A genuine communication strategy for your senior living community isn't a one-way, single lane road. Instead, it should be closer to a bustling interstate, connecting your residence, prospects, and every level of your staff with engaging, free-flowing information.
And while communication wears several hats in this digital age – email, texts, phone calls, social media, direct mailing, and others – video is the format that best reaches out and grabs a hold of your audience's attention. Therefore, I'm going to quickly run down how OneDay videos in your community’s communication strategy can keep everyone from your newest warm lead to the assistant chef in the kitchen locked into everything going on across your community.
Sharing Newsworthy Updates
New construction projects. Renovations and enhancements to your community. Wellness innovations and programs. They're all exciting news to your residents and staff alike, so it only makes sense to engage residents and update everyone in the most immersive way possible.
Obviously, conveying this information through short videos is a lot more entertaining than staring at a text-based email or even a series of pictures. With the video, you can take the audience behind the scenes and share your enthusiasm over the news, something that's contagious in delivering excitement to prospective residents and driving employee and resident engagement.
Company Announcements
Similarly, just like any organization, your community will have periodic announcements that directly impact employees. So just like a video announcing a new construction project to prospects and residents, a video from your Executive Director announcing a new company match on the 401(k), college tuition assistance, or anything else noteworthy will garner attention in a way that email just can't match.
Communicating to Your Priority List
Future residents on your community's priority list are focused on the future and their quality of life in your wonderful community. Therefore, they'll be anxious for any updates regarding the community, opening units, or virtually anything else regarding their pending move-in.
Of course, this is another area where video can be extremely beneficial. For example, sending a personalized video tour of a residence that's opening soon builds excitement by helping the viewer imagine themselves in their new home. Put another way, video helps keep the people on your priority list enthusiastic about your community and their future in it.
Event Invitations
Let's say your team has spent the last month planning a big community event, poring over everything from the lighting and sound system to the finger foods you will serve. Obviously, the invitations to the event are the last thing you want to scrimp on since, no matter how much time and effort you've put into it, it's going to be a bust if no one attends.
Granted, you could send out a boilerplate email or even handwritten invitations by snail mail. But do either of those sound as effective as a video invitation from your team, where the viewer can feel your enthusiasm about the event, see it in your facial expressions, and hear it in your voice? A video message – especially a personalized one – is unique and tells the recipient they're important to you and that you genuinely want to see them at the event.
Invitation Follow-Ups
Building on the previous point, let's assume you want to give prospects, depositors, and people on your priority list plenty of time to work the event into their schedule. However, if the initial invitation goes out two months in advance, it's easy for someone to forget about your event when life gets busy.
That said, a quick video follow-up a couple of weeks beforehand is a great way to not only remind the viewer of your event, but keep enthusiasm levels high. In fact, you can even use follow-ups to highlight previous events, showing prospects how much fun they are bound to have if they attend.
Staff Introductions
Of course, video is also a great way to highlight your wonderful staff. Although they don't have to be fancy – in fact, short and sweet usually works best – you can post them on social media, use them in email campaigns, or feature them on your website.
No matter how you distribute the staff videos, they'll bring much-deserved recognition to your most valuable asset – your people. These types of videos are appealing to prospects while researching different communities but also an effective way to help retain key talent.
Video Press Releases
My final pro-tip is one that might seem obvious at first but you'd be surprised how many communities don't think of it. In short, anything you would create a press release for, try using a video instead. This could include a ground breaking ceremony, ribbon-cutting for a completed project, new executive team members, or anything else you want to announce to the world.
That's not to say that you should completely forgo text-based press releases. However, by capturing these moments on video, you're generating excitement that would be difficult to match – if even possible – through other means.