7 Tips for Marketers in the Senior Living Industry: Networking Events

Does it really matter who you talk to at senior living networking events? If you’re a marketing professional in the senior living industry, you’ve probably done your fair share of mingling, networking, and attending happy hours. Fostering and maintaining relationships with those in the geriatric healthcare and senior living industries is vital to your community’s success, but which professionals should be your primary targets?

I’ve worked as a marketer for senior living organizations in Denver, Colorado, and I found it essential for your networking strategies to reflect your community's goals. Is the goal to increase direct patient referrals from hospitals and rehabilitation centers? Or do you want to partner with other retirement homes whose services, such as Independent Living and Assisted Living, differ from the level of care offered in your community?

In the following sections, we’ll discuss 7 tips for networking with senior living professionals and how to exceed your monthly marketing and business development KPIs.

Senior Living Networking Event

Tip #1: Gold-Star Nametags- Case Managers, Social Workers & Nurses

When increasing your senior living community’s direct patient referrals from local hospitals and rehabilitation centers, your gold-star, holy-grail connection lies with case managers, social workers, and nurses. These healthcare professionals determine whether their elderly patients can return home or require care.

As expected, the caseload for these professionals is high. So, this means that you (the marketing professional) have the perfect opportunity to take something off their busy plates! By showcasing your organization’s services and care capabilities, the caseworkers, social workers and nurses can recommend you to their elderly patients.

The best way to ensure your networking efforts don’t go to waste is to follow the 5-mile rule. Before attending a happy hour or mingling event, research all the hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and private geriatric care practices within a 5-mile radius of your senior living community.

This way, you’ll have a higher chance of gaining a direct referral from these organizations due to your proximity. You’ll likely also be close to the patient’s family, the ultimate decision-makers.

Remember, private practices such as podiatry, optometry, chiropractic, audiology, speech therapy, physical therapy, home health, and home care can also refer patients to care homes. So, look for these professionals at your next socializing event.

Tip #2: Connect with Real Estate Agents & Senior Financial Advisors

This is an oddball tactic, but networking with real estate agents and financial advisors who work with seniors and their families is a great way to gain direct referrals.

These are professionals who work one-on-one with their elderly clients and are knowledgeable about whether their clients are considering moving to a senior living community. If you can, showcase your organization’s care capabilities by networking and providing informational marketing materials.

In return, you can offer to keep their business cards and information on hand for prospects who tour your community and express an interest in these services.

Furthermore, if your community hosts happy hour and mingling events for healthcare industry professionals, extend them a personal invitation. This will maintain the partnership and allow them to grow their business network.

Tip #3: Find Your BFFs- Other Marketing Professionals

As marketing professionals, we often get told we’re ‘annoying’ and ‘pushy.’ The cold hard truth is not everyone wants to network with us, even if we offer to provide a delicious lunch and pitch a quick, precise, and mutually beneficial partnership.

Nonetheless, every business employs marketing professionals who are in your situation. The trick is to find them and make your pitch. They’ll be the most receptive to listening to your proposal because their job is to find and form these relationships, too.

So, the next time you’re at a marketing event, look for nametags that read ‘marketing manager,’ ‘community relations,’ or ‘community liaison.’ They’ll gladly listen to you, and you’ll be one step closer to growing your business network.

Tip #4: Use Your Competition- Other Senior Livings

Being a dedicated marketer means getting wrapped up in the hype and deeming your community and company to have ‘the best of the best’ in senior care.

However, maybe your community provides Independent Living (IL) and Assisted Living (AL) but lacks a Memory Care (MC) unit, which can disqualify you from the ‘age in place’ category. If this is the case, it’s a great idea to focus your networking efforts on forming relationships with other senior living communities that only provide memory care.

Now, they can refer any Independent and Assisted Living inquiries your way. In return, you can refer to them when you receive an inquiry for Memory Care.

So, whatever you’re lacking in your community regarding IL, AL, and MC, you’ll want to look for the opposite in other senior living communities. For example:

• Your community has AL and MC: search for other communities that offer IL-only

• Your community only offers AL: search for other communities that only provide IL or MC

• Your community only offers IL: search for other communities that only provide AL and/or MC

Tip #5: Don’t Forget Your Grassroots & Non-Healthcare Professionals

The term ‘grassroots’ might be thrown around if your senior living community sees the value in forming relationships with non-healthcare professionals. For this reason, your monthly marketing KPIs will involve networking with professionals and organizations with various backgrounds.

Some of these organizations include YMCAs, libraries, churches, community organizations for the elderly, senior news outlets, resource guides, adult daycares, and local war veterans associations.

Rather than focusing on your community’s care capabilities, focus on any resident-related events and senior activities happening shortly. I always carried an updated community calendar to networking events to help encourage grassroots campaigns and the possibility of partnering for an upcoming event.

Tip #6: Save Your Breath- Who to Avoid When Networking

When executing your marketing and networking strategies, it’s crucial to outline your goals, targets, and, most importantly- who to avoid.

It sounds harsh, but sometimes, you must get ahead of the game to know which relationships are worth holding onto.

In my past experiences in marketing for senior living communities, I found that these are the professionals who offer little to no benefit when expanding your business network:

Senior Care Advisors

These are professionals who help guide clients to find their perfect senior living community. You should avoid them because your community will already have an established list of trusted, reliable senior advisors.

Senior advisors get paid by directly taking a percentage of their customers’ first months’ rent from the retirement home. So, your community might have rules that prevent them from working with senior advisors who aren’t already on their exclusive list.

Usually, your monthly marketing KPIs will not count toward relationships formed with senior advisors because they are paid referrals.

Insurance Agents

I found networking with insurance agents inadequate. Most of the time, they want to partner with you to gain clients from your community, and they don’t offer much in return for direct referrals.

Hospice

More than likely, your community already has trusted hospice partners who can provide in-house services for your residents. The likeliness of gaining a viable, direct referral from a hospice agency is unlikely. So, save your breath and focus on exploring other partnerships.

Other Senior Living Communities

I know, I know, didn’t I just say that partnering with other senior living communities is a good thing? Well, it definitely can be! However, the key here is to explore the ones that provide services different from those provided by your organization. It doesn’t make much sense to network with a retirement home that only offers Assisted Living and Memory Care when your community only offers AL and MC.

Tip #7: Where to Find the Best Networking Events for Senior Living

If you’re struggling to find the best networking events for senior living and healthcare professionals, look no further than the Senior Blue Book website.

They not only provide information on events and things to do for seniors but also give you access to information on local happy hour, mingling, and networking events for professionals in healthcare and senior living. Go to their events page, type your location, and select ‘professional activities.’

Bonus: post networking and resident-related events in your senior living community to their website!

The Bottom Line

Your job as a marketing professional in senior living is to increase your community’s number of residents through direct referrals and maintaining professional partnerships for mutually beneficial relationships. By attending happy hours, mingling and networking events, researching ahead of time, and establishing clear targets and goals for your connections, you’ll make the most out of your business partnerships and exceed your monthly KPIs.