Marketing Elder Care, Marketing Senior Services

Marketing Senior Services in today's competitive environment requires a "thinking outside of the box" strategy that most senior services tend to ignore. One of the most popular ways that professionals today learn about new products, services, and methodologies is through teleseminars. So, why not offer your referral base and your clients (and their adult children) the opportunity to learn about your services or your new products and services through teleseminars.

Marketing your elder care service in today's "mature market", means offering added value at every turn. Setting yourself apart from the competition and convincing your prospects that they would be absolutely crazy to do business with anyone else but you is essential to your survival.

Understanding and addressing the financial concerns of clients may seem foreign to many elder care service providers, but without that knowledge and a proactive approach to helping them solve those problems, elder care services lose private pay clients faster.

Some of the key concepts that all providers should have a basic knowledge of, and a referral source for include:
Reverse Mortgages- using home equity to pay for immediate long-term care needs at home.
Long-Term Care Insurance- be sure to ask if your client has this important coverage.
Veterans Aid and Attendance Pension Benefit- is your client a veteran or were they married to a veteran who is now deceased? This benefit can help pay for in-home care for longer periods of time.
o The Veterans' Administration offers a Special Pension with Aid and Attendance (A&A) benefit that is largely unknown. This Special Pension (part of the VA Improved Pension program) allows for Veterans and surviving spouses who require the regular attendance of another person to assist in eating, bathing, dressing, undressing or taking care of the needs of nature to receive additional monetary benefits. It also includes individuals who are blind or a patient in a nursing home because of mental or physical incapacity. Assisted care in an assisted living facility also qualifies.
o This most important benefit is overlooked by many families with Veterans or surviving spouses who need additional monies to help care for ailing parents or loved ones. This is a "pension benefit" and is not dependent upon service-related injuries for compensation. Most Veterans who are in need of assistance qualify for this pension. Aid and Attendance can help pay for care in the home, nursing home or assisted living facility. A Veteran is eligible for up to $1,519 per month, while a surviving spouse is eligible for up to $976 per month. A couple is eligible for up to $1,801 per month*.
Learn how to provide your clients with the right information that will keep them actively private pay longer. From more information and amazing ideas that help you market your senior service go to www.ultimateseniorservice.com and sign up for the The Amazing Senior Service Business Booster Ezine- FREE!

Understanding your market (seniors and their adult children) is the key to success in the senior services industry. Understanding programs that fit together beautifully makes you the undeniable "go to" guy or gal in your local market. Doing a little homework can reap BIG benefits now and in the future.

We all want to maintain our independence and choice for as long as possible, right? So what if you could show your prospect how to afford long-term care without insurance, and without leaving their home? It's possible! (As an aside, I would always recommend that healthy seniors look into long-term care insurance. For some, they are unable to qualify due to health concerns.)

Did you know that there is a pension benefit available to Veterans and the widows of Veterans who served during a period of war? Even better, that Veteran did not have to be injured in an act of war or during active duty to receive this particular pension benefit. Most people have NO IDEA this even exists. Now you have a marketing tool that many others will not take advantage of because they won't do their homework!

There are financial benefits available for Veterans or their surviving spouses for non-service connected disabilities.

The Veterans Administration has established a pension program whereby your purchase of personal care and attendant home services may be paid for through their acquired pension. A Veteran or the surviving spouse of a Veteran who has served at least 90 days or more on active duty with one day beginning or ending during a period of war, and who is in need of assistance at HOME due to disabilities, may be eligible for VA's non-service connected disability pension.

The following are the VA's defined "periods of war":

WWI - Apr. 16, 1917 to Nov. 11, 1918

WWII - Dec. 7, 1941 to Dec. 31, 1946

Korea - Jun. 25, 1950 to Jan. 31, 1955

Vietnam - Aug. 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975

Persian Gulf - Aug. 2, 1990 to present

Aid and Attendance can help pay for care in the home, nursing home or assisted living facility. A Veteran is eligible for up to $1,519 per month, while a surviving spouse is eligible for up to $976 per month. A couple is eligible for up to $1,801 per month. This increases each year for cost of living.

Here's the interesting part. It takes about 4-6 MONTHS for the family to go through the paperwork, get approved, and start receiving the benefit (which does pay retroactively by the way). In the meantime, MANY seniors look to Reverse Mortgages to fill in that cash flow GAP while they are waiting for approval. Sometimes obviously the VA Aid and Attendance Pension Benefit does not cover all of the costs of care at home, and more cash flow is needed- which makes this the perfect fit for Reverse Mortgage proceeds to fill the gap.

You don't have to be an expert in the VA Aid and Attendance Pension benefit to use this information to your advantage. In fact, it is recommended that the family/senior take on the project of applying themselves. This is not a service that anyone can charge for, and is time consuming in many cases.

However, while that process is moving forward, Reverse Mortgage Loan Consultants can swoop in and save the day by providing much needed cash flow within 30 days of application for a Reverse Mortgage. The marketing opportunities are bountiful. Keep in mind that you need to be able help your senior and their family members understand how to use the Reverse Mortgage money properly so that they don't disqualify themselves for this important benefit by putting a lump sum of cash into their checking account. (Hint: Leaving it in the line of credit is often the best option.)

For more information on this program and how it works seamlessly with Reverse Mortgages and other private pay options please visit us at www.marketingeldercare.com

For more information, FREE marketing videos, and FREE marketing Ezine, visit http://www.MySeniorService.com

 

Marketing Home Care Online Using the Right Formula for Lead Generation and Credibility BuildingBy Valerie VanBooven RN BSN, Owner LTC Expert Publications LLChttp://www.ltcSocialMark.com Over the last few years the way we market our businesses has changed dramatically. Keeping up with those trends and changes can be challenging for even the most savvy entrepreneurs and marketers.Having immersed our business and our priorities in figuring out the challenging landscape of online marketing and lead generation for home care providers and other senior service providers, we have come to some very important conclusions about the process, the tools, and the requirements of the team , in order to see success.Here are my observations for the best formula for lead generation and online marketing for home care, elder care, and senior service providers:Website or Landing Page:The website or landing page that home care agencies are directing traffic to must have the following:1. A COMPELLING call to action. This means that there is an opt-in box to collect email addresses and names on the home page of the site, and there is a REALLY good reason for the consumer to WANT to give you that information.2. Search Engine Optimization throughout the site.3. Social Media integrated into the home page and throughout the site.4. Contact information clearly displayed on the home page and throughout.Social Media Marketing:1. A comprehensive Done-for-You Social Media Marketing program that includes 13 account set ups (well beyond Facebook and Twitter), and all content provided for the home care agency.2. Participation and team commitment to contributing events, programs, and agency highlights to the social media marketing team.3. Weekly Blogging and account maintenance. Keyworded content.  Videos:1. Multiple short videos submitted weekly to 40 accounts under different titles, keywords, and descriptions.Local Business Listings1. 9-10 local business listings on various submission services, all keyworded correctly, and with additional content as allowed to maximize the effectiveness of the listing.E-Newsletter Marketing1. A branded and customized e-newsletter with dynamic content sent out to all prospects, clients, and professional referral sources on a monthly basis (minimum). All of this can be Done-For-You and integrated with website or landing page.Article Marketing1. Monthly article keyworded correctly- sent out to over 40 article marketing sites. Rotate titles, content, description and keywords.Acute Need : The Owner/Marketer Needs to Have a Good Understanding of the ProcessOnline marketing and lead generation is a complicated task. As experts in this area we know that the owner or marketing professional must understand some aspects of the tremendous amount of work involved in producing visible results.This means that the website, social media program, video submission, blogging, e-newsletter process, business listings, and article marketing programs not only all work together, but also require consistency, relevancy, and a continuity.Content must build upon itself over a period of time. Perfect lead generation for quality leads is not an "instant gratification" game like Pay-Per-Click, and I'd dare say that in most cases, Pay-Per-Click does not commonly produce quality leads, especially if proper "follow up" procedure is not in place.Tracking to Calculate Effectiveness and Return on Investment1. Google Analytics must be on the back side of the website or landing page in order to accurately measure visibility of the site on the internet, keyword usage, and "findability".2. In-house tracking. Each home care agency must be willing to commit to asking every lead and every inquiry, "where did you hear about us?", and record that data in a measureable format so that the data can be analyzed for effectiveness at 2 months, 4 months, 6 months. Without this piece, there is no good way to determine true return on investment. SummaryUsing this exact methodology with participation from the home care agency, I anticipate that after 4-6 months, the home care agency will find that 20%-30% of their leads and inquiries and referrals will be completely internet driven.At that time, it's safe to say that a significant decrease in yellow pages and print advertising can save marketing dollars. A decrease in Pay-Per-Click advertising should also be implemented once the complete social media campaign has been effective.For more information attend one of our free webinars. The schedule is posted at http:.//ltcsocialmark.com