Senior Living Prospects Have Big Problems
People seeking out information on senior living, retirement communities, assisted living residences and long-term care facilities have big problems. These people, usually elders or (more likely) their family members, face huge challenges as they make life-changing decisions while trying to navigate the complex world of senior living and eldercare options. These people (your prospects) are increasingly using the internet to do their research, and while they are seeking information online, what they are really doing is trying to find solutions to their problems. Your website should be a resource that helps them do just that.
If you provide helpful information, resources, knowledge, expertise, and the ability to connect with you on your website, prospects are 1. more likely to find you, 2. more likely to trust you, and 3. more likely to be interested in your organization as an option. Done well and executed properly, social media tools like blogs, online communities, Twitter, webinars, white papers, and eBooks can magnetically attract prospects to your website and give you an opportunity to engage them further, nurture relationships, build trust, and ultimately convert them into customers.
Social Media Helps Your Prospects Solve Problems
The key to using social media successfully in business is to use social media tools to attract, engage, and help people. With social media, you create useful and timely content that your customers want and need. As David Meerman Scott suggests, when your prospects visit your website (or your facility), they don’t care about your facility or services so much, they care more about their own problems and if you can solve them. If your social media content helps them begin to solve their problems, you’re much more likely to engage those prospects and get them to visit your physical community. If they come to visit, you can then keep them engaged using social media tools.
What are the top five problems facing your senior living prospects? Here’s a likely list from the perspective of an elderly woman and her daughter:
- Elder: I don’t want to move. I want to stay in my home. Adult Child: I’m not sure if moving Mom out of her house is a good idea. I don’t know what to do.
- Elder: I don’t want to be a burden on my kids. Adult Child: I feel obligated to take on this challenge, but I’m afraid of how it’s going to impact my own family.
- Elder: I’m not ready to move yet. I don’t need all that help. Adult Child: I’m not sure if now is the right time. I don’t know when the right time to move my Mom is.
- Elder: I don’t want to leave my friends and community. Adult Child: How can I take Mom away from everything she knows and loves?
- Elder: I can’t afford to move into a senior living residence. I should just stay home, it’s cheaper. Adult Child: I don’t know what would cost more, keeping Mom home or moving her into a facility. Where do I even begin?
If you’re a senior living company, these are the problems your website should be helping to solve for your prospects. These are the things important to them. There are many others, but these are very common problems among people trying to decide if a senior living community is right for them. Having information on your website about your business, your services, and your facility is important, but what’s much more important, is having information and resources on your website that help prospects begin to solve their problems.
What are you doing online to help your senior living prospects solve their problems?
