Vol. 8 •Issue 2 • Page 38
Master Your Market
Effectively marketing your facility is
essential to new long-term care business development.
by Laurie Loughney, LNHA, CALA, CSW
You've devoted much time and money ensuring that you have a friendly
and caring staff, a first-rate facility and life-enriching programs.
But how can you best promote these attributes?
Many facilities focus their marketing efforts on the extensive
list of services they provide. These amenities are important,
of course, but it's essential to evaluate and understand what
your target audience is actually looking for and show them how
you can provide it.
Just as you dedicate time and resources to your senior care product,
you will need to examine how you find your customers, create your
market share and maintain your census.
Market Feasibility Studies
Whether it's the incoming congressional agenda, your aging building
or the recent merger of your local hospital with a nonprofit nursing
home, many complex variables affect long-term care marketing.
The first step to developing a marketing plan, then, is to conduct
a thorough assessment. Market feasibility studies, sometimes called
market comparison analyses, provide you with a concise, concrete
method to assess your business' current status, strengths and
challenges.
A good market feasibility plan should include the following:
Market comparisons. Determine your primary and secondary marketing
areas. These are the geographic areas you want to reach.
Then analyze your competitors in those regions. Instead of just
reading competitors' marketing materials, call with questions
about their facilities and services. Plan to make an on-site visit.
Gather information on each company's payer mix, new business strategies,
frontline professional recruitment and retention, and formal and
informal relationships with referral sources.
Ask yourself the following key questions:
· What was your competitor's customer service like?
· How quickly did someone answer the phone? Were you put
on hold indefinitely?
· What did the building look, smell and feel like?
· Was your competitor's brochure a true reflection of what
you saw? Is your brochure a true reflection of your community?
It may be helpful to create a grid to track trends while assessing
the competition's business profiles and marketing endeavors.
Demographic studies. Identifying the active baby boomers and overall
senior immigration into your area can help with future planning.
Several companies provide demographic studies with details on
the age and income of qualified adults in specific areas.
For example, Ocean County, N.J., has the highest rate of active
senior immigration stemming from all five boroughs of New York
City.1 Thus, many developers in the region are planning active
senior retirement communities with various amenities and services.
Your local department of aging or the department of senior services
usually compiles county or state needs assessment reports. Study
these reports to gather important census information.
Demographic studies should also account for seniors' relationships
with their families. Depending on their age and services needed,
most seniors will move closer to their adult children and family
members will typically seek senior communities that are less than
15 miles from their homes.
Internal referral patterns / conversion rates. Your present and
past marketing efforts also figure into the market feasibility
analysis. Ask yourself the following questions:
· Who were the top referral sources 12 months ago? Six
months ago? Today?
· What happened to dormant referral sources?
· What professional relationships do we have with hospitals
and physicians?
· What community relationships do we have?
· What is our conversion rate?
Besides all of this information, a comprehensive marketing program
should also address: customer service training, lead management
systems, regulatory and financial factors affecting your market
share and environmental factors.
New Business Partnerships
Once you understand your market, you need to develop business
partnerships that provide mutual advocacy while focusing on quality
patient care. Building relationships is the cornerstone of your
marketing program.
Solid relationships are especially important when you're partnering
with another health care entity. For example, if a hospice staff
is working with staff at a long-term care facility, "the
relationships that are established at the outset are critical
to the success of the partnership. There must be open lines of
communication and the hospice must establish a clear understanding
of the facility's expectations of the role that the hospice will
play. Once you have earned your partner's trust, you must continue
to nurture this relationship by soliciting feedback on your company's
performance," says Jill Levine, corporate director of new
business development, Care Alternatives Hospice, Cranford, N.J.
These types of community collaborations and partnerships are pragmatic
in today's ever-changing business climate. One way to build these
relationships is to evaluate a facility's surroundings. For instance,
when I go to a facility to help develop a marketing plan, I usually
start by asking a few key administration members to put on their
sneakers and go for a 10-block walk with me. As we travel in a
large circle around the facility neighborhood, I ask them to note
meaningful neighbors within walking distance of the facility.
We often uncover wonderful relationships just waiting to be had
from the nearby church with a strong senior outreach program to
the local ladies who walk their dogs every afternoon and stop
in to visit the residents.
When I worked as executive director of life enrichment programs
at Keswick Multicare Center in Baltimore, we partnered with a
local artist. In exchange for the use of an art studio, the artist
provided instructional programs two days a week for any interested
residents and their families. It was fascinating to watch the
interaction between patients, families and staff.
Building relationships takes time, though, says Jolie Frohm, marketing
director for Royal Senior Care of Atlantic Highlands, N.J.
"These relationships need to be cultivated, monitored and
cared for. How we deliver quality, ethical services will be the
telling sign in regard to the strength of the relationship."
GETTING THE WORD OUT
After you've formed partnerships, spread the word about your facility
and the great things it does. Education, advertising and promotion
are essential elements of your marketing efforts.
Education. Be prepared to be an expert in senior care in your
community. Your facility can offer seminars to both professionals
and residents in the community. Besides providing an educational
resource, you are also building relationships within the community.
Since consumer research shows that the public holds a generally
negative opinion of the long-term care industry, build a campaign
aimed at bolstering public awareness of—and confidence inlong-term
care.
Advertising. To reach your target audience, consider strategic
advertising. The technical world is a great vehicle to carry out
some creative marketing and public relations. Show off your programs
and services in a printed brochure and on your Web site. For one-on-one
meetings, you may want to develop a Power Point presentation that
illustrates the special features you offer.
When it comes to ad composition, less is more. Emphasize visuals
and select only one or two main ideas to convey in your ad campaign.
Promotion. In your promotional materials and during conversations
with prospects, highlight your facility's signature programs.
While these programs benefit current patients, they can also help
attract future ones.
At Odyssey Hospice, we emphasize our alternative pain management
modalities, such as aromatherapy, shared silences and Reiki. Specifically,
we explain how these treatments incorporate the "mind, body
and spirit" elements of our mission statement.
Promoting specialized clinical programs and services is also beneficial.
For example, Gateway Care Center in Eatontown, N.J., publicizes
its trained staff of infusion and intravenous care nurses. Since
there's a lack of these specialty services in the area, the facility
receives many referrals for these services.
"We carved out our niche in providing complex clinical pathways
that have earmarked us as the facility that will provide health
care services that are not always found in other skilled nursing
centers," notes Administrator Barbara Darlington, LNHA, ANP-C,
MSRN.
While promotion is important, it is just one spoke on the marketing
wheel. Develop a well-rounded marketing plan to capitalize on
your time and resources—and on your competition.
Laurie Loughney has over 20 years of health care management
and consulting experience. She is currently the administrator
of Odyssey Health Care, Patrick Loughney is president of Longtree
and Associates, Middletown, N.J. Contact them at longtreena@aol.com.
References
1. Jacobs A. Still Working, Boomers 'Retire' to Resorts. New York
Times August 26, 2001.
|
 |
