When facilities turn their attention to creating senior living ads, it is important to avoid stereotypical ads that do not represent seniors. Seniors will recognize the lack of effort, and this will produce the opposite effect of generating interest. These useful advertising ideas can help to avoid senior stereotyping while creating engaging content to spark interest:
- Embrace modern technology – Facilities should incorporate modern technology into their senior living marketing strategies with visual storytelling flipbooks. Facilities can collect images of residents showing typical day-to-day activities and then compile them in a digital flipbook using digital tools before being shared on social media and other avenues. The end product is visually beautiful stories showing real-life experiences of residents. These flipbooks are inspiring, engaging, and educational, giving genuine insight into the quality of care in the facility.
- Focus on the individual – Another tactic a facility can use in their senior living marketing is to focus on the individual rather than the demographic. A common faux pas advertisers make is failing to capture their target audience, what they want, and what they need from a senior living community. Studies show that knowing the target audience and how to reach them will help facilities stay competitive in the market. Therefore, creating non-personal senior living ads with a mundane actor reading a book will not relate to seniors researching senior living communities. Instead, it is better to focus on creating more personalized senior living ads that focus on the individual by highlighting engaging activities like organized field trips to local museums and community service projects or continuing their passions in gardening or painting, or even learning new skills like a foreign language or woodworking classes. The possibilities are endless, and will certainly make an impact to spark interest.
- Entertain the audience – Advertisers tend to forget that despite their age, seniors still have a sense of humor and, like others, they just want to be entertained. Assisted living marketing does not need to be serious or highlight worrying ailments and the need for care. Instead, it is more effective for senior living ads to embrace humor with engaging content, thus making the facility more appealing and its residents more relatable.
- Be respectful – Even though the majority of senior living facility strategy focuses on being an industry authority, it is important to do so in a factual and informative way. If the senior living ads do not capture the “right voice,” they can come across as condescending or preachy. Seniors are no different from anyone else. They want to be treated with respect and honesty, so senior living ads must reflect that to have any chance of appealing and sparking interest.
