The digital marketing landscape continues to evolve at breakneck speed, and keeping pace has become increasingly challenging yet critical for success. This blog shares a sampling of the top insights shared by Love & Company’s integrated marketing services team about how to navigate these changes and what they mean for Life Plan Communities.
The Post-Pandemic Digital Transformation
The pandemic accelerated digital adoption among seniors so significantly that Life Plan Community prospects are now consuming digital content at nearly the same rates as other age groups. This fundamental shift has changed the game for all of us in senior living marketing. A primarily local market strategy remains important, but how a community executes that strategy has transformed completely. Consider these significant changes:
- Algorithm-controlled media buying: Google Ads and Meta have significantly changed how media partners buy and place media digitally. The platforms and the media buyers increasingly control who see your content and when.
- Mobile dominance: Most of our clients now see at least 50% of their traffic coming from mobile devices, reflecting broader demographic shifts in technology use.
- Higher quality over quantity: We’ve observed cost per lead going up, especially when focusing on quality leads. Strategically, we’re finding that fewer better quality leads lead to improved sales outcomes.
Today’s SEO Reality: Intent (in Content) Is King
SEO has evolved far beyond keyword stuffing. Today, it’s all about understanding what people are looking for and the context behind their searches. With continued advances in Google algorithms, it’s not enough to just use the right keywords. Your content must legitimately answer the question or address the need behind the search.
This shift toward intent-based search means Life Plan Community marketing teams must develop deeper insights into their audience’s motivations and create content that genuinely resolves the queries of senior living prospects.
The Short-Form Video Revolution and Its Impact
The surge in TikTok and other short-form video platforms during the pandemic has fundamentally changed how people of all ages—including your senior living prospect—consume content. Attention spans have shortened, and social media algorithms now prioritize posts that drive the most engagement—views, likes and comments.
Across all industries, including senior living, we’re seeing the same transition in the user journey, where ads and landing pages require a more personalized storytelling approach. The shift from long-form to short-form video (TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels) exemplifies this transformation.
The Hidden Google Challenge: The Roller Coaster Effect
Perhaps the most concerning trend we at Love & Company see is the “roller coaster effect” in lead generation results. Each time Google launches a core update, lead generation volume plummets. After a few days, the volume stabilizes but generally at a slightly lower level than before.
It’s similar to the frog in boiling water analogy—Google shifts its algorithms regularly, and marketers who aren’t paying attention don’t realize the environment is gradually changing. Lead generation stabilizes somewhat after each update, so many assume it’s just another temporary blip and don’t become appropriately alarmed at the incremental decrease. Meanwhile, the lower volume becomes the new normal. Life Plan Communities need to stay on guard against this deceptively slow downward trend.
The Digital Dilemma: Time Is Money
Digital lead generation is central to today’s senior living marketing strategy, and yet its complexity demands significant time resources because of:
- Data analysis: Increased digital marketing means more data to sift through and understand.
- Constant evolution: The digital world is ever changing—from different forms of media to extensive ways to access research. In addition to pre- and in-campaign planning, post-campaign analysis takes time to process and—more importantly—understand.
Unlike the largest multi-site organizations, most single-site Life Plan Communities and smaller multi-site not-for-profits don’t have team members dedicated to digging into these results. This is where finding the right partner becomes so important. By finding a digital media partner (like Love & Company) with the capacity to interpret and act on the data, and an understanding of the senior living prospect, your community can keep abreast of the digital world’s constant changes.
Staying Informed in a Rapidly Changing Landscape
Equally important as interpreting data is staying up to date with all the changing rules and best practices in digital marketing. Love & Company’s team finds these resources invaluable:
- Industry publications: Search Engine Journal, AdWeek
- Developer forums: Where the technical discussions happen first
- CEO blogs and podcasts: From digital trend specialists like Optmyzr
- Monitoring tools: Establish subscriptions via SEMRush or Moz
- AI platforms: Using tools like ChatGPT to gather updates in one place
- Podcasts: Senior Housing News, Bridge The Gap, The Marketing AI Show
- LinkedIn: Where marketing professionals share news and insights
- Vendor newsletters: Many partners send monthly or weekly updates
Self-Assessment: When to Seek Help
If you are debating whether an experienced digital marketing partner with ample capacity is a wise lead generation investment, ask yourself these diagnostic questions:
- Am I investing more time and budget into underperforming campaigns than I’m seeing in return through qualified leads or move ins?
- How does my sales team feel about digital leads? Are they excited to see them come in, or are they grumbling about them being a waste of time?
- Is my media reporting just data and dashboards, or am I getting insights and action plans to improve?
- Am I taking steps to ensure my content meets E-E-A-T standards?
- Do I have a strategy to get my main content ranking in positions 1-5 for target keywords?
- Have I noticed a roller coaster trend of lead generation that is trending downward as Google changes its search algorithms?
If these questions reveal concerns, then it may be time to reevaluate your digital marketing approach and consider an outside resource to augment your capacity and subject matter depth in the highly specialized fields of digital media and search.
AI-Driven Search: Not “If” but “When”
The digital landscape will continue to evolve at a rapid pace. For all the changes senior living has seen since the pandemic, these will pale in comparison to the changes that AI technology is driving. If you use Google now, you are already using AI-enhanced search. But looking ahead, Google has made clear its intentions to eventually move toward AI-driven search completely. This transition might take another year or two. The time to evaluate and test AI Max or OpenAI platforms is now. Success will depend on remaining nimble, continuously learning, and partnering with experts who can help navigate these complex waters.
Love & Company’s integrated marketing team invests significant time in staying on top of these complex waters and continually adjusting our strategies with our clients, as this guest blog from the marketing director of the Village On The Isle describes: From Quantity to Quality: Transforming Our Digital Strategy. If you’d like to discuss the questions we shared in this blog and explore how adding capacity through partnership could boost your lead generation results, we’d be happy to talk. Click here to set up an introductory call with Wayne Langley or email him at wlangley@loveandcompany.com.
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