Proactive marketing strategies can build a steady pipeline of leads to grow your home health-care business sustainably.
Families are looking for options that provide safe, flexible and cost-effective care for their loved ones that keeps them out of hospitals and nursing homes. The COVID-19 pandemic has only added to the already growing demand for alternatives to institutional health care.
A study commissioned by the Canadian Medical Association shows the demand for home care doubling in the next 10 years. Revenue for home health care and related services grew by five per cent over the last five years, with significant increases in the senior population expected to continue the upward trend into the future, according to Statistics Canada.
10 home health-care marketing tips to grow your business
- Identify your target audience
- Show up on marketing channels your audience uses
- Update key messages
- Refresh and update your online presence
- Ask for referrals and reviews
- Make it easy to contact you
- Create an SEO strategy
- Implement Google Ads campaigns
- Test Facebook ads
- Build community connections
Why more people are turning to home care
Home care reduces the risk a patient will be infected by being exposed to others in a hospital who are sick. In addition, home care can be more cost effective, make patients more comfortable and help families avoid caregiver burnout.
You can reach these families with carefully targeted marketing messages about your home-care service. Let’s look at a few strategies you can employ right away to start building a pipeline of leads.
10 smart home health-care marketing strategies
As a marketer working in the care industry, you know there’s a balance between offering a necessary service to families and selling those services. However, a thriving home-care business needs to actively market to bring in new clients.
Developing a plan with easily actionable home and health-care marketing strategies will increase referrals and client inquiries, leading to revenue growth. The more successful your home-care business becomes, the more patients you can help.
1. Audience
Clarify details about your current patients. Then identify your ideal clients. First, think of who you help and what kind of care they need. Who are you best equipped to help? For example, you may have more than one type of patient. Perhaps you help patients who are recovering after surgery or who need cardiac care, or seniors who need assistance with their daily routines.
Next, consider the decision maker who brings those clients into your care. Create buyer personas that represent your ideal audience groups, so you can be sure advertising campaigns target each with careful consideration of their needs, concerns and questions in this decision-making process.
2. Marketing channels
Research effective ways to reach your target audiences. You may have tried advertising or marketing before, but times change and so do the tactics available. Try digging up data on where your target demographic spends time online and on which channels they show purchasing behaviour.
3. Update key messages
Now that you know who you are targeting with your marketing, update or create key messages that target each group. With this targeting, you can make sure your marketing addresses concerns each group has when choosing home and health-care support.
4. Refresh and update your online presence
There are a few areas online where you may already have content and active accounts. It is critical to review these regularly. Check the following online platforms to update branding, contact information, services and other business details:
Website
Your website is the primary location of all your business information online, so stay on top of updates. In addition, it should be easy for a potential client to figure out precisely what you do and who you help from the home page of your website.
Social media accounts
Every social media platform you use is a way for clients to experience your brand and contact you. Be sure your accounts give a clear idea of what your business is all about. Check that the contact information is correct and all links direct clients to relevant pages.
Google My Business
Google offers a way for businesses to be found online with a complete business listing. Setting up your Google business profile will ensure your business shows up for local searchers on Google maps.
5. Ask for referrals and reviews
Asking for referrals from happy clients should be routine. Most satisfied clients will be glad to offer a testimonial you can show potential clients and use in your marketing. These recommendations can be very influential, so be proactive and get used to asking for them.
Once you’ve created your Google My Business account, you can ask for reviews and link to the Google business link on your website and in your email.
6. Make it easy to contact you
Many businesses lose out on potential leads simply because it is too cumbersome for a client to figure out how to get in touch.
Your website should have accurate, easy-to-find contact information on every page. When people view your website from a mobile phone or tablet, they should be able to tap a button to call you from any page. You could also consider setting up a chat function or instant messaging platform to boost response times.
7. Create an SEO strategy
Now that your website is refreshed and ready for clients, you can plan out an SEO strategy that will help draw organic traffic to your site. Your strategy may outline steps to improve navigation on your site, speed up page loading and organize your existing page content.
You’ll also need to do keyword research to learn what will help bring more searchers to your content. Use insights from your research to plan new content to address gaps. Create a calendar to organize your content creation and distribution once you have a good handle on what you need to produce.
8. Implement Google Ad campaigns
Your keyword research can help you create targeted Google ads that appeal to your clients. Of course, you’ll need to set aside an advertising budget, but these ads can bring in valuable leads. Use what you identified about your buyer personas and your key messaging to create ad campaigns to target your audiences. To build solid results, test campaigns and monitor which are most effective at helping you reach your goals.
9. Test Facebook ads
Facebook is a leader in B2C marketing, making it the perfect channel for you to connect with potential clients. In addition, Facebook’s targeting parameters allow for highly focused advertising, making the best use of your ad spend.
10. Build community connections
Your clients may feel most comfortable with a care provider who appears connected to the community. Set aside some time to make local connections and get visible in the community. You can offer to speak at local events to raise your profile in the industry.
You may find that a significant portion of your target audience still reads the local paper or tunes into regional radio stations. These traditional methods are worth trying because they can be surprisingly effective in reaching potential clients.
Home care may feel personal, but you can take better care of patients when your business is healthy and growing. Of course, you want your home-care business to be top of mind when people need help, but it takes consistent marketing to build that kind of brand awareness.
Implementing a few smart home health-care marketing strategies can bring a regular flow of new clients into your business through increased brand visibility. You can implement many on your own or rely on additional expertise to get the full impact.
