Proven Marketing Strategies to Fill Your Assisted Living Facility
Apr 15, 2025
Starting an assisted living facility is rewarding, but filling beds can be a challenge. Without the right marketing strategy, it’s easy to struggle with occupancy. The good news? There are two highly effective ways to attract residents: network marketing and internet marketing.
Network marketing helps you build relationships with local healthcare professionals and referral sources, while internet marketing leverages online platforms to connect with families looking for care. Mastering both strategies will help you fill your facility and grow a thriving business.
Check out the video, too;
Leveraging Network Marketing for Strong Referral Relationships
Network marketing is all about forming connections with key professionals who can refer residents to your facility. Instead of relying only on ads, building relationships with the right people can keep a steady stream of referrals coming your way. Here’s who you should focus on:
1. Discharge Nurses
Discharge nurses at hospitals help residents transition out of care. Many patients need more support than home care can provide, but they don’t require a nursing home. Being on a nurse’s referral list puts you top of mind when families need a placement.
2. Rehabilitation Facilities
Patients in rehab centers recover from surgeries, strokes, or illnesses, and some can’t return home. Rehab centers often need trusted assisted living facilities to recommend.
3. Case Managers (Especially for Medicaid Residents)
If you accept Medicaid, case managers are valuable connections. They work directly with families to find placement, and having strong relationships with them can bring you regular referrals.
4. Other Assisted Living Facilities
It might sound strange to network with competitors, but other facilities may send referrals when they’re at full capacity or can’t meet a resident’s care needs.
5. Nursing Homes
Nursing homes care for seniors with high medical needs, but some residents improve and no longer need that level of care. Your assisted living home can be a perfect step-down option.
6. Independent Living Communities
As independent living residents age, some need more assistance. Forming relationships with independent living managers ensures they refer residents to your facility when the time comes.
7. Home Health and Hospice Providers
Home health and hospice nurses work with seniors who often transition to assisted living. A good relationship with these providers can generate a steady stream of referrals.
How to Build and Maintain Referral Relationships
Networking isn’t just about handing out business cards—it requires ongoing effort. Here’s how to make your relationships count:
1. Visit Regularly
Checking in at least quarterly keeps you on referral lists. One-time meetings won’t create consistent referrals.
2. Bring Small, Thoughtful Gifts
A box of donuts, a thank-you note, or a coffee run can make all the difference in keeping your facility top of mind.
3. Follow Up and Stay Engaged
If you drop off flyers, follow up with a call or visit. Ask how you can help and keep the conversation going.
4. Focus on a Few Key Contacts
Instead of spreading yourself thin, build strong relationships with 3 to 10 referral sources for the best results.
Internet and Social Media Marketing for Assisted Living
In addition to networking, an online presence helps families find your facility. Here’s how to make internet marketing work for you:
1. Optimize Your Website
Make sure your website clearly explains your services, includes high-quality photos, and makes it easy for families to schedule a tour.
2. Leverage Social Media
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram help you connect with families. Post updates, testimonials, and virtual tours to build trust.
3. Run Targeted Ads
Facebook and Google Ads let you reach families searching for assisted living in your area.
4. Collect and Share Testimonials
Encourage satisfied families to leave Google reviews and share their experiences on social media.
The Key to Successful Assisted Living Marketing
Success comes down to consistency. Whether you’re networking with referral sources or engaging families online, regular effort is key to keeping your facility full. By mastering these strategies, you’ll increase resident inquiries and move-ins, creating a thriving business.
Next Steps
If you found this helpful, download our Business Plan Checklist at Assisted Living Investing to build a solid business plan and scale your facility.
Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Show full transcript ๐
Transcript
00:00:00 - 00:00:47
hey friend I'm Brandon Gustafson I help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months excited to be talking with you today about how to Market your facility so you can find more residents to bring them in and help you be profitable before we get started I want to remind you to get over to the website Assisted Living investing. net and grab our free underwriting calculator big blue blocks in the top right corner and we'll get you that free tool to see if it can be
00:00:23 - 00:01:13
profitable and help you get started on your investment on your Assisted Living investment Journey welcome to Assisted Living investing hey friend welcome back to the channel today we're going to be getting into how to create a marketing plan that's going to allow you to bring more residents into your facility as you're trying to figure out if you can do this maybe you already have a facility and you're trying to figure out how to bring in residents so I want to talk marketing with you and how you can really
00:00:53 - 00:01:46
Implement create and Implement some different strategies to help you bring more residents into the facility now at its core there's two big ways for you to do marketing when you're in assisted Ling number one is going to be network marketing and number two is going to be internet marketing or social media marketing those are the two levers that you can really pull there's a few others those are the basic ones and if you learn how to pull those in the right way you're going to be successful you're
00:01:19 - 00:02:10
going to be able to fill the beds and get residents into your bed to make it profitable and help you have a nice thriving business all right so let's talk about who you should be doing your network marketing with and I've got a list of people and individuals that you should be going out building relationships and doing some network with we're going to pop those up on the screen as you do that as I go through these just so you can get a feel and and remember specifically who those groups
00:01:44 - 00:02:37
are so number one is going to be a discharged nurse so the discharged nurse at the local hospital is the person that they people are coming into the hospital they're receiving care and then they have to leave they have to go somewhere else that discharged nurse is the person that is just kind of in charge of like yeah well here here's what you could do for the next phase of your recovery is there a great person for you to be talking to there are rehab facilities rehab is you have somebody that has gone
00:02:11 - 00:03:05
to the hospital for whatever reason they had to go to rehab to improve their health and maybe after rehab they're finding that I can't live on my own anymore and I need to go somewhere else and so they need to go to Assisted Living they might not need full on nursing care but they might need some help so rehab facilities are another a great place for you to be building out that network with people case managers is another one especially if you're doing Medicaid so Medicaid case managers
00:02:38 - 00:03:31
they're going to have a list of different residents and their needs and their job is finding them placement so that they can get into facilities case managers are a lifesaver and they're going to help you out in in getting your beds full you want to build good solid relationships with these case managers another one is other assisted living facilities and I know like there's a lot of people out there in this world in this industry that they don't want to share that they're worried you're going
00:03:04 - 00:03:55
to steal their residents or steal their staff but also some of our best referrals that I've ever had have come through relationships I've had with other facilities because they can't meet their needs maybe they stopped serving a Medicaid clientele maybe the the resident there just wasn't enough room for them and they were a great resident but they needed to leave for something could be a level of care could be any number of things but some of our best residents have come from other
00:03:29 - 00:04:17
facilities with relationships that I've been able to build with other Facility Owners and so it's a great opportunity for you to get out there network not everybody's going to do it but the ones that are going to get into that with you you're going to find it's going to help you out a ton in helping build that relationship and build out this network of facilities that are going to benefit the community which is really what we want to be doing as we get into this world of Assisted Living another one is
00:03:53 - 00:04:46
nursing homes so nursing homes are A Step Above assisted living and typically a resident is going to a nursing home when they need need more care than you can provide at an assisted living facility however there are instances where residents that have been in a nursing home no longer need that level of care and they can do a step down and you as an assisted living facility are that step down and so the more you can build these relationships with nursing homes it's going to help you out quite a
00:04:20 - 00:05:07
bit because you can get those referrals and bring people back to your house that have been in nursing home and and meet them where their needs are and they don't have to spend a lot of you know three four times as much when they're in a nursing home so that's something you want to be working with as well is developing those relationships with nursing homes another one is independent living so Independent Living is a step down from assisted living and sometimes you're going to have residents the need
00:04:44 - 00:05:35
to step up kind of the inverse of nursing homes people that are in independent living it's it's more kind of that 55 plus Community maybe they have a personal apartment and there's somebody that comes in and does some cleaning for them or or something along those lines it's just kind of a nice cozy place for them to be but at some point they may need to move up and need an extra level of care and that's where you can come in as you're working as with your assisted living facility
00:05:09 - 00:06:00
another one that I want you to be aware of is home health and hospit these are nurses that are in the homes and they're working with residents and and meeting their needs there and they're spending a good amount of time there you know a few hours a week and and helping them do things often times though when you get to that point you're going to have individuals that need a higher level of care more consistent care more consistent evaluations and just making sure that things are are good and so
00:05:35 - 00:06:24
working with and and having good relationships with home health and hospice can also lead to some good referrals for your facility plus it's it's good to have those relationships built in case any of your residents end up needing those Services as well so it's kind of a reciprocal relationship and it's really good for you to build that relationship with those individuals now let's talk a little bit about how to build that solid relationship because network marketing is all about building
00:05:59 - 00:06:50
out a networ netw work and building a relationship with other individuals and so that's something you're going to need to focus on as you're trying to get in and that lever of marketing so the way that you're going to do this is number one you want to visit regularly you want to be going out you want to be talking to these individuals on a regular basis and it it does need to be regular it doesn't need to be weekly but it needs to be at least quarterly you've got to be there consistent so they remember who
00:06:24 - 00:07:21
you are you cannot be the person that takes a a flyer creates It Go sends it off and then and then expect them to remember who you are because there are dozens of other providers out there other assisted living homes that are doing that exact same thing so you don't want to get in the jumble of everybody else you want them to be able to remember you and you want to stick out in their mind so that when an opportunity comes available you're top of mind because you have this regular relationship with them and you're
00:06:53 - 00:07:43
building that relationship you can take them some gifts as well you don't want to like get extravagant but you know some flowers or some donuts every now and then just stop in and and be like oh hey I was thinking about you guys uh had got you some donuts or you know I love the flowers you had last time and and saw you guys didn't have them have anymore um so I wanted to bring you some flowers nothing you know you're not spending hundreds of dollars to buy them iPads or anything like that just little
00:07:18 - 00:08:08
tiny things that will go a long way and be meaningful to them with like a little thank you card or something like that those little tiny acts are going to go a long way to getting you to be top of mind as you're trying to build out these relationships with individuals you want to be careful make sure you're not going to do anything that's ethically not in line with what you should be doing but little tiny gifts here and there shouldn't be a problem let's talk about promotional materials so I I touched on
00:07:43 - 00:08:36
this a little bit business cards and flyers they're good they're important to do but what I don't want you to do is get stuck on this I made this this beautiful flyer has all this information on it I went and I gave it to everybody that I could find I was you know canvasing the area I was getting out there and giving people all my flyers and everybody's oh this is beautiful flyer and all all that stuff all the good things that come from that and then you never touch them again you never go
00:08:09 - 00:09:02
back and say Hey you know how's it going how's Sally doing what you know how's the business going what needs do you have how can we help you guys out you those are the things that you want to be doing you cannot just go canvas give people business cards and flyers and then hope and and pray that everything is going to work out because they will forget about you so Flyers business cards they're good but they need to be accompanied with those regular touch points if you really want it to be
00:08:36 - 00:09:32
successful I talked to so many of you that say yo I I I've tried I've tried everything I created flyers I gave them out and then the followup question I have is well what have you done since then well nothing nobody's been reaching out to me how am I supposed to do stuff you have to be consistent you you cannot trust other people they are busy they have their lives they have their jobs they will not remember you you have to to put in the effort to build that out and be really successful with it and for
00:09:04 - 00:09:58
that reason I also encourage you to not do dozens of places I I would encourage you to do some research figure out which ones you really want to be networking with and then have that regular touch point with those 3 to 10 locations um so you don't get too overwhelmed and and then they will know somebody you know they might not have anybody but you know the other hospice or nursing home down the street or or something like that they're going to have that relationship through networking and if you built this
00:09:31 - 00:10:23
solid relationship with them you're going to tap into their Network as well so you really want to be building out this really good solid touch points with people so that they feel confident in who you are and they feel confident referring you out to their friends to help you build your business and help you get more people into your facilities now as you're going out and you're doing networking there's kind of a structure of the things that you need to say so I really want to dive into that and it
00:09:57 - 00:10:46
doesn't need to be complex you want to say Who You Are are you want to say who you serve and you want to say why you're different if you do those three things you're going to be really successful who you are who you serve and why you're different so when you think of of my channel what I want you to think of is the first thing that I say to you and the last thing that I say to you as you come in and and you're leaving here's an example hi hey it's Brandon guson with Assisted Living investing I help
00:10:21 - 00:11:19
beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months right you know exactly what it is that 15-word little clip there of me saying that that is you you hear that does it resonate with you or not you know what I do you know who I serve and I do it with within the next 12 months that's how I'm going to help you do that that's how what sets me apart I I spent a lot of time like figuring out how I'm going to do that we do the same thing with our facilities we want to be saying and I
00:10:50 - 00:11:44
don't do a lot of the marketing there because that's something my administrators do but there's a component of hey I'm Brandon I work with v well Assisted Living we serve ly individuals that are with Medicaid you know that that's a very unpolished version of it but it it gives you an idea so who I am who we serve and why we're different we serve Medicaid right and so we want to be really getting into that the more consistent you do that that's called an elevator pitch the more
00:11:17 - 00:12:10
consistent you do that you're going to have a lot more success in building out these relationships with people and then I would also suggest that you follow up with what do you do and open up to them ask them about themselves get them talking that's how you're going to build a solid relationship the more that they talk about themselves the more they're going to be like oh you know what I like this person they're not going to go why it's because they're talking about themselves to you and you're listening
00:11:44 - 00:12:27
that's why it's going to be successful all right let's get into internet marketing now so this is the second lever that you can really pull as you're trying to figure out how to get your beds full so with internet marketing there's a few different things that you can follow here number one is going to be your website so you want to build a website and I'm going to going to encourage you to go to Assisted Living investing. net cuz I have spent a lot of time trying to hone that in a way that
00:12:05 - 00:12:56
it's very clear what I want you to do I want you to go download my underwriting calculator you go to my website big blue box right in the top Corner get your underwriting calculator it's free there's another button there get your underwriting calculator it's free you keep scrolling down get your underwriting calculator it's free you keep going you keep going every single button on there is directing you to get my free underwriting calculator now what do you think I want you to do I want you
00:12:31 - 00:13:19
to get the free underwriting calculator so if you haven't already go to Assisted Living investing. net and grab the free underwriting calculator you need to do this with your facility with your facility's website you need to create what's called a lead magnet it's a free resource it could be a financial guide it could be hey you know here's some tips and tricks of how to navigate assisted living in in this area do a little bit of research create a guide doesn't need to be big you can also get
00:12:55 - 00:13:47
the business plan checklist as as another example of of what I put together so you you can get that at Assisted Living investing. netb checklist look at that thing it's like a three-page PDF and you're going to look at that and you're going to think to yourself okay what can I put together that's two or three pages that's a really valuable resource that that's going to benefit um the people that are coming to my facility and then you're going to plaster buttons in a very
00:13:21 - 00:14:12
consistent manner there's a great book for this it's called marketing Made Simple by Donald Miller and we'll link that down below so you can go grab that book but it kind of outlines this entire entire process in how to build out your websites this way and what I want you to do is do that have your lead magnets on there and then you're going to start pointing people to the website and you think about my videos I tell you to go to Assisted Living investing. net multiple times in the video because I
00:13:47 - 00:14:35
want you to get the free Resource number one because I know it's going to help you um but number two it it allows me to talk to you a little bit more and and give you more information cuz I know as much as you're going to like the video and subscribe and ring the bell you're not going to get every single notification but now I'm going to send you my newsletter that has all the stuff so you can catch up on it later okay that's what you need to do this is me going a little bit internal into how I
00:14:11 - 00:15:03
run my business here but you need to do the same thing with your assisted living facility it's a different type of business and that's totally fine but if you look at my facility website we do the same thing we have a lead magnet it's a financial guide and and then we give that to people we capture email addresses and then we have an email RP campaign and we're trying to get people to reach out to us and say I want to come to a tour your facility I've heard a lot of good things you're providing me
00:14:37 - 00:15:26
a lot of valuable information in the world of how to navigate assisted living as a consumer of assisted living my mom is going to need this service and I need to figure out how to do it and you're giving me the the guidance and direction I'm building trust there right and and so that's what you want to do you have to build this into place so there's a little bit of the nitty-gritty if you want to learn a little bit more about that and want me to go deeper into that type in website down below and I'll I'll
00:15:02 - 00:15:49
see what I can do for you to give you some extra guidance there so if you need some help with a website type in website now the other one that I want you to be aware of is social media there's a few here and you want to do some market research figure out where your demographic is going to be and remember your demographic is typically not your resident that's not who you're advertising to you're advertising to their children so your resident might be an 80-year-old their children are 50 to
00:15:25 - 00:16:19
60 and that's who you are marketing too now think about who who's where are those people spending their time do some research on it often times social media typically going to be Facebook as things age you're going to be getting into an Instagram generation and and possibly even Tik Tok um depending on how big and how long the the wave goes and what other social media things come up but you want to be aware of these different mechanisms and then you want to be on those platforms don't try to be on all
00:15:52 - 00:16:50
of them pick one be consistent with it but if you want to be talking to a 55-year-old female they're probably on Facebook so get on Facebook create a group create a page do some other Facebook marketing to get people there so you can get them in your community and in your little ecosystem and then start talking to them and provide them with valuable information and interacting with them this is how you're going to get people to start following you so pick a social media platform get familiar with it and learn how to
00:16:21 - 00:17:14
leverage that and then run ads to it and and start getting people there and and be very specific what's really nice about Facebook Instagram and tikk to they all have great drill down marketing abilities to really help you hone in on the group that you want to be working with so that's something that I also want you to be doing another option we've talked about this before and I'm going to link this up above is placement agencies so placement agencies are going to take a cut of the first month maybe
00:16:48 - 00:17:39
even the entire first month but they can bring people in and so building relationships with these placement agencies can be really key and and allow you to to generate a lot of good clients for you you just have to be aware that you're going to be paying them I suggest that you could look at the the big ones you know place for those types of placement agencies but getting with smaller more local placement agencies is really going to benefit you quite a bit to build those relationships it's
00:17:14 - 00:17:57
another one of those kind of network marketing things that can also kind of fit into some of the other stuff that you're doing there all right we've gone through a lot in this video we've been talking a ton about marketing specifically network marketing and internet marketing if you found this video to be helpful then like video subscribe and ring the bell so you get notified every time we put out content like this if you feel like you are going to need some guidance as you're trying
00:17:35 - 00:18:18
to do this and really build a successful and sustainable and profitable business then go to go apply to The Mastermind program Alim mastermind.com would love to see if I can help you out simple application lets me get a feel for where you're at and what your needs are and if I can help you I will send you all the information you can decide if it's a good fit for you again that's Alim mastermind.com and make sure you go grab that underwriting calculator if it wasn't clear a little bit earlier in the
00:17:57 - 00:18:43
video I want you to go grab that because it's going to help you out see if this is a profitable opportunity for you and help you be successful does residential Assisted Living sound interesting to you but you don't know how to get started at Assisted Living investing. net we're here to help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months and I want to remind you as well that it doesn't take a lot just just a little bit just keep going keep making progress step by step by step and
00:18:20 - 00:18:37
I promise you if you do and you're consistent and persistent you're going to be successful thanks for watching and have a great day [Music]
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