Jump Into Senior Living Email Marketing Automation

The ins and outs of senior living marketing automation.

Amanda McGrory-Dixon , March 15, 2016

Amanda McGrory-Dixon

Businesses that use marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a gargantuan 451% increase in qualified leads. Marketing automation simply works. It takes a lot of the guesswork and human error out of emailing prospective residents and clinches the deal for many of your leads. Here’s how to get started.  

Establish Campaign Goals

Before you start an automated email campaign, establish what you would like each email to do. You can put a lot of work into an email flow, but unless it’s grounded in quantifiable goals, determining success will be a murky process.

Mere engagement is usually not enough. Are you trying to convert blog readers into prospects? To get people to sign up for your next event? To get folks to call into your call center for an informative chat or to schedule a tour? Let your goals be your guide.

Keep It Personal

Just because it’s automated, doesn’t mean it has to be robotic. Personalized emails improve click-through rates by 14% and conversion rates by 10%. Go beyond simple name personalizations. Ask the questions on website forms and call-center interviews that will allow you to personalize lead contact later.

Segment Your Leads

For true personalization, divide your lead lists into subsets that receive a specific suite of automated content. You may have a separate email campaign for young Boomers and for the Silent Generation. Develop specialized content for locals and for out-of-state contacts. Create customized email cascades depending on mode of contact, such as specific landing pages or call-center touches.

Move Leads Through the Sales Funnel

One of your goals is to create a system that automatically moves your leads further along in the sales funnel. The timing of your emails is crucial. Initial browsers and others who are at the top of the funnel need broad, informative content that will help them find the right senior living community. When they are further along in their process, you can introduce them to your community and to some of the ways it can meet their needs.

Stay Focused on Prospects

You establish trust and confidence through on-point, timely content. And not just once or twice. What you ask your leads to spend their time on must consistently provide them with value. With every email you write in your campaigns, you want to ask yourself “how does this benefit this person?” What you are nurturing is not a sale but a developing relationship.

Check Your Work

Most of us receive a lot of marketing contact and a lot of emails. We’re all connoisseurs. A broken link, a field incorrectly filled, or a misspelled word can cause irritation with your prospects. Be sure to test your emails before you send them out and check over your text to make sure your community always looks professional.

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