CareNotes

The 3 Key Elements for Marketing Your Senior Living Resources in 2025

This is a guest article by Ideas Collide, a full-service Portland marketing agency and OHCA member.

Marketers know that no two prospects are exactly the same. This is even more true when your audience includes seniors and their families. They’ve spent a lifetime developing their own preferences and needs. Each has different health, financial, and family circumstances. Same goes for their technological know-how. This can make it tricky for senior living communities to carry out an effective and cohesive content marketing strategy. Senior living, after all, is a sensitive topic, and by attracting one of your key audiences, you risk dismissing another.

How can you build a marketing strategy that truly resonates across these varied audiences? Think Content, Context, and Channels. Where these three elements converge, that’s your strategy’s north star.

Content: What Messages Are You Delivering?

In 2025, your target audience has more expectations than they used to. By sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content, you can effectively engage your target audience. But, that may not be enough to foster loyalty. A customer’s content experience now needs to be personalized, highly informed, digitally capable, and designed for intuitive engagement. And because modern-day audiences get content served to them 24/7, you also must satisfy expectations more effectively than the wealth of others who also want their business.

Indeed, things are changing — but for the senior care audience, some core things will always be true: Seniors and their caregivers are real people with real needs, they’re facing big life transitions, and they want empathy, authenticity, and understanding. By giving them content with heart, you meet them where they’re at.

Context: When and Where Your Message Is Relevant?

“Where they’re at” is the context. In any case, marketing context is more than just physical location. It also means browsing behavior, previous brand touchpoints and current needs. When you deliver personalized, relevant content that’s based on your audience’s context, make sure to focus on real-time data and circumstances. This way you’ll provide the right message at the right time.

By delivering timely and relevant messages, you’re more likely to strike the right tone — and in the process, reach customers in those moments when they’re most likely to engage or convert.

Channels: Where Are You Reaching Your Audience?

Your marketing efforts fit into one of three channels:

• Paid Media: Paid advertising campaigns in exchange for organic clicks, impressions and CTRs. (Digital ads, search, social media promotions, influencers.)
• Owned Media: Assets you own that differentiate you from other brand players in the market. (Your website, email lists, social media profiles.)
• Earned Media: Resources earned in anticipation of PR and brand marketing efforts. (Reviews, word of mouth, PR, influencers.)

Not all channels are created equal; different channels work for different audiences at different stages. Not all customers will respond to a cold call email strategy. You may need to warm these prospects up with a targeted paid media campaign. Additionally, your marketing is more likely to succeed when the content leverages the platforms where your audiences are actively and most naturally engaging. Where do your prospects go for answers?

Choose your channels wisely. In Oregon and Washington, for example, seniors are:

• 34% more likely to use Instagram
• 43% more likely to be on Nextdoor
• 20% more likely to be on YouTube
• 17% more likely to have Amazon Prime

Putting Personalized Content into Practice

In practice, what does this integrated strategy look like? OHCA member Ideas Collide recently used this strategy while partnering with Carlton Senior Living, a respected senior living provider in Northern California. In just six months, this partnership’s campaign generated 1,500 leads, increased occupancy by 7.5%, and reduced cost per acquisition (CPA) by 41%, among other impressive metrics. Explore the case study to see how they did it.

Senior living impacts nearly everyone at some point in their lives. As an organization that cares for seniors, you are doing important work. By building a strategy that correctly blends Content, Context, and Channels, you position yourself to not only reach your audience, but truly resonate with them. And that can change lives for the better.

Need support with your 2025 marketing strategy? Contact Ideas Collide to craft impactful, personalized campaigns that resonate with seniors and their families.