HubSpot for Senior Living

There are an estimated 30,000 plus senior living communities in the United States and, according to Statista, “by 2050, it is estimated that over a fifth of the population in the United States will be 65 years or older, compared to only 15.6 percent today.”

There’s no doubting the power and potential of senior living franchises. The market value for 2021 was approximately $87.4 billion in the United States alone. Clearly there is a lot of opportunity for you and your organization to grow!

Let’s see how HubSpot can help. 

The senior living industry is one that touches many families, and one that is both healthcare and hospitality, with the latter taking precedence in recent years. From traditional facilities and care, including home care, memory care, assisted living, and skilled nursing, to luxury retirement facilities offering spas, salons, and 5-star dining, each presents their own unique set of challenges.

The industry and consumers you serve are more technologically savvy than ever before. They are navigating themselves through the buyer’s journey. In 2021, 67% of that journey took place online which was a significant jump from 2019 when just 23% of the buyer’s journey was digitized.

Senior Living Growth Challenges

Senior living companies are faced with a number of other challenges including building enough awareness around their brand in a sea of online competitors. Many companies also struggle in the area of alignment with sales, marketing, and operations on different pages. And, more often than not, the processes and automation tools used by senior living companies and facilities are lacking the automation tools needed to close sales as well as improve customer experience.

Awareness Challenges

Today, families are looking for as much information as possible online before deciding to tour a facility. Therefore, it is key that your company stays on top of content delivery, including pricing which is often hidden. Because the market is oversaturated, your website needs to be top of the line; there has to be consistency of brand to encourage trust, and you must make sure you are being seen where people are looking. 

Alignment Challenges

Alignment is also a big challenge in the senior living industry. Because many companies struggle to keep sales, marketing, and operations on the same page, many leads slip through the cracks. The Director of Sales has to be able to share information readily as well as have real time knowledge of unit availability. Another alignment challenge is that operations and support staff have to have the ability to access care recommendations, dietary changes, room maintenance requests and any of the other needs of its senior residents.

Automation Challenges

Automation is essential for handling the challenges of awareness and alignment as well as providing the best customer experience before move-in and after. With 67% of the buyer’s journey taking place online, tools for automation are essential. Chatbots, intuitive online appointment setters, and ease of resources and usage on websites will improve user experience and lower costs to close. Automation also improves the care of individuals after purchase by automating service and levels of care inside the facility. 

Reporting Challenges

A lack of timely data is another challenge facing the industry. If automation is streamlined, often the natural progression is access to essential data. But without effective reporting, you can’t measure awareness, track leads, or gauge return, among many other criteria. Likewise, essential reporting tools help you to gather and disseminate essential feedback you need to create sales and marketing strategies for the future. 

Digital Impact on Senior Living

Here is some additional food for thought as you consider your company’s next step: The search rate in this industry is high with over 6000 searches per hour. Are your senior care facilities being found during these searches?  Also, how much does it cost you to generate a lead? The industry standard is $431 per lead. Ouch. Another pain point is that a customer, on average, makes 25 digital touchpoints before making a decision, which means that many senior living companies have a lot of work to do. How about your company?

5 Key Family Expectations

Senior living companies must provide an easy-to-navigate website if they are to be effective in capturing leads. Buyers are looking at facilities that are open and transparent about their pricing and what it includes. Those individuals seeking out senior living solutions also desire personalized communications. They need to be assured that you will be providing their loved one with personalized care, and the first step is giving them the same service in your marketing.

Let’s Look at a Few Senior Living Facilities Using HubSpot

Vista Springs has 12 different facilities located throughout Ohio and Michigan. Like many senior living operations, they were experiencing extremely high costs per lead. They had also just built three new properties and needed to fill them as well as standardize their operating procedures across all communities. With HubSpot’s Growth Suite, they were able to not just do that but get their cost-per-lead down to $66.

Vista Springs also needed to build awareness around the brand quickly as well as convert customers.  With HubSpot, they personalized their landing pages and automated workflows and were able to generate key data insights to enhance the buyer’s journey. Vista Springs got some impressive results, a 96% increase in leads, a 26% increase in scheduled leads, and a 58% move-in rate. 

In Dallas, Texas, 12 Oaks Senior Living provides third-party management and operation services for senior living communities. With multiple communities, the company was struggling with brand identity and consistency as well as lead management. After integrating with HubSpot tools, 12 Oaks Senior Living saw website sessions increase by 78%.

12 Oaks Senior Living utilized HubSpot’s Marketing Hub Enterprise, HubSpot Sales Hub Pro, HubSpot CRM Hub Pro to automate a number of marketing processes which improved their brand consistency and helped them provide digital marketing to delight and convert leads four times the rate they had prior to HubSpot. They were also able to score and segment those leads and nurture them with automated workflows.

In Massachusetts, LCB Senior Living is one of the fast-growing developers and operators of facilities across New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. They were experiencing so many leads that they often just sat untouched in their CRM. 

LCB Senior Living utilized HubSpot’s various platforms and tools to develop systems for sorting and parsing 4,485 leads. The system helped them identify and nurture leads as well as identify unengaged contacts, and they created a “Stay in Touch” campaign to meet prospects where they were in the buyer’s journey.