How can your practice engage and market to seniors so you have the opportunity to meet and surpass their healthcare needs?
Build Relationships with Active Adult Communities
Building organic relationships with 50+ senior living communities is a great way to do this. And let’s be clear, we are not calling them retirement communities on purpose. Many residents in those communities are still actively employed and continuing to work in their careers long after the typical retirement age. In fact, some may be working in their second or third careers. Recognizing and remembering that these residents are active and busy is important to keep in mind while you market to them and plan events they can attend with a working schedule.
Community Manager
Get to know the Community Manager at the property. They would be a good first point of contact to learn more about the needs of the community. Offer perks for their residents like same-day appointments. Offer to be a resource if they ever need recommendations on great physicians – like Ortho and Cardiology. If they publish a community newsletter, offer royalty-free health articles that don’t sell your practice specifically. They could also use the same info on their social media. Basically, build a relationship so your practice is their go-to resource for anything health related.
Find out if there are volunteer opportunities in the community and consider having a staff member participate. Volunteering is an amazing way to build organic relationships.
Activities and Fitness Contacts
Connect with the person that plans activities. Try to complement the community’s existing activities in addition to creating new ones. Offer to help them do a health fair. Offer to help with other activities. And if you are able, offer to provide free food, branded trinkets and health screenings at the health fair. Including child-centered activities (face painting, simple carnival games, etc.) for grandchildren is another great way to encourage grandparents to attend.
Get to know the people that run the fitness center. Offer articles or resident talks. Be a resource for them. Meet the golf, tennis, or pickle ball pro. Offer info for members (articles, videos, talks) on preventing injuries, and be sure to talk up good playing form. Be sure the pro knows you’ll give priority access to their clients.
On-site Health Clinic
Many communities have an on-site health clinic. Connect with the Medical Director and/or manager to see how you can support the community. Many of these communities have in-house physicians, but not all residents want to see those doctors. For those residents, a nearby location is important to them.
Offer to provide hand sanitizer, bandaids, or other medical supplies with your logo, of course. Offer on-site vaccine clinics for flu shots, COVID, and any other common senior vaccines if it clinically makes sense to do them outside of the primary care setting (pneumonia, shingles, etc.).
Sponsorships
If the community has events and programs that can be sponsored, consider doing this. If you can sponsor, ask for face time with residents during that event or program, not just your logo on the sign.
Give Back to Groups They Care About
Participate in groups and clubs that cater to a specific interest or activity, like Cancer Support Group, Kiwanis Club, Parkinson’s Support Group, Serious Illness Support Group, Support Our Troops, and many more. Your providers could speak to and be resources for these residents. In addition to the normal health material, if your practice has any military doctors, offer to speak about military medical topics which, from our experience, is always well attended.
Digital Marketing
In regard to digital marketing, set up or hire someone to set up a geofence around a specific community and do Facebook marketing to the residents. Residents are on Facebook and some lurk on Instagram, too. In your ads, keep them focused on meeting their needs and less about your specific practice.
The 50+ communities can be a captive audience for your practice if you are able to build authentic relationships with the residents and staff. Organic relationships built on a true interest in helping them learn and stay healthy is your best bet for successful engagement which could lead to the growth of your practice.
