If you're either new to using video in your senior living community's marketing efforts or are wanting to put a greater focus on it, let me start with a hearty "congratulations." Video is by far the most engaging and compelling format you can use in your sales and marketing, more capable of driving movements than any other tactic in your marketing toolbox.
But that doesn't mean video should be the only tool you rely on – far from it. The trick to maximizing video's effectiveness is choosing when and where to incorporate it into your senior living marketing strategy. For that reason, I'm going to discuss five quick ways to integrate video marketing into your overall strategy to drive your move-ins and NOI to new heights.
1. Prospect Follow-Ups With a Personal Touch
There's only so much your marketers and salespeople can do with a text-based email or even phone call to truly personalize each stage of the customer journey. However, that's what makes video such an ideal format for your existing email marketing campaigns.
One of the most potent ways to incorporate video into your marketing plan is to send a personalized OneDay video as a follow-up to recent communication with a prospective resident or their loved ones.
Just remember, whatever you can write in an email, you can summarize with a video. But with a personalized video, you're also significantly increasing engagement and showing the viewer that your team goes the extra mile.
2. Personalizing Virtual Tours
Whether you're offering in-person tours or conducting them virtually through Zoom, FaceTime, or similar platforms, a personalized recap video is a great way to reinforce everything you cover in a tour. Research backs up this notion, finding viewers retain 95% of a message when conveyed through video.
Since most of your prospects and their family members are looking at multiple communities – often within a single day – it's essential that your community and messaging rise above the rest. That's precisely what a post-tour follow-up video provides – an opportunity for your community to remain top-of-mind, no matter how many facility tours a prospective resident might take.
3. Event Invitations That Stand Out
Community events come fast and furious in the senior living industry, so much so that they can quickly lose their uniqueness in the eyes of a prospect. That said, anything you can do to differentiate your event invitations will automatically help them stand out to a prospect.
In other words, the typical email or direct mail invitation is usually just that – typical. But when you attach a personalized video to an invite for an assisted living community dance event, for instance, you're distinguishing both your community and event to a prospect. Using a OneDay video as part of your invitation will ensure your event doesn't get lost in the email shuffle.
4. Maximizing the Power of Social Media
If you're only posting pictures on your social media channels, you're just scratching the surface on what they can do to drive lead generation, inform prospects, and engage your target market. Social media is so much more than a snapshot of a grinning resident and a few lines of text.
Sharing videos of the happenings in your community, important updates, and even educational material will keep prospects connected, informed, and interested. With a consistent and engaging social media marketing strategy that uses video content as a pillar, you're establishing a recognizable face for your community that potential residents and their adult children will gravitate toward.
5. Building Your Community Presence
Expanding on the previous tips on personalization, video is uniquely powerful in building brand awareness of your community and team. Using a OneDay video instead of a simple photograph showcases your humanity, empathy, and excitement with every facial expression and gesture.
In fact, it doesn't take too much time or effort to build that critical awareness and create a feeling of comfort and familiarity within a prospect when using video. With OneDay's video sales and marketing solution, you have a powerful competitive advantage in creating and growing connections with prospects that can quickly show in your occupancy rates.