Annual returns for senior housing outpace other commercial real estate properties, according to NCREIF. Emerging Trends in Real Estate rank senior housing first among seven residential property types in 2018 for best investment and development prospects. It’s obvious that the senior housing market is strong and we haven’t even reached the baby boomer demand era. Whether you’re planning to invest or want to increase your current assets’ values, you may be too focused on increasing sales or adjusting pricing. But marketing, when implemented strategically, is a vital operational advantage alongside sales and pricing.

The National Real Estate Investor has 6 predictions for the senior living industry this year, one being differentiation as a critical component of building. But what good is an investment in specialized communities and unique amenities if your approach to marketing is stuck in 2017?

Marketing is Your Secret Weapon

Many executives feel like their marketing budget is wasted or inefficient dollars spent. But a responsive website plus strategic digital advertising gives your team the power to collect data and understand where their spend has the greatest impact. The unpredictability that you experience is why marketing is rarely considered as an operational lever when revenue growth is most needed. But, with the development of marketing technology that can harness the massive quantities of data being produced from online experiences, you can turn your marketing spend into a predictable revenue machine.

How to Spend Better

Data, when powered by machine learning, can amplify your impact and reduce unnecessary spending. One example is to use the data to choose which of digital advertising tactics will be most successful and, in real time, adapt your campaigns to drive the demand where you need it most. By understanding what channels create the best traffic and leads, you can easily cut the channels that aren’t working and invest most heavily in the ones that are.

But this spend optimization extends beyond higher occupancy as a contributor to increased asset value. The National Real Estate Investor also noted that labor issues will remain in 2018, which could prevent new builds and keep current communities low on quality staff, resulting in a negative impact on your reputation. That same data that is powering an increase in your occupancy also equips you with the power to recruit and retain top talent. Reducing turnover means you’re spending less on the hiring and training of new staff, keeping more money in the revenue column and building a brand known as the place to work in senior living.

What Can You Do Today?

It’s critical for you to ensure that your marketing team is working effectively and efficiently in order to increase occupancy and generate more revenue. Give them the tools to do more, while you spend smarter. Make it easy on your team by partnering with a Premier Google Partner and Facebook Managed Partner. Our campaigns outperform the competition and are powered by G5’s new, AI-driven Intelligent Marketing Cloud. Learn more today about our G5 Digital Advertising and leave the hard stuff to us.