How to fill your Care Home…

Here is a snap shot of some of our top marketing tips that we use to help maximise our clients occupancy and increase their EBITDARM. For more information, please download our top marketing tips to fill your Care Home document.

1. Analysis…

Whenever we work with a new client, we always do an initial analysis to see how their occupancy compares to the UK and regional averages. So how do you compare?

• Average occupancy in UK = 89.4%

• Average fee level = £773

• Average staffing costs = 57.6%

• Average EBIRDARM = 28.3%

2. Know your customer…

This may seem obvious but it is really important to understand who your customers are and what type of care are you offering? What are you good at and what sets you apart from other Care Homes? Do you offer ‘high quality dementia care in a homely setting’ or do you offer ‘five star residential care in a purpose built, beautiful and tranquil location’ . Both comments suggest very different offerings and it is vitally important to have an identity for your Home so that you know what you are marketing.

3. Give the customer what they want…

Once you know who your customers are and what your offering is, you need to make sure your marketing reflects this. So many times we see customers create an expensive marketing package that loses this message. Put yourself in the shoes of someone looking for a Care Home and consider what they would like to know about the Home.

4. Create a great marketing platform…

This is a vital aspect in a successful marketing plan for any Care Home, a fully responsive, mobile friendly and well built website is a must along with other digital media such as video and social media etc. You also need to track how successful your marketing platforms are, such tools as Google Analytics, Search Console are really useful and offer critical data.

Visual content is so important, we really advise against using stock images such as the one below. Investing time, effort and money into getting some high quality images of your residents/ staff etc. is really worth while.

5. Answer the phone and follow up enquiries…

This is one of the most important parts of a successful marketing plan and one that is often neglected. You can spend so much time, effort and money on creating a marketing strategy and platform and then it goes to waste if you aren’t proactive with the actual enquiries themselves. We understand that running a Care Home can be extremely stressful and often you focus on the day to day running of the business and making sure that the Home stays compliant. However, without strong occupancy, the business can struggle financially so it really is important to make sure everyone involved in the running of the Home understands this.

Fennell Marketing can assist you with all of the above and more, contact us today and start improving your occupancy!!