Marketing with your Certification

The following are helpful hints for our current Certified Senior Approved and Senior Advocate companies to assist in their overall marketing plans and to offer a method to 'Stop the Shopping' with telephone inquiries.

Service providers serving our elderly have unique challenges to overcome while marketing their own specific service. Certified Senior Approved services and Senior Advocates have an edge, unavailable anywhere else.

Spread the word Inform the social workers, discharge planners, financial planners (and so forth) that are part your networking, that you are Senior Approved or are a Senior Advocate.

Suggested:

"As part of our commitment to an excellent service, we have contracted with Senior Approved Services who can verify for you how well we serve our seniors. You are welcome to contact them toll free at 1-877-620-6448 for an updated report on our service."

Or use the Announcement that we compose for you. See Carefree Announcement or Dynamic Living Announcement

Email Signature Line Change your signature in your email server account to include the fact that you are a Certified Senior Approved service or are a Senior Advocate.

Example:
Certified Senior Approved
Your Name
Remainder of the contact info you normally use

Or, Advocating for Seniors
Your Name
Remainder of the contact info you normally use

Send out a press release! Let your local community know that you have been certified as a Senior Approved Service or approved as a Senior Advocate! Consumers welcome a simplistic approach in choosing an excellent service, let these folks know, you are a service that can be trusted!

Send an announcement to your networking group and to all the places you have a relationship with (those that send you referrals) and to all the places you would like to begin receiving referrals from.

Recommend Each of us network. Suggest to your business associates that they may want to look at Senior Approved Services for their business. You may even want to suggest that (although you may not require it) you, yourself would feel more comfortable making referrals to them, if they were surveyed by Senior Approved Services.

After all, administration and staffing turnovers are common in this business. You certainly don't want to recommend a company that you yourself are not 100% positive will do a good job for our seniors.

Why does this help you? When companies promote themselves making use of the Senior Approved logo or the Senior Advocate logo, it increases consumer awareness of our screening process. We are very careful (as you know) who is accepted in our network. Your company, and other excellent companies in your area, end up helping each other.
Perhaps a prospective client sees your home care company promoting itself as a Senior Advocate, but they don't need home care, they need an elder law attorney. When they call here, first learning about us through your advertising, we can then connect them with an attorney.

Also - we are swamped right now. Seniors love what we are doing for them. We do not have enough companies in our network right now to accommodate the response we're getting. Consequently, we do not actively market our services to seniors right now. They've found us without it. If we had even 10 companies in a specific geographical area, we would market in your area.

Offer to seniors You will receive inquiries from families that want or need services that you cannot provide or perhaps they need additional services beyond what you can provide. Suggest that they phone Senior Approved Services. You know that we are a 'one-call' solution and will only recommend a service that is as excellent as you are.

This feature allows you to help seniors - without expending your valuable time helping to research on their behalf.AND it helps every company, including yours, when every business in our network does this.

Get Noticed

• Place your Senior Approved or Senior Advocate seal on all your brochures, letterhead, business cards.
• Display your certificate at every health fair, make copies and put in your presentation book.
• Frame your certificate and place in a public area of your office.

What makes you different from the other services in your category of service in your geographical area?

The seniors and family members that are or have used your service have approved you. Showcase that fact and you help yourself, more importantly, you help families make a good solid choice from the many options available.

Assure potential clients When speaking with a potential client, let them know that they can call Senior Approved Services to learn of your latest survey results.

Suggestion:

"Mrs. Smith, I know you are searching for the best, and I know it's confusing with all the choices out there. As part of our commitment to an excellent service, we have contracted with Senior Approved Services who can verify for you how well we serve our seniors. You are welcome to contact them toll free at 1-877-620-6448 for an updated report on our service."

When Mrs. Smith calls, we pull up the data we have on your company and speak about it with 'first-hand' knowledge.

• We reiterate the value of the survey & the background check that we completed on your companyWe say, "(Your company) has an excellent rating based on the actual customer feedback of those using the service."
• We do not quote the exact percentage
• We ask the caller for their first name only
• The conversation is strictly focused on you
• We do not: Ask the caller for any contact information (other than their first name)
• We do not: Mention any other companies to them

Why is this so important?

Third-party validation is valuable. You could provide your results, trust us, it is more powerful when it comes from us.

Senior Approved Services pre-closes clients on your behalf - at no charge to you. Why not use it.

Pre-close Use the Senior Approved or the Senior Advocate logo on your web site. Link it to Certified Senior Approved or to Senior Advocates

More ways to be noticed

Home Care Companies in our network can request to customize a 'How to Hire' homecare booklet written by Barbara Mascio. You then receive the booklet in PDF format. Use it to create an email mailing list by offering it from your web site. See How to Hire

Allow us to offer a customized modified version of our brochure, featuring your company on the inside fold. See Brochure/Carefree

Try sending a post card mailing. Mail to families within a five mile radius of your company. Mail to employers so that employers are aware of your service.

Remember, the person in search of your service is probably a woman, age 55 and older, who is employed full or part time. Mail as an announcement to key referral sources.

Order a window decal for your front door, window, or for use on your card. This style, though it looks blue, is actually clear. It would include your logo, your company name, contact info, and then state with the logo, whether you are Certified Senior Approved or a Senior Advocate.

Or, try a car magnet. We have a source for these and the cost is quite reasonable. Enough so, that you may want one for all your key staff members, if they're willing.

• Post your employment offers at no charge.
• Compose educational content articles (includes your byline and a link to your site) and submit to us for publication on our consumer site at Solutions for Seniors

Direct the senior to you Senior Approved Services should always be mentioned in your press releases somewhere. The whole point of being certified is to assist the consumer in making good choices of which service to choose. It is a recognizable "Verified Senior Approved" symbol and quite easily understood by the general public.

In-services If you are attempting to get through a 'gate-keeper' to make a presentation and are finding it difficult, let us know. Often times Senior Approved Services is welcomed much faster because we represent such a complete service. You offer one service and sometimes that is not of interest to physicians, employers, financial planners, hospitals and so forth.

Send us the contact information of this person or place that you would like to do an in-service. We will contact them and try to get our foot in the door. Once we have, we then personally introduce you. (which may happen via phone or email depending on your location)

Consider subscribing to The Amazing Senior Service Business Ezine written by one of our valued collaborative partners, Senior Marketing Expert, Valerie VanBooven-Whitsell.

Steps to a successful workshop

1. Become an expert in your field. Select at least one subject matter that your company offers as a service. Read other people's research and expertise on this topic as well. Put together a workshop or even just a 'talk' that you can offer as an event. Make it general, not a commercial about you.

2. Know your market. Seniors rarely call any elder care service for help. 63% of the calls to Senior Approved Services originated from the adult daughter (daughter-in-law, granddaughter and even ex-daughter-in-laws) What topic would be of interest to these working, busy, 'sandwiched' women? What do you do in your business that would be of service to these women?

3. Place your event (usually free) in your local papers community event page

4. If you don't have a host (an employer (lunch N learn), a support group, a senior center, a hospital) go to your local library (or church) and ask to use one of their meeting rooms. Usually this is free. Libraries (and most churches) will not allow you to charge for the talk. Libraries as well as churches may enter your event in their newsletter and will allow you to place flyers there as well.

5. Always require RSVP with your contact information. Collect their name, phone number and email address (you will need this in case the event cancels or changes for some reason)

6. Decide how many people need to show up to make this worth you spending time. It does not have to be a large crowd. I have found that 5 is my minimum, and five attentive participants are more valuable than 75 people who you may not be able to 'wow' as effectively.

7. In your introduction, let them know who you are and a very short description of your service. Include the fact that you are a Senior Approved Service Do not try to sell your service or sound like a commercial.

8. Always offer the opportunity for participants to sign up to receive email notes from your company from time to time - great method to either begin creating an online newsletter that you can begin to send out, or even just articles from time to time. Either way, it provides you a method to keep your name in front of these folks on a regular basis.

9. Most talks include at least one hand out sheet. Be certain that your handouts (each one) have your contact information on them (let them see your Senior Approved certification!) Wrap or paper clip your brochure & business card to your handouts.

10. Follow up with a 'Thank you for attending' note within a week. In my opinion, this should be handwritten. If you type it, okay, but hand write the address. People have strange reactions to seeing their name & address printed on a label. They prefer to believe you have written to 'them' not to your 'database'. Do not include literature but mention they are welcome to call you any time. (Remember - they already received your card and brochure) Your return envelope has your address and when you sign your name, add your phone number under your name.

11. The next time you have another event coming up, mail your flyer to these folks. They will appreciate it and may want to attend. You will soon have a 'crowd' of followers that begin to feel as though they can truly trust you. It takes time, but this does net clients.

12. Do not try to sell their contact information. Never give his or her contact info to anyone else. This is a soft sell; you are selling you, not your company. However, most folks need to believe in you before they can believe in your company.

We have had excellent results from our one workshop that we offer. We have done this for the National MS Association, the Alzheimer's Association, Catholic Charities, various senior centers, various caregiver workshops sponsored by ALF, Nursing Homes and Hospitals, a lot of different support groups, and we're a regular at the Caregivers School of Fairhill Center. A brief description of our workshop is at Caregivers Guide to Cracking UP! As you can see; it offers a fun look at Caregiving and how to handle the stress in a more positive manner.

Senior Approved Services represents a network of excellent resources for our seniors and family caregivers. We are all here for the same reason, to provide the best possible service for seniors.

I'd like to encourage all of you to help in getting the word out that finally, there is a solution in making a good choice in service.

If you have other good marketing tips, tools or resources, please feel free to pass this on. It helps all of us and that's what Senior Approved Services is all about, linking people together.

Marketing your certification