Archive for the ‘Free Advertising & Marketing’ Category

Small Business Blogging & Social Media Marketing

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Your home care agency’s blog is more important than your Facebook page

You want to take advantage of the latest in social media, but aren’t sure how to prioritize.  Here are reasons why including a blog should take precedence over starting a Facebook page:

Branding: Facebook doesn’t allow you to brand the entire Fan Page experience to the extent that you can and should brand your agency’s blog. While you can customize up to 10 Facebook tabs (using the Static FBML application), that doesn’t compare to the unlimited branding options on your own blog using company colors, messaging, logos, and more.

Blog entries are better than Facebook Notes: Blogs allow you to categorize posts, thread comments, optimize content for search engine optimization, and so much more. Facebook Notes, aside from barely being read, fail to stack up against even your run-of-the-mill blog post from the most basic of blogging platforms.

You can run third-party analytic tools on your blog: You need to know what’s working and what’s not, where website visitors are coming from, what they view, how long they stay, and why some wander off. You need to know which campaigns are driving the most traffic to your content and how effective you are in converting that traffic into targeted behaviors. Facebook offers you only limited visibility into these and other key areas, whereas the vast array of web analytics software and services available for your blog provide a deep view into the types of metrics that actually matter to you and your homecare agency.

Here are some other things to consider:

  • Business-to-business decision makers (i.e. referral sources) aren’t likely to look for and connect with your business on Facebook.
  • While Facebook Fan Pages are available to the public, registration is required to fully participate. (You can make registration optional on your own agency blog).
  • On your agency blog, you can turn commenting on or off or have comments moderated on a post-by-post basis. Not so on Facebook.
  • Your blog is far less distracting than Facebook, which means no one else’s advertisements, applications, pages, notes, videos, photos, etc. can pull focus away from your content.
  • Plug-ins and widgets allow you to scale your blog based on your business goals. Facebook doesn’t offer the same type of scalability.

Submitted by: David Goodman, President Companion Connection Senior Care, the leading “no royalty” membership organization serving the non medical home care & licensed home health business communities. The need for home based senior care is soaring! We will help you start your own highly successful Home Care Agency business. Earn an excellent income while helping others with their activities of daily living. Contact us today for your FREE Business Info Kit… 1-800-270-6949

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Posted in Business Opportunity, Computer & Internet Technology, Free Advertising & Marketing, Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Business Tips, Public Relations, Senior Business, Social Media Marketing | 1 Comment »

Small Business New Year’s Resolutions for the Home Care Owner

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

Home Care Business Tips

Now is as good a time as any to make resolutions for the New Year.  Here are some to consider:

  • Above all else, a small-business owner’s top 2010 resolution should be to invest in continued education, and making a point of setting aside the needed time to research and better take advantage of available resources. At the pace the commercial world moves in 2010, and given the flurry of information startups are now hit with 24/7, it’s easy to get overwhelmed in day-to-day dealings and not see the forest for the trees. But failing to periodically pause, take a step back and look at how to best take advantage of all the resources available to you and optimize processes around them, and you are ultimately costing yourself more in the end.
  • Become more comfortable with social media and social networking. Commit to improving your use and knowledge of social media by 5 percent each month. Sign up for a free webinar, take a class, hire someone to coach you. If you do this each month, at the end of the year, you’ll know 60 percent more than you did at the beginning of the year.
  • Monitor and guard the cash position of your home care business like it was your first-born son. Question all expenditures by using the golden rule – are you absolutely certain that this expense will produce more gold.  Once you are certain, jump on opportunities passed over by your competitors. Live your life in a spirit of gratitude for all the blessings that come to you as the owner of a business in America.
  • Resolve to make 2010 a year of full self-expression, and take a series of actions that will increase your likeability factor. The one-way sales pitch is long gone. Corporate speak will only isolate you. People do business with people they like. And, when people like the source of a message, they tend to trust the message or, at least, try to find a way to believe it. Thus, your likeability and full self-expression has an enormous impact on your bottom line. Strive to be your best, most authentic and likeable self and you will be well on your way to becoming the obvious choice for your potential clients.
  • Home care businesses designing a website for the first time, or those who are altering their existing site, should resolve to build it to the lowest common denominator. Just because your office has a dedicated T1 line, which makes surfing the Web and loading your graphically intense website a snap, doesn’t mean your customers can do the same. Know your audience well enough to know if Flash and video get in the way of your pages loading in an acceptable amount of time, and be reasonable enough to know if anyone but you really cares about a slick presentation. While you’re at it, resolve to never allow video on your website to play without someone first clicking the play button!

Submitted by: David Goodman, President Companion Connection Senior Care, the leading “no royalty” membership organization serving the non medical home care & licensed home health business communities. The need for home based senior care is soaring! We will help you start your own highly successful Home Care Agency business. Earn an excellent income while helping others with their activities of daily living. Contact us today for your FREE Business Info Kit… 1-800-270-6949

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Posted in Free Advertising & Marketing, Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Agency Operations, Home Care Business Tips, Non Medical Home Care Business, Start Up Business, home health care business | No Comments »

Advertising Questions to Ask Before You Advertise

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

Home Care Business Tips & Strategies

The business owner knows what the business is selling, but how will anyone else know if the business doesn’t advertise.  Yet, having said this, what do you need to ask yourself before you take the plunge and invest in advertising your products or services.  Here are some things to consider:

What do you have to say that matters to your customer?

Most ads are written under the assumption that the reader, listener or viewer has a basic level of interest and is paying close attention to the ad. But customers tend to ignore all ads that do not speak directly to them. Your first task is not media selection; it’s message selection.

Can you say it persuasively?

Most ads are ineffective because the writer tried to say too much, include too much and be too much. Fearful of leaving someone out, these writers write vague, all-encompassing ads that speak specifically to no one. “We provide homecare services” is a terrible headline for an ad.  Be specific.

How long is your time horizon?

Some ads build traffic, some build relationships and others build your reputation. If you don’t have the financial resources to launch a true branding campaign focused on building relationships and reputation among potential customers, you’re going to have to settle for traffic-building ads until you can afford to begin developing your brand. To what degree do you have financial staying power?

What is the urgency of your message?

If you need an ad to produce immediate results, your offer must have a time limit. This technique will simultaneously work for and against you. On one hand, customers tend to delay what can be delayed, so limited-time offers generate traffic more quickly since the threat of “losing the opportunity” is real. On the other hand, customers have no memory of messages that have expired; short-term messages are erased from our brains immediately. Therefore, it’s extremely difficult to create long-term awareness with a series of limited-time-offer, short-term ads.

How long is the purchase cycle?

How long it will take your advertising to pay off is tied to the purchase cycle of your services.  Remember, a customer first has to be exposed to your ad often enough to remember it, then you have to wait for that customer to need what you sell. How soon will he or she likely need it?

Submitted by: David Goodman, President Companion Connection Senior Care, the leading “no royalty” membership organization serving the non medical home care & licensed home health business communities. The need for home based senior care is soaring! We will help you start your own highly successful Home Care Agency business. Earn an excellent income while helping others with their activities of daily living. Contact us today for your FREE Business Info Kit… 1-800-270-6949

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Posted in Free Advertising & Marketing, Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Business Planning, Home Care Business Tips, Radio Advertising, Senior Business, Start Up Business | No Comments »

Benefits of Email for a Home Care Agency

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Home Care Agency Operations Management

Email can play a role in making your home care agency business more immediate, more accessible and, in many cases, more profitable.  Here are some things to consider:

  • Email creates a quiet, dedicated moment with your home care customers. Consumers are pickier about which email lists they subscribe to. When your customer opens your email, you have their attention for one precious moment. In internet time, that moment is priceless.
  • The Direct Marketing Association recently reported that “commercial e-mail” returned a whopping $43.62 for every dollar spent in 2009.” That’s because e-mail enables you to inexpensively and effectively create a quality over quantity mailing list of loyal customers and qualified prospects.
  • Email is the primary form of professional business communication. Business people use e-mail to communicate with each other, not Tweets or Facebook wall posts. Email is personal and professional.
  • Your email newsletter is a solid piece of quality content that you can archive on your website. You can boost your agency’s image and credibility by publishing and archiving a body of expertise through e-mail newsletter articles, and inviting reader participation. Ask customers for input in your e-mail communications. Create a dialogue and relationships.
  • According to a recent Nielsen report, frequent users of Facebook and Twitter use e-mail more than casual users. That means your audience is probably in multiple places – using e-mail and visiting social networking websites. Quality content trumps frequency of postings. Your e-mail newsletter should remain the centerpiece of your online communications, offering practical advice and meaningful insights that resonate with your audience. Social media is used to spot customer trends, mine ideas for future newsletter articles, respond to customer concerns, and find new mailing list subscribers.

Posted by: David Goodman, President of Companion Connection Senior Care, the premier No Royalty Membership Organization serving the non medical home care and licensed home health business communities. Demand for home based elder care is soaring! CCSC will help you start your own highly successful Home Care Agency business. Contact us today for a FREE Business Info Kit… 1-800-270-6949

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Posted in Client Retention, Computer & Internet Technology, Free Advertising & Marketing, Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Agency Operations, Home Care Business Planning, Home Care Business Tips, Non Medical Home Care Business, Senior Business, home health care business | No Comments »

Promote Your Home Care Agency with Social Events

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

The party approach to promoting your home care business

It’s that time of year where your home care agency may be throwing an employee holiday party.  However, have you considered having a customers party?

Here are some events that your home care business can put together to bring in customers, community members and prospects throughout the year:

Customer Appreciation Night

Put a fresh spin on year-end sales or promotions by hosting a special “VIP Night” for your family caregivers or referral sources. Your event could be a discussion of new services. You may want to include a discount offering on services.

Special Guest/Entertainment/Demonstration

Entice customers to come by bringing in a special guest, entertainer or expert. It could be an author, an entertainer or an expert on senior services. Just look for someone that complements your business and engages customers.

Joint Event with Other Local Businesses

Invite all the merchants on your street to host an event with you. You should consider joining a related business willing to host a get-together for all of your joint customers. Chambers of Commerce are especially good at bringing businesses and community together.

Posted by: David Goodman, President of Companion Connection Senior Care, the premier No Royalty Membership Organization serving the non medical home care and licensed home health business communities. Demand for home based elder care is soaring! CCSC will help you start your own highly successful Home Care Agency business. Contact us today for a FREE Business Info Kit… 1-800-270-6949

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Posted in Free Advertising & Marketing, Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Business Planning, Home Care Business Tips, Non Medical Home Care Business, Public Relations, Senior Business, Start Up Business, home health care business | No Comments »

7 Home Care Business Marketing Tips

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion

Here are several tips to help market your home care agency:

Don’t Advertise Like a Big Business
Big businesses advertise to create name recognition and future sales. As a small business, your home care agency can’t afford to do that. Instead, design your advertising to produce sales…now. One way to accomplish this is to always include an offer in your advertising – and an easy way for prospective customers to respond to it.

Offer a More Affordable Version
Some prospective customers may not be willing to pay the asking price for your home care services. Others are more interested in paying a low price than in getting the best quality. You can avoid losing sales to your competitors by offering a smaller or stripped down version of the services your agency offers at a lower price.

Offer a Premium Version
Not all home care customers are looking for a cheap price. Many are willing to pay a higher price to get a premium service. You can boost your average size sale and your total revenue by offering a more comprehensive service…or by combining several services in a special premium package offer for a higher price.

Try Some Unusual Marketing Methods
Look for some unconventional marketing methods your competitors are overlooking. You may discover some highly profitable ways to generate sales and avoid competition. For example, print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your website or generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.

Trim Your Ads
Reduce the size of your ads so you can run more ads for the same cost. You may even be surprised to find that greater frequency and smaller ads generate a better response.

Set up Joint Promotions with Other Small Businesses
Contact some non-competing small businesses serving customers in your market. Offer to publicize their products or services to your customers in exchange for their publicizing your services to their customers. This can range from hair salons to restaurants to hardware stores.

Maximize Your Customers

Convert your customers into publicity agents for your homecare business. Develop an incentive for them to tell associates and friends about the value of your services. An endorsement from them is more effective than any amount of advertising – and far more affordable.

Posted by: David Goodman, President of Companion Connection Senior Care, the premier No Royalty Membership Organization serving the non medical home care and licensed home health business communities. Demand for home based elder care is soaring! CCSC will help you start your own highly successful Home Care Agency business. Contact us today for a FREE Business Info Kit… 1-800-270-6949

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Posted in Free Advertising & Marketing, Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Business Planning, Home Care Business Tips, Non Medical Home Care Business, Public Relations, Senior Business, Start Up Business, home health care business | No Comments »

4 Critical Rules For Advertising Your Home Care Agency

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

Home Care Agency Marketing Tips

Leads are more important than branding. No matter what the media or ad agency experts tell you, generating leads for a home care business is more important than building a brand at this point, especially if you recently opened your homecare business.

A strong identity can help, and a simple logo can accomplish that less expensively than ever before. But don’t waste your dollars buying weeks of ads.  Building your brand starts at delivering outstanding services under your home care agency’s name to happy customers.

So it’s important that your ads generate a response by including a call to action. Prospects should feel compelled to do something, be it calling in on an offer or visiting a website. This will enable you to track the effectiveness of your ads. Remember the formula: target, offer, copy.

The most critical component of your campaign will be drilling down to find media that deliver your message to people actively looking to buy your product or service, as well as those looking for a new, lower-cost or better service provider. To truly build your brand, you need to be that provider.

Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Since it is a buyer’s market right now, you’re in a good position to push for as much value as possible. In TV, this may mean additional mentions into or out of commercial breaks. For radio, it may mean more frequency or co-sponsorship of a local promotion or event. And for print, it may mean a bigger ad or additional placements, or even space for an advertorial.

You won’t get what you don’t ask for, so, consider any packages you are presented and see how you can leverage that package to get as many leads as possible.

Remember PR. Use your own story to your advantage by incorporating it into your pitch to local business publications or TV/radio morning shows. You will have a better chance of being mentioned if you make your home care business sound unique.  Make sure your press releases are not overly self serving, or the media outlet won’t run it.

E-mail is a necessity, but don’t forget direct mail. E-mail marketing has taken off in the past few years, but there are limitations. Double opt-ins – where people have to confirm twice that they want to receive your email – are the norm these days. Even so, click-through rates average less than half of 1 percent.

That means there is opportunity to leverage your budget the old-fashioned way: through direct mail. You may consider this counterintuitive, but there are some definite advantages to a highly targeted direct-mail program right now: Due to higher paper and postage rates, a good deal of direct-mail competition has fallen by the wayside. That means a compelling letter or postcard has a better chance than ever of getting your prospect’s attention.

Direct mail can also yield one of the best returns on investment if you have a great offer and a good list, the latter being most important. That said, take care in building your list. If done correctly, over time your list/database will be your homecare business’s most valuable asset.

Posted by: David Goodman, President of Companion Connection Senior Care, the premier No Royalty Membership Organization serving the non medical home care and licensed home health business communities. Demand for home based elder care is soaring! CCSC will help you start your own highly successful Home Care Agency business. Contact us today for a FREE Business Info Kit… 1-800-270-6949

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Posted in Computer & Internet Technology, Free Advertising & Marketing, Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Business Planning, Home Care Business Tips, Non Medical Home Care Business, Public Relations, Radio Advertising, Senior Business, Start Up Business, home health care business | No Comments »

Advertising Your Home Care Business For Free

Monday, October 26th, 2009

Home Care Business Tips

How can you maximize your exposure while limiting your cost?  Here are several things to consider:

Become the expert
Submit articles pertaining to the home care industry to the local paper, small business publications, periodicals and newsletters.   Choose a topic that reflects your expertise on the subject and briefly mention your home care business. You might also find a website that may be interested in letting you host a guest column. Whenever you get published, make copies and send them to all your current and potential customers.

Be a public speaker
Professional meeting planners are always looking for presenters and workshop leaders for conferences. Research contact names in the Directory of Meeting Planners or start with your local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club. If you don’t like making presentations,  join your local Toastmasters [http://www.toastmasters.org/] club, which is another way to meet potential customers. When you do get the opportunity to make a presentation, be sure to collect business cards from the attendees.

Teach an adult education course
This works especially well for service-oriented businesses, such as the homecare industry. Call your local community college or community center where adult education courses are offered. Since you are advertising your expertise in the homecare industry, your seminars should be free-of-charge.

Reward referrals
One of the best ways to get new customers is to enlist the help of your current ones. Offer a discount on services for any lead that turns into new business. When you get a new customer from a referral, be sure to send the source a personalized thank you note along with their discount.

Send out a newsletter
It’s crucial to keep in touch with your current customers as well as potential ones, and a monthly newsletter helps you do just that. After you obtain permission from the recipients, you can offer new services, offer discounts on existing ones, profile an employees or customer, include your own advice column, etc. Keep it simple with pure text or include photos and other graphics.

Give back
Any time you do anything for a charity such as sponsoring an event or donating free materials or services, make sure the press knows about it ahead of time. They might send a reporter to cover the occasion, but if not, send them photos to publish afterwards.

Start a blog or contribute to a forum
Consider what you are reading right now and create one for your home care business. There are several free blogging sites including Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr.  Post any type of news, promotional messages or information related to your homecare business. Another way to get your name out there is to contribute to online discussion groups (without making it obvious you are advertising). Look for forums related to the home care industry and senior citizen care by typing in keywords at the top online group websites, including Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Posted by: David Goodman, President of Companion Connection Senior Care, the premier No Royalty Membership Organization serving the non medical home care and licensed home health business communities. Demand for home based elder care is soaring! CCSC will help you start your own highly successful Home Care Agency business. Contact us today for a FREE Business Info Kit… 1-800-270-6949

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Posted in Free Advertising & Marketing, Home Care Agency Marketing & Promotion, Home Care Business Tips, Public Relations | No Comments »