Turning Educational Materials into Sales Materials |
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Welcome to Private Duty Today, the bi-weekly electronic newsletter for Private Duty Home Care Leaders from Leading Home Care... a Tweed Jeffries company. I'm Jason Tweed, Director of Business Development for Leading Home Care and Editor of Private Duty Today.
Private Duty Today is published every other Wednesday, and currently goes to over 8000 subscribers.
Private Duty Today is a permission-based newsletter. |
- Turning Educational Materials into Sales Materials
- Academy for Private Duty Home Care
- Keys To The Home Care Vault
- Merry Christmas!
- Bookstore
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Turning Educational Materials into Sales Materials
by Jason Tweed |
There are two methods to grow market share... capturing customers from competitors or creating new customers. Private duty home care companies often focus on their competition, which can certainly be valuable, however it's important to ask yourself this question:
Which is better, a larger slice of the pie or a larger pie?
Educating a group of people about the value of home care services should be a critical function of your marketing plan. This can include the general public and/or specific groups of referral sources. Here are five ways you can educate audiences, to grow your customer base and create eduated consumers.
 Email newsletters - Email newsletters are a cost effective way to educate your audiences. Our business is a prime example. A substantial portion of our clients come to us after reading a newsletter. With email newsletters I recommend a 75% information / 25% promotion mix. People won't read the email without some incentive. I recommend actually creating multiple newsletters geared toward different audiences; clients and their families, existing referral sources, others involved in advocacy for seniors or people with disabilities.
Employee newsletters - Educating your employees about the value of home care reinforces the feelings they have about the work they are doing. Additionally, it gives your employees information they can use when talking with others. A significant part of your word-of-mouth advertising will be generated from your own employee base. Turn every caregiver and office staff member into walking advertisements for your company, simply by providing additional education about the work they already do.
Press Releases - Keeping in touch regularly with members of the fourth estate and being accessible to journalists will help educate your community. Often a well-placed mention in the press is far more valuable than equivalent advertising space. Best of all, it's free.
Articles Written by You - Another way to get your name into the local media is to become a published author. Local newspapers and magazines are often looking for stories of local interest. You can turn your expertise in caring for the elderly into a useful article on elder care. Being the author positions you as an expert.
Your website - Websites are designed to inform and sell. If your website is only used as a promotional piece you're losing tremendous value. Educating customers, referral sources and employees adds tremendous value to your website. Additionally, it works hand-in-hand with other social media practices. Your website can be as much a publishing platform as it is a promotion device.
PowerPoint Presentation - Speaking to groups in your community about the issues of aging and elder care is a great way to connect with consumers and referral sources. You can build a wonderful presentation using PowerPoint on your PC or Keynote on your MAC using attractive visuals to enhance your presentation. Your laptop, a small LCD projector and your promotional materials make a simple presentation package.
Become an educational resource - You can get value from others' educational materials by sharing them in your community. Every day tens of thousands of articles and blog postings are published on topics related to health care, aging, caregiving and the societal issues that they impact. Simply sharing resources with others creates good faith and the perception of expertise. Even if you aren't generating newsletters, press releases or website content, introducing these things to your audience can be invaluable. Share them in your social networks, forward them in emails, or deliver printed copies to people that might find the information valuable.
These information and education resources are valuable when distributed the first time. AND, they then become great sales support materials for you to use when making sales calls on likely referral sources. Take with you printed copies of e-newsletters, employee newsletters, press releases, articles, and select pages from your web site. You can even put a PDF of your PowerPoint presentation on your iPad to show during one-on-one presentations.
All of these things help to build your credibility as a resource to your referral sources.
In review, 2011 was a terrific year for The Academy for Private Duty Home Care. We conducted eight public workshops around the country for nearly 500 participants and introduced our new Advanced Academy program for previous graduates.
In 2012, we have some totally new resource materials for you to grow your business and get ready for the future. We are working with a number of state home care associations to plan workshops in key cities around the country. We're also exploring online learning programs to supplement the live Academy workshops.
We want to extend a very special thank you to all of the sponsors who helped make the Academy for Private Duty Home Care possible. We encourage you to visit their landing pages on our web site and to use their products or services when it fits your needs.
AppointMate from Delta Health Technologies - a tremendously adaptable web-based software system.
The Braff Group - the leading investment banking firm specializing in home care.
Caregiver Quality Assurance - the online system for recruiting, selection, and retention of caregivers.
Home Trak - software designed and operated by people with 25 years of experience operating private duty home care companies.
National Crime Search - providing high quality, low cost criminal background search.
One-on-One Home Care Solutions - a consulting company created to work specifically with individuals who want to start up a new private duty home care business.
The Phone Works - telephony based time and attendance system to make your workforce management one step easier.
The Solutions Group - specializing in home care liability, now serving over 1,000 private duty companies.
Stratis Business Systems - focused on providing industry leading software solutions and support for private duty home care, home health and staffing since 1999.
The Trusted Hands Network - providing high quality referrals from television advertising to home care agencies nationwide.
Keys To The Home Care Vault
Leigh Davis, owner of ELDirect In Home Elder Care in Fayetteville, AR and our co-author for the eBook, Get the Best: 9 Steps to Hiring Quality Caregivers and Improving Your Bottom Line in Private Duty Home Care is working on another book.
Leigh is working on another book and he would like to include your best tips. If you have a great idea about how to grow, manage, improve or make more profitable a private duty home care business, Leigh would like to hear from you. Just click on the link and enter your best tip today. Leigh will send you a complimentary copy of the completed eBook.
Merry Christmas!
All of us at Leading Home Care and Private Duty Today wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!
Whether you are looking for help with marketing, selecting the best caregivers, improving your process for phone inquiries or new revenue sources, one of the e-books or e-tools listed below will be sure to help you!
To order any of our other outstanding products or learn more about them, just click on their titles below.
Our most popular e-Books:
Our most popular e-Tools:
Reprints: Articles from this issue may be reprinted by home care companies and home care associations. Permission is granted provided that the author and publication are given credit, and provided that the article is used verbatim in its entirety. All reprints must be accompanied by a mention of our website, at www.leadinghomecare.com and/or www.privatedutytoday.com. Reprints of articles published online must have a link. Other use of this content is available with written permission only. To request permission, please email jason@leadinghomecare.com.
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