Maximizing the return on every dollar spent promoting a new or existing senior housing community is always a foremost goal, but one that carries even more weight in this less-than-robust, post-recession economy.
Fortunately, with the continued evolution of the digital platform and new tracking technologies, it’s never been easier to connect the dots of each converting new resident to a specific marketing channel and associate a quantifiable value to your campaign.
Following are 4 tips to help you measure ROI and improve the bottom line on every dollar invested.
1. Track and Measure Everything
As marketing continues to become as much (if not more) science than art, the availability of conversion tracking and measurement devices continues to increase. Whether it’s inbound tracking numbers, personalized landing pages, or more sophisticated website funnel tracking, every ad, direct mail piece, email blast, etc. can and should include mechanisms to identify the source of generated leads.
Tracking each individual response and following those leads through a customer relationship management system will allow you to identify converting and non-converting leads, determine the number of communications (or touch points) required for conversion and ultimately equate a return on investment to each tactic. Additionally, analyzing marketing data at a granular level will allow you to profile respondents and develop predictive models around the lead types that are most likely to convert in the future, which will help guide your marketing strategy.
2. Overweight your Investment in Digital Marketing
I’m sure you have seen all the statistics about seniors on the Internet. Seniors are undoubtedly utilizing search engines, social media outlets and websites at an increasing rate, especially in the critical research and information gathering stage.
But from an ROI standpoint the digital channel offers significant advantages beyond reach, including instantaneous data feedback, robust targeting capabilities and overall flexibility, all leading to significant cost efficiencies. Unlike traditional advertising, online advertising can be pinpointed to a very narrow group based on the most appropriate mix of demographic, geographic, behavioral and interest-based characteristics, allowing you to target only the most relevant subset of individuals.
And online advertising campaigns can also be structured so you’re only paying for individuals with a demonstrated interest, or those who click-through to your website. Or, better yet, under a cost per acquisition model, you pay only for traffic that converts, such as an information request form submission or phone call. The basis for these types of campaigns is to eliminate the inefficient over-reach that’s unavoidable with print and other traditional media and attain more of a pay-for-performance advertising model.
As data rolls in, online ads that aren’t performing well can be easily adjusted, so you or your marketing agency is immediately armed with the information necessary to change a campaign’s course of action or reallocate budget, if necessary.
3. Leverage Readily Available Data to Maximize Direct Marketing Spend
Inefficient direct mail spending can have a significant impact on overall marketing ROI. Profiling the most likely buyers, based on factors such as geography, financial wherewithal, age, interests, health status, etc., via primary research and historical response data is a good starting point. But to create a truly cost efficient direct mail model you need to not only mail to the right people, but also feature the right message. An 85-year-old widowed female with health issues will likely have a very different mindset and needs checklist than a 68-year-old couple who still love to travel and golf. Making sure the marketing message and offer is specifically relevant to the individual will heavily influence response rates.
Strategically integrating email in the direct marketing equation is another effective way to boost revenue without a significant cost increase.
4. Ensure Sales and Marketing are Aligned
Ensuring sales and marketing are in sync is an often overlooked, but highly critical part of the success equation. Battle lines between marketing and sales emerge too frequently. The sales team believes marketing isn’t providing high quality leads, while marketing staff claims the follow up on leads is inconsistent or ineffective.
A possible solution to this challenge when working with an outside marketing agency is to tie a portion of the agency’s compensation to sales conversion rates, and give the agency full authority over the entire lead-to-resident continuum. By putting the onus on the agency to deliver on both the marketing and sales sides, you’re eliminating a key barrier, and essentially creating a more conversion-driven approach.
