We’ve all heard the old nugget, “You have to spend money to make money.” However, that’s easier said than done in most cases. Spending money in order to make money feels counterintuitive, especially for cost-conscious small businesses and start-ups just trying to get off the ground. The saying is, however, true; putting money into a business is what helps it grow. For home care agencies and other aging care businesses, it’s important to be smart about your expenses and to examine areas where spending more money might actually increase your business growth.
How Does Your Agency Grow Profitably?
Understandably, most agencies spend the majority of their money on direct care expenses (60.5 – 61% according to the 2014 Private Duty Benchmarking Study). However, very little funds are allocated to one of the main things that can truly increase agency growth – marketing. According to the study, only 1.7 – 2.1% of home care agency expenses are allocated toward marketing efforts.
For years, online marketing has proven to be a great investment, as most people turn to the web and use their smart phones and tablets to search for the goods and services they need, including home care. A strong Internet presence can make a great impact on an agency’s growth, but only if money is spent on a quality online marketing strategy.
Creating a successful online marketing campaign includes a well-designed website with great content, but it takes more than that. The following are all part of an effective online marketing strategy for home care agencies:
- Professional website design
- The creation of relevant, shareable, quality content
- Search engine optimization, including:
- Keyword research and implementation
- Blogging
- Regular SEO analysis
- Social media presence
- Email marketing
A DIY-approach to online marketing may seem easy to some, but getting the results most agencies want and the best return on investment requires a professional touch from Internet marketing experts, as well as ongoing analysis and updates.
For example, a digital marketing professional can make sure that the topics that you cover in your blog posts contain trending, relevant, and useful information that your audience will want to share online with others like themselves who might also find the information helpful and informative. An online marketing professional can also help you place performance-based keywords within the text of your blogs to increase your website’s recognition with search engines so that those who are looking for services you offer can easily find you online. Do you know what keywords will perform the best for your website? This is just one example of how working with professionals can help you begin to market your services in a more strategic and effective way that will lead to growth and ROI for your company.
The aging care marketing experts at corecubed have developed effective marketing strategies for home care agencies across the country. Contact our team to learn more about our home care marketing services and how we can help you grow your bottom line.