Getting your customers from referrals is a great place to be.
It’s often a goal for many senior care agencies starting out.
Right away, that’s difficult to achieve but totally possible.
You could start your business by knowing someone already or having pro bono clients that refer you out.
Often, that’s how people who don’t have start-up capital begin.
They start small, build up a clientele of whom never paid, and get referrals from actual paying clients.
If you’re starting out with big goals, then you’ll just open your agency and invest big into your marketing budget.
However, not many of us have that kind of capital.
You have to have employees, pay for licenses, the hiring process, and other logistics.
Sometimes most of the capital is used up just leasing out a brick-and-mortar.
Still, the cheapest way to market is to do a great job at what you’re selling.
It’s not enough to be a great salesperson.
If you can’t deliver on your product or service, then you have no clients and you have no business.
So, to get referrals you need to first, give results.
In order to get results you need the practice. You need the experience.
You need to fail, and you need to track every detail in how you can improve, by noting where you’ve made errors or didn’t do enough.
Speaking of enough, are referrals enough?
Yes.
They can be.
But, again, it’s hard to achieve.
It does take time.
Even if you have a lot of capital or you don’t and instead take the slow route by building up those pro-bono clients.
Either way, you’re going to have to be patient and invest in the time and experiences.
Which means, if you’re so good at your job and delivering the results, yes, referrals can be all you need for your marketing campaigns.
Yet, notice how we wrote “campaigns”?
It’s still a campaign which is something that takes time and money.
So initially, you’ll want to still invest in marketing.
How?
Three ways.
How to Become a Referral-Based Home Care Agency
Become credible.
Alongside delivering a good product or service, you want to make sure the information you put out, or anyone on your team puts out, is credible.
How do you become credible?
You need to have good content online and professional caregivers who work out in the field.
As for your content, you need to make sure you’re producing blogs, videos, social media posts, or whatever that truly answers people’s questions.
Find a tool online that crawls keywords people often search for.
And create content that resolves those searches.
For instance, if people are commonly searching for ongoing care because they need someone to help with self care for seniors then you want to make sure that you have a unique blog that explains how elderly people can care for themselves, but also, you want to explain how caregivers can help by continuously being available each day.
This shows that self care is not just a once in a blue moon treat, but a daily ritual that keeps their spirits up.
Isn’t that more impressive to a prospective client than just writing about “How to Clean Dentures”?
How does that turn someone into a client?
It doesn’t.
Hire a Good SEO Agency or Consultant
SEO is not social media management.
It is not even blog writing.
Stop hiring people to do your SEO if they are offering you content creation only.
And if they say they write SEO blogs, they are not.
Most blogs written this way are stuffed with keywords which search engines hate.
So don’t think you’re investing your money properly.
You’re not.
Get Away from Your Desk
Yes, you have to meet your community.
What are you doing if you’re just sitting behind a keyboard and in meetings?
People want to see the face behind these agencies. In the beginning, you need to put yourself out there and meet people face-to-face.
No politician won by letting their campaign team do all the in-person contacts.
The ones who win are out there seeing the problems of those they want to serve.
They are listening, shaking hands, donating to charities, and a part of the real lives of the people they serve.
That’s exactly how you need to see yourself
Your top priority should be to become a referral-based agency.
The reason for this is because if you do become that, it means you have fulfilled your promises.
It means you met with your community.
You hired and trained the most qualified and professional caregivers.
You have given back to those your serve and this includes your team.
It means you’ve been smart with how you’ve spent your marketing budget.
It also means that you create content that truly helps those looking for answers.
You’ve become credible and that alone can out-compete against any competitor you’re facing.
They can spend thousands on paid ads, but if you stick to being the most credible agency in your region, you’ve won and for the long run, too.
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