Generating new home health care leads for your agency is essential if you want to grow your business and stay competitive in this crowded marketplace. However, outbound lead generation tactics of the past – cold calling, direct mail, and print advertising – while still an important part of marketing for many businesses, must be integrated with new, inbound tactics to better produce qualified home health care leads quickly without adding a lot of additional cost.

What is an “inbound tactic,” you might say? An inbound tactic is a conversion path on your website. In simpler terms, it’s an option for your website visitor to do something on your website – a next step down the buying path. And that’s exactly the path you want all of your website visitors on!

The majority of adult children or other family members or friends looking for home care for an elderly loved one use the Internet to find a home care agency. Your company’s website should not only be findable by search engines, but it should also be the hub for a varied mix of marketing and lead generation pathways, and the platform for integrating your traditional and modern marketing efforts. Getting your website found online is the prime directive of your search engine marketing efforts. Once you’ve been found, however, how do you get visitors to take action and pick up the phone or email to inquire about your services? The answer is to strategically integrate your marketing efforts and use your website as lead generation portal!

Have You Paved Conversion Paths?

Targeting the right people and getting them to your site is the first step. (And that is not such an easy step, but, the narrower the niche, the better the tactics work.) Once on the website, the target needs a clear conversion path to follow in order to take the next steps that you want him or her to take. A conversion path consists of five key elements:

• A call-to-action: Your call-to-action (or CTA) is a button or text that lets the targeted visitor find your offer. Your CTA should make clear what you’re offering the potential client and what you want him or her to do in order to get it. For example: “Download Our Whitepaper on Communicating with an Alzheimer’s Patient,” “Sign Up for Our Presentation on How to Know When It Is Time for In-Home Care”,” or “Contact Us for More Information on Making Your Home Parkinson’s Friendly.”
• A landing page: When a visitor clicks on your CTA, he or she must be sent to a landing page that has a clear headline stating what the offer is, a compelling image or graphic illustrating the offer, and compelling text giving clear information about the offer.
• A form: An essential aspect of the “action” part of the call-to-action, the form gives visitors a way in which to contact your agency, sign up for the information or action you are asking them to take, etc. Remember, no form means no leads!
• A thank-you page: Once a visitor has filled out the form, he or she is now a lead! The thank-you page allows you to cement your new relationship by providing the new lead with access to the information he requested as well as pointing him to additional information in which he may have an interest.
• Personalized confirmation email: Finally, the personalized confirmation email provides the offer attached to the email and allows your new lead the ability to find the offer and your information again later. You can also make it easy for your leads to share offers with others straight from their confirmation email by providing social sharing buttons. This is a key point that many people overlook. You want your information to be shareable with others. You want visitors to your website to love what they found because it’s so helpful, and then want to pass it on to everyone they know in the same situation as they are.

Is Your Website Taking Up Space on the Web, or Drawing Leads Through the Internet Portal?

It used to be that websites were simply online brochures – digital lists of services that companies offered. Today, websites must be interactive portals that help customers enter and move down the purchasing path. Guiding the visitor through the site and getting him or her to find appropriate information that is helpful and will facilitate picking up that phone and contacting your agency is the new goal. Would potential clients entering your website:

• know that they’re in the right place?
• find the information they need easily?
• be compelled to contact you?
• feel satisfied with the offer and follow-up once they did?

If not, it’s time to think about how you can integrate your current marketing efforts into your website, identify your niche market (sweet spot) where you want more inquiries and referrals, and target those through SEO and some lead generation tactics. Contact the aging care marketing experts at corecubed to learn how we can use digital marketing tactics and our in-depth industry knowledge to turn more of your website visitors into those who will use your service. Let us help you increase home health care leads and pave some conversion paths!