Who is my ideal Client?

To be effective it is essential to be able to match your advertising and promotion as closely as possible to the person you want to attract. You must try to enter the conversation they are having in their head about their care requirements and to do this you really need to know your ideal client very well.

Let me give you an example. Say you specialise in Dementia Care. Anyone who is not looking for dementia care is of no interest to you whatsoever. Yet you would not believe the number of these homes that advertise or have web sites that say some thing like the following:

Headline:   XYZ Residential Care Home

Text:  Welcome to xzy residential home. We are a family run home who have been in business 20 years and are situated in the village of Pleasantville. Xyz is a registered home and complies with all regulations under the Care Standards Act 2000 and the inspectorate body CSCI

The home is run by Mr Jollyman, the proprietor and has a full time Registered Manager. We have 25 beds, 6 with ensuite…etc., etc. You get the idea.

I will come back to this type of advert/brochure/web site in future ramblings because it is so dreadful there are many lessons to be learned. But firstly can you spot the glaring omission?

There is no mention that you specialise in dementia care. The whole thing should be written around the needs, wants and fears of someone looking for a specialist in dementia care. As it stands it is too general and would attract all manner of residential clients, who are of course no interest to you as a dementia care specialist.

The whole idea was summed up beautifully by one of the most successful advertising experts ever Claude Hopkins. He said “Your message should single out your prospect like a bell-boy paging a man in a crowded hotel lobby”

Who is your real client?

In the example above, the real client is not the person with dementia who lives in your care home, but the person who makes the decision about which home the dementia sufferer lives in. This is the person your marketing should be aimed at. This is your real client.

So take some time to define your ideal client in great detail. Who are they? What sex are they? What age? Where do they live? What publications do they read? Where do they get their information from? Who are they making the decision on behalf of?

A great way to find answer to these questions is to look at your existing residents. Who were their decision makers? Chances are the people you need to attract will be a lot like them.

Now check your own promotional material with your newly focussed eye and ask yourself the following searching questions:

1. Does it specifically state the type of clients you want to attract?
2. Does it talk to the wants, needs and fears of the real decision maker?
3. Are you getting it in front of the real decision maker so they know who you are?

If not, you are wasting your money and missing valuable opportunities to fill your home with profitable clients.

Please give some serious thought to this issue. Get this right and you are well on your way to never having to worry about getting clients again. With future tips I’ll show you how to effortlessly attract new clients almost at will.

However, get it wrong by aiming at the wrong people and you are making life very hard for yourself indeed.

As the old Chinese proverb says ‘The pathway is clear. Why do you throw rocks before you’ (damn useful those fortune cookies)

Bye For Now,

Simon Beck
CareHomeMarkeingExpert

Need Someone To Do Your Marketing For You?  Visit our main site at
Care Home Marketing Expert

As I write this it’s landlords are meeting to discuss breaking up the organisation and letting some of it go, which basically means closing homes.

But you should be rejoicing at this news. This is a golden opportunity for you to use the situation to get new residents into your home, even if there’s no Southern Cross home near you.

Here’s how.

Many local & regional newspapers in communities that have Southern Cross homes are running stories about the possible effect it will have on their readers and their elderly loved ones.

It’s a big chance for them to piggyback on a national story with a local angle. And this is your opportunity to do the same.

You can present yourself to the local papers, the local community and the local social services department as the great saviour stepping in to help the weak and vulnerable in their hour of need.

Here’s what you do.

Send a press release to the local & regional newspapers, local radio and local TV. In the press release explain that you are ready to step into the breach and provide places for Southern Cross residents who are forced out because of closure or who want to move voluntarily to a more secure home.

Explain that you understand this is a big step and that you will give them a month trial stay with no obligation and at no cost to make sure they are completely happy with their new home (it doesn’t have to be a month, just use whatever you are comfortable with).

Here’s a possible headline for your press release that the newspapers can use straight away or modify slightly with your local towns name.

‘Local home steps in to secure future of residents at troubled care home giant Southern Cross’

The object of the exercise is as follows:

1. To portray your home as the stable, viable alternative to the struggling corporate
   giant
2. To enhance your reputation locally
3. To get enquiries by having your name in front of others who may be looking for care for their loved ones
4. To get the article published so you can send a copy to your local social services
   to ‘help them out’ should the need arise. This will strengthen your relationship
   with social services and give you something new to discuss with them

This is obviously a very time sensitive situation and you’ll need to send off your press release quickly to capitalise on it, so get cracking!

If you don’t feel confident in writing a press release or you simply haven’t the time we can write one for you around this story for the modest sum of £198.00 inc VAT.

Just send click here to send me an email saying you want to go ahead and confirming your full contact details. I’ll come back to you by return.

Either way please let me know how you get on and please tell us your thoughts about this article in the comments section below.

Warmest regards,

Simon

Please Turn Your Speakers On & Click Play

If you’re interested in generating more enquiries from your care home web site here’s a case study that will really open your eyes to how simple this can be if you know what to do.

In this video I walk you through the case study from one of our clients where we increased the number of enquiries generated from their website by phenominal 96%. I also take you through some key take aways from the case study that you can immediately use on your own site.

I hope you find it useful.

Simon

PS. If you’d like us to design a web site for your care home or to help you increase the enquiries your getting from your current site, please call me on 0113 8154165 or e-mail me

Have you ever had a nightmare holiday journey?

You’ve been looking forward to getting away for a well deserved rest for months. The great day finally dawns, you’re in a wonderful mood and set of with a light step and a song in your heart.

Then disaster strikes and you spend the next 100 hours (well it seemed like a 100 hours!) in a succession of queues and painfully slow moving vehicles until you finally reach your destination utterly exhausted and wanting nothing more than to lay your head on a soft pillow and let sleep mercifully take you.

Sound familiar?

Well this happen to me recently on our annual trip to the beautiful and empty coast of South West Scotland where we stayed in the lodge of a luxury hotel.

After the aforementioned journey from hell all I wanted to do was rest, but had to stop off at the hotel first to collect the lodge keys. At reception I was greeted by the owner who introduced himself and immediately insisted I follow him into the hotel. Here he informed me that lodge guests are welcome to dine in the hotel for the princely sum of £35 per person or £15 per person for breakfast.

Next he asked how many were in my party (3) and immediately offered to discount a £105 meal down to £85 if I wanted to book. I gave him a very steely eyed stare and said I’d think about it.

But let me tell you this. There was no way on Gods earth I was going to be dining in his restaurant, even if he paid me to do it.

Why?

Well he showed absolutely no consideration for me or my situation whatsoever. His only interest was in extracting more cash out of me for a meal in his overpriced restaurant and I could see the cash register chalking up pound signs in his eyes as he talked to me.

Unfortunately this is how many businesses treat their clients and customers.

Let’s look at what he should have done and how you can use the same strategies when showing prospective clients around your care home.

Firstly he should have realised I’d had a long journey and that all I’d want to do was unpack and get settled in. A simple ‘Here’s your keys Mr Beck. Would you like me to show you around the lodge and help with your bags or would you prefer to get settled in yourself?’ would have been perfect.

Next, when I got to the lodge I should have found a lovely bunch of flowers or similar gift with a note welcoming me, wishing me a pleasant stay and explaining everything I needed to know about the lodge.

With that note should have been a sales letter or brochure for the hotel dining room. This would have sample menus and explain how they have a top chef who prepares delicious local produce into mouth watering gastronomic delights. These are consumed in the dining room where I could enjoy an enchanting view of the bay with lights from the distant shore twinkling out of the dark night like diamonds.

Finally there should have been a gift voucher that offered me a 25% discount if I ate in the restaurant on two occasions + a further discount voucher for a short break stay at the hotel for me or my friends that I could take away with me.

In short they should have sold me on their services and that’s what you need to do when people come to look round your care home.

This is where the rubber meets the road, your big chance to convert that prospect you’ve worked so hard to get into a profitable client. Mess this up and you’ve ruined all that effort and wasted all of your hard earned cash in getting to this point.

So how should you handle it?

Here are my top 10 tips

1. Measure your conversion ratios. That is the number of visits that turn into paying clients. If you double the conversion from 1 out of 4 show arounds turning in to clients to 2 out of every 4, that means you only need to find half as many enquiries. How much easier would it be to keep your home full if you only had to generate half as many enquiries?

2. How do you increase your conversion ratio? Make sure the person who does the show around is good with people and knows how to sell. If they don’t know how to sell either find someone who does or get them some training – there are loads of books out there or you can get personal tuition (This is a service we offer, so please give me call if you need help).

3. When someone arrives take them to a quiet place where you can have a proper, undisturbed and confidential chat.

4. Find out what their requirements are before you do anything else. Ask lots of questions to discover the needs of the resident to be and exactly why the person is enquiring right now. What crisis/problem will you be solving in their family? What are their emotions about the situation?

Only after you have a complete picture can you take them around the home.

5. Show them the features that are of interest and explain the benefits to them. For example, if their elderly loved one values their privacy and prefers their own company don’t go on about how you all get together for a sing song every day, they’d hate it. Just show the quiet private areas of the home where they can enjoy the solitude without feeling confined to their room.

6. Talk to residents who will tell your visitor how much they enjoy living in the home. Testimonials like this are great as they come straight from the horse’s mouth and no one can claim you’re making them up.

7. Make sure you find out any potential objections and answer them before the visitor leaves

8. DO NOT under any circumstances let the visitor leave without asking them if they want to go ahead. Once they are out of the door your chances of ever getting them back again drop drastically.

9. If they don’t want to go ahead right now, try at least to get a firm agreement for the next step. For example, if they want their loved one to see the home before committing, get a firm date booked in the calendar for the visit.

Ideally when they leave you want either 1. An agreement that they want the room 2. A firm commitment to the next step 3. Them to tell you that they are just not interested. (Better to know now than wasting valuable time chasing them later).

10. Make them an offer they can’t refuse. Have a great deal to offer them and offer it to them during your chat at the end of the show around. This gets negotiations underway and makes it harder for them to leave without you gaining one of the 3 steps above.

If you follow these 10 tips you’ll have a very good chance of turning show around visitors into profitable clients almost every time.

Finally, remember the old selling adage ‘No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care’. There’s wisdom in these words.

Happy selling.

Simon Beck

Care Home Marketing Expert

PS. Don’t forget, if you’re struggling to convert visitors into clients or lack confidence in your selling ability we can help. Our on site training will transform your confidence and arm you with all the skills necessary to get those beds filled fast. Call me on 0113 8154165 or e-mail simon.beck@carehomemarketingexpert.com

Well, that’s just what happened to United Airlines when they broke the guitar of one of their passengers, a country singer by the name of Dave Carroll from Canada.

Dave’s expensive Taylor guitar was broken by reckless United Airlines baggage handlers. After 9 months of getting the run around United officially refused to pay any compensation for it.

Dave was so fed up he composed a song called United Breaks Guitars and posted a video of himself and his band singing it on YouTube where, as of 13th July 2009, it has had over 2.5 million views. Not only that, it has been featured in major national newspapers and on TV shows across America.

STOP PRESS 11/02/2011 – Dave’s Video has now had 9,935,778 views!

You can watch it here:

That’s a huge amount of negative publicity for United Airlines all due to the power of social media which has given everyone access to a global stage.

So what has this got to do with filling the beds in my care home I hear you ask?

Well quite a lot actually. This has totally changed the game. Here’s how.

1. As United found out to their cost there is now officially no place to hide. Anyone who has a bad experience in your care can publish their opinion instantly using their online social network. Blogs and sites like twitter, facebook, myspace, youtube and many others provide an online community for a massively increasing number of people. And this is where many of them go to get recommendations of suppliers both good and bad.

Not only that, but the search engines like Google & Yahoo love these sites and will put this content in their search results or even send it to you everyday with things like Google Alerts if you want. There truly is nowhere to hide! If you are searched for online everything will show.

2. This can also work massively in your favour, because the opposite is also true.

Until now one of the best ways to promote your care home was to build a great reputation and to have clients & health professionals recommend you to their friends, family, work colleagues and acquaintances; In other words referrals. This still works a treat plus those referral systems have gone digital as well.

If you do a good job there is now a whole new world where you can be recommended by people in their social network and talked about positively. And this happens instantly and can spread virally.

3. As if this weren’t enough already, now here’s comes the real game changer.

Social media sites are a massive opportunity for you to take control and distribute your own wealth of positive information about your care home business. Instead of having to rely on traditional methods of advertising you can take your own message to the world and interact with potential customers and clients on a scale totally unimaginable just a few years ago. And in so doing you can totally dominate your own market place.

Just imagine the positive exposure you can achieve form this. One piece of new content per month distributed to only 50 sites will produce 600 new opportunities for people to find you on the internet all driving traffic to your web site. Compare that with your current internet presence.

Now picture what it would be like competing against a home that has that kind of power at its disposal when you don’t.

At Care Home Marketing Expert we have cutting edge technology that can help you achieve this in a fraction of the time it would otherwise take. We can create audio, video and written content and automate its distribution to up to 93 social media, video sharing, social bookmarking sites, podcasts and your blogs.

The web 2.0 revolution is here. Embrace it & it will give you an overwhelming competitive advantage. Shun it and you will almost certainly end up in trouble. That may seem overly dramatic, but it’s already happening. Just ask United Airlines.

Wishing you wealth and happiness (& a good reputation).

Simon Beck

For further information on how we can help you use social media to dominate your market place and get those beds filled please call me on 0113 815 4165 or e-mail subscriber.info@carehomemarketingexpert.com

But, the damage had been done by then and the homes hard earned reputation lay in tatters. If he’d known what was being said he could have taken immediate steps to rectify the situation and that’s where Google Alerts come in.

Google Alerts are completely free, take about 5 minutes to set up and can really help you with your care home marketing. Watch the video below where I walk you through step by step if need help setting them up.

You can set up an alert for your home name, business name, competitors or anything else and Google will e-mail you with details when anything is published about your alert.

This is incredibly useful to check the success of your publicity, what your competitors are up to, important local events or hot news topics in the care industry.

So go ahead and set up your alerts today. You might be surprised what you see!

Now you know where Ad Men get their sense of humour from!