How to Market Your Startup Care Company: A Beginner’s Guide
The foundations of your marketing plan can affect business growth. Here’s how to start out on the right foot.
In the early stages of establishing your business, laying the groundwork for powerful marketing strategies is essential for the success and survival of your home care agency.
Launching a new business is challenging enough. Now you have to put it out into the world and bring clients to you. You may be asking yourself, So, how do you market a care company? Begin with the basics.
The first 6 steps to market your new home care company
1. Lay the groundwork for your marketing plan
The first step in marketing your care business is to make an intellectual decision about the identity of your company. What is your goal? Why did you start the company? Who will you serve?
- Why did you start the company? This will be part of your company story, and it may be valuable for potential clients to know. For example, if you needed care services for a family member and couldn’t find them, your clients will be able to relate to that need.
- What needs do you meet? / What problems do you solve? The answer to this question is your value proposition and the foundation for the way you talk about your business to potential clients.
- Who is your ideal client? This will show you where you need to market and, in some ways, how to talk to your target audience.
Next, consider the practical questions of marketing: resources and skills.
- How much money can you devote to marketing your care company? Carve out your marketing budget. You won’t get it right the first time—you may allocate too little or too much—and that’s OK. Give yourself grace and learn as you go.
- How much time can you devote to marketing your care company? If you have little time for marketing, keep your eyes peeled for automated tools and gaps third-party agencies may be able to fill.
- How digitally savvy are you? If you’re not confident with digital tools, a fully automated marketing platform may be a good choice for you, or a business partner who can run these systems, no matter how small. You can also tap highly skilled freelancers. More on that later.
2. Make a website
Website builders like Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly require no knowledge of coding or software development. They’re made for ordinary people, and there are lots of tools for business owners, including templates designed specifically for service providers like yours. Many site builders even have tools that allow you to set up user accounts, schedule appointments, and collect payments.
Take advantage of the search engine optimization analytics and widgets these website tools provide. Laying the foundations with the basics of SEO from day one will pay dividends for your home health care agency.
The basic elements of a care website are:
- Home: Your home page shows visitors your company name, a brief summary of what you do, and where you provide your services. From your home page, users should be able to navigate to all the other pages on your site.
- About: This page is about who started the business and why. Include a statement about your philosophy of care.
- Services: Make a comprehensive list of the home health care services you offer. If you accept insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid, mention that here.
- Team: An introduction to the people who work at your agency, plus the training and certifications they have. Don’t forget to introduce potential clients to your leadership team as well.
- Careers: Even if you’re not ready to hire new caregivers and staff, list your company values, caregiver certifications, employee benefits, etc. This will tell potential clients what you value.
- Contact/Location: List your email, phone number, business hours, and the location of your offices.
3. Claim your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is the information that appears on the right-hand side of the search engine results page, or SERP, when someone googles the name of your business. The profile provides quick, accurate information to interested clients and drives traffic to your site.
4. Establish a social media presence
Pick one, maybe two, social media platforms to begin with. For home care businesses, Facebook and Nextdoor are the best places to start because users often search for services in their local community.
Social media tools like Sprout Social, Buffer, and Later are inexpensive, powerful assets when you’re just getting started on social and need to grow your business. Using these sites, you can create social media posts, build calendars, schedule posts in advance, track engagement, and even plan ad campaigns. These tools also offer recommendations for when to post (based on your audience and platform) and how to improve exposure.
If you want to try your hand at designing posts, check out Canva.
5. Run an ad campaign
Digital advertising is easier than you might think. Marketing automation tools make it simple to set up digital ad campaigns across websites or social media channels. Ad campaigns are valuable as you market your care company for the first time because they return valuable information about the audiences that do and do not engage with your ads.
Additionally, digital campaigns will return your earliest insights about the effectiveness of your marketing messages.
6. Hire experts where you need them
No business owner is an expert in all elements of marketing, so if you find yourself stuck while setting up Google Analytics on your site, getting your social media up and running, or writing and designing your first ad campaign, you’re not alone! Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
You can enlist the help of freelance specialists before working with an agency. Skilled freelancers are plentiful. Check out:
- The Freelancing Females directory
- Contra
- ilovecreatives
- The Editorial Freelancers Association member directory
- The American Copy Editors Society directory
- Upwork
- Fiverr
- A simple LinkedIn search with “freelance” + “[your need].” For example: freelance squarespace designer
Digital marketing tools like Squarespace also have free training modules, forums, and helpful customer services teams who can walk you through the set-up and troubleshooting process.
Need help with those steps? Why not work with a marketing agency?
Developing and following through on a plan to market your care company can be easier said than done. It can also involve a significant investment of time and energy that could be spent elsewhere.
That's where Home Care Marketing Pros can lend a hand! We offer an assortment of digital marketing solutions and plans for a variety of agencies. Contact us today to see what we can do for you!
