Did you start a new home care business, yet you are having a hard time marketing it and generating new home care leads? Well, you aren’t the only ones who have been there. Generating leads is never easy, and home care leads are especially hard to get due to the competitors in the industry, how people don’t feel that safe leaving their loved ones to someone else, and the list just keeps going for whatever reason your potential clients or people overall give you and you come up with.
But enough of that part, and let’s focus on something: The solution.
Do we have some tips and strategies to share so you can start addressing this issue in your home care business? We do! However, you need to remember that the results you obtain will depend a lot on the effort and time you invest.
Thus, we can share the key aspects and strategies, but you will need to pour all your heart into this business to ensure the best results.
With this in mind, what about diving into the strategies you can implement for more home care leads?
Create Awareness in Your Brand
Many people would believe we are going to start with the usual “work on SEO,” “you need new websites and profiles,” and so on. However, that is yet to come.
You need to increase brand awareness in order to generate high-quality leads, considering today’s market is the most competitive in decades.
It may seem easy, but branding awareness is more than just attracting patients and buyers.
If potential buyers are provided with solutions to their problems and concerns, they will be able to make a lasting impression on a company.
Reviews are a surefire way to increase visibility and credibility among patients. If they’re recent, it’s ten times more.
Since authentic patient reviews provide a concise, peer-provided service overview and assistance overview that helps others focus their attention, you should give priority to them.
Reviews are honest feedback from patients about real-world use. They don’t contain marketing hype. This is why most people trust them.
Reviews provide high-level insight that allows buyers and patients to quickly sort through the many options for their needs as well.
Create Your Content Strategy
A key part of building awareness and generating leads is authoritative with your knowledge. Make sure you are making sure that your potential patients and clients are aware.
This is done to build trust and to allow them to understand your solutions and intentions.
It is also important to prepare them for customer problems and solutions.
A solid content marketing strategy provides valuable insights and timely information at all stages of the hiring process. This builds trust and expertise.
They will regard you as an expert in their field and recall your brand as a source for information.
If you have the marketing resources necessary to reach a specific type of high-value lead, you can create curated or personal content. This could lead to home care leads who convert the most often or are more willing to spend money with your company.
Segment-specific information can help create content and calls for action (CTAs) that help buyers navigate the buying process and address common concerns.
Include messaging that addresses obstacles from the moment a lead first sees your services to the last question about hiring. When in doubt, focus on the reasons why patients choose your service provider.
Continue Nurturing Trust
Because people don’t want any clinic or service provider to approach the topic with no tact, your niche marketing demands a sensitive approach to content and generating leads.
Although they may be aware of your message and require your services, it doesn’t mean that you will not be sensible and that people aren’t a bit uncomfortable with hiring home care services.
If you don’t pay attention to this messaging and trust-building, you won’t get any results no matter how much you spend on digital marketing and other lead generation strategies.
To show your brand’s credibility, you must do all that you can.
You must create engaging video content to highlight your staff and overall services. Also, host free webinars online to educate potential patients. Display testimonials and reviews from patients on the website and social media channels.
Due to the many considerations, it can be hard to make a success of home care services for marketing leads.
However, home care agencies can use existing consumer trends to generate more leads, conversions, and ultimately a greater revenue stream. This is possible by using the correct approach to campaign structure and keyword targeting.
Find and Nurture Your Referral Sources
Referrals are essential to building and maintaining a strong home care business or just any business in any industry.
But, in your case, this is where most of your clients will come from since your previous and frequent clients will usually recommend you to friends, family members, and more. Thus, those referrals are very likely to convert into clients, thanks to the recommendations.
In order to generate those leads and referrals, you can provide excellent and compassionate care. However, you can also take proactive steps that increase your chances of getting the leads you need.
That being said, you need to focus on the main sources for this strategy and method, so remember them and focus your encouraging efforts on them:
- Clients and their families or friends.
Encourage your caregivers and clients to share information about your agency’s quality services by offering some discounts or freebies.
An online presence allows you to create referral forms that can be easily shared with people in need of home care solutions. Refer friends to your agency and receive a discount or bonus service.
- Healthcare professionals.
You should take the time to search for referral partners in healthcare – such as care consultants, nurses staff, and hospital discharge planners.
Look for people who are willing to give referrals and make recommendations to your agency. It is as easy as visiting local hospitals, assisted living communities, and clinics to have a friendly conversation, drop off some food for the nurses, or if you are able to leave brochures at Reception.
It is important to establish a reputation as a reliable and friendly resource for healthcare authorities. This will ensure that clients/patients are referred to you whenever they need it.
- Referral sites from third parties.
Businesses often use these in their early stages, but they can be a great marketing tool or source of leads.
These can be costly as they charge per lead. Although you may get many referrals, they will be sent to many agencies at once, which can leave you with lots of work to convert them into clients.
Third-party websites can be costly, so it is important to keep track of your conversion rates.
It is vital to create a plan to track and generate client referrals – using home care software – to provide you with deep insight into who your most valuable sources are and who needs more attention. You should also thank those who recommend you.
Digital Marketing Is Everything
A potential client will first hear about your business. Most people will then do an internet search to learn more about you. Before they contact you, they will be looking for information about your agency, your caregivers, and testimonials.
Google Trends shows that searches for “home care agencies/businesses/companies” have increased by 57%, and those for “caregivers” by 62% over the past five years.
When building your home care client list, you cannot ignore the power of online searches.
This trend of ‘online searching’ can be used to your advantage and increase your agency’s online presence. You will also get a larger share in the local home care market by:
- Make sure your website is updated, informative, and user-friendly. To gain valuable insight into their strategies and techniques, make sure you regularly check out your top competitors’ websites.
- SEO is an essential tool to improve the number of page views and visitors to your website. It is possible to attract new clients and stand out among your competitors by providing them with unique, informative, and authentic content.
- Online customer reviews can be shared on your website to improve your search engine rankings and make your business more appealing and credible.
- Getting on to the map. A map shows all local businesses and is available on the first page of search results. Check Google, Yelp, and Facebook to ensure your agency is found and correct your information.
- High-quality copy and graphics on your website pages. Strong brand image. Potential clients, their families, and your community partners should see your agency as a professional business that pays attention to details.
- Make sure that your agency automation software includes a client intake function so that you can post the “Request Care Here” or similar buttons and links on Google Maps and your social media sites.
It is important to remember that digital marketing does not replace face-to-face efforts. Instead, it complements them.
Do not get so wrapped up in establishing your online presence that it becomes distracting from the main purpose of providing exceptional care.
Utilize Social Media
Your primary clients may not be interested in social media, but a high percentage of seniors over 65 are on Facebook.
Also, you need to think about their families and close friends who might help to look for home care services properly. Thus, it is important to get involved on social media and build your brand awareness.
A Facebook page is essential these days. However, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter are other great platforms for potential clients in your niche.
If you aren’t sure about how to bring success and awareness to your social media, you should keep these tips in mind:
- To avoid confusion, use the same name on all social media accounts. You can also search your name across multiple platforms, so you are sure it isn’t being used elsewhere.
- To appear professional and establish your brand’s identity, use your logo and color scheme on all platforms.
- Use an online scheduling tool to keep you active and post frequently. Keep your followers updated about the services and offer, use recent blogs, events, reviews, and testimonials. People who post often are more likely to be promoted by social media algorithms.
- Use hashtags that are relevant to your agency’s services and the home care industry.
- Take the time to respond to users’ comments, questions, and other interactions online. While it may not be as effective as face-to-face communication, it can still serve to build trust and relationships.
- To appeal to a wider audience and draw attention, share photos and videos. To show professionalism and modernity, you should use graphics, animations, and videos that are professional in nature.
Networking and Building
The key to growing any business, particularly a home-care agency, is networking.
High-quality client introductions can come up to 50% from the health service providers you regularly meet with. It is worth spending the time to get to know them and gain their trust in your services.
This can be considered as referrals, but not that close. After all, networking allows you to meet people that will recommend you but not necessarily have used your services.
If you need some help with this, here are a few things you need to consider:
- To make professional connections, attend local events with pharmacists, doctors, and healthcare insurance agents. Any that has to do with your niche and services.
- Know everyone who is involved in senior care, whether they are volunteers, paid staff, or senior center managers. People who work every day with seniors can be very cooperative and a great resource for helping you find new clients.
- Register for healthcare conferences and networking events. You’ll not only build professional connections and increase the chance of your agency receiving referrals or recommendations, but you will also have access to insider information about managing client lists, sales, marketing, and management.
- You should make an effort to reach out to potential referral sources regularly, via email, or in person. It’s more likely that people will remember you if they need to refer someone. Keep in touch with them and remind them about the benefits of your services.
- Partner with complementary businesses like rehab centers, hospices, and skilled health facilities. These agencies may be already providing daily nurse home visits or therapists, but there are many gaps in support services that your agency could provide.
Printed Materials Still Work
As we mentioned before, digital marketing is indeed important today, but it doesn’t mean the traditional options are completely outdated or are a waste of time. Instead, we consider they continue to be useful with the right complements and strategies.
Thus, consider placing a local newspaper or magazine ad to increase your reach. Local ads are a great way to establish your credibility in the community, particularly with people who don’t use social media or prefer reading their news the old-fashioned route.
You can keep potential clients and their families updated with press releases that announce your new services, products, and team members.
These press releases should be distributed to local media outlets and posted on your social media accounts. This will increase interest in your agency and demonstrate to potential clients that you are constantly improving.
You can also use print-based materials to attract new clients:
- Brochures.
- Direct mail flyers/postcards.
- Local businesses may place sponsored signs or ads.
- Ads for the senior directory.
- Weekly newspaper Op-Eds.
- Bulletin boards for communities.
- Business cards can be customized.
Just remember that good-quality copy and graphics are essential for printed materials, and they can’t be replaced easily if they don’t look great.
Always Communicate
Communicate when you’re talking to a client or their family members about starting services, especially when they involved family caregivers, senior care, companion care, or anything that is usually a bit more delicate than the regular home care services.
This can seem a very obvious or “idiotic” recommendation, but you would be surprised by the number of people who omit it most of the time.
Also, communication isn’t only about offering your services but rather how you make clear your intentions and the way people can work with you for your home care services.
For example, your sign-on process should be clearly explained if you get a last-minute request to sign on a client, be honest and open about the process and availability of your caregivers.
Make sure to describe the scope of your services. It’s also possible to briefly explain non-medical services, noting which you can or cannot assist with.
So, if you know exactly what questions your clients might ask, you can prepare the information and answers. Prospective clients will choose your agency over the previous one if they feel more knowledgeable and prepared, thanks to you.
If you cannot provide a service or location-specific to a client’s needs, please give them contact information for the company that can best meet their needs.
Although this takes more time, it shows you care and that you will be willing to spend the extra time helping people who cannot immediately benefit from your services.
Standing Out From Others
We doubt there’s a need to tell you this, but, yes, you need to stand out if you want to bring more home care leads.
There are way too many home care agencies and services in the USA, and other countries don’t fall behind in the statistics. Thus, you truly need to come up with an idea to stand out in order to bring the leads your way.
These differences don’t need to be revolutionary or earth-shaking, but they should be enough to make families reconsider calling another agency. What can you do that will make your agency stand out? These are just a few ideas to help you get started:
- A simple sign-in process that is accessible to all ages.
- Special care services or protocols that are specific to a condition.
- Allow clients to make payments on your agency website.
- To ensure smooth transitions, make arrangements for caregiver interviews so clients can meet caregivers before they start to care.
In addition to this part, we cannot forget about listening to your clients. This is something you can use as your differentiator.
It would be hard to believe, but people just forget about what their clients want and how they want it.
Learn to Understand Your Clients
Meeting clients where they are is one way to attract them. It’s not enough to offer medication reminders and a weekly shower for home care. You must also sell the possibility of independence.
In other words, you need to understand what your clients want and need in their lives so you can adjust to them.
Sometimes, when you’re unable to deliver the expected services, it isn’t a bad idea to refer your clients to home care agencies that offer quality hospice and home healthcare services you don’t have available. They will be happy by the aspect of your honesty.
Find out what is most important to your clients so you can help them the best.
If a client returns home from rehab with a list of exercises that they need to do in physical therapy, are you going to create a plan for their care?
Are you going to ask your client about their goals for returning home? If so, how can you incorporate the exercises into a routine to help them achieve these goals? Of course, this is only an example, and it could be anything else, but the point is to follow what they need.
You can help clients return to their interests in terms of capabilities and physical movement. Sometimes, even mental.
It will be difficult for you to communicate with your clients if you don’t understand their lives and context.
What can you do to help your clients return to independent living before they need care? You might also consider helping your clients stay independent. For this, find out what motivates them.
Email Marketing Works and You Need It
A solid email marketing strategy can help you provide targeted content to your patients, engage them, and create a long-lasting relationship that is particularly important for this market.
Each email sent to patients must be of value. It is crucial to understand their needs before creating an email campaign that does not irritate them, whether they are receiving the first or ongoing email.
To speed up the process, you can add an AI-driven chatbot. It can recognize patients who visit the website via email and send them messages. You can remind them about any offers that are available or offer alternatives to suit their needs.
Interactive emails, on the other hand, have a greater advantage than static emails. These include tools that enable your patients to respond. This conversational marketing is very beneficial for home care agencies.
You can use welcome emails or AI chatbots to redirect them to your main website to attract customers.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Home Care Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Home Care Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Home Care Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.