How to Capture Online Prospects in the Senior Living Buying Cycle


Just like our eyes can capture only a sliver of the full spectrum of light, the keywords our prospects type into search engines are a sliver of a conversation inside their heads.

Bulb and bird

Understand this conversation and you’ll be able to beat out your competition the majority of the time. The rest of this article is to help you uncover this conversation.

What Do Keywords Have To Do With The Buying Cycle?

When your prospects begin searching for senior living, they may or may not be educated in the market. Very rarely are they going to make one search, call your community and become a member.

They will do many searches! And their searches are going to reflect their level of education into senior living.

Keywords tell a story within someone’s head at that very moment. And what a valuable moment it is for us when they’re searching for senior living.

I want you to stop for a minute and think about the conversation inside someone’s head when they make a search for senior living. Really imagine the emotions they’re going through when they are typing into the search engines.

Maybe their parent just had a fall and they need a rehab community, or maybe a person is so overwhelmed caring for their spouse that they can’t handle it anymore. They’re in pain, tired, fed up, looking to get their relationship back with their loved one, and not be the caregiver any more.

Here’s what your prospect's search patterns may look like. An adult child in Middletown CT may start searching “different types of senior living communities.” Later, once they’re a little more educated, they may come back and search for “assisted living in Middletown CT”.

Then, they may come back and search “skilled nursing in Middletown ct,” and then even later, when they realize their parent with dementia needs a community with specialized care, “dementia care Middletown CT.” Once they have found a specific community, they may end the process with “The Community name” they want to schedule a tour with.

Key chain

Do you see how this process played itself out? Keywords reflect an internal state and the level of education in the market. If you can capture them early, be the one who educates them, nurture a relationship with them, what do you think that does to your chances of getting them as a resident? It’s going to be dramatically higher than if you didn’t start that relationship.

Why Is Knowing Your Senior Living Prospects Search Patterns Important To You?

First of all, your website needs to capture and reflect the conversation going on in their head. Sorry, but generic copy and irrelevant stock photos don’t cut it. When you can capture the conversation within someone’s head, when their searching, then you will be the one to win them over with your ad, and your website.

Another important point is, the keywords they’re using refers to how far into the buying cycle they are. Someone further along is more educated and much more certain they need a senior living community.

There’s a lot more to cover about this subject than I can explain in this article. The one thing I’ve seen after generating thousands of senior living leads and seeing hundreds of search engine marketing campaigns, is that the old saying is more true now than ever, “if you want to know why John Smith buys what John Smith buys, you need to see the world through John Smith’s eyes.”

I hope this article has allowed you to see there is much more depth to the keywords your prospects are using to find you.