We all know the first rule of marketing: Know Thy Customer!
SageAge Strategies prides itself in gathering information on every detail of customers and their buying habits. Our focus is to understand the customer at the granular level with research techniques that identify the basic DNA of prospects and buyers.
We use Sage PersonasSM research data to create messaging that is rigorously tested for effectiveness. The final product of all this research and development is marketing strategies that hit the mark precisely and deliver optimized sales and maximum return on investments.
Is your community taking advantage of this information today?
According to SageAge Strategies’ Diana Moore, Vice President of Technology & Senior Project Manager, “Too often, when you ask a salesperson or customer service representative who their customers are, their response is vague. ‘Everybody’ is not a good answer, yet many organizations operate without truly honing in on who their ideal customers are and how to best reach them.”
Discovering your ideal customer, and reaching out to them in ways that resonate with them, is “mission critical when it comes to successful marketing,” says Melinda Schmitz, Executive Vice President & Senior Consultant for SageAge Strategies. “What we’ve learned over the years is that successful marketing and lead generation begins with effectively connecting with people. We also know that the strategies, messages and media approaches that worked 10 years ago might not be relevant and motivating to a new generation of senior adults or their adult children today.
“Much has changed and today’s senior living prospects have different needs, preferences, interests, expectations and ways of gathering information than their predecessors. And all of these changes in buyer DNA require precise, highly customized strategies to create resonance and motivate action.”
Detailed Buyer Personas: The Key to Successful Connectivity
Most senior living marketers are familiar with the term “buyer personas,” but developing them and using them effectively can often be a challenge.
According to a 2016 survey by Customer Think, 72 percent of marketers are familiar with these personas, and 60 percent have created their first persona within the last two years. Unfortunately, many senior living sales personnel and marketers are confused about how to build their personas or are frustrated that their personas are not producing the hoped-for results.
Melinda adds, “Buyer personas enable you to segment your audience and create more relevant content and more responsive marketing campaigns that provide a stronger return on your budgetary investment. Usable personas cannot be created by inference and intuition. They require data describing the customers, which can be collected through market research and social media.
“Creating effective buyer personas that provide the proper foundation for strategies that deliver tangible results typically require a ‘deeper dive’ than most senior living communities have the internal resources and expertise to complete. However, the good news is that, unlike Procter & Gamble, you don’t need a large, expensive research budget and marketing staff to create the precision marketing process you need.”
Sage PersonasSM Enable You to Connect with Your Prospects Like Never Before
“At SageAge Strategies, we are using a new, highly cost-effective process for senior living providers that is reliable and actionable and enables laser-focused strategy implementation,” says Melinda. “Sage Personas are composite representations of the actual people who make up your community’s clientele. We create them to understand your customers’ needs, goals and behavior patterns in order to structure integrated marketing plans, including the latest in digital marketing strategies, that generate leads.
“Some of the important factors we consider when identifying your target buyer DNA are your customer demographics, as well as what drives their purchasing habits. What problems are they trying to solve? What motivates them? What do they do for a living? What media channels do they prefer for obtaining information? The answers to these questions reveal the most effective path to connecting with them in the most resonant and compelling ways.”
Well-researched Sage Personas can help marketers attract and retain more customers – and save time on marketing campaigns in the long run. Instead of marketing to a wide, unspecified audience, SageAge Strategies can create Sage Personas that accurately reflect facts about your target demographic. Staying informed about different types of customers, their interests and purchasing habits is advantageous for all aspects of your community.
SageAge Strategies uses these detailed personas to:
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Identify the most common pain points among different clients, determine the most efficient ways to solve these concerns and the most effective way to reach them. This helps to guide process development and alignment across all facets of your organization so the most valuable prospects are targeted and supported throughout the buyer’s journey.
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Tailor content to each type of customer, which helps content marketing strategists, market research specialists and social media strategists create engaging, relevant content that supports business goals and drives buyer outreach throughout the awareness, consideration and decision stages.
“In developing your senior living community’s unique personas,” says Melinda, “we use an intensive 5-step process.” This includes:
- Reviewing of your historical buyer data.
- Evaluating current market data
- Analyzing levels engagement with various types of social media including the use of Facebook Insights
- Testing alternative strategies for response
- Implementing those strategies that demonstrate optimal customer connectivity, engagement and positive action.
The cost-effective Sage Personas product is now available to senior living providers nationwide and is already being used to sharpen strategies and grow sales. We invite you to learn more about this new lead generation tool as well as to view our recurring senior living blog for executives and management personnel on our website.
Proven Sales and Marketing Expertise That Connects with Today’s Seniors
If you are managing a senior living community and are in need of expertise in precisely profiling, targeting and connecting with your target consumers, contact us to learn more today.
SageAge Strategies is a multiple award-winning, strategic growth and marketing organization that operates exclusively in the senior living industry. For more information, please call or e-mail Adrienne Mansfield Straub at 833-240-0655 ext. 100 / [email protected].