No matter how fancy it looks to the outside world, business owners and marketing professionals worldwide will agree that marketing is complicated. How can you make your business’s voice heard by the right people when your competitors are screaming for the same attention?
For the healthcare industry in general, it has not been a fair game. For example, trust in doctors has dropped by 75%. At-home care businesses face unique challenges. How do you get someone to trust you as a business well enough to let one of your home care executives take care of them? Let’s see how at-home care business owners should market their business.
The Status of the At Home Care Market
- Each day, around 10,000 people turn 65. By 2030, all baby boomers will be 65 or over. A vast majority of these people plan to spend retirement at their own homes and would prefer to receive healthcare at home.
- Through 2026, the projected growth of health-care jobs is 18%. But, with a 41% increase, the demand for at-home personal care executives will overtake the sector’s growth.
- Approximately 12 million people in the US require some form of at-home health care service.
- A large population of senior Americans are insurance covered under Medicare that includes home healthcare benefits. Home healthcare is becoming a popular treatment option as Medicare reimbursements are increasingly favoring value-based care. (Improving patient outcome while controlling costs).
Ways to Market your Home Care Business
Organize Health Fairs
People generally like it when a business does something for the community, and it’s an excellent way for a people-centric business like an at-home care business to build its reputation. It shows the community that you care about them and are ready to help them solve their issues. It also lets people in your locality know you’re an authoritative person and an industry leader. Invite other professionals in your field to talk and interact with your target audience. For example, you can organize an awareness program about old age or the importance of at-home care at the local school or community park.
Establish Relationships
Establish and maintain favorable relationships with doctors and other professionals who work at hospitals. Do this by attending healthcare-related networking events and sending out e-books/whitepapers regularly. Exchange business cards with doctors you’d want to work with. Offer incentives to healthcare professionals who work or have agreed to work with you. This can be in the form of free advertising on your website, or referring your clients to them.
Write to Engage
Did you know that 94% of people who share articles online do so because they think it might help others? Blogging is one incredibly effective way for you to gain attention and establish yourself as a thought leader in the industry. Be sure to write engaging articles for your website with catchy titles that people would want to share. It is also advised to post something once a week at least.
The blog should cover a wide range of topics in healthcare and also at-home care. For example, you can write about how seniors can prevent/manage conditions like arthritis. Your articles should make the readers feel like they’re being talked to by a real person; keep the tone conversational. You can also write guest posts for relevant health-related websites. You may want to hire a content writing agency to take care of your content requirements. Marketing efforts like these can easily be financed using healthcare business funding.
Reviews and Testimonials Matter
Statistics show that more and more people depend on online reviews and testimonials to decide which business to trust. For a highly people-centric business like at-home care business, this means working towards better customer engagement and getting more positive online reviews. You can start by asking your existing clients to give positive reviews and written testimonials on Google, Facebook and on sites that review health-related businesses. Once new clients have begun using your service, you can email them links of websites where you want to be reviewed.
Get in the News
Being overly promotional can deter some customers away from your business. A well-placed press release about your at-home care agency will drive quality traffic to your website. So, divide content into small easy-to-read pieces that are interesting and focused on problem-solving. This is because people tend to skim through long pieces of content. Remember to focus on quality over quantity. One well-placed PR article can do better than ten poorly placed ones.
The Power of the Human Element
One of the best ways to market your at-home care business is by providing an unforgettable customer experience to your clients. Your employees are the means of doing this: they are the ones who will deal closely with clients. It is crucial to recruit people with the right attitude and background (it wouldn’t be wise to hire someone with a history of anger management issues, for instance). Once you have them on board, train them, keeping the business’s core values and principles in mind.
Conclusion
Marketing is an absolute necessity for businesses to succeed, and the same applies to at-home care businesses. Though some of the methods mentioned above are cost-effective, others are not. If you need financial assistance to market your at-home care business, you can always reach out to Reliant Funding.
