Senior dwelling operators have for many years extolled their communities as “cruise ships on land.” That story has not all the time been in contact with what new residents need.
Because the child boomers enter the senior dwelling trade, they’re bringing with them needs and desires for not solely leisure and way of life, but additionally well being, wellness and a way of neighborhood. Senior dwelling operators are responding to this by shifting their gross sales and advertising and marketing methods from displaying senior dwelling as a “cruise ship” mannequin, the place residents purchase bundled packages for short-term leisure and leisure; towards a “nation membership” mannequin specializing in long-term membership, personalised experiences and pairing residents with the neighborhood that may swimsuit their wants.
“I feel we’re overdue for a brand new story,” stated Heritage Communities Chief Advertising Officer Lacy Jungman throughout a Senior Housing Information webinar earlier this week. “You’re choosing your neighborhood similar to you’re choosing your nation membership: what’s the environment? What are the vibes? Am I going to slot in? What do we have now in widespread? What’s my life going to be?”
Cruises are short-term, whereas nation golf equipment are one thing you may belong to for years, she added.
Christy Van Der Westhuizen, who’s senior vp of gross sales at Jaybird Senior Residing, labored as an assistant cruise director for Holland America Line earlier than she joined the senior dwelling trade. Whereas she does suppose the senior dwelling trade can provide “bits and items” of the cruise ship expertise, equivalent to selection or leisure, operators ought to perceive that senior dwelling is at coronary heart a “subscription-based mannequin” that requires them to routinely present the worth they supply to residents.
“As soon as we get folks within the door, each month, they get the invoice and need to resolve, am I going to fortunately pay this bill, or am I going to search for another and fortunately write my 30 day discover to depart?” she stated. “Gone is that leisure way of life. If you would like it, nice, however there are different alternatives so that you can discover goal with out that cruise-ship mentality.”
Making all of this more durable is the truth that senior dwelling operators are also grappling with altering digital search preferences amongst their potential residents and their households.
Senior dwelling’s altering worth proposition
With a view to current the true worth of senior dwelling to prospects at this time, gross sales and advertising and marketing groups should adapt narratives to be extra genuine to construct belief, together with offering larger pricing transparency.
Through the use of “social storytelling” with brief narratives by means of Fb, Instagram and TikTok, Jungman stated senior dwelling suppliers are capable of create a extra genuine illustration of neighborhood life to point out prospects what they will anticipate after they transfer in.
Within the final 20 years, senior dwelling gross sales pitches have modified from this “cruise ship” mentality that has advanced right into a “nation membership” mannequin targeted on bettering way of life for older adults, not offering bundled providers or charges. Different modifications embody operators shifting way of life providers and facilities towards a subscription-based mannequin, the place residents can elect for added prices to have entry to varied neighborhood options.
The subsequent period of senior dwelling gross sales and advertising and marketing will middle on creating an expertise that’s “extra unbundled,” that provides customization and choices for residents—as a key theme of the boomer demographic is demanding independence and selection. Van Der Westhuizen lately took a cue from one other operator, which coined the time period “dwelling ahead” as a solution to depict what residents would get inside their partitions.
“Senior dwelling shouldn’t be the top, it’s dwelling ahead,” Van Der Westhuizen stated. ”That may be a message that all of us have to take into accounts.”
To evolve messaging, gross sales and advertising and marketing groups ought to give attention to content material and data that “will be purposeful” whereas additionally showcasing leisure and amenity choices.
Operators should additionally contemplate the “vibes” issue of a neighborhood, with each Van Der Westhuizen and Jungman breaking down the senior dwelling expertise to an 80-20 ratio, 80% of resident satisfaction relies on meal providers, care supply and the opposite 20% is extra emotive and primarily based on a resident’s lived expertise or feelings.
Capitalizing on knowledge in gross sales and advertising and marketing
Senior dwelling suppliers have joined up with new expertise companions studying new methods lately, and in consequence, they’re sitting on tons of buyer knowledge that they didn’t possess simply a short time in the past. However that knowledge shouldn’t be helpful by itself.
In an effort to enhance gross sales, senior dwelling suppliers should ship “readability to our viewers,” Van Der Westhuizen stated. Gross sales groups ought to be capable of articulate an organization’s mission, values and providers to prospects in a approach that’s reflective of every day neighborhood life.
It’s simple for operators to waver between two extremes, staying dialed in on execution and never reviewing knowledge or focusing an excessive amount of on knowledge and not using a clear plan in place, Jungman stated.
This has led to Heritage neighborhood leaders asking extra of its distributors to supply knowledge and stream data into the working platform. For instance, by utilizing a fall detection machine, Heritage communities are capable of “quantify the qualitative,” having extra perception into points of resident life that wasn’t potential previously.
“That helps us, not solely from the forefront, from the prospect, but additionally retention of that resident and the satisfaction of the household total,” Jungman stated.
AI altering search behaviors
The boomer-era shopping for journey for senior dwelling can be being influenced by on-line analysis and AI-supported instruments like reply engines which can be altering the methods prospects seek for senior dwelling data on-line.
That is forcing senior dwelling operators to turn into “the knowledgeable” in offering factual data on-line to get utilized in AI queries, in line with Jungman.
“AI is a chance and it is usually on the horizon as a possible risk or problem for us if we don’t keep forward of the sport,” Jungman stated throughout a latest SHN webinar. “These AI overviews are searching for the knowledgeable in no matter that query is.”
At Heritage properties, Jungman stated gross sales and advertising and marketing groups are “capitalizing on the chance” for reply engine optimization (AEO) by optimizing on-line testimonials or truth sheets for readability, person intent and offering reliable data for giant language fashions (LLMs) like Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini. That is to make sure that prospects “even have the right data” and safeguards towards spreading misinformation or perpetuating ageist stereotypes of senior dwelling.
This should pressure suppliers to create “constant content material” on sure areas of operations that an organization excels in to face out for the next likelihood of being included in AI-provided responses to prospects, Jungman stated.
A Pew Analysis Middle report printed final 12 months discovered that folks clicked outcome hyperlinks much less usually on pages with an AI abstract than on pages with out one, and when an AI abstract appeared, on-line customers virtually by no means clicked on the cited sources. Customers who noticed an AI abstract clicked a conventional search outcome hyperlink in 8% of visits, the report discovered.
Because of this senior dwelling gross sales and advertising and marketing groups ought to anticipate fewer clicks and monitor “impressions-without-visits,” Jungman stated.
To enhance AEO, Van Der Westhuizen stated gross sales and advertising and marketing groups for the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based operator are specializing in “contemporary, related content material” on Jaybird neighborhood web sites to be the “content material that exhibits up” when prospects search of their market areas.
Awards and “better of” distinctions can considerably enhance a neighborhood’s probabilities of being utilized in AI-powered search outcomes and reply engines, with third-party endorsements serving as a powerful sign to AI algorithms that in flip increase shopper belief and lift visibility, Jungman added.
