Six Ideas to Market Your RCFE in Summer Months

Are you looking for new residents at your residential care facility for the elderly? Use these six ideas to market your RCFE this summer.

1. Leverage Community Involvement

The summer is a great time to organize outings at your senior care facility. For example, you could arrange for a trip to a zoo, museum, or other local attractions. Another option is to bring the community to your facility, for example, by inviting a local choir to perform.

Although events like these are usually done to provide enrichment for residents, they are also an excellent way to market your facility. When community members see your residents engaging in meaningful activities and having fun, they’ll form a good opinion of your facility, and they may be more likely to choose the facility for themselves or recommend it to someone else because of this encounter. You can also take photographs and use them in your marketing. (If you don’t already have photo releases on file for your residents, remember to get them.)

2. Host a Friends and Family Event

Another option is to host an event, such as a picnic or barbecue, and have your residents invite their friends and family. In addition to providing a great opportunity for socialization, you’ll also be showing off your facility to the community, and that’s a great way to earn referral and word-of-mouth business. Once again, you can also take photographs to use in your marketing campaigns.

3. Bolster Your Social Media Presence

Now that you have some great events to show off, you can bolster your social media presence by posting about them. Remember to tag any relevant groups or companies. This might encourage them to share your post, which will boost your reach.

Social media is a fantastic way to raise awareness of your facility. According to Pew Research Center, the two most popular social media platforms are YouTube and Facebook. Among all U.S. adults, 83% use YouTube and 68% use Facebook. Among the 65 and older age group, 60% use YouTube and 58% use Facebook.

4. Optimize Your Website

When people are looking for residential care facilities for themselves or their loved ones, they’re likely to conduct an online search. You want to make sure your website shows up in their search.

• Leverage SEO tactics. Think about the terms that people are likely to use when they search for facilities, and make sure you feature these terms on your website. This is most effective when it’s done naturally, rather than forcing a laundry list of terms, a practice known as keyword stuffing. See Google’s guide to SEO for more details.
• Consider starting a blog. A blog is a great way to keep your website active and improve its visibility. You can blog about the recent activities you’ve organized, as well as other topics that would be of interest to future residents and their families.

5. Check Your Google Business Profile

Google is the king of search, so you want to make sure it has the right information about your facility. If you haven’t set up your free Google business profile, go ahead and do that. If you already have a profile set up, review it to see how it can be improved. For example, you can add photos and posts of your recent events.

6. Enlist Your Residents

Your current residents likely know other seniors who may need to move into a residential care facility soon or who may want to transfer from one facility to another. Don’t just hope for referral business. Ask your residents to refer you to their friends. You can also ask residents to supply quotes about what they love most about living at your facility so you can use these quotes in your marketing.

These Tactics Can Also Help Facilities Find Workers

If your facility is currently full or nearly full, you may be more interested in finding workers than you are in marketing your ARCF to new residents. These marketing tactics can help with that, too. Just as most seniors want to live in a vibrant facility, most workers want to be employed in a facility where residents are happy and engaged. Include information about job openings on your website and social media profiles.

One more thing – As your facility grows, you’ll need to make sure your insurance is keeping up. Tangram provides RCFE insurance through the Personal Care & Assisted Living Insurance Center (PCALIC). Learn more.