09 Nov Marketing with Care

Marketing isn’t all glitz and glamour. Staying in tune with what’s cool now is important when promoting a brand but some clients need help creating emotional messages that never go out of style. When working with clients that provide care-based services, you’ll have the opportunity to do some of your most impactful work, while learning how to bypass the buzzwords and market with care.

Developing an effective promotional strategy for a care-based client requires honing one of your most important skills as a marketing professional and as a human being; empathy. “The ability to understand and share the feelings of another”, as its definition states, is the foundation of successful marketing. As creators, it is our job to use our technical skills to speak to the needs, emotions, and conditions of the audience. In order to do that, we have to understand why the audience, and subsequently, their needs, exist in the first place. Why is your service in demand? Who is searching for it and what is their disposition when they finally take steps to find your brand? Knowing the answers to these questions is vital to connecting with the audience of your care-based client.

When Idea Associates partnered with a continuing care retirement community to promote their health services, we began by educating our team on Memory Care and speaking directly with current consumers to understand their needs. Since our client’s services include lodging in a unique care setting, we also performed on-site research, visiting the facility in person to observe the environment and its effects on those who live there. Immersing ourselves in the client space, studying the industry, and opening the lines of communication to embrace the consumer allowed us to paint a picture of our client based on personal experience and thus, provide an empathetic, human touch. In our efforts to fully understand and connect with the client’s audience, we were able to answer the questions above:

• Why is your service in demand? According to research conducted by the Alzheimer’s Association, over 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s, with someone new developing the disease every 65 seconds.
• Who is searching for it? Interviewing the client and their current consumers, we found that the adult children of seniors living with memory loss were the primary demographic seeking their services. These adult children often care for their parents in some capacity and are the first to notice signs of cognitive decline.
• What is their disposition when they finally take steps to find your brand? This question is incredibly important because the answer informs the messaging, tone, creative, delivery and all other aspects of a campaign. The search for quality care for a loved one living with memory loss can be a difficult, overwhelming, and emotionally draining endeavor. A frustrated audience wants information that is easily digestible. They want to know your story and how you can and have helped others in their situation.

Using these answers, we developed a compassionate campaign that spoke directly and thoughtfully to the client’s audience. The content itself was delivered cross-channel through print and digital mediums with a focus on warm, family-inspired imagery and heartfelt messaging.

Our social media strategy positioned the client as a hub for pertinent information and a place to enjoy organic moments of engagement with life throughout the community. We built a website for the client that is both informative in substance and modern in design, appealing to visitors in a multitude of ways. The website also includes a variety of videos, testimonials, pictures, and stories that offer an inside look, almost as visceral as being there in person, into the care experience provided in the client’s community. For the adult child searching for these services, having access to this information from the comfort of their home in visual, textual, and video formats offers convenience that can make all the difference for them and their loved ones. The results of our marketing efforts, including an increase in online traffic, qualified leads, and contract signings, show that marketing with care, for care-based clients, does indeed make a difference.