Word-of-mouth awareness is sometimes thought of as the holy grail of senior living marketing. It’s also the most difficult to win.
Marketing leaders with operators such as Denver, Colorado-based Spectrum Retirement Communities are building brand recognition for the operator’s 37 communities through social media marketing, according to William Swearingen, executive vice president of brand management and corporate communications. Conversations on websites like Facebook have become “the new word of mouth,” he said.
“Social media is not as controllable as you would like to think,” Swearingen said.
Leaders with Westport, Connecticut-based Maplewood Senior Living and its luxury brand, Inspir, take a more traditional approach to word-of-mouth. The company’s marketing message centers on the value a community offers. The company’s leaders build relationships with the professionals that families already trust. Creating a good experience from beginning to end can prompt residents to share their experience with family and friends, Maplewood Senior Vice President of Communications Kim Bragoli told SHN
Marketing leaders with Newark, Delaware-based Kendal Corp., identify where referrals originate. Between 11% and 15% of the organization’s leads or more come from prospects sharing their positive experience with others, Kendal Senior Director of Communications Morgan Lamphere said.
‘Grandfluencers’ and other buzz
Maplewood’s community leaders believe that the best way to generate buzz and excitement is to show people who live nearby what senior living can offer. That’s why Maplewood community staff open their doors for events with local organizations or caregiver support groups.
Maplewood’s Inspir communities, Carnegie Hill in New York City on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and Embassy Row in Washington, D.C., offer connections to local cultural institutions, Bragoli said. Maplewood has partnerships with local organizations such as community center 92NY, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, CaringKind, the DC Public Library and the American Federation of the Arts.
“Neighborhood partnership is part of the experience,” she said.
The Spectrum marketing team’ posts on social media the various organic moments that occur inside the company’s communities, such as hosting the marriage of a resident’s daughter or posting videos of residents singing karaoke. The company’s marketing team was an early senior living user of TikTok as part of the rise of what one writer at the New York Times dubbed as “grandfluencers”.
Spectrum’s entertainment and activity teams use the company’s social media platforms to spotlight local small businesses, such as a local bakery that hosts weekly pop-ups in one of the operator’s communities. Showcasing those partnerships is another way to build online buzz.
“They can sell their wares inside the community, and then we cross promote by tagging them,” Swearingen said. “They then share our post on their pages, and it generates this word of mouth that you simply cannot get any other way.”
The company’s fundraising teams are shifting away from large, national names, such as the Alzheimer’s Association, in favor of local charities. Instead of healthcare-related benefits, teams raise money for resident interests, such as the integrity of a library system and paying attention to back-to-school programs in populations that may need support.
“There are better ways to be connected to the community and sow yourself as a thread in the local community … It has to be something where there will be a constant evidentiary support that people can see, because what I believe is people react to the organic things, not the not the salesy, predictable market strategy,” Swearingen said.
Kendal’s leaders vary their approach depending on the region and community. While Kendal is a more well-known brand along the East Coast, the organization’s marketing teams still are building the brands of two less established West Coast communities. In the instance of Enzo Village in Healdsburg, California, that involves taking a step back and allowing its partner, the San Francisco Zen Center, to take point in facilitating community connections, according to Lamphere.
Residents of the organization’s Humboldt Commons community in McKinleyville, California, lead education efforts and connect with surrounding businesses to spread the word.
“They are people that have been known in the community for the last 40 years,” Lamphere said. “Instead of us being there and talking about Kendall, we let them tell that story, and they’re the ones that are leading us to the key community partners.”
Tracking word-of-mouth marketing
Operators have a difficult time tracking word-of-mouth marketing efforts, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Spectrum’s marketing team assigns tracking numbers to social media campaigns. For example, if the marketing team cross-promotes a Chicago-area bakery a community partners with, they create a unique QR code people can use to learn more information, which allows the operator to track its success.
Spectrum measures campaigns on engagement, not necessarily revenue or move-ins.
“I often refer to it as like a club in college, where if the music isn’t pounding when you walk through the doors, you’re not going to get on the dance floor,” Swearingen said. “In word of mouth advertising, it’s very similar to that. You want people to feel something so that they go, ‘I want to get on that dance floor and dance.’”
Maplewood’s leaders are enhancing the company’s resident and family ambassadors efforts across its portfolio through a referral program, which rewards between $2,500 and $5,000, depending on the market and community according to Bragoli. The amount is credited on their monthly bill after the referred resident has been within the community for 60 days. Maplewood’s leadership team encourages community leadership to build partnerships that reflect the surrounding area, while sharing what works across the portfolio.
Meanwhile, Kendal’s leaders are building Google review campaigns to not only appear more frequently on web results, but to showcase what a digital word-of-mouth approach looks like for the organization. That campaign takes the form of providing support to each of its affiliates, such as providing postcards with QR codes to direct residents, family members and prospects to the review page, and leading sessions on how to leave a review from a phone. Reminders are given to community members roughly every three months to encourage a review as well.
“This is not a strategy that you can apply across the board,” Lamphere said. “It’s got to be something that is unique for every single market because every market has a different type of influencer that’s going to make a bigger difference.”
Companies featured in this article:
Kendal Corp., Maplewood Senior Living, Spectrum Retirement Communities
