You do know it when you see it or experience it. A dining experience is enhanced by the service. Given the food, the reason for being there, has to also be good, but the excellence comes with how that food is served, and how the wait staff makes you feel- special? Or just like another diner?

Searching for solutions on line is no different. In shopping for a home care solution for a mother, the basics must be present. For home care it is the services, explained clearly and in a layman’s language, and location(s) served. Also good for home care is some personal information about the agency staff, in particular where does the buck stop? Is that person one who drives the staff towards excellence?  A concerned adult child is looking for some assurance that her mother will be cared for in a loving and safe manner. So, the website as the adult child’s first encounter with the world of home care must relate something personal about the agency and its management. Interested? Read more now. »

Well in a word, almost everything.  The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft held its 9^th annual art car weekend starting this past Friday. If you have never attended an art car event, it is really something to behold. Artists take free reign with decorating their cars from tasteful to ridiculous to sublime. The car that got the most attention this year (and for good reason) was the fish car. You would really have to see it to believe it, as it is a car with lobsters, fish and sharks, all moving and singing, led by a singing bass standing up at a microphone and a lobster conductor waiving a wand to the tune of the music.

Fishcar Lobster Conductor

Interested? Read more now. »

Soaring heat in Louisville today, with temperatures expected to reach 100. Yesterday, however, I was at a spot in the Adirondacks where there was a record low of 36 and the makings of a truly remarkable location:  White Pine Camp. Once used by President Coolidge as a retreat, the owners of this spectacular “camp” have managed to create a truly remarkable experience that, based on marketing theory, does, indeed sell itself.

Self selection is how folks get there, and referrals. No TV, no cell phone access, just pure nature and rustic accommodations with touches of luxury where needed.  So how do they market? Catering to the high end travel and leisure business they invite the travel writers to come and visit and then just let them experience it. They provide excellent services and accommodations to their guests, and the property manager makes certain that guests know what they are in for prior to booking. It certainly is not for every vacationer, as this is a place where one can be inactive as possible (picture book at lake with view), but also highly active with kayaking, canoeing, hiking and exploring the countryside. There are no locks on the cabins. Nothing unsafe in the area (except for moose and bear) and no reason for alarms or calendars.

"Truly Remarkable" Just Needs the Right Place to Tell the Story

Interested? Read more now. »

The kinds of questions I get when I do marketing seminars, or webinars about private duty are so specific to the entrails of running a private duty business that it is hard for me to understand how someone who has not actually done that can answer the in-depth level of response that my viewers/attendees expect. As a consultant, myself, to industries in which I have not had a business, I know that I do bring something to the table, but it is not that deep understanding that one only gets from doing something oneself.

The difference between experiential knowledge and knowledge obtained by research, consulting or learning from others is simply different. Thinking of an analogy, it seems that you can learn how to climb, what supplies to take with you, what to do in case of an emergency, but until you have donned the equipment, faced the elements, and actually climbed a mountain, you really cannot empathize with the hardships you face, the meaning of split second decisions in an emergency, the responsibility and the feel of the weight of the responsibility that comes from having safety over the lives of others.

Translated into running a home care business, it seems that starting, growing, understanding hardships, facing challenges and the problem solving that evolves comes out of that experience allows a person to walk that talk better than not having experienced it. It is facing a difficulty and working through it that gives a greater depth of ability to understand issues.
Our Private Duty Business Manual and all the forms one could ever want to use are available for sale on our Home Care Agency Marketplace, www.markethomecare.com. All of these processes and forms come as a result of years of experience actually starting and growing a business, and running it profitably along the way. Many of the questions I get on the private duty marketing webinars are answered in our marketing module, and all the information in all of our forms and manuals has been personally vetted, if not written, by me. So, why not use a proven tool to help growth, and one that comes from experience, having walked that talk for over 17 years and having talked that talk for 13 more.

In working on several presentations I have upcoming,  I credit the start of interactive communication based on a book by  Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, “Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers” that I read back in 2006, I thought you would appreciate some morning musings/reflections on their message which is so very pertinent today.

The message was that the core marketing revolution is about the way businesses communicate – not just with customers but with entire constituencies – partners, vendors, employees, prospects, investors and the media. Author/philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once observed: “All truth passes through three stages: first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as being self evident.”  This new interactive marketing (revolutionary at the time in 2006) was being called “conversational marketing, open source marketing, two-way marketing, even corner grocery store marketing”. Now we just use it and it has become self evident!

Basically, Scoble and Israel state that blogging is not for anyone, but it works for a company that is a good company, has a good product, and has some interesting stories or referral possibilities in a particular knowledge base. The blogger-writer must be authentic, passionate and an expert with knowledge to impart with the time to blog regularly.  It is this transparent, authentic communication between business and customer that draws the attention of users who are interested in the product or service. Then the interactive communication becomes a customer generator, as trust is built.

A great marketer once said, “In selling a product or service, nothing matters unless the product or service is truly remarkable.”  And I have to tout our MOST program as it is truly remarkable. Some targeted marketing is just to get immediate attention. The MOST program is a resource library full of educational materials for those seeking to find care for a frail elderly person, or to find information on how to find care, or to find information on questions commonly asked about care. Thus, the marketing impact builds and grows the longer an agency is a member.

By offering a Web-based library full of operational, sales, marketing, recruitment and retention materials, targeted to home care, the MOST program members have access to highly professionally designed marketing and related collateral material as well as a team that implements the external communication of the material: we send our a monthly eNewsletter and update a member’s Web site with resources, links, and downloads. Interested? Read more now. »

It was May 18^th 1980 when Mt. St. Helens blew its top. A friend of mine living in Portland on a houseboat at the time looked up to see a topless mountain where there once had been a pointed top.  The power of nature, once again, proved to be beyond imagination.

There is a power in marketing that is really beyond imagination, but many do not understand it, nor take the time to really internalize what it means. Branding is the essence of blow your top off marketing. However, branding takes strategy, time, patience, measurement, and perseverance.  It is not a quick fix to a dying business.

Introspection is the first step. Think about, study, and figure out exactly what your service differentiation (brand) really is. Do you pride yourself on being customer-friendly? If so, does everything you do—from the FAQ on your Web site to the length of time a caller spends on hold when inquiring on the phone—support this image? If not, revisit the essence of your service’s branding.  As a reminder, here is what “branding” means. Branding is the perception of your business that is created at every point of contact with the public.

Our MOST program provides the opportunity for an agency to reinforce a brand image that is knowledgeable, helpful, resourceful and caring. Everything we do in that program is geared towards enhancing the home care agency brand, and, because we know the power of branding, we continue to help our home care clients succeed in this increasingly competitive world.

Have a good day today, and think about how much better it would be if you subscribed to the theory of using blow your top off marketing.

Revamping programs to meet customer demand is one reason businesses succeed. corecubed has offered a home care specific industry program since October 2007, and in those 2 and a half years, the program has changed a lot. Even the strategy has changed, based on how the industry is changing. What started out as a regulated process for going to market, is now a Web-based library of marketing, sales, design, and recruitment resources available on a point system, based on the agency’s monthly payment.

What this means, is that we now have complete modules that are based on a 30+ home care themes (PPTs, press releases, brochures, resource tips and helpful information, Web links, Web banners) as well as many standalone items. What started out as targeting referrals within the industry has now become a robust resource for an agency allowing an independent agency (or a location of a franchise) to compete in this crowded home care market place with the very best marketing and sales material available anywhere. Communicating regularly is one key to staying in the mind of people who might need services, and the corecubed team implements the direct mail, the email eNewsletter (topical and VERY interesting and well read amongst the agencys’ email lists), so taking time to have regular communication with clients, families, referral sources and prospectives of each of those categories is not only done for the MOST program members, but also the communication adds value because of its helpful and informative nature.

Rising above the crowd is the theme of the next MOST Webinar that is sales oriented (disclosure) but also will take the attendee inside the Web-based resource library and showcase the content and material that has been developed. If you are a home care agency or if you have a friend who owns one, I suggest you either sign or direct them to sign up for the Tuesday, May 18^th one hour free (3 PM Eastern time)  Webinar now. The program is only offered to one agency in any geographic area because it is so good team corecubed does not want 2 people getting the same helpful information. The program maintains a 92% retention rate with our most successful home care companies using MOST and corecubed as their marketing partner. This is really a marketing program that is beyond belief in its depth and quality, and we are proud to say that we continue to listen to our clients and develop new ways for the MOST program members to compete and to rise above the crowd.

Calvin Borel is not called Calvin Bo-rail for nothing. If you watched the 136^th running of the Kentucky Derby with a “seasoned” eye, you would have seen his strategy. He took the shortest route, right on the rail (bo- RAIL, get it?) and when he saw an opening in the stretch, he headed right through it and let his horse go. The rest, as we say here in the Bluegrass, is history.

Focus is what won that race. Alright, he is talented, skilled, experienced as well, but it is the focus that separated him from the others who did not win on Saturday. And it is focus along with persistence and determination that makes businesses succeed. Take a look at your agency’s or business’ marketing efforts, and ask yourself if you are approaching a) the right targets with b) the right message and c) the right way so they will respond as you are desiring. Interested? Read more now. »

New Revenue Opportunity Available for Home Care Agencies Via Innovative Services to Retirement Communities

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Louisville, KY – April 27, 2010 – Award winning entrepreneur and home care marketing expert, Merrily Orsini, MSSW, today announced the launch of a product that promises to open a potentially lucrative revenue opportunity for established home care agencies.  In a strategic alliance with Barth Holohan of Continuum, the duo has created a how-to manual for private duty home care agencies to provide services to retirement community residents, thus avoiding a move to a higher level of care. Interested? Read more now. »