3 tips to turn care home directories into a significant source of enquiries
Care home directories are a vital touchpoint for families searching for the right care services. They’re an essential part of any care home marketing strategy, and can be a cost-effective way to increase enquiries. But it’s not always clear which directories deliver the best value.
Read on for our top three tips to turn directory listings into a significant source of enquiries for your care home.
1. Identify the most appropriate care home directories for you
Large directories, such as carehome.co.uk, enable you to reach a very wide audience. However, depending on your marketing budget, these larger directories can be a considerable investment for your care home.
Consider smaller directory sites, or sites that specialise in particular types of care. They may offer less exposure, but they could be less expensive and result in more qualified and higher converting enquiries.
They can also provide a rich database of prospects to market to – great for smaller care homes that may not have a customer relationship management (CRM) system in place.
2. Capture the right data to increase enquiries
Calls are an important part of the enquiry to move-in process.
“In the care home market, enquiries require much more engagement – care seekers have dozens more questions, and want to feel confident in the service they’re choosing,” Faye Thomassen, Head of Marketing at Mediahawk explains. “Unlike in many other sectors, the telephone is often the first port of call for care home enquiries. When you’re offering a sensitive, life-altering service, potential residents and their family members often want the human touch that comes with a phone call.”
Calls can also tell you a lot about your care seekers. By tracking your phone call enquiries, you gain instant visibility into the directories that deliver your most valuable enquiries and move-ins.
You can accurately link 100% of your move-ins to the sources they originated from, helping you identify the best performing directories for your care home.
Calls tell you a lot about your care seekers. By tracking your phone call enquiries, you gain instant visibility into the directories that deliver your most valuable enquiries and move-ins.
3. Prove which directories are driving move-ins
Care home directories will often provide you with reports to demonstrate the traffic, referrals, and enquiries they have delivered.
While this is useful, it’s important to have your own data and reporting – particularly when it comes to proving return on investment (ROI).
To truly understand the ROI of your directory activity, you need to link your move-in data directly to each directory. This also provides valuable insights into how each directory influences the user journey, enabling you to make more strategic adjustments that:
- Improve enquiry-to-conversion ratios.
- Strengthen decision-making across your care home, leading to better outcomes.
- Provide you with a clearer view of the customer journey, helping you develop more effective marketing strategies.
- Reduce wasted advertising spend and boost your ROI.
Summary
Directories can be a great source of enquiries for your care home. But you need to closely monitor your ROI and ensure that your investment is paying off. The right marketing analytics tools hold the key to the insight you need when making decisions about which directories to invest in.
We know how complex care home marketing is, and that occupancy rates are a top priority for you. Discover how Mediahawk call tracking and marketing attribution can help boost enquiries and move-ins.