10 Things Senior Living Communities Need in Their Digital Marketing Toolkit to Remain Competitive
Modern digital marketing encompasses every aspect of your senior living community’s virtual presence. While it was enough in the past to have a website and maybe a social media page, today you need to focus your digital marketing strategy on a much broader array of activities.
Here’s Grow Your Occupancy’s 10 top digital marketing activities senior living communities should be doing to increase their NOI, especially focusing on online presence, lead generation, nurturing, and occupancy growth:
1) Local SEO Optimization
If you haven’t already, claim, optimize, and manage your community’s Google Business Profile listing. Keep it current and interesting by frequently adding new pictures of life at your community, your latest blog, and other informational content. Also, keep tabs on your Google reviews and respond professionally to each of them. Learn more in our blog, “The Importance of Gathering Senior Living Reviews Throughout the Resident Journey”.
Use location-specific keywords (“assisted living in [City, State]”) in your webpage titles, meta descriptions, and content.
Establish listings in reputable local directories (e.g., US News, Caring.com, and seniorhomes.com).
Why it matters: When it comes to senior living communities, SEO means local SEO, so visibility here means more tours booked.
2) Educational Blog Posts
Publish at least 1-2 blogs each month answering real senior living questions: costs, moving tips, care options, care differences, etc.
Include relevant search phrases in the titles, meta descriptions, and content (e.g. “What’s Included in the Cost of Senior Living?”, “What Is It Like Living in a Senior Living Community?”, or “Tips for Decorating a Senior Living Apartment”.)
Why it matters: Blogging establishes your community as a trusted resource and thought leader to build prospect confidence and inbound digital traffic. Relevant, original content improves your organic ranking and provides content for nurturing prospects at every decision stage.
3) 3D Floor Plans
We see it in nearly every senior living website’s Google Analytics data: floor plans consistently rank in the top 10 list of pages viewed.
While 2D line drawing floor plans were once “good enough”, today you can have graphical representations of your senior living apartment types – complete with furnishings – produced for a lot less than you think. (3D floor plans are just one of our suite of marketing services. Reach out to learn more.)
Why it matters: 3D floor plans help your prospects visualize themselves living in your community and are valuable tools to help them plan their furnishings and lifestyle.
4) PPC Campaigns (Google Ads, Facebook Ads)
Run targeted Google Ads paid campaigns around intent-driven keywords (“best assisted living near me,” “memory care for Alzheimer’s”). Boost your most informative Facebook posts like your blogs to broaden your exposure to new users.
Why it matters: Paid ads deliver highly qualified traffic and motivate leads to connect with your community.
5) Email Marketing
Produce a monthly email newsletter with pictures of life at your community, upcoming events, open apartments, and educational resources. Send it to not only your current CRM database of prospects and their influential loved ones, but also to your professional referral sources.
Why it matters: Email nurturing improves conversion rates by keeping your community top-of-mind through the decision process.
6) Lead Magnet Offers
Downloadable resources (like a cost comparison worksheet and informational guides about senior living topics of interest to prospects and their loved ones) and informational seminars at your community are helpful tools for moving prospects toward a sale. Be sure to capture contact information through a form fill to get the download, or from RSVPs to the events.
Why it matters: A strong lead magnet builds your email list and captures prospects earlier in their research journey.
7) Online Reviews and Reputation Management
Actively request online reviews from residents and families. Make it easy for them by providing a link or QR code to the review site on signage throughout the community. Include the review request wherever appropriate in correspondence with residents and families (e.g. messages from leadership and staff).
Don’t forget to monitor and quickly respond to all reviews — positive and negative.
Why it matters: Online reviews are increasingly valuable to prospective residents researching senior living communities.
8) Social Media Marketing (Organic and Paid)
At the very least, your community should have a Facebook page that you post to several times a week. (Read our “5 Tips for Implementing Facebook into Your Senior Living Marketing Plan” to learn more.) Consider adding an Instagram account, it’s becoming increasingly popular with the older demographic. With Meta Business Suite, it’s almost effortless to post simultaneously to both Facebook and Instagram.
Post authentic, real-life content: resident activities, trips to local attractions, birthdays, your meals, new resident announcements, and staff spotlights.
Why it matters: Social builds community trust, reaches adult children decision-makers, and increases brand awareness.
9) Chatbots: An Essential Website Enhancement
The emergence of AI has made chatbots an extremely valuable marketing tool on senior living community websites. Chatbots can respond to many of the most common inquiries prospects may have, including pricing, floor plans, scheduling a tour, and answering FAQs. (Learn more about Grow Your Occupancy’s Occupancy Funnel chatbot, designed specifically for senior living communities.)
Why it matters: Capable chatbots increase your website’s usefulness to your prospective residents – without your staff having to lift a finger.
10) Marketing Analytics and Lead Tracking
Implement and regularly review your Google Analytics, social media, and CRM data to measure:
- Where leads are coming from
- Which campaigns perform best
- Key sales metrics (Learn more about “The 5 ½ Senior Living Sales Metrics to Master”.)
Analyze the data and adjust your marketing strategies based on your findings.
Why it matters: Without accurate tracking and analysis of marketing data, you can’t improve performance or demonstrate marketing ROI to leadership.
Quick Bonus Tip: Review Your Entire Digital Presence
The Grow Your Occupancy Digital Presence Survey (DPS) is an analysis of your company’s online presence. The goal of the DPS is to uncover weaknesses and opportunities for improvement across your digital footprint.
The DPS will review the following and make recommendations:
- Website: On-page SEO including the homepage and other prominent webpages; performance; mobile optimization; local SEO of community websites/webpages
- Content: Quality, relevance, and frequency of webpage content and blogs
- Google Business Profile: Currentness and completeness of all areas of the profile
- Facebook and other social channels: quality and frequency of posts; completeness of profile; reputation review
- Competitor digital presence survey: how your local competitors compare to your community online
Learn more about how our Digital Presence Survey can help you find opportunities for improvement – schedule a time to meet.
