Skilled nursing institutions are in a difficult position as the demand increases for their services while the demand for other types of care declines. In order to stay competitive and grow, skilled nursing facilities need to innovate their marketing strategies. This blog post will offer some innovative ideas on how skilled nursing facilities can market themselves more effectively.
The Importance of Marketing a Nursing Facilities
The skilled nursing industry is going through a tremendous amount of change in terms of how they are viewed by society. In recent years, people have been questioning whether or not the services offered by skilled nursing institutions are even necessary anymore. With increased technology and more specialized medical facilities, many feel that caring for aging individuals can be done just fine without needing to send them to a nursing home.
This is a major reason why marketing has become so important for skilled nursing facilities. Not only are they trying to capture new patients, but more importantly, they are trying to build relationships with the individuals and families who are already sending their loved ones off to these homes. In addition, many skilled nursing facilities are looking for ways in which they can serve as a referral source for other healthcare providers. For example, if you have a therapist on your staff who can work with people in their homes, then you will want to find ways of getting the word out about these services so that they become more popular among health care professionals.
How to Market Your Skilled Nursing Facility
What does this mean for skilled nursing facilities? It means they need to rebrand themselves. They need to show the public what sort of value they provide and why it is absolutely necessary for their care. How can you do this?
Here are a few effective marketing ideas that you may want to implement:
1.Create an advertising campaign and social media presence for your business.
Having a strong social media presence is crucial in this digital age. According to analysts on Forbes, “Facebook alone has nearly 1 billion active members (and growing) and more than 800 million of those are outside the USA.” In fact, Facebook users spend an average of at least 20 minutes on the site every day. Just think about how much time you spend on Facebook every day! If your business does not already have a Facebook page, you are missing out on a huge opportunity.
As for advertising options, there are quite a few ad platforms to choose from. You can use Google Ad Words, buy ads on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, or advertise with Google Display Network. The thing about these forms of advertisement is they rely solely upon the click-through rate which means that if people don’t click the link in the ad it doesn’t mean anything because they may have seen it but just ignored it for some reason.
2.Send out email blasts with relevant information about new treatments or services offered at your facility.
Email blasts are a great idea because they often get passed on to friends and family of the person receiving the email. This makes it a lot more likely that you’ll promote your nursing home to people who actually have an interest in what you have to offer.
3.Contact other healthcare providers in the area to see if they will refer their patients to you when possible.
You want to create a sense of trust with potential customers. Therefore, you will want to find ways to tell them about the benefits of using your nursing home services.
4.Check out websites such as Yelp and Google My Business
For reviews from people who live or work near you about how they feel about the nursing home in their area. You’ll want to see what people are saying about a certain facility before deciding if it is right for you.
5.Provide incentives for your patients to tell others about what they think of the care they received from you.
For instance, if a patient posts a review online, offer them something small like a coupon to be used close by in exchange for their feedback. It’s an easy way to get testimonials that can help you market yourself without having to put any more money into advertising.
6.Promote community involvement with local organizations such as local schools and non-profit groups.
This is a good way to get in touch with people who might have influence over how people view nursing homes in general. If you can become involved with the community at various levels, you’ll be more likely to get positive feedback and perhaps even some endorsements for your business.
Generating Leads for Your Skilled Nursing Facility
Lead generation is an ongoing process, not something you do just once and then forget about it. It’s crucial to put systems in place so that leads can be generated on a regular basis and tracked regularly as well. You’ll want to create lead forms for various purposes (e.g., name, address, email) and then provide multiple ways for people to get them into your hands: through the website, by phone, online chat, or in person at one of your facilities.
Now that you have all these ways, it should be your guidelines to create your marketing strategies foundation on how you can improve your skills in marketing to skilled nursing facilities and institutions.
Your skilled nursing facility deserves the same quality of marketing as any other business. If you are interested in learning more, please reach out to our team today! The way that your facility is marketed can make an enormous difference in its success or failure rates. With the right strategy and execution, using these ideas should help increase leads and sales opportunities with minimal effort required from you.
Leave a Reply