3 ways to generate more enquiries and move-ins from care home directories

Looking for the right care setting can be a highly stressful and emotionally charged experience for families. The average search now takes nearly five weeks, with an additional two weeks required to move the resident in, according to a study by care home marketplace Lottie.

And for those searches that take longer – if the care seeker has complex needs, or perhaps their preferred options are already fully occupied – the stress can mount quickly. More than 90% of care seekers in that study said that a search of more than six weeks was a “very stressful” experience.

So when their search encounters your advert, it needs to be a breath of fresh air; the first step in a seamless journey that guides them from awareness to enquiry. Many of these journeys will start from care home directories – but how can you make sure you’re extracting value from your listings and proving the return on your investment?

It begins with choosing the right care home directory for your strategy, and continues all the way through to the day your new resident moves into their home. Here are three questions that can help you make sure you’re capturing the right data at every step.

1. Do you want to reach a wide audience – or a targeted audience?

Large directories, such as carehome.co.uk, can give you access to a lot of people, which works best for care providers with broad networks. Barchester Healthcare, for example, runs more than 250 locations throughout the UK that offer a broad range of care types. In these cases, large general directories will likely yield good results.

The picture looks a little different if you’re a smaller or more specialised provider, though. “If you’re trying to target specific combinations of requirements, general directories can be an expensive and scattershot approach to finding your audience,” says Faye Thomassen, Head of Marketing at Mediahawk. “If, for example, you’re offering high-need respite care in Yorkshire, choosing smaller directories that are more closely aligned with your services should put your listing in front of a narrower but higher-intent audience.”

So, you may get less exposure overall, but a smaller directory is an affordable way to reach the right people – and it can offer a rich database of potential residents to market to, which is especially valuable if you don’t run your own CRM.

Adding a trackable phone number to your listing means you’ll be able to identify every call that comes in from that directory, to help you track your enquiry volumes and compare different combinations of directories to find the right mix for you.

2. Are care seekers finding the right information with ease?

As finding the right care setting is so personal – and often involves discussing sensitive information about a potential resident’s health – the phone call is such as important part of most care seekers’ journey.

So it’s vital that every person that makes an enquiry gets the same compassionate treatment, and a reassuring, tailored conversation that answers all their questions.

“Speech Analytics gives you oversight of every call that comes into your care home, securely processing each conversation to identify intent, keywords and outcomes while redacting any sensitive information,” says Faye. “This gives you a great overview of the kinds of enquiries people have, their top concerns, and the way your support team handle each call. With this insight, you can assess whether your choice of directory is driving relevant, high-intent enquiries. If you’re consistently seeing enquiries about short-term care when you’re looking for long-term residents, for example, it’s a clear indication that your directory listings are reaching the wrong audience for your facility.”

On an individual level, you can also work out where the care seeker is on their journey, whether they’re ready to schedule a move in, or need more help to make an informed decision. Analysing calls for these markers means you can capture potential residents that aren’t quite ready to commit but are engaged with your care home. That means you don’t miss out on promising leads that you’ve paid to acquire from your directory listing – or the fees for their care.

As Wendy Westbury, Marketing Director for Dormy Care Communities, explained: “One missed opportunity could cost us £70,000 a year in residents’ fees, so being able to go back and identify any enquiries that have slipped through the net is crucial.”

“One missed opportunity could cost us £70,000 a year in residents’ fees, so being able to go back and identify any enquiries that have slipped through the net is crucial.”
Marketing Director, Dormy Care Communities

3. Can you track the whole journey from encounter to enquiry – and beyond?

In an ideal world, you’d be able to link every move-in to the listing or advert that caught their attention initially. Achieving 100% attribution can be tricky – but it’s possible if you have the right tracking in place.

Dynamic call tracking, also known as website call tracking, can help trace a care seeker’s journey beyond your initial care home directory listing – even as far as a move-in, with the right tools.

With dynamic numbers, the system assigns a unique phone number to each individual that engages with your website, which acts as an identifier for all their interactions.

Add in a tool for sales tracking and reporting, and you can identify every single touchpoint along the way.

You can track which pages they visit, which brochures they download, and what they’re searching for – giving you better insight into their needs and how well your website is serving them. And then, if they convert, you’ll know exactly which marketing activity started their journey to scheduling a move-in.

With this information in hand, you have everything you need to optimise your strategy. You can see which directory listings lead to move ins, and which aren’t yielding results – and adapt your spend accordingly. And you can streamline the journey through your website too. By making tweaks such as signposting resources more clearly, you can help care seekers have relevant, better-informed conversations with your team that are more likely to lead to a move-in.

With dynamic numbers, you can track which pages people visit, which brochures they download, and what they’re searching for – giving you better insight into their needs and how well your website is serving them. And then you’ll know exactly which marketing activity started their journey to scheduling a move-in. With this information in hand, you have everything you need to optimise your strategy.

Summary

According to the Lottie study, the average time to find a care home has risen by 30% since 2021 – the process is getting more complex for people to navigate, and that’s only going to increase the pressure care seekers feel.

They want to get this decision right. And by making the right decisions on your side of the equation – by listing your care homes in the most relevant directory, offering clear, detailed information about locations, fees, activities and more – you can help simplify it for them.

At its heart, all this tracking and analysis is about data; getting the insight you need to allocate your budget and make sure your marketing efforts are generating enquiries and driving more move-ins for your homes. From assessing whether you’re listed in the right care home directories to finessing the care seeker journey through your site, Mediahawk’s experience in care home marketing strategies can help you capture that data and put it to work.