3 Key Takeaways from LeadingAge Tennessee

The 2017 Power of Purpose session is in the books, and the member organizations of LeadingAge Tennessee experienced a great conference. The speakers all delivered interesting and informative messages that helped to educate and inspire. I was able to take in several sessions during the event and wanted to share with you the three items […]

Posted on August 15, 2017

3 Key Takeaways from LeadingAge Tennessee

By Wayne Langley
Posted on August 15th 2017

The 2017 Power of Purpose session is in the books, and the member organizations of LeadingAge Tennessee experienced a great conference. The speakers all delivered interesting and informative messages that helped to educate and inspire. I was able to take in several sessions during the event and wanted to share with you the three items that really struck as important takeaways for all attendees.

The unimportance of an office

I thoroughly enjoyed Duane Cummings, the keynote speaker who opened the conference. His message on leadership and putting people in the right place for them to succeed is something I truly aspire to. But one point really resonated with me: Duane doesn’t have an office at his organization. Rather, he ensures that all his key employees have their space, and he meets them there. It reminds him to be a servant leader and takes the fear out of a chat with the CEO.

While retirement communities are often dealing with sensitive information, and therefore need private office spaces, I believe his point is still salient. It speaks to the need for executive directors and C-suite personnel to get out of their offices and walk the communities they serve. It’s far too easy for us to get stuck in our daily routines and never leave our offices, processing that precious paperwork that never seems to end. Getting out for that daily walk not only makes you more present, but can serve as a morale booster to both residents and employees.

Reposition with a purpose

Tye Campbell of SCFS presented an excellent session on some of the repositioning and construction work that his firm has done in the last decade. Every one of those communities had something in common; they all worked hard to incorporate green design and local flavor into their updates and upgrades. This trend isn’t new in the aging services space, but Tye’s presentation reinforced just how important these considerations are as organizations contemplate their next move.

SCFS has also experienced a dramatic rise in the desire for common spaces in senior living. Tye noted that, in several instances, the pools, bistros and other dining areas that SCFS has built are so popular with residents that they seem too small on the very day they open. Those looking to expand should listen up on this point — don’t go small just because of budgets. Think about how much use the space will get, as it’s better to built a slightly larger space now than to try to retrofit or expand a space later.

Plants, leaves and the color green

While this might be a bit self-serving, Seth Anthony, our communications manager at Varsity, made an interesting point during our session on branding that I hadn’t previously considered. It also happened to get the most laughter and nods of agreement of any part of the presentation, so I had to include it in this list.

We, at Varsity, value our ability to bring a fresh perspective to our clients during our brand odyssey. Seth aptly pointed out one area in which aging services organizations aren’t doing a good job at being fresh — their logos! Try this exercise, and you’ll see what I mean! Go to http://images.google.com and search for “senior living logos.” You’ll notice that a large portion of logos include one of three elements: plants and trees, leaves and the color green. As organizations work hard to differentiate themselves in an ever-more-competitive market, having a logo that looks and feels much like your competitors can make it hard to truly stand out. I know I’ll be taking a more critical look at aging services logos in the future!

I’d like to extend my thanks to LeadingAge Tennessee for another great event in Nashville. Its hospitality is always spot-on, and you certainly can’t beat an evening out

Our Three Takeaways from the UMA Development Conference

This past week, I had the pleasure of attending the third of four regional conferences being held this year by the United Methodist Association of Health and Welfare Ministries. Held in Boulder, Colorado, the event centered on development and engagement. For those who were unable to attend, you missed a great event with some excellent […]

Posted on August 8, 2017

Our Three Takeaways from the UMA Development Conference

By Derek Dunham
Posted on August 8th 2017

This past week, I had the pleasure of attending the third of four regional conferences being held this year by the United Methodist Association of Health and Welfare Ministries. Held in Boulder, Colorado, the event centered on development and engagement. For those who were unable to attend, you missed a great event with some excellent speakers. As I reflect on the session, I found that I came away with three key points from which I think that every person working in the aging services field can benefit.

Development must be part of the branding process.

When we undertake a branding process at Varsity, we look at the organization holistically. From the frontline staff all the way up to the C-suite, it’s important that everyone in the organization can articulate the brand and feel empowered by it. During the conference, many development professionals shared that they sometimes feel overlooked in the branding process. At Varsity, we work to include all departments in our Brand Odyssey, especially development, as we understand how important they are to any nonprofit organization.

Arguably, development is one of the most public faces of your brand. They are the ones going out into the community and working to articulate your mission and values to potential donors. If they don’t feel like the brand matches their goals, or they are forced to adapt a brand to their needs, it becomes harder for them to do their jobs. Marketers ― especially in faith-based, mission-focused senior living organizations ― desire brands that speak to vitality, energy and continued life. Meanwhile, studies have proven that donors are more likely to make contributions to organizations that they feel are helping those experiencing hardship. These two messages can easily be at odds! During our branding process, we strive to keep this in mind and balance the needs of both sides of the organization.

Digital marketing isn’t just limited to filling apartments; it’s great for donors, too!

We all know that it takes money to make money. The same is true for development. You have to invest time and resources into reaching the right potential donors ― at the right time, with the right message. Digital marketing, both through search engines and social media, provide this exact capability. But, because of the time and effort it takes to execute such tactics and then analyze the results, many development professionals shy away from them. Why wouldn’t they? In-person discussion sessions are far more likely to end up with a gift than a single digital ad. But, as Millennials begin to further explore charities, meeting them in the areas in which they congregate ― namely, on the web ― is going to be an important part of any development tool kit.

Think of it this way: If you could run targeted ads about your current capital campaign directly to people in a specific age range within your community, with additional data that says they are more likely to donate than the average person, would you do it? What if you could reach 5,000 of those people for less than $50? One or two donations would likely cover the cost of the campaign, so the rest is pure gifts for your organization!

Are you engaging, not only with current residents, but also with their friends and extended family as donors?

One statement that we seemed to hear over and over again was that the largest and best gifts usually come from those who directly benefit from the services offered by the organization. Sure, most development professionals know the value of establishing relationships with the current service users. However, expanding that reach to the children and family is a great way to work the same angle (those who have benefitted from the service) but also expand your potential donor base into adjacent areas.

I tip my hat to the United Methodist Association team for their hard work in putting together an excellent conference. At Varsity, we love seeing their member organizations succeed and grow, and we look forward to many more events together in the future!

Culture Sells Communities

In a crowded aging services marketplace, retirement communities are working around the clock to find ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. These tactics often include new amenities, varied dining experiences, and ever more involved life enrichment programs. While these upgrades are nice, and may help sway some new residents to sign on the proverbial […]

Posted on July 31, 2017

Culture Sells Communities

By Jackie Stone
Posted on July 31st 2017

In a crowded aging services marketplace, retirement communities are working around the clock to find ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. These tactics often include new amenities, varied dining experiences, and ever more involved life enrichment programs. While these upgrades are nice, and may help sway some new residents to sign on the proverbial dotted line, they often aren’t the deciding factor in choosing a community. We all know that location and culture trump granite countertops, lobster dinners, and symphony tickets.

So, let’s be honest with ourselves for a second, shall we? Most retirement communities are the same.

This is a blasphemous statement, I know! But, in a world populated by tens of thousands of communities, they just aren’t all that different when you get right down to it. Nonprofit communities all have a mission that involves caring for and supporting their residents to enable them to live their best life. The words might vary, but the intention is often very similar. So, naturally, these communities try to differentiate themselves from their competitors through physical amenities, unique programs, and better marketing.

Yet, as we opened with, these items usually don’t completely explain why someone chooses one community over another; they are supplemental factors to location and culture. Of course, you can’t change your location, but you can change your culture in a way that will make your community truly unique and quickly make you stand out from your competitors, attracting better leads and more new residents in the process. Here are three ways that you can grow your community culture and attract new residents.

SAGE USA

SAGE is a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting an overlooked and growing portion of the senior market. They advocate and provide services to older people who are GLBT. People in this market have special needs and wants when it comes to senior living and they can easily feel out of place at even the most “welcoming” community. Through their sagecare program, SAGE offers education courses for senior living leaders, managers, and front line employees. This education culminates in a credential provided by the organization denoting the level of training received (bronze, silver, gold.) By training staff in working with the GLBT population and implementing a culture of inclusiveness, you can quickly differentiate yourself from surrounding communities and have an inside track with a market that your competitors are probably ignoring.

SeniorAdvisor.com

Thanks to their strong marketing campaigns, you’ve probably heard of SeniorAdvisor. As an independent senior living review site, SeniorAdvisor has shown strong growth in the past few years. Unlike some other Senior Living referral sites, SeniorAdvisor doesn’t cost your community a dime and it performs two very important functions. First, it offers a forum for individuals to rate and review your community, independent of your digital presence. Of course, this doesn’t preclude you from asking your residents to review you on the site and leave feedback. By doing so, you can create a pool of positive reviews that demonstrates the culture of your community and provides a resource for potential residents who would like to know more about your community. Plus, the listings on SeniorAdvisor can create excellent backlinks, boosting your SEO in the process.

Also, SeniorAdvisor.com awards an annual “Best of” recognition to those communities who have had a sufficient number of positive reviews in the previous twelve months. This is a great credential to earn and includes both digital badges for your website and physical awards for your sales office. You should never underestimate the power of an independent review and recognition from an outside organization!

Find your niche.

This one is a little bit harder to articulate, as it’s not a certification or award, but rather a holistic piece of your culture that you must decide on. At one time, nearly every non-profit retirement was designed to service a niche in the local community. This is why we have organizations affiliated with various religious denominations, community organizations, and fraternal groups. They cater to these once large populations with a culture that was directly influenced by the common bond of membership. However, as membership in these groups has dwindled, so has interest in their retirement communities, forcing these nonprofits to go looking elsewhere for residents. Yet, the idea of a niche is still important; you just have to think about it in a different way.

Do you have a strong resident club that plays to a certain interest – perhaps the environment, organic gardening, or philanthropy? Find those niches and embrace them. While you probably can’t focus your entire community on a single niche (although some new communities are doing just that), you can use the interests of your current residents to connect with potential residents and help them see that the culture of your community lines up well with what they are looking for.

Knowing the culture of your community, and who that culture appeals to, can help you better market to future residents that are more likely to move in. While physical amenities can help sway a decision, a strong culture that attracts a broad range of residents can have a greater impact on your occupancy rates than any new restaurant or upgraded kitchen!

Finding Good PR Stories

One thing nearly every retirement community can agree on is that they feel like they go unnoticed. Marketing managers around the country are all too familiar with the phrase, “We’ve lived in this area our entire lives and never knew you were here or what you did.” Of course, this refrain drives retirement living professionals […]

Posted on July 27, 2017

Finding Good PR Stories

By Seth Anthony
Posted on July 27th 2017

One thing nearly every retirement community can agree on is that they feel like they go unnoticed. Marketing managers around the country are all too familiar with the phrase, “We’ve lived in this area our entire lives and never knew you were here or what you did.” Of course, this refrain drives retirement living professionals batty, as they are often working very hard — and spending lots of money — in an effort to get someone to consider making their property home. To this end, one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle is a robust public relations plan that both informs the wider neighborhood of their existence and acts as a marketing tool that helps to bring in prospective residents.

Getting local media outlets to cover a retirement community isn’t always easy. While we, as professionals working in the industry, see and hear all of the amazing stories our residents share, it is often difficult to get reporters and journalists to pay attention. And why should they? While Mr. Jones may have an amazing story about his involvement in the Korean conflict, there is probably a Mr. Jones at every community. Finding an angle for a story that piques the interest of the media can be difficult, but we have some tips on where you can find those stories.

First, think quirky! Some of the best story hooks in your community may be hidden just under the surface and are things that you don’t even notice anymore. That resident whose apartment is entirely decorated with elephants may be old news to you, but his or her quirky collection may just be the interesting hook that a reporter will bite at. Nearly everyone has something quirky that makes him or her unique, so don’t be afraid to share it.

Next, try to tie someone’s life story into what’s currently trending. Perhaps a neighborhood in your community is undergoing a revitalization, and it’s the same area in which many of your residents grew up. Hearing how the neighborhood has changed, grown or even remained somewhat the same over the course of several decades can be a fun story to share! Every resident has a unique outlook based on his or her life experience, so sharing how those memories reflect on today’s society can be a great starting point for an article or interview.

Finally, embrace popular culture. What’s the latest fad that kids are into? Finding a way to connect your population to that fad or a public relations piece can be great fun! One great idea we had was to ask residents to interact with a fidget spinner, the toy craze that hit earlier this summer. While many parents and teachers saw the gizmos as silly, we found that some retirees loved to play with the toy — and we captured their reactions as they did!

Great public relations stories for your community are occurring every day. Finding a way to make the unique and different is what will appeal to reporters. If you remember to look for the quirky, keep an eye on trends and embrace popular culture, you’ll uncover a slew of stories in no time flat!

Quick Tips for Quality Content Generation

You’re excited. This is the day you’ve been waiting for since that fateful date nearly 12 months ago. You’ve spent hundreds of hours planning and designing, making sure everything is right. You’ve met with dozens of vendors and have a script for how the whole day should go. That’s right — it’s launch day for […]

Posted on July 20, 2017

Quick Tips for Quality Content Generation

By Wayne Langley
Posted on July 20th 2017

You’re excited. This is the day you’ve been waiting for since that fateful date nearly 12 months ago. You’ve spent hundreds of hours planning and designing, making sure everything is right. You’ve met with dozens of vendors and have a script for how the whole day should go. That’s right — it’s launch day for your new website!

But, three months later, you’ve realized that there was a hole in your plan. That new website is starting to feel stale already. The pictures haven’t changed. The blog hasn’t been updated. Your integrated Facebook and Twitter feeds are displaying posts that are already two months old. Getting the website to launch was such hard work, you assumed it would be all downhill once it went live. However, now you realize that that was the simple part; finding time to curate content, post updates on social media, change out photos and respond to inquiries isn’t just hard — it’s nearly impossible.

We’ve seen this time and time again within the senior living space. Finding the time to actively manage the digital presence of the organization is a big challenge. Many communities leave this task to marketing or sales managers who have to choose between posting a nice photo or having a conversation that could lead to a sale. Of course, the sale will always take priority, leaving the digital presence to stagnate over time. Finding quick, shareable content may be slightly easier than you realize, though. We have three proven strategies that will help you find additional engaging content quickly!

Don’t be a lone warrior.
Amazing, shareable stories are happening around your community every single day, but you’re only one person. That’s why you need to enlist the help of your employees and residents. Start creating a culture of shareable moments today by encouraging others to share their moments with you. Yes, there are some pitfalls that have to be avoided regarding photo releases, but a little bit of training with your staff and residents could produce huge dividends in the form of wonderful, engaging photographs and stories that you might not have ever heard about otherwise.
Think small.
Whenever your community is holding a big event or celebration, it’s easy to find shareable moments. Veteran events, innovative programs and food tastings always make for good content. However, it’s the smaller, daily moments that really make your social presence something special. If Mrs. Johnson is always walking her poodle around your community, stop and ask to take a picture. Share Mrs. Johnson and Fido with the rest of the world. After all, they are a part of the fabric of life for your residents. Showing families and potential residents what life is like at your community, day in and day out, is really important for a long-term social media strategy.
Stop being a perfectionist.
Everybody wants their organization to look its best. However, just like a person, there are going to be slight imperfections that crop up. Maybe that picture of a vibrant, exciting resident shows another resident in the background in a motorized chair. That’s okay! That’s real life at your community. Yes, in pre-planned advertising, such as print or television, you’ll want perfectly shot, model-quality photographs, but social media is meant to capture everyday life. None of us look like models every day, and we can’t expect our communities and residents to do so, either.

Generating content for social media and blogs doesn’t have to be difficult. Your social media feed should feel like someone is walking the halls of your community, experiencing what life is like. It should never feel like they are enduring a sales pitch or having a digital “lunch and learn.” Be true to your community and show off what life is genuinely like there, and you’ll soon have more content than you ever thought imaginable!

PRIME