Nearly three-quarters of adults over 65 own a mobile phone and both seniors and their adult children research senior living communities on their smartphones. With the population of adults searching for senior living online, this opens up new ways to respond. By adopting different methods of communication, your senior living sales team can better connect with a market that continues to grow increasingly online. Texting can help improve senior living contact rates by reaching prospects using their preferred method of communication.  

Understand Your Personas

When using texting to communicate with prospects, it’s essential to understand who you are marketing to and develop personas that accurately reflect your prospects. Personas start with demographic information — gender, age, income, etc. — and combine information about motivation, pain points, and how your company offers a solution to make life easier for them. Senior living personas typically include seniors themselves, as well as their adult children. By understanding their lives and challenges, you will also discover how they prefer to receive information.

Communicating With Adult Children Using Texting

The adult children of seniors have very little free time to respond to an email or phone call. Sending a text message, on the other hand, often makes it easier to get a response. Conversion rates increase by 391% when a lead receives a response within one minute of contact. Quick follow-up is important in any industry. Within the senior living industry, it requires an average of 8 to 19 touches to secure a new resident. Establishing rapport quickly is even more important when communicating with busy adult children. 

In an era built on speed, text messaging can help your sales team increase contact rates relative to email or voicemail. Texting helps establish an immediate back and forth. Prospective residents or their adult children can easily respond to a text confirming a request for information about your community or to confirm a tour. Text messages go right to your lead, where they are, allowing them to reply at their convenience. 

Text messaging is less disruptive to receive and respond to for prospects than taking the time to answer or return a phone call. Texting makes it easier for adult children to find the time to respond during a busy workday. This also lends itself to developing a rapport through multiple modes of communication. Send a text message to confirm when the best time to call might be. Building trust and showing flexibility helps you bring new residents into your communities.

Provide Value and Land Sales

When used appropriately, text messaging can provide immediate value by helping you land sales. It’s important to be strategic in your use of text messaging, as it can lead to a sales boost of 328%. Use this method of communication to start conversations and develop a two-way conversation. Text messaging can help you connect with adult children by providing a personal touch. Invite adult children to an event at your community they may interest them or their loved one. Share a link with useful information that relates to a concern they expressed. Text messaging allows you to personalize your communication with leads in a friendly, approachable format.

Become an Innovator

Integrating text messaging into the way your sales team communicates with prospects and their adult children gives you a competitive advantage in the industry. Most senior living communities haven’t adopted text messaging into their communications yet. By becoming an early adopter you can impress prospects with your innovation and you’ll show up where they are with speed, convenience, and versatility. 

Learn more about innovations in senior living marketing by scheduling a strategy session with G5 today.