Frequently, we are asked by a potential client why they really need a blog. While it’s difficult to quantify a specific number of sales in senior living communities and continuing care communities to a blog, we do know that blogs keep websites alive and well.
Google and other search engines like frequent blogs so when someone tells you a blog is good for SEO, it’s true. I’m not a computer techie, so I simply accept this as gospel.
It’s not difficult to have a tab on your website’s toolbar for a blog. The challenge is maintaining a blog with copy that offers a customer relevant information that they want to read.
Blog Frequency
To be effective, blogging is a commitment. It takes more than writing several blogs one month and never touching a blog again. If a senior living community is committed to a blog on their website, ideally, a minimum of once a week is required to be worthwhile. Essentially it means you are updating your website each week.
Accomplishing Consistency
You need to allocate time to write a blog. We recommend a blog game plan. Brainstorming the topics that will comprise the blog content for 6 months is very useful. Then you know in advance what you will be writing. There may be deviations as new opportunities arise to shift the content, but blog content can be incorporated in an assisted living and continuing care community’s marketing plan.
Seeing a Blog’s Impact
A blog needs to address your customer’s concerns. It offers an opportunity to tell your community’s story in a way that helps the consumer.
Blogs needs to provide information that affects your customer. It is different from a website since this information talks more about your company while the blog provides helpful information.
It is very important that a blog contain the words and terms a customer may use in searching for an assisted living or continuing care community. It may take several months working with your website consultant to make sure your blog contains the right SEO words.
What to Blog About
Content needs to drive people to your community. We recommend content offer consumers information to help them with caregiving concerns and challenges and transitioning their parent to an assisted living community. Blogs offer an opportunity to write about your community and share what the website does not. For example, we work with a continuing care community that has many resident-driven committees. The work these committees accomplish for their community is very meaningful and sets this community apart from other continuing care communities. We write about the various committees and their accomplishments.
Branding with Content
It’s important that the content of the blog be in line with the community’s brand. This is why you can find blog writers on Fiverr or someone who can write very generic content that you’ll find posted on several different senior living communities. This type of content won’t fit the brand of your community. Additionally, using residents to write a senior living community’s blog could be practical but someone needs to be a gatekeeper on content.
For additional information about a blog for your assisted living or continuing care community, please call The Ehlers Group at 954-726-9228.
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