compared to other businesses in regards to how the world uses technology to add value to their lives.
No business is immune to change, and that includes senior living.
Unfortunately, far too many residential assisted living businesses fall short when it comes to keeping up with modern times and tech.
2. Word of Review Is More Powerful Than Word of Mouth
In today’s society, everything is fair game for scrutiny, criticism, and review by consumers – residential assisted living homes are no exception.
Sales and marketing efforts have a completely different influence on decision making than they did in the pre-digital age.
In the digital age, machines play a large role in the selection process of products and services. A significant part of the process has been automated with narrowed choices by machine thinking.
Residential assisted living homeowners must recalibrate their marketing strategies to attract and convert prospects.
Many reviews are unfair and inaccurate, but they still shape people’s perception of your brand. The words people use in your reviews carry more weight than word of mouth in today’s society.
This is important to recognize because prospects make decisions based on your digital reputation.
Avoid the competitive disadvantage of failing to acknowledge the potency of the word of review.
3. The Days of “Build Once and Done” Websites Are Over
We no longer live in a digital error where branded business packages attract anyone who expresses an interest.
Websites used to hold businesses over for at least a couple of years, maybe longer.
Those days are long past, but some assisted living business owners are behind the times.
Your website should be evolving.
In order to meet consumer demands, savvy business owners must provide information and tools to help individuals make the right decisions.
Think of your website like a shark tank – a shark has to keep moving forward or it dies.
4. Get Serious About Content Marketing
Your content marketing should be something that others want to emulate – stay ahead of the game.
Content marketing is the future of marketing.
Content marketing creates valuable, relevant literature that educates consumers and helps them make smarter decisions.
Content enables businesses to build a distribution network that makes your website visible to the right people.
This literature should be geared toward achieving well-defined business objectives.
Content should be the core of your marketing program.
Paid media and outbound tactics play a role, but the content should come first, not as an afterthought.
Content marketing can add value to your assisted living business and will move more people to consider residential assisted living as an option.
5. Fear of Change Will Kill You
Always build for the future, not for the present.
This is a colossal challenge for the assisted living industry. Most businesses are afraid of change.
Where is the innovation?
The real opportunity for the assisted living industry lies in creating services that benefit seniors and products for the caregiver staff.
Instead of cookie-cutter communities, assisted living needs incremental improvements, and residential assisted living is the new wave of senior care.
If you don’t embrace change, someone else will and their success will drown out your business.
The good news is that change is never boring. However, you have to always adapt to keep up with an advancing industry.
How to Always Adapt to Advances
Residential Assisted Living Academy has built a nationwide network that functions as a family of assisted living providers.
As a nation’s leading resource for assisted living, the academy students continue to receive ongoing blog content, resources, and literature about best practices.
Students learn how to meet the high demand for senior housing and up-to-date marketing strategies that work for successful assisted living homes.
Do you know everything from A-Z about owning and operating your assisted living business?
Contact www.RALAcademy.com to get connected to champions in the industry and stay ahead of the game.
