To keep new lead flow occupancy and NOI high, many senior living operators turn to lead aggregators like A Place for Mom or Caring.com. While convenient, this reliance on paid lead aggregators comes at a high price to the senior living communities.
Can senior living communities stop using the lead aggregators they feel they can’t do without?
And if they can, how do they do it?
The answers are a) yes they can, and b) here’s how you can develop effective lead generation strategies that cost your community less and grow NOI.
The high cost of leads from paid aggregators
As previously mentioned, there is a big price tag attached to a paid aggregator senior living lead. Even though the prospects themselves don’t pay for the service, the senior living communities pay in the thousands of dollars – typically the first month’s rent plus care charge – when the lead becomes a resident. This fee is due regardless of how long a resident resides in the community.
If a low- or no-acuity lead like an independent living lead comes from a lead aggregator, the cost can be stretched out over the entire stay of the resident, or at least in theory. But a higher acuity lead – for example memory care or higher acuity assisted living leads – may only reside in a community for a short while before they either need to move out for a higher level of care or pass away. In those cases, the lead cost really cuts into the NOI.
How to reduce or eliminate your reliance on paid lead aggregators
Optimize your in-house marketing strategy:
Consider all that you could do if you reallocated some or all the funds that currently go to the lead aggregators into proven marketing channels. Investing in your website’s SEO, your social media presence, and content marketing are some of the best choices and will pay dividends down the road by attracting leads organically.
Add in paid ads campaigns to balance out your organic marketing strategy.
Strengthen local community engagement
We’re talking outreach. And no, outreach isn’t dead. Getting out into your local community and building partnerships with professional lead referral sources like geriatric care physicians, discharge planners, elder law attorneys, clergy, and financial advisors will keep your community at the top of their mind when they are able to refer to a senior living community. These referred leads convert at a MUCH HIGHER rate than those from lead aggregators.
Offer your community to host lunch-and-learn events for your professional referral sources. For example, a seminar on estate planning will benefit both your community and the attorney presenting the material.
Don’t forget to be a visible member of the local area by participating in holiday parades, sponsoring senior groups, and advertising in neighborhood and church directories.
Sharpen your sales skills and lead management processes
Turning off the flow of hot leads from the lead aggregators means making a renewed commitment to working cooler leads. Keep customers engaged, even if they “aren’t ready right now.” Work on practicing and improving key skills like empathic listening, building rapport, following up, advising and overcoming objections.
Do not forget to add home visits into your sales process. Prospects who benefit from home visits have a higher move in conversion.
Because the senior living sales cycle can stretch from a few months to well over a year, committing to using your CRM is imperative to track, manage, and nurture leads through their unique prospect journeys.
Use your CRM’s analytics tools to better understand your leads, track conversion ratios, and make informed decisions about your marketing strategy.
Measure and adjust
Successfully saying no to lead aggregators for the long-term means committing to change, leaning into discomfort, and continuous measurement and improvement. Identify what your key performance indicators (KPIs) for sales are and regularly measure activity against them.
For example, what are the conversion rates to move in for organic leads, leads from friends, family and residents? From professional referrals? The quantity is less, the quality is higher.
Finally, seek opportunities for improvement in the areas of lead generation and selling through periodic reviews.
Learn more
Ready to partner with an experienced team to help you say no to paid lead referral sources? Grow Your Occupancy is here to help with sales coaching and training for your team, hiring and onboarding support, optimizing your sales funnel (Occupancy Funnel,) and more. Reach out to us today at [email protected] and let’s take your senior living sales to the next level.
