An aged care services marketing funnel that converts
At Evergreen, we find ourselves reminding marketing teams to ‘explain up’ to the Exec management the critical importance of the entire marketing funnel for advertising a brand, whether that be a nationally resourced provider or just a provider with a local-area marketing need. If the audience understands who you are and what you stand for, then it’s easier and faster to be on the radar during the consideration and conversion stage.
After working alongside many aged care services organisations and having access to invaluable media data, we have developed proven tips that can help you identify and create your own touchpoints across the customer journey.
If you have a smaller budget, think smarter
Over the past few months, we have received numerous requests for digital media services, particularly “Do you do Facebook ads, as we have vacancy issues.” We have to explain that although Facebook is important as a local-area marketing (LAM) tool, it should only be a small part of your overall toolkit.
Use proper mapping tools to find out the areas where your target audience are more likely to live. In the case of aged care, customise by end-user versus influencer. Letterbox is still one of the most powerful and cost-effective mediums to get noticed, and it works well when part of an integrated media campaign. There are so many great LAM media ideas that also work well in combination, from outdoor (OOH), transit and community papers to the highly-trackable broadcast video on demand (BVOD), Facebook, YouTube, and medical centres to best reach your target audience.
Map shows households more likely to have resident aged 60+
Larger brands are getting noisier. Tell the Executive team.
Aged care and retirement advertising has never been more competitive. According to Nielsen data, many providers are investing circa $250k per quarter in one state alone (some over $1million). Note that these media spends exclude search.
In a category of comparable products and services trying to sway the same audience, it has never been more important to also pay for a differentiating creative idea, so you stand out and leverage your media investment.
Read how we differentiated a brand and achieved 100% occupancy.
Money talks. Adopting an integrated media strategy reduces cost per lead.
By applying a properly funded, full marketing funnel to aged care/retirement, the brand will benefit from an integrated media approach including buying search, social and programmatic platforms aligned with location. Utilising specific, dynamic creative, we regularly see an increase in number of leads, quality of leads, and importantly a decrease in the cost per acquisition. We have many examples where clients have reduced their CPL from over $350 to circa $100. This multi-channel approach will provide you with the level of brand awareness required to assist quality lead generation for your care catchment, village or home.
Aged care services motives through the marketing funnel journey
Media considerations through the marketing funnel journey
Whilst many aged care aggregators offer a cost per filled bed of circa $3k, the aim of the marketing funnel is to deliver quality leads throughout. This ensures that you are receiving a consistent flow of leads with the ability to convert faster, as they are exposed more directly to your brand experience and costing your business significantly less. Consider the example of 10 quality leads, an average of 5 tours and 1 placement – all while you were building your brand, not someone else’s.
Show value with accountability and transparency
If you invest in campaigns, then ensure you have a properly curated dashboard showcasing your live campaign elements (including tracking of clicks, leads, web traffic etc.) that provides you with full transparency. This dashboard can also provide transparency for ‘Click-to-call’ with the correct tracking in place.
It’s important to know where your customer has entered the funnel, media wise, as it helps refine your goals and allows us to optimise your campaign accordingly.
Being able to display full accountability of your media investment to stakeholders, across web traffic numbers, enquiry uplift and conversions, helps everyone understand the value of your marketing spend.
Read how we differentiated a brand and achieved 100% occupancy.
Evergreen Advertising and Marketing has had significant success for clients in developing and deploying various aged service marketing funnels.
“Kirkbrae Aged Care received a Business Improvement Grant to help develop a marketing campaign aimed at restoring occupancy rates. Evergreen knew exactly what was required and brought the Kirkbrae homelike point of difference to life with resident photography and videos. After upgrading the website, advertising locally in GP clinics, shopping centres, bus stops and targeted letter boxes, the post-campaign occupancy rate improved from 85% to 100%.”
Angelica Oyarzun
CEO, Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes
How much does a typical LAM cost? Well, it depends on a few factors. Is the brand is supported by an ‘always on’ strategy, is your location metro or regional, and what’s the competitive share of voice? Generally, for a 12-week integrated LAM media campaign allow $30-50k. If you have a national brand in multiple states with multiple sites, then we’d suggest $250k per state per quarter is a good starting point.
Evergreen Advertising & Marketing is boutique team of experts in 50+ marcomms, with an in-depth understanding of home care, retirement and aged care communications. Visit some of our work here or to see how Evergreen can help you reduce costs per lead and improve occupancy rates, contact us.
