When senior care operators — especially Vice Presidents of Sales and Marketing — consider senior living marketing, public relations may be further down their list of concerns than digital or print branding and advertising.
However, even with the best branding strategies and ad campaigns, independent living and senior care homes might miss their objectives without necessary public relations support. With the right senior living public relations guidance, communities reach their target audiences more effectively and build trust with potential residents and their families.
What is senior living public relations (PR)?
Public relations in the senior living industry is all about forming relationships with local media outlets and leveraging their platforms to raise awareness of a facility’s offerings.
This method of obtaining earned media often includes crafting press releases, coordinating interviews, and sending pitches to news outlets. PR can also involve developing content that resonates with potential residents and considers their lifestyle needs. By adopting good public relations messaging, senior care facilities reinforce trust in the communities they serve and grow their brand recognition.
How is PR different from marketing and other types of promotion in the senior living industry?
Marketing is the overall strategy of promoting a senior living community, which may include a larger range of paid, earned, and owned media. It begins with creating a brand identity for that company and continually applying it across all types of media, a process known as branding. Once a brand is established and an SEO-optimized website is built to collect leads, advertising involves paid placements in third-party channels like search engines and newspaper ads that reach new audiences.
Public relations, branding, and advertising all play important roles in creating effective senior living marketing strategies that facilitate connection with potential residents and their families. A successful campaign will use each of these fields to paint a compelling picture that encourages action among seniors and their family members.
How can senior living PR fulfill special demands of independent living, assisted living, and memory care marketing?
Independent living marketing, assisted living marketing, and memory care marketing differ in the audiences they address.
- Independent living is aimed at healthier seniors who are capable of living without assistance but want access to amenities like social and recreational activities.
- Since it offers a higher level of medical care and assistance with daily living activities, assisted living marketing and PR should target older seniors than those in independent living.
- Unlike independent living and assisted living, memory care’s messaging should speak to adult children of seniors with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Senior living public relations (PR) can integrate seamlessly into marketing campaigns for all of these three services.
- PR tools like press releases and media outreach to specialized publications can address qualified potential residents and their families, helping to establish your community’s reputation where it matters most.
- Reputation management is important due to the power of online reviews. Maintaining a consistent and positive presence on review sites by responding with specialized knowledge may be the difference between gaining and losing potential clients.
- Social media is another promotional tool for engaging with seniors and their families. By partnering with other profiles on social networks like Facebook or Instagram, in addition to maintaining your own, you can provide valuable information to your ideal audiences and form a sense of connection around your brand.
- Additionally, integrating PR for backlinking outreach into your campaigns improves online visibility and search engine optimization, making it easier for potential clients to find your community.
By utilizing both PR and marketing techniques, independent living, assisted living and memory care facilities like yours can create cohesive, effective campaigns that reach receptive audiences and strengthen your reputation online and in person.
Is your community focused on efficiency? We’ve got you covered.
Senior living public relations, focusing on earned media and organic promotion, can be a cost-effective alternative to traditional advertising by amplifying marketing efforts and reaching a wider range of audiences.
By working with an experienced senior living marketing agency that understands the industry, senior living leaders can achieve effective, unified campaigns that generate results and long-term growth.
Get all the help you need from our one-stop senior living marketing and PR agency.
Contact us today to learn how we’ll grow your qualified leads by building the right relationships.
