5 Ways to Make Senior Living Blogging Easier

Marketers are busy people. There are endless channels to maintain and optimize. From the website to Facebook, Twitter, SEO, CRO, SEM, affiliates, referrals, link building. It’s easy to get overwhelmed.

Senior living marketers are really busy people. Not only are they trying to cover the laundry list of items I just mentioned, they may be filling two roles – sales and marketing. They might be writing social posts and sending emails about an upcoming event one minute and giving a tour to a prospective resident the next.

So, as a senior living marketer, how can you find an easy way to generate blog content for your website? Why would you even bother with maintaining a blog at all?

Because content marketing is a proven, effective technique that can generate tremendous results. We’ve seen it happen time and again.

Take a look at these stats from a recent Content Marketing Institute article:

1. Content marketing gets three times the leads per dollar spent as paid search.
2. Content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing. And, it costs 62% less.
3. Small businesses with blogs get 126% more lead growth than small businesses without.

And the list goes on. So, how can you create more content in less time? How do you know what to write about? Who should write the posts?

Read on for 5 ways to make blogging easy.

1. Turn to your sales team for topic ideas

We have found salespeople to be one of the top sources for great content ideas. Why? Because they speak to your customers every day! They know what their pain points are. They know the questions asked in the sales process.

To gather ideas from your sales team, ask them these questions in your next meeting. “What questions are you hearing on a regular basis from prospective residents/customers?” “What challenges are they facing?” “What concerns do they have?”

Write down the responses. Once you have your list, you might feel tempted to write blog post titles about how your community specifically addresses those needs. Don’t.

Instead, take a helpful, objective approach. Have your salesperson explain the advice they would give the prospect in that situation, not how your community addresses the situation.

2. Interview a subject matter expert for content

So, your salespeople have helped you identify a long list of topics you can cover on your blog. Great! Now, who’s going to write the posts?

The answer should be – whoever knows the subject matter the best. Maybe you hear from your sales reps that prospects express concern about their parents’ Alzheimer’s or dementia. Rather than researching that topic yourself and trying to become an expert, interview someone in your organization who is! They should be the source for your post.

Odds are, they’ll be happy to share their insights with you. But, they probably won’t have time to write the actual post. So, what do you do?

3. Record the interview and get help writing

One trick we use is to record interviews with subject matter experts. That way, the tone of the post is natural and the voice is that of the subject matter expert.

Once your have that recording, you can transcribe the recording using a paid service like TranscribeMe or use an automated platform like Temi. You can then edit the transcription into a cohesive blog post. Clean up the conversation into paragraphs and break up the copy with headers.

Or, if you don’t have time to write the post, enlist the help of a freelance writer. Know that outsourced writers can be a mixed bag, which is why we only work with a select group of vetted writers. Once you find a good writer, hold on to them!

4. Ask your residents to write

I’ve seen this tactic on some communities’ blogs and I think it’s brilliant. What better way to show what life is really like at your senior care community then by having your residents contribute to your blog? Have residents share stories about recent trips or activities.

Here’s an example from Panorama Senior Living, an outdoors-oriented community in the Pacific Northwest.

This is a great way for residents to stay involved in the community. It also creates super transparent marketing that builds trust with your website visitors. Visitors hear directly from your residents, not from someone who works from your organization trying to add their spin.

5. Outsource your writing and content marketing

If you are sold on the possibilities of content marketing but you don’t want to deal with the hassle and headaches of writing, you can always outsource your content marketing efforts.

We highly recommend looking for a partner who can not only write blog posts, but someone who will develop and follow a true content strategy designed to get you more traffic and leads. You should also look for someone who will be accountable for results.

Come to think of it, I should write a separate post on what to look for in an outsourced partner. Subscribe to the blog and we’ll notify you when that post goes live.