Understanding who the target audience for your senior living community is can make all the difference in filling your community with happy, thriving residents. Pinpointing your ideal prospects helps tailor your marketing efforts, enhancing engagement and ultimately driving occupancy. Let’s dive into the do’s and don’ts of identifying and targeting your ideal audience and defining their unique characteristics.
Target Audience for Senior Living: The Do’s
1. Do Identify Geographical Location of Prospects
Your community’s location will dictate the pool of potential residents. For many communities, prospects will almost certainly come from the local area. For others, a destination location means that prospects may come from different pockets around the country.
To start, look at your recent move-ins from the past year or so. How many of them represent your ideal prospect in terms of age, health and financial qualification? Look at the demographics of that subset to analyze the zip codes from which they moved, their ages, former occupations and income and asset levels.
2. Do Segment Ages When Possible
Age is an obvious factor, but understanding the needs, preferences and lifestyles of potential residents is equally crucial.
Depending on the age requirement at your community, you might consider your target market to be anyone 55+ or 60+, given the long maturation period for independent living leads. Keep in mind, however, that this age group may represent a very broad range of prospects. The oldest Gen Xers are turning 59 this year, Baby Boomers range in age from 60 to 78 and those in the Silent Generation are 79+. Lumping all these prospects together into one bucket means you’re likely not speaking to them all effectively.
Where appropriate (and when budget allows!), consider segmenting your messaging for ad placements that appeal to Gen Xers vs. those that are more likely to reach your older prospects. When budget doesn’t allow marketing to multiple segments, try narrowing your age range focus to really speak to your most coveted and highest-converting audience. Consider your inventory as well: If you have a number of studios to fill, your focus may be on older, single prospects versus younger couples.
3. Do Consider Lifestyle
Beyond demographics, psychographics delve into the interests, attitudes and lifestyles of your target audience.
We generally recommend most senior living communities lead with lifestyle. The value of a senior living community for a prospect isn’t solely in the potential living accommodation itself but in the lifestyle offered through the community’s amenities and programs.
To that end, what are the unique differentiators for your community? If you have a robust lifelong learning program partnered with a local university, for example, your target audience is likely to include people who value education. This feature gives you a range of potential audience insights. You might target former teachers, college graduates and book lovers.
Similarly, if your community’s draw is its proximity to a walkable, urban downtown area, then you may be looking for older adults who enjoy eating out, trying craft beer or local wineries or participating in local clubs or fitness groups.
What other hobbies and interests are popular among seniors in your area or within your existing community? Are there common values and beliefs to consider?
Identifying these lifestyle factors can not only help you home in on your target audience’s behaviors, but also identify potential opportunities for strategic partnerships and advertising.
3. Do Consider Financial Factors
It probably goes without saying that financial capability is a significant determinant in the decision-making process for senior living.
To that end, you’ll want to target seniors with income levels that align with your community’s pricing. Conduct market research to understand the financial demographics of your area, including home values. Test several income and asset levels against your community’s qualification requirements to gain insights into the finances your prospect would need to qualify.
Target Audience for Senior Living: The Don’ts
1. Don’t Ignore Influencers
Potential residents aren’t always the sole decision-makers when choosing a community. Often, the opinions of friends and family impact their decision.
Acknowledge that family members often play a significant role in the decision-making process. Subtly address their concerns and questions in your marketing materials, too. Professional caregivers and health care providers can also influence decisions. Build relationships with these stakeholders to create referral opportunities.
2. Don’t Overlook Tracking, Analyzing and Refining Your Audience
Identifying your target audience isn’t a one-time task; it requires continuous refinement.
As you market, track key performance indicators such as online traffic, lead sources and conversion rates. These data can help you understand what’s working and where to adjust your strategy. Learn more about how to calculate marketing ROI.
Solicit feedback from new residents and their families upon move-in to gain insights into why they chose your community. Use this feedback to fine-tune your targeting efforts. Additionally, stay on top of trends and changes in the senior living industry and adjust your targeting strategies accordingly.
A Final Word: Stay Strategic
As you define the target audience for your senior living community, it’s likely that key outlets for advertising will become more evident as well. As you shift to a more strategic approach, don’t forget to bring your leaders along on the journey to identify your target audience and be explicit about what changes they should expect to see.
Otherwise, you may experience pushback from leaders if they’re no longer seeing, for example, large newspaper ads on Sunday morning or billboards on their way to work — especially if they see competitive ads in their place. Just because your competitors are spending budget on these tactics doesn’t mean they’re right for you. Remind leaders who aren’t in your target demographic that they shouldn’t necessarily be seeing ads — you’re spending dollars to target people who are interested in moving in, not employees.
By following these do’s and avoiding the don’ts, you can more effectively reach and resonate with your ideal prospects, ensuring your community thrives with residents who are well-suited to your community and satisfied with their choice.