Content touches…. It’s a topic we discuss often among our team members and with clients.
Just how many pieces of content does a senior or their family have to touch before they really start to see you?
Our crew is old enough to remember when senior living leads were primarily generated offline.(Yikes!)
Industry sales trainers tossed around “7” as the number of times you had to interact with an account before they started to remember and engage with your community.
Of course the internet has changed all of that. Not only are most senior living searches starting online, but communities must now contend with how bombarded people are with messages.
The Shift in Senior Living Marketing
Traditional advertising methods are becoming less and less effective.There’s no doubt about it.
Television commercials? With many viewers streaming content instead of watching it live, commercials are largely tuned out. Except maybe for the Superbowl.
Print ads? While less efficient than in the past, the exception seems to be small town papers. Seniors still read those almost cover to cover. It’s the big guys that have really suffered or moved online.
Direct mail? This is another one that still works on occasion for some communities. But with the caveat that more people are signing up for Do Not Contact lists, even that is more of a challenge.
So, how can content marketing fill the gap? And how many content touches do you need to target?
Content Touches and Senior Living Leads
As with many things in marketing, there is no clear consensus on how many times people need to see or engage with your senior living content for it to break through.
Resources we feel most confident in suggest 10-15 is the likely number. We tend to think it’s somewhere around 13.
While that might sound like a lot, it really isn’t. Blog articles, reviews, social media posts, and ebooks/guides are all sources of meaningful content.
You’ll want to break it down so you reach people with your content at each stage of the decision journey.
For example, do you have deep enough early search content to connect and engage adult children when they first start to notice something is wrong? For a senior who is on their own and struggling at home?
We all know it’s not a linear path, but more of a tangled web. But there are still steps every family goes through at some point or another on the journey.
In broad terms, that means you need enough content to allow for 13 or more touches at each of the following stages:
- Awareness/Research: This is when people are self-educating about our industry and looking to identify solutions. Think of all of the reasons a senior or their family begin the search: dementia, isolation, poor nutrition, falls, unsafe neighborhood, friendship, and more.
- Consideration: Once families have an idea about what they need, they take a deep dive online to research their options. For the senior who has a history of falls, what content can you create to connect and engage with them?
- Decision: Even though the senior and their family are engaging with you offline, odds are they are still searching for validation online. They want to feel confident they are making an informed decision. What content touch can you offer at this stage?
- Loyalty: Finally, how do you keep the resident and their family loyal and happy? Can you turn them in to raving fans who generate content on your behalf? Positive reviews and social media posts/shares are gold when it comes to attracting new leads.
Bottom line?
You likely need more content than you think and it should be targeted to where families are in their search.
Drop us a note if you have any questions! We’ll be happy to help…