A sizable portion of senior living operators who answered a survey – 49% – expect to spend more on marketing in the next 12 months.
That’s according to a new analysis from Senior Housing News and Dreamscape Marketing. The survey included responses from 99 senior living professionals, who answered questions between mid-December, 2023; and mid-January, 2024.
According to the survey, another 43% of the surveyed professionals expect their company’s marketing spend to stay the same in the next 12 months. Just 8% said they expect their company will decrease its marketing budget in that time.
Three quarters of the respondents said they used both in-house and agency marketing.
As for where senior living companies are focusing their marketing efforts, the majority said pay-per-click, paid search and display advertising (50%), content marketing on a blog or video (49%) and social media (46%).
Other top areas of focus included SEO (41%), web design (29%) and marketing automation (28%). Only 2% of respondents said they planned to focus on affiliate marketing.
Traditional media, such as branding or public relation work, was identified as a top marketing tool by 86% of respondents. Other top tools included social media marketing platforms (85%), email marketing (80%), organic online search (72%)
New resident acquisition was the primary business objective of more than three-quarters of the respondents (80%), while 14% said their primary goal was brand awareness.
The respondents were mixed on the top challenges to marketers in the year ahead, with 22% saying it would be the competitive environment, 20% noting differentiation from competitors and 14% identifying internal marketing processes.
Another 12% said they thought the top challenge this year would be budgetary, while 10% said the changing landscape of marketing tools.
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