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Marketing is part of every organization’s business plan, but for senior centers, it’s especially important to focus on various marketing tactics to increase membership and attendance at your senior center activities.
Luckily, there are a few sure-fire ways to enhance your marketing efforts at your senior center.
Expensive purchases and lifelong purchases are the two types of purchases individuals research extensively before spending money on them…and senior centers are both of those types of purchases in one!
This is why older adults and their adult children will be turning to the Internet to learn more about what senior centers can offer, and why your senior center marketing is so important!
There are more seniors than ever before. Already the United States has more than 9.2 million citizens 80 and older. And over the past 10 years, the population age 65 and older increased from 38.8 million in 2008 to 52.4 million in 2018 (a 35% increase) and is projected to reach 94.7 million in 2060.
In the United States, 65+ aged consumers are the most affluent of any age segment, with many having multiple income sources. In fact, consumers over 50 account for almost half the total consumer spending in the United States, as well as nearly half of the market share in personal insurance and pensions, transportation, health, housing and food.
While these statistics are impressive, tapping effectively into the continuously growing 50+ markets isn't always easy. While currently traditional methods of advertising and marketing are working, there are going to be increasingly new ways to get in front of an older demographic, and a lot of that will include technology.
Research shows that over half (three in five) seniors consider themselves “tech savvy,” with 84% saying that they’re willing to consider adopting new technologies, 71% saying they’re comfortable learning how to use new technology on their own, and 69% are comfortable that they’ll be able to keep up with future technology innovations. From geriatric medicine, to online gaming, to telewellness, seniors are getting increasingly comfortable being online.
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Adults that are 65+ began using computers in their 20s and 30s, and as the population ages, more and more are becoming comfortable using technology.
Plus, the caregivers and families of these older adults will have grown up with tech, which means that your senior center marketing should be increasingly moving into the digital realm in 2021, with these five ways.
Like almost every other organization in the modern world, if you’re caring for older adults, you need to know how to do SEO, particularly local SEO. Over 80% of US adults use the Internet for healthcare-related queries, and you want to be the one providing the answers!
If your local senior center isn’t on the first page of Google search, it’s going to be challenging for searchers to find you when they’re googling “senior center near me” or “senior center for my parents.”
Why? The top position in the search results receives 32% of all search clicks. The 7th position around 4%: And the bottom position? Around 2%. That’s a huge difference! Ranking in the top positions on Google means you can reach more customers searching for your senior center and senior center services.
SEO is a long term game: if you’re able to rank highly for specific keywords your key clients are searching for, you’re going to be able to get leads without spending money on paid advertisement. Investing in Local SEO can provide ROI for years into the future, but it can take some time, so it’s important to get started now!
Check here for a great guide on Local SEO.
One of the most important parts of SEO is content creation. Good, quality content (that searchers can find) will have people coming to you for your expertise and authority on a topic.
SEO content marketing is the strategy of creating discoverable and relevant content through optimizing for search engines. Content isn’t just a well-written blog post, though that is important. It could be a case study, an infographic, images, or even a fun video of your members.
As long as it’s something valuable that people are searching for, it’s going to help bring potential customers to your site. A good example can come from the search we talked about above: “senior center for my parents near me.” Some ways to create content for that:
No matter what the content is, try to answer people’s questions with helpful, factual information.
Note: you need to write blog posts and other content for SEO, so that all your hard work will get in front of searchers and potential customers or clients! Great content is great, but if no one sees it, it’s not going to help your website’s traffic or revenue.
Of course, this is easier said than done, but by taking what you learned this past year and applying it to your senior center, you’ll be able to market yourself as pandemic-proof--a potentially huge differentiator in the senior center market.
The best way to do this is by being able to carry on with as many services as possible during the midst of any shutdowns. For example, hosting hybrid activities—where classes and events can be attended both in person and online—can increase your attendance, reach, and engagement.
Plus, this accessibility is beneficial even when the world isn't in lock down: if you include hybrid and virtual events on your senior center activity calendar, it’s possible to reach more individuals than with traditional in person events. Hybrid events allow for in-person activity, while also including unlimited other online.
A study even found that nearly 98% of attendees at a hybrid event were not planning to attend the live event, meaning your event can reach members that may not have attended an activity in the first place! A successful hybrid event can also encourage more in-person attendance at future events.
For many businesses, an email list or CRM database is one of the best ways to market yourself. Everyone on your email list has already interacted with your company in one way or another, and have found you valuable enough to give you their email address. This makes them “warm” leads, because they know of your organization.
The size and quality of that list can be correlated with revenue, because the more email leads you have, then the more opportunities you have to get a new customer or client at your senior center.
When you have someone’s email, that means you can reach them whenever you want, and for free. But how do you get these emails?
Usually it’s by giving web visitors amazing content and enriching their lives!… and then getting them to give you their email address along the way. Some email content ideas might include:
Don’t be afraid to add all the amazing SEO content you created above!
Web UX (user experience) is another important aspect of building the best senior center site!
SEO is impacted by how navigable, responsive, and easy-to-use your site is. You could have the best information from the most authoritative senior center expert in the world, but if the font is too small or your site loads slowly, it will be very tough to rank well on Google.
A few things to focus on when updating your senior center’s website:
Senior centers are both expensive purchases and lifelong purchases, which mean consumers spend time and effort picking out the best senior center for themselves or their families.
Investing in marketing for your senior center in 2021 means taking advantage of digital marketing and SEO for the greatest success.
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