With the healthcare industry being highly saturated with assisted living facilities — and many such facilities available for a patient to choose from — using a strategic content creation strategy can help you stand out among your competitors.
The majority of seniors in the United States rely on Social Security and Medicare to help them pay for medical needs. Knowing that the vast majority of assisted living facilities will accept Medicare, it’s important that you set yourself apart by showing that your facility is their best option.
Having a strong online presence puts your online efforts in front of more than 312 million people in the United States (95 percent of the US population). About 25 million of those were added in 2018. They are spending an average of 6 hours and 31 minutes a day browsing the internet. (DataReportal)
Here are key points on why you should be using a content marketing strategy to generate leads and bring awareness to your facility.
Establishing Trust
Being a reliable source of information builds trust among prospective families trying to find the right place for their loved one. Finding the best fit for their family member can be very stressful and overwhelming. Being able to provide the human touch to your content makes it more approachable and less intimidating. Make it easy for families to comment or contribute to your content, respond appropriately and in a timely fashion. Doing this will show families that their time and concerns are important to your business.
59 percent of Americans believe that customer service through social media has made it easier to get their questions answered and issues resolved. (Lyfe Marketing, 2018)
Industry Experts
Having a dedicated blog on your website can serve as a go-to resource in your industry.
It serves a library of material that can be easy shared and tracked. Content for this can be written by an employee such as a physician or nurse. The trick to having a successful blog is knowing what your customers are searching for. Here are some ideas:
- How to financially prepare to pay for an assisted living facility
- What services does assisted living provide?
- Tips on picking out the right assisted living facility for my loved one?
Once you write 21-54 blog posts, blog traffic generation increases by up to 30 percent.(iMPACT, 2016) Source: https://www.impactbnd.com/blogging-statistics-55-reasons-blogging-creates-55-more-traffic.
Other ways you can do this is creating a video on a platform like YouTube where you can embed your videos on your website. Print advertorial in the local newspaper where can contribute an article showcasing your services. Infographics can display easy to read quick bits of important information that you want to share.
Increase Online Presence
The more traffic you drive to your website, the more search engine algorithms like your page — and the higher you rank. Pushing out content that directs back to your website is beneficial for your SEO. Search engines love linkbacks — it tells them that your content is what people want to see. According to Forbes, “Linkback, link-building or inbound linking is another major factor of SEO. Connecting your links with high-domain authority sites like .edu and .org drastically increases traffic. Though developing links is possible by connecting with link-building agencies, the best method is to create expert content. To get a link back and boost traffic, stellar content is worth it.”
B2C companies that blogs generate 88 percent more leads per month than those that do not .(iMPACT, 2016) Source: https://www.impactbnd.com/blogging-statistics-55-reasons-blogging-creates-55-more-traffic.
Higher Conversion Rates
Content marketing increases marketing qualified leads. Being able to provide impactful content to prospective families can push them further down the buyer's journey. Having various types of content instills trust and knowledge to help them better make a decision on choosing where there loved one will go.
Here are a few ways a lead can become an MQL:
- voluntarily submitting contact information
- opting into a digital newsletter
- Subscribing to your blog
- downloading materials (i.e. ebook, white papers, case studies or infographic)
- repeatedly visiting a website.
Conversion rates are nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters (2.9 percent vs 0.5 percent). (Source: Aberdeen & Neil Patel)
Below are some content ideas to start with:
- Blogs
- Infographics
- Email Newsletters
- Webinars
- White Paper
- eBook
- Testimonials
- Case Study
Did you know?
- Content marketing gets three times more leads than paid search advertising. (Content Marketing Institute, 2017)
- LinkedIn is the most effective social media platform for delivering content and securing audience engagement. (LinkedIn, 2016)
- 76 percent of adults use Facebook daily. (Sprout Social, 2016)
- In the past two years, content consumption on Facebook has increased by 57 percent. (HubSpot, 2016)
- User-generated content on social networks has a 4.5 percent higher conversion rate. (Sprout Social, 2016)
- Branded content on social media is twice as likely to interest people between the ages of 55 and 64 than those who are 28 and younger. (BrizFeel, 2018)
- Content marketing gets three times more leads than paid search advertising. (Content Marketing Institute, 2017)
- Studies show that people have the ability to recall 65 percent of the visual content that they see almost three days later. (HubSpot, 2017)
- Inbound marketing, of which blogging is a crucial part, costs 62 percent less per lead than outbound marketing.(iMPACT, 2016)
- Small businesses that blog get 126 percent more lead growth than small businesses that do not blog.(iMPACT, 2016)
