You’re planning to start a home care agency. While this is both a commendable and potentially lucrative entrepreneurial path to take, there are various aspects you have to consider before you get up and running.
One of the biggest elements is the art of marketing. If you just slap a few lines onto the canvas without any thought, the results are going to be underwhelming, and you won’t be able to sell your work. If you craft a masterpiece, however, you’ll have crowds of people lining up to see what your business has to offer.
To get your marketing off on the right track, this guide will provide you with a helping hand. Below are a few main points to follow to successfully advertise your new home care agency.
The right employees
Before anything else, it is imperative you have the right employees for your home care agency. This is an obvious point, admittedly, but it’s one that needs highlighting. Your business is built entirely on the performance and competency of your staff. If negative reviews start raining in where they criticize the service received, this is likely to destroy any marketing efforts you put together.
With this in mind, you first have to make sure you hire people with the qualities required to provide care for others. Then it’s a case of providing the right caregiver training. With professional training in place, your employees are going to have the knowledge and skills needed to complete the job to a high standard.
Did you know “many” direct care workers fail to acquire the training or education required to be properly prepared to care for elderly patients with complex needs? By having employees that go beyond the norm, you can stand out from other agencies – and this gives you an instant edge in your marketing efforts.
Build a professional website
It’s true: the elderly population isn’t as tech-savvy as millennials and Generation Z. However, don’t underestimate their ability to use the internet. Due to devices like tablets and smartphones, more and more older people feel confident in browsing the web. Plus, even if they’re not browsing the internet to find information about local home care agencies, their children and grandchildren are certainly going this route.
As a result, you have to ensure your agency has a strong internet presence. This begins with a website.
The good news is that building and launching a website is easier than ever. Due to platforms like WordPress and Squarespace, you can craft a high-quality website within a matter of hours – no coding experience necessary. Furthermore, due to the popularity of those aforementioned platforms, there are many guides available for even the most minute details if you ever happen to get stuck and require assistance.
When putting together your website, there are a few important points to keep in mind. Firstly, you want to ensure the site is professional from top to bottom. That means using quality imagery, a smart yet simple logo, cutting out any grammatical errors, and so on. You should also take the time to learn about local SEO, as this can help your site to appear high up in organic search engine results.
List your business on local directories
One of the easiest yet most effective tactics to market your home care agency is to use directories both online and offline. By having your business in these directories, people searching for specific home care services will come across your outlet – and not just your competition.
In terms of directories, there’s one that sits ahead of the others in terms of importance: Google My Business.
For the uninitiated, Google My Business is a guaranteed way for people to find your company via both Google searches and Google Maps. It’s not just for direct searches about your business, either. If you have optimized your GMB listing, you also have the opportunity to show up high in general local searches for home care services. This is vital for boosting your organic traffic numbers.
Jump on social media
Again, elderly people may not be browsing multiple social media feeds each day. However, family members – the type that will assist in the search for home care services – will be on these platforms. This means your agency has to be on the biggest social media channels, including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
When setting up your social media profiles, remember to take the same professional approach as your website. It’s also wise to make daily posts on each platform, as this will naturally boost the visibility of your business and build your following at the same time. Also, consider making relevant video content as this will grab the attention better than text-based posts.
Physical marketing
Even though your promotional efforts will be primarily based online, there’s still plenty of room for physical marketing. You will want to target locals with a direct mail campaign, where you send out leaflets and brochures directly to the mailboxes of prospective clients.
If you’re skeptical about your target audience using the internet, there are no worries about direct mail not catching their attention. Yes, it is generally a more expensive venture than other online marketing techniques, yet the success rate makes it a worthy investment. According to statistics, over 5% of direct mail is responded to by the average household. That’s significantly more than 0.6% and 0.4% for email and social media, respectively.
Build relationships with local hospitals
Not all of your marketing efforts have to be directly aimed at your target audience. This is the case when it comes to reaching out and building relationships with hospitals in the area.
It goes without saying, but the elderly population is known for going to the hospital for regular checkups and other healthcare issues. When they’re at the hospital, you want doctors to be referring your agency when they feel it is a necessary step for their patients to take.
When you establish a relationship with hospitals – and demonstrate you’re one of the best agencies around – those referrals could become one of the best methods to acquire new clients.
