Referrals are the life-blood of home care and home health agencies. Getting a constant stream of referrals is crucial to the continuity and success of your agency. With many competitors in the market, it is important that you market your services well to the right people and the right professionals.
Think of it as a sales pitch. The better your sales representative is at marketing your services to physicians, facilities and hospitals, and healthcare professionals can make a huge difference. It is what gives you the edge over your competitors. If you are in need of such assistance, Senior Care Clicks provides home care marketing strategies.
The process begins with selection. You need the right people to give you the referrals. These are the people and institutions that you should demonstrate your unique strengths to. These are the:
- Physicians. By building a great relationship with general practitioners and specialists, you get a constant flow of referrals from their patients.
- Hospital staff. These include hospital social workers and discharge coordinators. They can refer to your agency when you build a good relationship with them.
- Nursing homes. Provide their staff and social workers with information why their patients should hire caregivers from your agency after discharge.
- Disease-specific associations. These associations assist patients with specific illnesses. They can refer their patients to your home care agency.
Word of mouth referral
Part of home care marketing strategies is “word of mouth.” You can ask for referrals from your past clients, and even current clients. This, of course, should be done with their permission. That is why it is important to build a great relationship with your previous and existing clients. When they are happy and satisfied with your services, they will most likely refer your home care and home health services to their friends and families.
Read More: Finding a Great Home Care Agency that Meets your Needs
Consumer marketing
This is a marketing strategy that used to directly target clients, or potential clients. The main goal is to engage people and educate them about in-home care and home health care services in general. Convince them why your agency is better than the others; what makes you unique and why should they choose you.
There are various modes of consumer marketing, including Google AdWords, radio and TV ads, community events, senior-related seminars, and billboard ads.
To better promote your agency, here’s an effective action plan you can follow:
- Hire a reliable sales professional. Get someone who is not only experienced and talented, but one who can easily connect with people.
- Develop your own value proposition plan that is unique to your agency. Make the presentation as concise and attention-grabbing as possible.
- Physicians and hospital workers are busy people. Hence, prepare an impressive but brief presentation. Provide them persuasive data and meet their goals and standards without taking too much of their time.
- Highlight your competitive edge. Give them compelling reasons to refer to your agency instead of your competitors.
With the right sales representatives and marketing strategies, you can steadily generate referrals to your home care or home health care agency.
