What are the best ideas to emphasize when marketing retirement communities? A good place to start is with three very valuable words: Inform * Involve * and Inspire. If you can accomplish those three goals with any marketing piece you create for your retirement community, you’ll be taking monster steps towards increasing your sales and improving your occupancy.
Let me explain.
In America, much of our self-identity is tied to our occupation. But, what happens when you retire? Sadly, our occupation-oriented culture tends to devalue those who are no longer working. Which brings me back to Inform * Involve * and Inspire.
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By providing your prospects with valuable information, along with opportunities to become involved– with opportunities like cultural events, volunteering, lifelong learning, contests, and surveys– and inspiring stories of healthy aging (which can often be tied to the benefits of living in a continuing care retirement community), you can actively demonstrate that your community still values their opinions, abilities and contributions, although they are no longer working. This, my friends, is origin for the best marketing ideas for retirement communities. Take a look at the resources we have collected on our products page, and you’ll start to see what I mean.
To be successful, focus on the senior’s needs instead of yours:
- Inform – This isn’t an opportunity to just put another marketing message in front of them; you have to provide content of REAL value that doesn’t necessarily relate to you. For example, what about a white paper on the Seven Dimensions of Successful Aging?
- Involve – Again, this doesn’t necessarily mean direct involvement on your retirement community’s campus, although it certainly could be. I prefer to mix it up, with some events on campus, and some off. Examples of this might include an invitation to participate in a digital photography class at your community. Or, you just might encourage them to participate in a volunteer opportunity at the local aquarium.
- Inspire – This is your chance to motivate retirees to aspire to something more than just the living room couch and a remote control click. By sharing stories of seniors who have taken charge of the later stages of life, we engage the principle of social proof, demonstrating that they can control where and how they age.
Funny thing. It turns out that the best marketing ideas for retirement communities aren’t really marketing ideas, but rather a strong focus on providing real value to our senior housing prospects as they make some difficult life decisions. In the senior living industry, it is embedded in our mission to help and benefit retirees, and if we can Inform * Involve * and Inspire, we will be more successful in our mission.
