Care home marketing

Posted by Card Group on June 1st, 2019

In many towns and cities, successful marketing for care homes has become increasing important as the market grows more competitive. Improving the marketing plan will help to improve effectiveness as well as improving return on investment.

Noted below are several points for improvement

1) Where is your catchment area boundary?

Each care home has a different boundary. It’s not as easy as drawing a circle depicting 5 or 10 miles radius around your care home on a map. Certain roads may put prospective relatives off from travelling the 5 or 10 miles from their home to the care home if traffic is known particularly heavy. The traffic may double the length of travelling time compared to the same distance on an empty road. If you can work out where the boundary of your own catchment area is, it’s easier to focus resources in the right areas. This means that there is a lower risk of wasting marketing budget on an area that is less likely to yield a decent a return on investment.

2) Select the right target audience

Find out the demographic breakdown of the residents and their families that live within your catchment area. Housing areas tend to have evolving demographic so it’s important to also find out who the residents are that may be available to you in the future. Find out if prospective care home residents are more likely to be self-funded of funded by the by the local authority? Who are you targeting? Should you be targeting prospective residents or their children or both? Targeting the correct audience means you will be able to focus your resources on the areas likely to yield more profit.

3) Your customer needs

Are the services offered able to meet the needs of future residents? What care aspects are not meeting the needs of prospective residents?

4) Customer satisfaction

Are your customers and their influencers happy with the services you provide? Do your residents spread positive messages about your care home via word of mouth? Word of mouth referrals have been shown to be the most common referral way for care homes, so it’s vital to discover what is being said about you’re care home.

To develop effective care home marketing, it’s crucial that the marketing strategy decision-making process is based on facts rather than opinion or a perspective from within an organisation. This is where a market research company can help. Market research companies offer a range of services that will help you to promote your care home effectively. The results from market research often form the cornerstone of a marketing strategy.

To find out more please visit www.card-group.com/