Having a content strategy is crucial for growing your online presence as a senior living community. If you are creating content without a purpose or ignoring content creation entirely, then you need to reassess this. The way you go about selecting, publishing, and sharing content should be done intentionally based on a strategy if you want to see results.
The content that you share online could be on your website, senior living blog, email newsletters, social media profiles, external website guest posts, and more.
What Exactly Is Content?
Let’s start from the beginning by taking a more in-depth look at what content is. It’s more than just random information that gets curated and posted without purpose. If the information doesn’t have good form, then it can be lost to the receiver.
For example, if you were creating content about the different types of apartments in your senior living community, it would be useful to include pictures. This would more accurately portray the ideas and concepts that you would be trying to put across to your audience.
It’s easier to think of content as consisting of several elements:
1. Information
This is the message of your content and its tone. Think about whether your content is factual, or entertaining, or practical – there are many different options.
2. Context
Context gives direction to what the content is hoping to accomplish. Think about who the content is intended for and the reason it is being curated.
3. Medium
Medium is the way you are going to disperse the content to your audience. Think about where the content will be posted and how that impacts the overall message.
4. Form
This is the type of content you’re creating. Content can be text, graphic, video, interactive, and so on.
Developing A Content Strategy In The Senior Living Industry
Now that we have a better sense of what content is comprised of, it’s time to talk about what to do if you don’t have a direction underpinning your actions. Developing a senior living content strategy is a worthwhile undertaking – let’s look at some factors to consider.
1. Who Is Your Audience?
Pinpointing who your target audience is will help you to create consistent content. This will give you direction into what kind of content you should be curating and what information should be included. If your target audience is senior communities, then think of the topics or subjects that will resonate with them and their families.
2. Set Goals For Your Content
Setting goals is a great way to track your progress down the line.
Think about some good goals to focus on. Are you interested in creating awareness of your community, or your brand, or looking for referral sources?
You might also want to focus on keeping families involved in the community. Document what you feel will benefit your community and brand, then note these down as measurable goals to pursue.
3. Do Your Research
This can be a bit tiresome, but don’t underestimate this step. Look up your competition online! Use some keyword and ranking tools to understand what they have in their content and what they focus on that draws in an audience.
Next, you need to decide if the approach will work for you and how you can better it.
4. Get Your Keywords Right
Keywords are an important part of content creation. This doesn’t mean that your content should only focus on jamming in as many keywords as possible. Spend some time figuring out which keywords are significant, and make use of them strategically across your website.
5. Map Content Topics
When your website is up and running, you need to cover relevant topics consistently. This means that you’ll need to cover a fusion of topics, from trendy to evergreen. Your content strategy should ensure that your site is continuously publishing new and relevant content that your audience enjoys.
6. Publish and Promote
Google’s algorithm encourages fresh content. For this reason, having a blog that you update on the regular is a great idea.
You’re also going to need to do more to promote the content that you publish. Share it on your social media platforms, or distribute it in email newsletters. Encourage people to hit share and subscribe!
Final Thoughts
In the senior living industry, having a content strategy is critical. Producing and distributing high-quality blog posts, social videos, newsy emails, and so on is an excellent way of engaging with community members and other stakeholders.