Creative Segmentation and Messaging Drive Sales
Filling small units in aging communities through targeted consumer segmentation and customized campaigns.
Challenge
Three Life Plan Communities—each with a slew of small, 520-square-foot one-bedroom units—faced a significant challenge: filling these less desirable units in an extremely competitive market. With other communities offering more appealing contract types and larger rental options, the target audience, living in larger homes, was reluctant to downsize to these smaller spaces. The communities were also undergoing renovations, which further complicated the sales process.
The Game Plan
ADage Marketing Group developed a targeted marketing strategy by focusing on resonant messaging and consumer segmentation. Key actions included:
- Attitudinal Research & Segmentation: Conducted thorough market research to identify prospects most likely to consider downsizing and developed tailored messaging for different segments, focusing on affordability, campus amenities, and lifestyle.
- Customized Creative Campaigns: Designed direct marketing campaigns for each Life Plan Community, ensuring that messaging resonated with the unique characteristics of each segment.
- Lifestyle-Focused Media: Supported the marketing initiatives with a lifestyle-centric paid media plan to raise awareness and drive traffic.
- Sales Training Support: Enhanced the sales team’s discovery process with reinforced training, enabling them to better identify and communicate with prospects.
- CRM Data Utilization: Monitored lead data trends to continually adjust and refine the strategy.
Creative Implementation
ADage’s strategy centered around positioning the communities not as the most affordable or newest, but as offering a meaningful lifestyle at a great value. Solutions implemented included:
- Targeted Direct Mail Campaigns: Refined direct mail lists to focus on financially qualified single individuals and couples who could afford the smaller units. Lists were narrowed based on income, net worth, and geography, ensuring the most relevant audience.
- Varied Calls to Action: Created multiple engaging ways to connect with the community, such as “Staycation” events, transition coordinator consultations, and on-campus “Passport” programs that allowed prospects to experience the lifestyle firsthand.
- Integrated Marketing Approach: Presented the three communities as a cohesive offering while allowing prospects to choose based on personal preferences.
Results & Impact
ADage’s strategic marketing plan delivered measurable success for the communities:
- Doubled New Leads Year-over-Year: The targeted marketing efforts resulted in a doubling of new leads, with significant interest in the smaller units.
- High Conversion Rates for Targeted Units: The targeted one-bedroom units represented a substantial portion of total annual sales, indicating the effectiveness of the tailored messaging.
Summary
ADage Marketing Group developed a targeted marketing strategy to help three Life Plan Communities fill their smaller, less desirable units by focusing on attitudinal research and customized messaging. Through direct mail campaigns, lifestyle-focused media, and sales training, they effectively positioned the communities as offering a meaningful lifestyle at a great value. The result was a doubling of new leads year-over-year and high conversion rates for the previously hard-to-sell units.
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What Our Clients Say
"ADage has been not only a pleasure to work with, they have become a partner in our marketing and sales success. Adrienne and Diana have listened to our particular needs and have responded with individualized approaches that have worked for our community.”
"It is impossible for me to recommend Adrienne and Diana, co-founders of ADage Marketing Group, highly enough. Can a senior living marketing agency be both cutting edge and "throwback" at the same time? Cutting edge, in the sense that they are on the forefront of all things related to successful senior living marketing and lead generation, and "throwback" in that they provide the kind of outstanding customer centered service that seems to be a thing of the past.”
"You can count on this group to bring renewed energy to the discussion. Innovative thinkers by nature, conversations with ADage bring new dimensions to light and opportunities to explore. They are visibly invested in the client's success, and working with them is truly a pleasure."
“Are you looking for a marketing partner who delivers data driven results, and explains the process in a way that all stakeholders can understand? ADage has your back.”
"The phrase, ‘they do what they say,’ comes to mind when I think of ADage. The Team at ADage follow through on every agreed-upon goal and usually deliver something extra. In my experience, finding partners that require no hand holding and have a similar sense of care for our brand as I do is hard to find. I trust ADage with our brand."
"The ADage team has proven themselves as tireless marketing strategists. They are well versed in their clients' industry trends and strive to regularly present marketing opportunities. The volume of work they handle is massive, and somehow always provide completed work by deadline needs."
“As a former regional director of sales and marketing, I've been involved in vetting and hiring agencies for 18 years. ADage stands out as the best among any agency that I've worked with to date. The industry veterans at ADage deliver an exceptional value. When you hire ADage, you know you have a senior living marketing partner that will be at your side through thick and thin. They are truly invested in your senior living organization's success.”
"Just wanted to pass along a little thank you for the great EQ training with Adrienne last week. Your engaging, humorous style makes the day go by quickly and makes learning easy. I still am in a bit of awe seeing how spot on they styles matched up to how I really am. Thanks again and keep up the great work. Hope to see you again soon!"
"ADage Marketing Group has been fantastic to work with! They are proactive and have resources for everything that can contribute to occupancy. Unlike some of the larger marketing firms, the ADage team treats us like partners rather than clients and are always quick to return calls. I'm grateful for their partnership!"
“Need to brainstorm an emergency occupancy recovery plan on a Friday afternoon, leading into a holiday weekend? ADage is there. Need to know how to integrate and leverage your senior living CRM with various marketing platforms? ADage has a plan for you. Do you need insight into how to allocate your marketing budget to achieve the greatest ROI? ADage will walk you through it.”
"In a previous role, over 30% of my clients were marketing agencies, including nearly every worthwhile agency in the senior living space. When I actually needed an agency to fulfill our own marketing objectives, there was only one I chose to work with: ADage."
“Personally and professionally they are refreshing and smart. They bring thoughtfulness of the senior market and an awareness of the changing cultural landscape to their work and push us to think not just about the next sale, but also about positioning ourselves for the future."
“Their expertise and knowledge of the market, along with their effective creative practices have helped us to get straight to the business of increasing census and brand awareness. This ultimately allows us to provide a higher level of community and caring for our residents. A total win!"
"It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Ms. Adrienne Mansfield. She and her team have done a stellar job of managing all aspects of creative marketing for our company over the past ten plus years. The success of our company would not have been possible without the services of Adrienne and her team. I would highly recommend her to anyone!"
"As a new small business owner serving senior living, ADage supported me in bringing focus to my brand and mission. The greatest tool they provided was a one-stop shopping list for all of the templates, brochures, flyers, and digital materials that they created. I don't have to search through my own files - I go to my pinned ADage list and have simple and quick access to them. If I need updates or changes, they do so and the links are instantly ready for me. Their services have been a game changer for my processes."
"We have worked with the ADage Group and they have been wonderful! They are extremely professional and an asset to our organization. Great partner."
“ADage stands out because they truly care about their client's success, are well versed on previous client campaigns, and provide insights and recommendations in developing new marketing strategies. A true business partner."
"As partners they are easy to work with - motivated and independent - able to implement tactics in the market with savvy and speed and great attention to detail. In many cases we have been able to repurpose their creative approaches that have been particularly successful for other communities in our organization - an added bonus to the inherent value they offer us!"
Ready to fill challenging inventory with targeted, data-driven strategies?
Partner with ADage Marketing Group to transform your community’s messaging and drive results.