Home care agency leaders are constantly trying to balance urgent priorities with business challenges. These include audits, compliance changes, audits, and hiring during the labor shortage. It’s easy to forget about home care marketing when you have more important tasks.
While building and maintaining the ability to provide exceptional care with a skilled team of caregivers is the top priority for any agency, making sure potential customers know about your services is close behind.
We have 10 strategies inspired by our customers’ success stories to help you achieve your home care marketing goals.
You don’t have to do them all to increase your growth. Especially if you need a dedicated marketing team, adding any of these strategies to your business will increase your demand, help you book more clients, and build your hiring pool.
- Create a marketing plan
We know that you are a busy home care leader. It’s essential to have a marketing plan in place to stay on top of your marketing and spend your time on the right homecare marketing strategies. Here are the crucial elements of your marketing plan:
- Get information about your target audience. Who are your ideal clients? From where do they get their news? Which other types of healthcare providers do they use as well?
- The top value propositions of your agency: What makes you stand out from your competition? What are the unique skills your caregivers have?
- What are your top goals? Ability to charge higher rates Increase your customer base in a specific area. How to grow a particular business line
- A Calendar: What are the critical dates for your business soon? Are there any events you would like to promote? Do you know of local events that could allow you to network with potential clients or referral partners?
- An inventory – What are you doing already? Is your company digitally present in any of these areas? Are you investing in advertising channels?
- Quality care is what you should be focusing on
Marketing strategies can help you increase your agency’s revenue, charge higher rates, attract top talent and expand your business lines. However, it is essential to stay committed to your clients. It’s one of the most powerful marketing strategies that you can use to build your business. Five times more sales can be made through word-of-mouth marketing than by advertising.
- Make sure your company profiles are well-organized
An online search is a standard part of a family’s research into home care options for their loved ones. You are missing opportunities to gain business if your agency is not present on all the major digital channels. To get the best results, ensure you include your contact information, photos, and client-related updates on Facebook.
- Your website can be built or updated
Start here if you still need to get a website. Many people are intimidated by creating and maintaining a website to market home care services. However, Squarespace and Wix make it simple and affordable to do so.
Your website will allow you to rank higher in Google searches for homecare services. It will also help your business appear trustworthy. You can also use it to tell your story and describe your services, as well as build your agency’s reputation.
Keep your website current if you have one. There is a good chance that your company information, geographic boundaries and service lines have changed. You should ensure that it is current and reflects the most recent offerings to capture your ideal market.
- Create a Contact Us page for your website
Websites are a great way to gather leads. This means that potential clients can reach you via your website. Include an open form so that people can send inquiries through your website. This will ensure the best results. Potential clients may abandon their outreach efforts if asked to do more than copy and paste an email address.
Do you want to start a Maryland home healthcare business?
Homecare businesses are essentially homecare providers who take care of people to help them age comfortably, even those with disabilities.
Maryland is the 9th-smallest state. But don’t let this deter you. It has beautiful landscapes, the best crabs, and great sports teams. Its location right next to the capital of the United States allows residents to enjoy all the benefits of D.C. without having to pay the high cost of living.
Maryland home healthcare insurance is also worth considering. Knowing what insurance a Maryland home health care aide needs can help you protect your career and finances. Click here to find out more.
- Initiate a referral program
The 2021 Home Care Pulse Benchmarking Report shows that agencies that report referrals as their top source of leads get up to 73{fec984d2719dfb0eb1c56d1f99f0555e6332b5143df3cad6b055001e82081c20} more clients.
Encourage your clients to share your services with their family members and neighbours if they are satisfied with them. A small incentive can be offered to refer businesses. This could include a raffle or a rebate on a visit for existing and new clients.
Do you want to up your referral game? Your caregivers are the best resource for referrals. Consider adding client referrals to your existing hiring referral program. To help clients spread the word, you can create something similar to your current referral program.
- Meet professionals from related fields to network
Many clients and their families search for home care services after an injury, diagnosis or another life event. You can receive warm referrals from other healthcare professionals that will help you support these patients. Do you need help determining where to begin? These providers and programs might be an excellent place to start:
- Physical therapists
- Occupational therapists
- Primary care providers (e.g. Primary care providers (e.g., physicians, nurse practitioners and family-health teams)
- Social workers
- Adult day program organizers
- Staff at nursing homes
- Local chapters of disease-specific organizations (e.g. Multiple Sclerosis Society, Alzheimer Society, ALS Society)
- Programs for Veterans
- Optimize your website to optimize for SEO
This strategy may sound intimidating and high-tech, but it isn’t! SEO is a digital marketing strategy that allows your website to appear in search results for keywords related to your company or services.
SEO is a way to align your website with people’s questions when searching for home care services. To make it easier for Google and other search engines to recommend your website to potential clients, it is possible to understand the word combinations people use to search for homecare agencies.
- Participate in community events
Caregiving is a personal business. It’s also highly location-based. This can make selling your services via email, phone or website challenging. Instead, use these opportunities to support local events such as school fairs, clean-ups, and park cleanups. Your team will be able to connect with other healthcare providers, meet families in need, and increase brand awareness at these events.
- Ask current clients for their reviews
After setting up your Google Business Profile, you may notice a review section visible to people searching for your company. Potential clients will review a company before they contact them. This gives them an idea of their customer service, complaints, and highly recommended caregivers.
Ask for more reviews if you are interested in getting them! Most happy families will leave reviews on your business profile in minutes. You could offer a prize draw or gift card as an incentive to help you start a targeted review campaign.