One sector within the multifamily industry that has seen and will continue to see explosive growth is senior living. With aging Boomers and more and more people wanting to downsize or move into places requiring no maintenance or upkeep, the 55+ and senior living space is one that more and more owners / managers are turning an eye to.
Baby Boomers are defined as individuals born between 1946 and 1964 in the post-World War II time in the United States. During that time period, approximately 77 million Americans were born. That dwarfed generations both immediately preceding it and just after. While the Millennial generation of today is a larger demographic, Baby Boomers are still a significant part of our population — and an aging one looking for change.
As they age and begin to retire, Boomers are looking for convenient places to live, whether they are downsizing or looking for communities that can provide a certain level of care they may need. Or just to live with other people around that are their same age with the same interests, just like anyone else.
You may already be thinking to yourself, why am I reading about how to reach Baby Boomers looking for senior housing using video? Well…you’re not! When it comes to finding 55+ communities or traditional senior living, it’s the children that are likely helping make those living decisions or at least weighing in on where their parents should be living. Whether those children are Generation X or Millennials themselves, it would do senior focused communities well to look at marketing not just to the parents, but to their kids. And one of the best ways to do that? You guessed it. Video!
Here are a few ways that video can be an asset for senior living companies, whether it’s for marketing to attract your ideal audience, or to convince, and put at ease, both kids and parents that a certain community is the right place for them.
Touring When Distance is a Factor
Kids grow up, move out of their parent’s homes and on with their own lives – typically at least. So, that means many kids don’t live near their parents or not near enough to pop in to go tour properties together. Or there’s a chance all of the children do not live in the same area, but all want a say in where mom and dad live. With multiple decision makers spread out across geographies, there are bound to be some serious difficulties during the sales and leasing process. Coordinating schedules, showing everyone what they want or need to see, etc. just scratch the surface. However, using video, this issue is quickly a thing of the past.
Hosting virtual tours via live video is an instant solution that allows for on-site teams at these properties to pull all decision-makers into one experience to be able to tour the property together — no matter where they are in the world. That could still leave room for several people not being able to join at a specific time though, so ensuring that your live video tour is recorded or creating a pre-recorded tour before/after will give your team something to send as a follow up to everyone involved. This is also a great reminder for them of what they toured. They likely will not be just looking at your property alone, so anything to help yours stand out in their memory will be an added benefit for your team.
Providing Increased Assurances
Whether Boomers have kids or not, it can be daunting for those individuals to move into a new space for a multitude of reasons. After likely living in their own home and having complete control and animosity for a majority of their adult life, it’s a big transition to living in a multifamily community. On top of that, they may be unfamiliar with the area, they won’t know the staff or other residents, and will likely have gotten rid of, sold, or given away a majority of their belongings in order to downsize into a multifamily space. All of this can be really overwhelming for both prospective resident and their kids as well. A good on-site team at these sort of properties will understand these dynamics and the importance of making the process as easy and transparent as possible for everyone involved.
Using video throughout the process can ease that transition for all parties. We already talked about the ability to virtually walk everyone through the property using both live or recorded video tours, but leasing teams can also use video to record resident testimonials, introductions to the staff, resident events, and more to help familiarize prospective residents with the community, its facilities, and the staff. Policies and procedures, a general layout of the property, move-in instructions and more can all be recorded and shared with prospective residents and their families to learn their way around quickly and easily. Senior living communities require a level of confidence with the systems, the facilities, and the staff way beyond that of a traditional multifamily community. Using video can help instill that confidence in many effective and impactful ways.
Showcasing Community Activities
Senior living isn’t just sitting around and working on puzzles. 55+ communities, active senior living communities, and even full-service assisted living communities all offer unbelievable amounts of very active and fun activities and great amenities for their residents. For many seniors, and their kids, they’re looking for somewhere that is a fun next step — somewhere that inspires and promotes activity, relationships, and fun. It’s fine to list out your amenities on the website or have stock images portraying what it’d be like to live there, but that has nothing on the stories that can be told via video.
Video allows on-site teams to showcase resident events, tout the amazing amenities that their community is equipped with, and truly portray what it would be like to live there. And we’re not talking about hiring a full production crew with actors to make it look perfect. Simply whip out your phone, read up on a few video best practices, and get filming! Do-it-yourself video provides a unique look into the way residents interact and how the community functions. Nobody will know a property as well as the people that are working or living there, so those should be the people creating the videos and starring in them.
Using video for your senior living community is not only going to help market and advertise the space, but make everyone’s live much easier throughout the entire process. If you work in senior living, it’s time to think differently about how you connect with your target audience and how you connect with your residents. Technology isn’t just for Millennials anymore…everyone is equipped these days and everyone understands video. Go the extra mile and provide that higher level or service or personalized touch simply and easily with video. Remember, don’t forget to be Fair Housing compliant with your video efforts though!
Want to learn more about how you can equip your team with video and make video work for your senior living community? Contact us today at sales@realync.com. Our team has trained multifamily communities around the world on how to get video integrated into their daily processes and make video work for them.
Until next time…keep it real!