Aging In Place Directory

#14 - Strategies to Grow Your Aging in Place Client Base

• Esther C Kane CAPS, C.D.S. • Season 1 • Episode 14

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Ever wondered how to effectively market to an aging demographic and make your brand unforgettable? Learn the secrets to successful branding and marketing tailored specifically for Aging in Place specialists, especially in light of Google's game-changing algorithm update in September 2023. We'll discuss why creating a memorable logo and choosing a consistent name are pivotal steps for resonating with your target audience. You'll also gain insights into understanding your audience's unique needs, from age and geographic location to income levels and social situations, helping you craft a compelling and effective marketing message.

Maximize your online presence and grow your business with actionable strategies shared in this episode. Discover how to leverage platforms like YouTube and podcasts to expand your reach and why participating in local business groups can be a game-changer. We emphasize the importance of educating rather than selling to build trust and credibility, and we delve into the critical role an email list plays in maintaining client relationships. Get ready to turn your clients into loyal fans who eagerly refer others to your services. Tune in for invaluable tips that will set you up for success in the Aging in Place niche!

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Speaker 1:

Hello everyone, welcome back to episode 14 of the Aging in Place Directory podcast. This episode is going to be for Aging in Place specialists or anyone working in the Aging in Place niche, so whatever services it is that you're offering for that target audience. What I want to talk about today is about marketing. How can you market your services? What are some strategies that you can use to help you grow your business? I've been doing internet marketing since 2000,. So it's almost 25 years now. I've also been marketing my own company locally, internationally, nationally, so and now I am working with well, at least I'm working on three different companies that I have opened, with and without partners. So it's I know a little bit about marketing and how to get that business in to help you grow. So we're going to be talking about some things that I think are very important. They can seem basic, but they're extremely, extremely important.

Speaker 1:

The very first thing that I want to talk about today is branding. I know a lot of entrepreneurs, especially solopreneurs, don't put too much stock or don't put too much effort into their branding, but it is extremely important, especially nowadays online, when Google changed their algorithm so severely in September of 2023. What we have found from that end result is that branding is really a huge factor in not only their ranking, but also because we're having to put so much effort into other types of social media marketing, such as you know well. I said social media, but also in-person marketing. So branding is a huge issue and all that really means is getting a logo and being consistent with the name and the logo and trying to find a name that is relevant to the service. It doesn't have to be. I mean, you know, one of my companies is EcWeb, and that doesn't mean anything, but it's short, it's easy to remember and all it is is the initials of my name and the word web. That's all it is. But it's been around so long now that I still get a lot of responses, even though that company is slowly trying to close it down. But anyway, if you can find a name that is relevant to your niche, or at least your own name, that is a good branding.

Speaker 1:

Now, the problem with having your name as a brand is that it makes it much more difficult to turn around and sell it. So you know if your name is. You know Abigail Lawrence, and you have abigaillawrencecom and Abigail Lawrence interiors and Abigail Lawrence, you know, senior services. That's all great, but then if you get to a point where you want to turn around and sell that, the brand will have to remain, even though John Smith purchases that company, which isn't a huge you know, a factor that absolutely seals the deal, but it may. It's just something to consider.

Speaker 1:

So, brand, get a brand, even if you need to hire somebody to help you with that, although nowadays, with AI programs, you can come up with a plethora of ideas on that. And then also ask your family, friends and strangers on the street, anybody, anything about branding. You know what they think it could be, should be, and you know, get as much, take a survey, get as much information as possible and then, once you have that, then you can begin doing anything that it is you need to do as far as marketing under that brand. So after that, after you've got your brand, you then want to try to identify the target audience that you're going after. Now, of course, as aging in place specialists, we're going after older adults and the family, caregivers, children of those older adults, but you want, so you want to obviously look at age group, but you also want to break it down to rural or urban. You know which ones. You know. Are they living in cities? Are they living in suburbia? Are they living in rural communities? Because all three different types of demographics are going to require different items, different services, and they're going to be asking different questions, online and in general. So you want to figure out which one, or maybe all of them, that you're targeting and then tailor your message, tailor your content and information to that group.

Speaker 1:

You also want to break it down to high income versus low income. Now, obviously, if we're targeting a market where we're selling service or selling products, you know, and a lot of products that we sell Sorry, my phone keeps beeping A lot of products that we sell are honestly, for high end individuals. Right, okay, sorry, that was an interruption. So you're going after high income versus low income. Now, obviously, as I said, if we're selling products, a lot of the products that we sell for assisted, you know, for ADLs or for mobility, or you know, any home modifications are usually costly. You know any home modifications are usually costly, usually high end. Now, those types of products are usually not being purchased by low income. But if you are targeting a low income, they're obviously going to be looking for ways to pay for some of these products.

Speaker 1:

So if that is your demographic, if you happen to be in that area or you just simply want to target that audience, then you want to have more information on your online presence or anywhere where you're putting out information targeting that particular audience. Of course, if you're targeting high income, then you're going to be talking about all the types of amazing tech products and you know great new products that are available now that higher income populations can afford. Of course, there's nothing wrong with targeting both, but it's important to know that the message for both of these demographics will be different and what they're looking for is different. And then you also want to look at the variety of social situations that they're in. I mean, some seniors and family caregivers are solo. You know it's an older mother with a daughter that is caring for her, and the daughter is the only child you know. So you want to target that audience. You want to target or not, you want to, but if you, if you want to target, you want to think about these specific audiences.

Speaker 1:

There are families, the multi-generational families living together. So how does adaptive, how does home modifications, fit into that scenario? What kind of questions and information do they need? There are people now co-hosting, co-housing. I mean they're co-housing together. So how do you accommodate that when one person needs home modifications and the other one not so much? And what if they're in a rental? You know, what if they're in an RV? What if they're in a tiny home? And then what about older adults who are just simply living alone, don't have friends, family? What if they're in a rural area, in an urban area, a suburban? What about ones who are living in the basement or living in a guest house because they're living with their children? You know, how do you accommodate modification? How do you make home modifications and adaptive equipment for families that have, you know, children living in the house and grandma and grandpa living in another part of the house or a separate dwelling, maybe a tiny home or, you know, granny pad or whatever. Different questions, different pieces of equipment, all kinds of things.

Speaker 1:

So if you can think of that audience in your mind while you're writing and putting out this information, that will make it more helpful and more targeted, so that you're not just sending out a general information. It so that you're not just sending out a general information. And plus, you're way ahead of what a lot of other people do, which is to send out general information. So, if you can target specific audience, yes, you are targeting a smaller audience, but doesn't mean to say you can't target multiple audiences. But when you are writing or creating content or creating videos or anything that you do, think about that one specific audience and break it down. That will bring you and it will speak better to them than just a general message.

Speaker 1:

You absolutely these days there's no question about it you have to have an online presence. There's no business can survive these days Not that I know of without an online presence, and all that means is you should have a website, even if you don't manage the website. If you just want to use it as a fancy business card, okay, but I would encourage you to use it. You're paying rent. You're paying the hosting company for it every month. You're paying for that storage room, that rent that that website is sitting in. Use it, fill it up with as much as you can, but if you can't, you at least need to have a website. Domain name should hopefully match the name of your business. Again, that increases the brand.

Speaker 1:

You want to at least have one or two social media presence, so this means Facebook, so it could be a Facebook group or just a Facebook page. It could be a Facebook group or just a Facebook page. It could be it's LinkedIn. Linkedin is amazing for connecting with so many people Could be Instagram, tiktok, youtube and Pinterest. Now, I don't think that you should go into all of these. I think you should pick one or two, because it can be overwhelming managing them, unless you, of course, hire somebody to manage them for you. But pick one or two, or just pick one, start with that, get into the groove of doing that and then add another one. We started off. I started off with Facebook, of course, many years ago, started off with Facebook, of course, many years ago, and I've now branched out, and then I branched out into Pinterest and now I'm branching out more and more into LinkedIn, so I keep adding them in there.

Speaker 1:

Now you may think that it's very easy to just, you know, post something up and on Instagram. It probably is, and TikTok as well, but you want to try and keep it coordinated and you want to try and be as consistent as possible. So if you're going to post something on Facebook every Tuesday, do that every Tuesday, tuesday and Thursday two, three times a week would actually be ideal, but do it consistently, don't? You know? Post on August 8th and then post on August 31st. You know, if you're not consistent, one, you lose your audience, you don't gather an audience, and two, you don't, it doesn't look as good on the search engines because they look at that. They look at the social links that you have and posts and everything to help rank your information on your website and help rank your brand, and the way they do that is by looking at everything that you have online. Yeah, I do encourage you to do YouTube in addition to all this other stuff, and the reason that I like YouTube is because it's the second most used search engine on the planet. It's owned by Google, so it has a huge amount of dollars and support behind it as far as technical support, but it's the second most used search engine on the planet behind Google, so it doesn't make sense to me not to use it.

Speaker 1:

I know a lot of people don't like to be on video. I myself don't like to be on video. It took me a long time to get used to it. I've been doing it for years now on one of my other websites and it's still not easy for me. I don't like it, I don't feel comfortable, but I do it. I do it because it's bringing in traffic, it brings in income. At this point, it's an amazing tool and it's a way for your audience to meet you without you know technically, physically meeting you. They get to see you to meet you without you know technically, physically meeting you. They get to see you to hear you, to see how you work, maybe to see how you live. And it doesn't have to be anything big or fancy or you know, you don't have to have special lighting and cameras, it's just your cell phone and you. So right now I'm recording this video while I'm doing the podcast, because I think it makes sense If you're doing a podcast, why not also turn it into a video?

Speaker 1:

That way you're getting two for one. You've got your audience on both video and on YouTube and on podcasting. And podcasting also is another great way. Even if you don't want to do the YouTube videos with your podcast, at least do a podcast. I know a lot of podcasters who don't want to be seen, so they just do the podcast. And that's great because then you just hear.

Speaker 1:

And podcasts are so amazing. There's so many of them now it's, it's, it's never. You can never have enough information out there, right? I mean, we're all looking for the right kind of information for our particular circumstance, and so I encourage you and it costs so little, so little to do any of these things, youtube especially. It doesn't cost anything to put up a YouTube channel, and after you get 1000 subscribers, you start earning money on YouTube. It's really quite an amazing thing. Anyway, all right, never have so many people been able to do so much for with for so little and with so little. So take advantage of that. So all those social media presences and all those online presences, the website, you know, social media, youtube, podcasting, all of those can immensely grow your business.

Speaker 1:

Even if you're a local business, it doesn't matter. It's important to have an online presence. You can't do business these days without it. You also want to if you're a brand new business, especially even if you're not. You also want to look at any local networking groups. Look at your town. Do they have a local business group? Is there a local social support group, you know, for caregivers, that would be an excellent place to go. Maybe you can co-host the group with the person who is hosting it Maybe it's a psychologist, a counselor, a social worker co-hosted with them and you can then answer questions or talk about home modifications, adaptive equipment, all kinds of things that these caregivers are looking for. Help for with their senior parents, with their senior or older loved ones, whomever they are. That would be a wonderful way to connect with others and any other kind of women's groups, men's groups, anything related. National Association of Home Builders groups, anything related National Association of Home Builders. They have a lot of local chapters, any aging in place type of community organizations, anything at all that you can go to become a part of and help to build and help to bring awareness not only to the topic but also to your business, to the services.

Speaker 1:

The most important thing you can do at any of these groups is to and even online when you're on social media is to not sell. Do not sell. You don't want to be a salesman. You want to put that salesman cap away, put it in the closet. All you're doing is excuse me, going out there, educating. You are educating. You are teaching people what you know. You're showcasing your expertise. You can mention your company by saying I am the owner of, I am the co-owner of my expertise is in this and this. These are the kinds of things that we do. How can I help you? You know, I know about this, I know about that, but you're not selling, You're not telling people. Listen, you know we have the most amazing ramps on the planet and you know we can get you outfitted. No, you know, oh, you know. It sounds like what you're looking for is a ramp. Did you know that there are so many amazing ways that they can incorporate ramps now into your landscape, so it doesn't necessarily look like a ramp and the ramps are made out of this material and that material. You're just educating, and the more you can educate and not come on as a salesperson, the more you can gain their trust and the more they will come back to you for that information.

Speaker 1:

It usually takes people seven, eight, nine times before they see, you, hear you see, you, hear you, you know, find you online, whatever before they trust you to make a decision. So educate, don't sell. Yeah, absolutely. The very last thing is you absolutely must have an email list of some kind, some kind of a weekly newsletter, email, tip of the day, tip of the week, whatever kind of thing. It should be at least weekly. I'm getting things every day. I don't necessarily like it every day. I myself do once a week whenever anyone signs up to any of my newsletters, emails. I send out something once a week. And again, it's all about educating, not selling, and it's to that specific target audience.

Speaker 1:

And the reason you want to do that is because whatever group you gather, whatever fan you know clients you gather you want to turn them into fans. And the way you turn them into fans so that they turn around and refer you to other people is one by good service, good products. You know you do good work. You get back to them in a timely manner. You provide that good, you know high end service that they expect. You give them a little more than what they expected. That's always a great way to get more, to turn them into fans.

Speaker 1:

But you also want to be in front of them. You also want to continue. You don't just want to do a product, you know, do a home modification and walk away, that's it. Then you know, maybe they'll call you a year from now. No, you want to continue giving them. You know that you did the home modification because the husband maybe was diagnosed with Parkinson's, so now he's having to, you know, use the grab bars and maybe had to change the amount, you know, had to modify the bathroom for him with a curbless shower or whatever. So now you know that that person is dealing with this, that progression of that disease is just going to keep going. So why not then tailor something to that person, to that group, and maybe then you can create even more a larger group of people with Parkinson's. For that, with that particular information, the information that you're giving them, the education that you're giving them, if you yourself are unsure about what to do, you know, hook up with an occupational therapist or an aging in place specialist who specializes, maybe in older adults with Parkinson's anything at all and have them help you with the writing, the content. But honestly, nowadays, with AI programs that can help you so much to create the outlines and the information that you need, especially if you use perplexityai, what I like about them is that they give you the source of information, the source of where they gathered the information, so you can look into it.

Speaker 1:

I know all of these things take time, but that's what marketing is. Marketing takes time If you need to build, if you want to build your business and obviously you need to build your business. That's the part that takes time, not the actual projects, necessarily. But initially you hope to get to the point where you need to hire somebody to manage all of these things and you may begin with using a virtual assistant to do a lot of this, especially the social media type of marketing. You know you can use a virtual assistant, which is somebody that you hire like a temp. Like you know, years ago I remember years ago there were temp agencies. Well, a virtual assistant is basically an online temp agency, so you could hire someone that has the expertise in any of these social media platforms. But you want to get to the point where you're earning enough money that you can hire someone like that, obviously, but initially you are probably the one doing all the work, and that's good. I encourage that, because if you know what's involved in the work, then it's much easier for you not to be taken in by people who say they know the work and they don't. There's enough of those around, that's for sure.

Speaker 1:

I know somebody who just paid $20,000 for a website and that is outrageous when it really should only cost no more than $3,000, $4,000. It's crazy that it's not even an e-commerce website. An e-commerce website maybe I could see if it's like a thousand pages, but this was a simple 10 page website with no e-commerce attached to it. In one form, that's just. But if you know what's involved in it, if you go through the process of it, then you will understand what it is that you're paying for when you do hire somebody.

Speaker 1:

You know, that's one of the things that we offer on the Aging in Place directory for Aging in Place specialists. They sign up for that directory and one of the things that we offer are webinars on exactly all of that and all of this information as well, in greater detail. So if you're interested in doing any of this, consider signing up for the Aging in greater detail. So, if you're interested in doing all any of this, consider signing up for the Aging in Place directory. It's very low cost and you get a lot, a lot for it. All right, thank you so much for listening to this podcast. I appreciate it so much and I will see you next time or hear you next time. All right, bye.

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Esther C. Kane, CAPS, C.D.S.

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