Comprehensive Marketing Initiatives Lead to Exceeded Census Goals and Campus Expansion
About the Client
Inland Christian Home is a non-profit multi-level senior living community in Ontario, CA. Founded in 1978, Inland was established by several local churches whose mission reflects the founders’ heritage of faith and values: to provide quality, individualized care to seniors in a Christian environment. The community’s non-profit status promotes this mission, as there are no owners who profit from its operations and all revenues are reinvested into the operations of the community.
About the Client
Inland Christian Home is a non-profit multi-level senior living community in Ontario. Founded in 1978, Inland was established by several local churches whose mission reflects the founders’ heritage of faith and values: to provide quality, individualized care to seniors in a Christian environment. The community’s non-profit status promotes this mission, as there are no owners who profit from its operations and all revenues are reinvested into the operations of the community.
The Challenge
Inland Christian Home initially partnered with Big Buzz® in late 2020. At that time, its goal was to increase the occupancy rate of its assisted living level by over 50% through increased website traffic. The primary challenge was to generate greater local awareness of its exceptional care, high resident satisfaction rates and desirable CCRC model. Since that time, the organization has remained a client of the agency and continued to enlist its support in a variety of measures, including fundraising efforts, community outreach, the development of a virtual tour and more.
The Solution
Redesigned Website
Along with several other key marketing initiatives, Inland Christian Home’s initial scope of work only included updates to its existing website rather than a complete redevelopment. However, the success of these updates, paired with Big Buzz’s recommendations based on an audit of the existing site, led to a change order that included the creation and launch of an entirely new site. This was prudent both in terms of increasing web traffic and improving the quality of the existing site, which the client agreed was both functionally and visually outdated. Big Buzz followed its proven process to create a new site that would improve traffic results and the visitor experience while preserving elements that were important in maintaining the client’s brand.
Before
After
Virtual Tours
Inland Christian Home began its work with Big Buzz during a time when virtual accessibility for prospects was more important than ever before, especially in the senior living industry. Virtual tours were a key component of this accessibility and have since become an expectation of a senior living community’s website rather than a temporary offering. Creating a virtual tour stood to provide ongoing value, peace of mind and convenience for prospects while helping the client remain competitive with other local communities that were quick to adopt the feature. Big Buzz facilitated the creation and implementation of a virtual tour, from an initial photo shoot to digital development all the way through its incorporation on the website.
Fundraising Collateral
As a nonprofit organization, Inland Christian Home relies heavily on revenue from donations and fundraising efforts. Inland sought Big Buzz’s support in promoting its 2022 Annual Fund Drive, a yearly initiative that became increasingly important as a result of new challenges facing the senior living industry. Marketing is integral to the success of such an endeavor, and Big Buzz was well equipped to lend its expertise. The agency designed several pieces of digital and physical marketing collateral to raise awareness of the campaign and educate potential donors on the many ways to contribute and support the community.
Print Ads
Inland Christian Home had seen continued success with traditional print ads and wished to continue running them in the local area. However, its existing ads were overdue for an update and had room for improvement from a design perspective. Big Buzz’s Creative Team produced new ads with updated copy and aesthetic improvements that matched the refreshed design and brand standards established by the new website and marketing assets. The Creative Team also applied its knowledge of calls to action to improve the efficacy of the ads in driving engagement.
Print Collateral
In addition to fundraising materials and advertisements, Big Buzz supported Inland Christian Home in the creation of a number of other physical assets, all employing a consistent visual approach and best marketing practices. These assets, such as brochures, single-page inserts and community newsletter, all created additional touchpoints with prospects keep Inland top of mind even when they were offline.
Referral Training Workshop
Word-of-mouth marketing continues to serve as one of the most effective lead-generation tactics available in senior living. It is also known for its impressive ratio of investment versus returns. However, just as with any other marketing initiative, it can only be truly effective with a sound strategic foundation. Big Buzz helped Inland Christian Home build such a foundation with its signature Referral Training Workshop. This session empowered the client’s team to generate valuable referrals by training its members on when, why and how to make the ask in a way that would naturally complement their everyday interactions with residents and families.
Content Marketing
An effective content marketing strategy is an extraordinarily versatile tool for senior living operators. It helps establish them as thought leaders in their industry while providing genuine value to those making important choices about senior living solutions for themselves or their loved ones. Big Buzz worked with Inland Christian Home to identify the resident family member they most wished to serve, i.e., a “target persona.” Building this persona into a fully realized prospect, complete with characteristics like hopes, fears and motivations – even educational background and family life – allowed Big Buzz’s copywriter to create a full content calendar of topics that would resonate most with Inland’s ideal prospects.
The Results
The new website gave Inland Christian Home a competitive edge by improving its online visibility and creating a more desirable experience for visitors. The many physical marketing assets developed by Big Buzz have helped expand brand awareness in the organization’s local community and equipped its sales team with additional ways to engage prospects. Big Buzz’s content marketing initiative has also seen impressive success. Generally, the average click-through rate for senior living content emails is around 2.5%. The agency’s content emails, however, consistently double that number (and have often tripled them).
Big Buzz’s efforts with Inland Christian Home have led to consistent positive results for the organization and a flourishing ongoing marketing partnership. Since beginning its work with Big Buzz, Inland not only exceeded its initial occupancy goal, but also saw so much success that it has since purchased additional properties to expand its campus and accommodate more residents.
“Big Buzz has made our marketing efforts more strategic and professional. We are a smaller CCRC where everyone wears multiple hats so working with Big Buzz has provided us with the professional marketing competencies that we might not have in-house.”
DAVID STIENSTRA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INLAND CHRISTIAN HOME