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