So, how do you get people to call? You give them a reason, based on their need for information. You stay in front of them on a regular basis so they remember your agency name. Unfortunately, the needs for home care often come at unexpected times, and what home care means may not be totally understood. Be the local, approachable resource for information and be a comfort during a time of tough decisions for your audience.

As a former home care agency owner myself and a marketing expert with today’s technology, I know from working experience that growing an agency means:

• Having the right information available in a variety of online ways;
• Interacting and responding appropriately, online and directly;
• Integrating all outreach, communication efforts with online inbound efforts.

My next post will explore finding your target audience and referral sources. In the meantime, check out MOST^SM, our coveted monthly turnkey marketing communications program designed for home care agencies—so you can put my strategic marketing practices into play immediately.

My home care marketing discussion is rich with first-hand understanding that private duty home care is an at-need service, so being remembered when a need arises is the key to increasing referrals. This can be accomplished by using a variety of tactics across all media. It’s all about marketing, marketing, marketing! 

Today’s session, titled “Resource-Rich Marketing to Referral Sources: A Way to Stand Out from the Crowd,” further defines the strategy behind this concept and how it has proven to be effective. And, participants will:

·    Be able to demonstrate the importance of a marketing strategy by understanding the “at need” component of home care services

·    Be able to discuss the human elements of reactions to branding, consistent messaging and educational and informational components that resonate with referral sources

·    Be able to identify how to implement consistent, branded and resource-rich marketing messages and visuals across a wide variety of referral sources to generate new referral sources

Thanks for reading my ongoing homecare marketing tips, resources, and strategies for success here at www.merrilyorsini.com. You’ll always find something new to bring to your marketing strategy, be reminded of home care marketing basics, or simply stay in the loop about upcoming conferences, webinars, and marketing and technology topics. 

If you would like more information about booking me for a consultation, to speak at your conference or event, or to review and provide input on industry ideas, information or materials, please fill out the form here and someone will be in touch with you shortly.

On October 2, I will take the podium as the expert on private duty home care during the general opening session, and on October 3, I’ll lecture on marketing with today’s technology.

My experience spans nearly all aspects of the home care industry—from owning and operating a home care agency to serving on national boards and influencing political leaders on home care issues. Today, I’ve assumed the role of home care marketing expert and provide counsel to national organizations and businesses on aging and care issues as well as strategic marketing for products aimed at those targets. I’m also armed with strategic knowledge of the latest developments in mobile technology and social media, a new frontier for leaders in home care—so I aim to introduce a fresh marketing perspective that is relevant to audiences today.

More details about the NAHC 30th Annual Meeting & Exposition can be found here. Have questions about marketing your own home care agency? I would love the opportunity to strategize your marketing needs.

Continuum participates in our MOST program, which is a consultative marketing program that focuses on educating and being a resource to referral sources and families.

Thanks to Barth Holohan for being such a good client, and kudos to the corecubed team for another win, and this time a GOLD!

As an industry, private duty homecare has little data upon which to draw conclusions, benchmark progress, and know effective marketing strategies and tactics.  The last study completed by Home Care Pulse was an industry first in its participation across all types of private duty agencies and across all types of service providers.

The 2011 Private Duty Benchmarking Survey/Study needs each and every agency that provides private duty to participate. It does take some time (30-60 minutes), but to get accurate information on results from a large number of participants, the outcome is well worth the time.

Imagine, running a private duty homecare agency and having this information on the industry:

• In-depth details on caregiver training, recruitment methods, screening, and benefits
• Specific information on billable hours, bill & pay rates, and client retention
• Greater in-depth financial comparisons among geographic regions and states (based on the # of participants from each state)
• 42 marketing methods identified and rated by survey participants

To learn more about the benefits of participation and to be directed on how to take the survey, go to www.homecarepulse.com/studyparticipants.

Survey questions are designed to help participants self evaluate their own performance and plan for the future.

Participating agencies get the full report for $29.95 ( a 90% discount), which really is just to cover the cost of printing, shipping and handling.

To help the industry even further, please alert every private duty home care owner/manager you know in your area, or in your network. The survey closes February 17^th, so take the time to do this today.

Measuring results is a typical accounting function and not only as it relates to home care. It should be a typical marketing function as well. And not only measuring, but taking action to either stop doing something or start doing more of something.

Creating a homecare marketing plan should include a way to measure if your efforts are succeeding. How do you do that? The number one way to tell if your marketing is succeeding is in revenue, number of new cases opened, and increased numbers from those referring. How do you know what of your efforts is working to drive these numbers up?

Website analytics will show increased traffic to the site. An online inquiry form will allow you to see who is inquiring. An online referral form will do the same. Simply asking the caller how they heard about the agency is a good way, although not scientific, since sometimes it takes 10 impressions or 10 encounters with a company before the call is made. The post card in the mail might be the reason they called, but it was really that reinforcing the article in the paper, the website visit, and hearing an educational presentation by a nurse on Alzheimer’s disease, which is what the problem is that makes the caller need home care.

And the Yellow Pages. Seems that in rural areas, and some outlying areas around cities the Yellow Pages is still being used. Or at least being given credit for calls. I tend to think that using the Yellow pages will become obsolete as the cost of printing them will soon outweigh the profits, so only those who request them will get them, thus further reducing their effectiveness.

If you need help in creating a strategy for your home care agency, then corecubed can help. We have created successful strategies for numerous agencies and businesses from start up to multi-site, from locally owned to large franchise organizations. Just send us an email, call us at 800-370-6580 x 3, or fill out our easy inquiry form.

To recap this series on homecare marketing planning, there are several steps to creating a home care marketing strategy. First you have to differentiate the home care agency, then understand the target audience you are trying to reach, then marry the message and the visual, and pick the right channels and communicate often in those channels.  Establish a brand and then extend the agency brand. Finally, measure for results and revisit the plan often, and you will watch your numbers soar.

If you are selling private duty in-home care services they are buying peace of mind if they are adult children at a distance or local but unable to provide the care themselves. They are buying safety and security, so that the living at home experience when frail is one that assures they will not be subject to abuse, neglect or predators of any kind. They are buying quality time so that the time the family or loved ones can spend with their frail elders is quality and not filled with the tedium of daily caregiving tasks.

For referral sources who are charged with making a good, appropriate referral to discharge their patients from their care into another level of care, they are buying efficiency in transition. They are buying a relationship that allows for continued involvement with either the doctor or the facility should the patient have a need for that type of care or intervention in the future. They are buying assurance that the patient will be cared for in a legal, medically competent manner so their referral is a positive one in the eyes of the family, others in the care team and the government oversight entities.

If you are selling in-home services to an indigent population dependent on your agency to keep a frail person at home to avoid institutionalization they are buying consistency, qualified caregivers/care providers, assurance that the designated hours approved are spent, assurance that those hours are enough to accomplish the intended tasks with communication back and agreements to change if they are not, partnership in care so that the goals of the agency on aging or county department on aging can be met through your agency’s service delivery.

Each of these messages is different depending on what your agency provides and who you need to reach to sell services. And, within each of these three types of differing messages are subsets that may respond to a different message. Doctors respond and expect communication differently than social workers. Families respond and expect communication differently than elder law attorneys.

Add to all of this messaging the fact that, in  most cases, as an in-home care provider you are offering services that no one really wants to have to buy. No one wants to be frail, home bound, unable to provide self care. No one wants that for their family members or friends. So, the message also has to be one that takes that into account and is gentle, reassuring, and the message needs to be found when that person seeking care has the need.

Developing strategy is not rocket science, but it is a science and an art. And done well by someone who understand home care marketing and strategy, taking the time to create a strategy that takes into account differentiation, targets and messages will make all the difference in the world as to whether or not the intended targets actually “hear” and respond to your marketing efforts.

These are all characteristics that the agency name should convey. Now it’s time to use your creative juices to find a unique, attention-grabbing name that properly reflects your brand and persuades the hearer that your agency possesses the characteristics listed above.

One thing you might consider is also adding in some differentiating factors, based on your personal interests, or some geographic icon, if the agency is local.

Some examples of real agency names include: Senior Planning Services, Freedom Eldercare, Continuum, Assisting Angels, Atlanta Home Care Partners, and Responsive Home Care.
Shakespeare’s Juliet once remarked, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet.” It’s a good thing she didn’t run a business. In today’s world, your name is the start of everything marketing related.