How to Generate Leads for Life Resource Planning
March 13, 2018 | by the National Care Planning Council
In this article we discuss generating leads through relationship marketing and through traditional marketing approaches.
Internet Marketing
Internet marketing is our specialty at the National Care Planning Council. We have become a major online destination solely on using the Internet to promote our services and products. We do not do traditional advertising nor do we even have a budget for such a thing. We host and maintain websites for hundreds of our members. We send out thousands of email campaigns every month to our select list. Our websites draw over 1 million unique visitors a year. We provide listing services and produce leads for our members from the Internet. We also help members to establish local provider networks which we call “Planning Councils” by providing Internet and website support. Contact us if you want to know more about how we can help you generate leads for Life Resource Planning through Internet marketing.
Reciprocal Marketing
Reciprocal marketing is a unique form of networking. With typical networking you and someone else will share leads as referrals, but you and the referrer don’t expect anything in return other than more leads from both of you. With reciprocal marketing you will reciprocate through referral fees or sharing commissions or in other ways pay for access to the clients of certain professionals. You will help those clients obtain services that the professionals either don’t understand, don’t have the time to understand or simply don’t want to even know about. Our Successful Senior Marketing System from the NCPC goes into greater details on how to do this type of marketing.
Organization Relationships
Many professionals and businesses join organizations or associations in order to rub shoulders with other professionals and businesses and who might end up providing referrals to each other. The key to making this strategy work is to show up at meetings, socials, golf outings and so on in order to be seen and to interact with others. Another important part of this strategy is to remain in the consciousness of other members in other ways such as speaking at functions and sending periodic emails, thank-you notes, and inexpensive gifts and so on. Our Successful Senior Marketing System from the NCPC goes into greater details on how to do this type of marketing.
Vendor Displays at Conventions or Fairs
Local planning councils may consider consolidating their marketing dollars and setting up booths at county or state fairs, senior Expos, company health fairs and other gatherings where a large number of individuals from the public or from businesses related to senior services may come together. If you have never done vendor displays before, there are a number of strategies that you should use to make attendees aware of your presence. Our Successful Senior Marketing System from the NCPC goes into greater details on how to do set up a local planning Council.
State Aging Services and Senior Centers
A determined effort should be made by an assigned member of a local planning Council to create a liaison with area agencies on aging. This would be agencies that operate in the area the council offers service. Liaison should be made with senior centers whether sponsored by area agencies on aging or by other organizations. These liaisons should include frequent contact and an agreement -- where allowable -- to distribute planning literature. Presentations can also be made to employees of the area agencies on aging or to groups at senior centers. Our Successful Senior Marketing System from the NCPC goes into greater details on how to organize a local planning Council.
Retirement and Care Communities
A local planning Council offers educational workshops about various issues facing aging seniors. These encounters would be for family members of aging seniors who are in the care community. These would have to be scheduled in the evening or on Saturday to allow family to attend. Another way to generate leads from retirement and care communities would be to provide booklets or brochures to facility intake managers. Another option might be to provide a holder for brochures in the lobby where family members or visitors could take one and find out about the services of the planning council. Our Successful Senior Marketing System from the NCPC goes into greater details on how to organize a local planning Council.
Hospital and Nursing Home Discharge Workers
Nonmedical home care providers already know the value of having a relationship with hospital and nursing home discharge workers and in some cases a large number of home care referrals come from these workers. The local planning council director should make arrangements for a presentation to discharge workers about the services of the planning group and in particular the value of his or her council members. Discharge workers have regular meetings just for the purpose of identifying services in the community and coordinating these services with other hospitals or within their own hospitals. Our Successful Senior Marketing System from the NCPC goes into greater details on how to do organize a local planning Council.
Attorneys, CPAs, Insurance Agents and Financial Planners
Attorneys and other specialists who help their clients prepare for retirement, for estate planning and for end-of-life always have a need to refer reputable care providers or other care specialists to their clients. Council members should make these professionals aware of their services through monthly emails, brochures, booklets, attendance at their association meetings, sales or organization meetings or being a vendor at their conferences. In addition, recognition should be paid these potential referrers by sending thank you cards, small gifts, email clippings from newspapers and so on. It is important to maintain some sort of contact on a regular basis in order to remind planning specialists working with seniors of your council and the benefits you offer. Our Successful Senior Marketing System from the NCPC goes into greater details on how to do this type of marketing.
Continuing Education as a Way to Develop Relationships with Referrers
Many associations or other organizations require that their members complete a certain amount of continuing education on a periodic yearly basis. This continuing education is an ongoing requirement for these members. Many of these organizations are interested in training their members about issues pertaining to aging, long-term care and planning for final years. These are issues that our marketing system addresses. We have had success in getting approval from a number of different organizations to teach continuing education courses pertaining to the areas mentioned. Our Successful Senior Marketing System from the NCPC goes into greater details on how to do this type of marketing.
Brown Bag (Lunch and Learn) Lunch Presentations at Employer Worksite Locations
Doing lunchtime worksite presentations is a very good way for you to reach decision-makers in the family. It is often the case that the children of the elderly are involved in helping their loved ones find solutions for care planning needs. And nowadays most of these family care providers are employed in the workplace. Worksite presentations are a very effective strategy in reaching family members who need help with supporting their parents or other loved ones with aging issues. Our Successful Senior Marketing System from the NCPC goes into greater details on how to do this type of marketing.
Off-Site Educational Presentations for Employees of Private and Government Employers
We have had tremendous success doing off-site educational workshops for employees who are caring for their loved ones. These employees just don’t have the time with their own families, as well as working full-time and in addition trying to find resources to provide care for loved ones. Providing an evening presentation for these employees to attend at a local college or university location will result in a large number of them signing up for Life Resource Planning. Our Successful Senior Marketing System from the NCPC goes into greater details on how to do this type of marketing.
Placing Advertising Pieces into the Community
We provide a number of brochures with our marketing system. We provide them in a format that allows you to customize the brochures with your council information and contact information on the appropriate panel on the brochure. You also need to change the phone number to your own on the various pages where the phone number on the template currently appears. We recommend you use an 800 number as this makes it easier for people to call you. It also allows you to identify the marketing source of the request because the 800 number will show up on your phone caller ID and you will know that the request came from a result of your marketing efforts with the Council.
Here are some of the ways you can use the brochures
• Brochures to human resource departments -- We have had good success in persuading human resource specialists for local employers to disseminate information to their employees about elder planning issues. Our brochures are great tools for this type of promotion. You can persuade them to put the brochures in employee break rooms or ask them to send an internal message to employees notifying them that they can pick up a copy from human resource.
This strategy will also help you get your foot in the door for setting up worksite presentations. Presentations are designed to educate employees about the various services of the care planning council during a brown bag luncheon meeting. Employee presentations at other times can also be made under certain circumstances for employers who want their people to receive continuing education about certain issues which could include eldercare and the veterans benefits.
• Place brochures with centers of influence such as senior associations, area agencies on aging, libraries, senior centers and other organizations that support seniors.
• Develop a working relationship with providers in the community who offer senior services and have them pass out brochures for you. This will benefit them if the funding generated or identified by one of your council members will help pay for their services. In return they should be willing to promote your services as a care planning team. These providers might include home care companies, hospice services and other provider services represented by your own members of your own team.
• You can place brochures directly in public places. This often requires buying a brochure display box to put them in. Public display areas might include banks, local spas and physical fitness centers, doctors’ offices, recreation centers, merchant locations and so on. Sometimes libraries will allow this type of material to be placed in the library information section especially if the information is sponsored by a not for profit organization such as your local council.
