Some key sector issues
Care Homes - Occupancy
Full and stable occupancy is the dream of every care home owner and manager. But our experience is that this is seldom achieved. The variables affecting occupancy for mature homes, and fill rates for new builds, are many and complex. Having mystery shopped over 1000 care homes we understand that owners need to be certain that their homes are being ‘sold’ in the most effective, professional and caring way.
Care Homes - Recruitment
Balancing the need to attract quality staff with business profitability is a constant challenge. In an industry where staff pay rates are traditionally low, employing staff of sufficient quality and commitment can be difficult. The bottom line impact of agency costs means it is essential that your recruitment programme works, supplying you with the workforce you need and your residents deserve.
Care Homes - Enquiry Handling
Whether it be through telephone contact or face-to-face visits, the lack of professionalism in this crucial area is a major reason depressing the occupancy of many homes. The level of service and ‘care’ given to this aspect of a home’s marketing bears no correlation to the likely fees charged over the lifetime of a resident within the home. This is a fixable problem with the right training and commitment on behalf of owners and staff teams.
Domiciliary Care - matching packages with recruitment.
Striking a balance between gaining new care packages and having sufficient staff to service them is a constant battle for domiciliary care companies. Whether to commit marketing resources to acquiring new customers or new staff is a conundrum we often encounter. To grow as a home care agency, both must be achieved, so marketing needs to be flexibly planned, and underpinning any promotional or recruitment activity needs to be a real understanding of the individual business and sector.
Social Media - connecting with a local audience
Our experience of running social media accounts for numerous care homes across multiple portals has taught us that creating good content requires commitment and professionalism. Using that content to engage with the widest possible audience needs perseverance and technical know-how.
Local market positioning
How well do you understand your local market? Whether you are a care home or a domiciliary care agency, it is essential to understand what your competitors are doing and how they are positioning themselves relative to your business. Our market surveys give you a wealth of insight about your local market conditions and are a vital tool in developing your own brand positioning and marketing activity.
How We Help
We are completely flexible in the way we work with clients. We undertake projects of vastly different sizes, ranging from full marketing audits to simple collateral development.
Services are always bespoke and tailored to each different client. Social care organisations can have common objectives, but their needs may be very different.
We understand the key issues affecting the sector, leading to trust and long-term relationship building. In many cases, we operate as a client's marketing department.
Our advice comes from our understanding of the unique balance between delivering care and compliance, with the fundamental issue of business profitability.
Our services in practice
What our client say about our services:
Chris and CMC brought a much-needed professionalism into the content and appearance of our marketing collateral. Their Mystery shopping project had identified a need for change, and web, brochures, and staff training followed to improve our service to our customers. We would certianly recommend their services.
We’ve been extremely pleased with the work of The Care Marketing Consultancy. They consistently post our content promptly and professionally to the school website, ensuring it’s always up to date and engaging for parents and the wider community. Their photographic content beautifully captures pupils actively learning in the classroom, reflecting the positive atmosphere and high standards of our school. The team are reliable, unobtrusive, and have a great eye for showcasing learning in an authentic and respectful way. We highly recommend their services to any school looking to strengthen their online presence.
We have worked for Care Home groups, Homecare agencies, LD homes, SEND schools, and Children’s Services, as well as other charities, regional care associations, and sector stakeholders.
How well is bedspace in your home being sold? We have analysed enquiry handling performance for numerous providers across different home types. Performance in this area directly affects the bottom line.
We manage client social media across multiple platforms, creating engaging content and combining that with technical know-how to ensure our clients’ stories reach the widest possible audience.