What are the most frequently used methods for sales, marketing, and public relations in home care?
Which of these methods are most effective?
How can you build a simple, effective promotional strategy that is sure to bring in new referrals that turn into admissions?
These are just a few of the questions we’ve been asking at Leading Home Care for over ten years as we have surveyed the home health, hospice, and private duty home care sectors looking for answers to help you grow your business and get ready for the future.
In our most recent survey, which began in the fall of 2010, we took a new approach. Instead of developing a list of techniques, and asking which ones you have used and which ones are most effective, we divided the techniques into four categories.
1. Selling and Networking. All of the research we have done in the past decade shows that the most effective techniques for generating new referrals are based on networking and selling. We define networking as a planned process of meeting new people so that you can add them to your data base, and keeping in touch with people you already know, but can’t meet with regularly.
Selling is the process of making planned, face to face calls on high potential customers and referral sources to present your programs and services and ask for new client referrals.
In this survey, the questions in this first section focused on which referral sources are most productive. The answers are very different comparing home health care and hospice to private duty home care.
2. Paid Advertising. We’ve always questioned the value of paid advertising in growing private duty home care, and this survey clarified that for us. Of all of the other possible methods, paid advertising is way down the list. However, we also learned that you can build a very successful business using paid advertising if you focus on one medium, and get very good at it. The key is repetition and consistency.
3. Targeted Marketing and Public Relations. This is our catch-all category for all of the techniques that don’t fit into one of the other three. We learned that you can really make an impact with some low-cost, no-cost PR and marketing methods.
4. Web and technology based marketing. The research validated what we have suspected. Your web site is a very important part of your overall marketing strategy, and is among the highest rated methods for generating referrals. The other technology techniques including social media are much less effective, and almost no one is measuring the results they are getting.
Since completing the original survey, we have continued to study how successful home care companies across the country are using these techniques. We’ve looked at the skills required to be an effective business builder in home care.
For example, one of the most important skills for you to develop in growing your business is …. are you ready … writing. Well written headlines and copy can make all of the difference in the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
We’ve concluded that well written headlines and copy in mediocre marketing methods are much more effective than the best techniques poorly executed.
Execution, Execution, Execution?
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition!
Consistency, Consistency, Consistency!
These are the keys to your success. Learn more about the results of our research in our upcoming web conference on “Serving More Clients.”
