Home Care Marketing Tip: Use Your News to Garner More Word-of-Mouth
Marissa Snook
Regularly written and distributed e-newsletters are a highly effective way to provide meaningful content to your current clients, to increase word-of-mouth referrals for your agency, and to drive traffic to your website.
To say we’re living in a fast-paced society is an understatement. We expect – and demand – instantaneous results. Try searching Google for the term “home care,” for instance. If your results are like mine, in less than a second, you’ll be presented with 11,000,000,000 results.
And while Google can certainly deliver a lot of what we need, there’s still much value to be gained from simply communicating with one another – particularly when it comes to seeking (or providing) a referral for home care services. In fact, in Home Care Pulse’s 2018 Home Care Benchmarking Study, word-of-mouth was the number one referral source.
Since word-of-mouth marketing is such a powerful resource, especially in an industry like home care, it’s crucial to tap into effective methods of creating the kind of positive buzz about your agency that gets people talking. We know that consumers are more likely to trust someone who recommends the services of a company; in fact, per Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising report, a referral from a friend or family member is the single most trusted form of advertising. And following closely in second place: a company’s website.
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How to Share the Good News About Your Agency
In determining how to use word-of-mouth marketing to promote your agency in a way that takes advantage of both personal recommendations and your website, consider an e-newsletter. Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising report further shares that over half of all individuals surveyed stated that they trust emails they have signed up to receive, and more than 60% will either always or sometimes take some form of action as a result of those emails.
Email, especially in the form of a well-designed, well-written, and relevant e-newsletter, is a dynamic tool that offers value to both your current and potential clients while building trust in your agency as an expert in aging care. An effective e-newsletter will engage your clients by helping them solve problems, whether through an article on modifying the home for wheelchair-accessibility, suggesting tips for better management of dementia challenges, or highlighting the importance of self-care for family caregivers. Offering useful e-newsletter content such as this keeps your clients interested, and helps build loyalty to your agency.
Thinking Outside the Inbox
Keep in mind that your e-newsletter should never be the end game of communication; as a matter of fact, it should be considered your starting point. It can be the beginning of a nurture campaign, for example, which allows you to communicate more and to offer potential clients additional helpful information based on their particular interests. If a reader clicked a link about Alzheimer’s care tips in your e-newsletter, that reader might also be interested in the Alzheimer’s care support group your agency offers – or, in joining your agency in the next Walk to End Alzheimer’s. By tracking which links your readers are clicking, you gather helpful data on what information they might be interested in in the future, providing the opportunity to offer content that is highly relevant and nurturing the relationship until the potential client engages your agency for services.
Remember, also, to make sure your e-newsletter shareable by including social media share and forward buttons in your newsletter design, allowing readers an easy means to share with their friends and followers. And don’t be afraid to encourage sharing in the content of your e-newsletter as well.
Regularly written and distributed e-newsletters are a highly effective way to provide meaningful content to your current clients, to increase word-of-mouth referrals for your agency, and to drive traffic to your website. And partnering with a professional home care marketing agency with specific expertise in the industry to design, write, and distribute your e-newsletters takes the burden off your shoulders, extending your reach and trust and allowing you to focus on what you do best: running your agency.
