GCM Start-Up Archives ⋆ Cathy Cress

Understand Branding Like Your Business Depended on it!

October 1, 2020

Does Your Company Have a Great Brand During COVID?

Branding is one of the most important parts of your marketing plan. Do You understand how to create one for your company? Successful companies like Coca-Cola and Band-Aid and Keenex have one important thing in common: a strong brand. In fact, their brand names have become generic terms for all similar products in their niche. If you cut yourself, do you ask for a bandage or a Band-Aid? They are the ultimate brands. They have gone into the lexicon.

Geriatric Care Management and Aging Life are not so lucky.
So What is A Brand?

What is a brand? – A brand is made in the mind, not manufactured in a plant” Understanding branding and how it significant it is to your GCM- startup can mean success for your for profit’s geriatric care management business. Although often associated with just advertising, branding is essential to everything a company puts in front of current and potential clients: business cards, brochures, web site, trade show booths, letterheads, e-newsletter and so forth.

Branding is about managing people’s image of a company and making sure that image is one that is in line with your company values and the benefits your company provides. By taking the time to manage expectations and build positive gut feelings about your company, you establish yourself as a trusted leader in your market.

Your brand identity is built upon your key messages and position, the unique customer benefits that you provide, and the expectations you set for your target audience.

By consistently delivering the same symbols, messages, design,and logo you are reinforcing those messages, creating a link to your brand, and building an identity for your business that people will remember.

FREE Webinar

MARKET LIKE YOUR BUSINESS DEPENDED ON IT DURING COVID

October 22 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm PST

We are approaching the busiest season for care manager’s the holidays when families visit for the holiday and seeing their elderly parents skating on very thin ice

Learn care management marketing that works at all time but especially during COVID so you can:

Consult with and help client’s during COVID and post COVID

Convert Consultation into regular clients

Understand branding

Develop a positioning strategy so the caller chooses you

Understand lead generation in care management

Understand how to do an e-newsletter

Get the best marketing software

Understand Public Relations Press, TV-Radio, Social Media Coverage

Understand Zoom Webinars

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Why You Need a Marketing Data Base Especailly Now with COVID?

September 21, 2020

COVID Has Made Marketing To Lead Sources Critical

Geriatric Care Managers Need a Marketing Database

You need a marketing or Contact Management database( CRM) to market to lead sources. An aging life or geriatric care management agency’s marketing has three key target audiences or lead sources: individual clients who need care, referral sources, and children of aging parents. Marketing databases are the key to reaching lead sources such as 3rd party referrals like elder law attorneys, upscale assisted living, trust officers, concierge physicians.

In the Deadly Fall Confluence of COVID and Seasonal Flu You Really Need the Right Marketing DataBase

The JAMA Journal tells us “The confluence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and seasonal influenza this fall and winter will result in considerable morbidity and mortality, stressing the health

system. With more than 200 000 COVID-19–related deaths already, the US could see a second wave of disease later this year. In 2018-2019 (a “moderate” year for influenza), the US experienced 35.5 million influenza cases, with 490 600 hospitalizations and 34 200 deaths related to influenza.¹ An effective COVID-19 vaccine is unlikely until 2021. Even though seasonal influenza vaccines have variable year-to-year effectiveness, they can significantly reduce morbidity and mortality, especially with high coverage.”

Here are some of the many choices ALCA or Geriatric Care Managers can check out

SalesForce For Small Business
GoldMine
Act!
Highrise is a contact management database. Easier to use than SalesForce, Basic account for 6 users, with 5 GB of storage and 5,000 contacts is $24.00 monthly.
Zoho lets you have 3 users and up to 5,000 contacts. An Excel spreadsheet of contacts can work in a start-up if the file is set up correctly to capture the necessary information.
Clear care can also be used as a contact database and a client database used by Aging Life GCM who have a home health component
WHY DO YOU NEED Customer Relationship Database FOR MARKETING?
Rolodex on Speed
Throw away all those business cards
ADD all 3rd party targets you need to market to for referrals
all contacts in the community that help you weave a care plan- can be the same as targets
all the contacts that you use as your individual prescription- which is your care plan
Will send a form elder law letter to all elder law or third party contacts o ( Att) track all calls or marketing visits to a concierge physician or any contact group C(P)Track your marketing visits, data, send Follow up letters
Adding all of your continuum of care or all contacts in the community that help you weave a care plan- physicians, elder mediators, CCRC and all housing, MFT who specialize in aging-Use all the really good contacts that you use as your individual prescription- which is your care plan-
SIGN UP For FREE WebinarMARKET LIKE YOUR BUSINESS DEPENDED ON IT DURING COVIDOctober 22 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm PST
As you are approaching the busiest season for care manager’s the holidays when families visit remotely or in-person for the holiday and see their elderly parents skating on very thin aging iceLearn care management marketing that works at all time but especially during COVID so you can:Consult with and help client’s during COVID and post COVIDConvert Consultation into regular clients
Understand branding

Develop a positioning strategy so the caller chooses you

Understand lead generation in care management

Understand how to do an e-newsletter

Get the best marketing software

Understand Public Relations Press, TV-Radio, Social Media Coverage

Understand Zoom Webinars

Create a 5 Star Marketing Plan for the top 10% of seniors who can afford you. THIS FREE WEBINAR FROM 2 PM – 3 PM PST October 22, 2020

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
When: Oct 22, 2020, 02:00 PM Pacific Time (the

US and Canada)
Topic: MARKET THIS Fall LIKE YOUR BUSINESS DEPENDED ON IT

Register in advance for this webinar:

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

The 2 Deadliest US Sites of COVID-19 Nursing Homes & Prisons

May 2, 2020

PRISON INMATES AND NURSING HOME PATIENTS NOT 6FT APART – 6 FEET UNDER

70% of inmates in federal prisons have COVID-19. In Kansas, the Lansing Correctional Facility had a riot of inmates over COVID-19 lack of care or protection It took the rebellion to get the coronavirus testing PPE and care. The Bureau of Prisons in Kansas confirmed finally that 79 staff have coronavirus and 88 prisons and prisoners dead.

Older residents in nursing homes cannot rebel like prisoners. Many can’t even walk. The Atlantic Magazine just published an article, We are Killing Elders Now. The writer states “In at least six states, these fatalities account for half of all COVID-19 deaths, and according to the World Health Organization, half of all coronavirus fatalities in Europe have been traced to nursing homes too. Some of this mortality is linked to long-term-care facilities that are shoddily run or that violate health standards. But most of them are doing the best they can with what they have. And they don’t have much”.

KAISER FOUNDATION NURSING HOME STAFFING AND USE OF PPE NOT REQUIRED IN MOST STATES

Kaiser reports -Staff Screening. It is more common for states to recommend rather than require daily screening of staff for illness in NFs (24 states recommend, 16 states + DC require)

Use of PPE. More states recommend (23 states) than require (7 states + DC) staff to use PPE

Two States that require testing for coronavirus of ALL residents of nursing homes are Maryland where 556 have died as of the Washington Post article. and Tennessee

THE FEDS HAVE NO CMS FEDERAL GUIDELINES OR REPORTING

We have no federal guidelines for safety testing according to an article by the Kaiser Foundation

It is now estimated that 16,000 deaths have occurred in nursing homes and that is without the federal government revealing any numbers and not making available any testing. But the numbers are probably huge- if we could just do testing.

CMS announced it would have a meeting of a “panel” of experts “ sometime at the end of May”. After probably 20,000 older people died and the feds did nothing this shows their sense of urgency about this pandemic’s national “elder cleansing”.

WHAT CONNECTS PRISONS AND NURSING HOMES – CONCENTRATION CAMPS

So, what is the connection between the viral spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes and prisons- 6 feet ? Prisoners and residents, in nursing homes, and prisons cannot social distance. Jails and prisons have human beings crammed together with no choice. Nursing homes have 2 beds or if you are on Medicaid three to a room. Neither group has a choice to social distance. They are ” concentrated” as in concentration camps or death camps.

Do SOMETHING – HELP NURSING HOMES PREVENT MORE CARNAGE

So, as someone who has spent her career in aging, I am calling out to everyone, especially professional in aging – do something. Since the feds appear to be doing little- call your congressman, write a letter to the editor.

BE KIND LIKE RACHEL MADDOW REPORTS LA JEWISH HOME LA WAS

Rachel Maddow suggests calling your local nursing homes and see what they need. Be kind like the LA Jewish Home was to a smaller nursing home LA Brier Oaks. They wanted to test their residents and had no tests and the larger LA Jewish Home had tests and shared them with the smaller as a good neighbor. What they found was ravaging but it also showed caring and generosity. Care and be generous and show the helpless elders in nursing homes in your town you are opposed to -nursing home being prisons or concentration camps.

Can You Market Care Management During a COVID-19 Shut Down?

April 6, 2020

Marketing geriatric care management in the midst of coronavirus is like a ventilator for your business. The damage has been done to your small business through the coronavirus closing order. However, you can both help keep it on life support and give it time to recover until you can open again.

What Do you need?

First of all, to market while closed, you need social media in the form of a newsletter through email marketing programs like Survey Monkey or Constant Contact. What you are creating is a call to action. That action is to say “use our GCM agency during and after the coronavirus because we have a great service to solve eldercare problems now and in the future for you.” To do this you you need a marketing strategy campaign

with 7 touches so that your customer or potential customer ” hears your “Call to Action.” These touches can come in a variety of ways but the only ones you can use in the COVID-19 epidemic is a newsletter and an email marketing program because 1-1 marketing has vanished.

Ideas For E-Mail Marketing During COVID-19

Here are some ideas of what you can include in an email marketing

marketing campaign using a newsletter format in Constant Contact or Survey Monkey

Local information about home food delivery from local grocery stores used by seniors or designated shoppers as elders should not even get out and shop
A list with links of religious services for upcoming holidays- Easter, Passover. that can be accessed by Radio TV and social media for all those with” Stay at Home “orders
Quality of Life activities that your agency or another agency like the Hummingbird Program offered virtually for seniors who are even more isolated, lonely and depressed during the pandemic
Offer A Home From the Hospital or Move Management product/service if you have one to help families deal with discharge from hospitals after COVID -19 and not end up back in the hospital and or can move to a safer place to recover like their long distance relative.

A list of great reasons that a client or customer should work with an ALCA or Geriatric Care Manager during the Coronavirus pandemic. ALCA members get this in a flyer “Why Work With An ALCA Member During A Crisis “.The Aging Life Care Association has huge resources for dealing with coronavirus impact on geriatric care management. This makes joining ALCA now a great idea in this lethal pandemic and its deadly effect.

Join Me in My Latest Free Webinar on Marketing Geriatric Care Management

How to Sell VIP Clients a Menu of Products They Want To Buy

Learn in this webinar
Why You Must Sell to top 10% when GCM and Long Term Care are Not Covered by Medicare

Why Sell VIP Products rather than Geriatric Care Management
Why VIP GCM Clients prefer GCM Products
How to Develop a 4 Season Menu of Products
How to deliver 4 Seasons Service With VIP Products
VIP Products to Add to your Menu of Services
COVID-19 Assurances You Must add to Your Products
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Close the GCM or ALCA Sale to Assisted Living With Benefits

February 19, 2020

Marketing Tactics -Use Benefits

ALCA members need to sell the benefits of Geriatric Care Management to assisted living. Care managers are perfect professionals to help assisted living residents if they have just moved in and are unhappy with the move if they are not participating in activities and withdrawing from friends and in general when they are nor thriving in the resident community.

But marketing care management to ALF’s takes some particular marketing tactics

Although it might seem counterintuitive, consumers rarely want to buy things for the sake of buying them – they want what they purchase to solve their problems.

To borrow from the example of an umbrella, a feature of this particular umbrella might be its unbreakable spokes or wind-resistant construction – the benefit of which is staying dry even in strong winds that might break lesser umbrellas. The benefit of staying dry in strong winds that break other umbrellas – make the sale.

Clients who purchase home care or care management want to buy benefits – what your product or service can do for them.

GCM Benefits To Assisted Living

Let’s take a third-party. Care Managers often market to Assisted Living. ALF Directors want to hear how your ALCA or GCM agency is going to help the Assisted Living site. Of course, you can describe your agency features, price, training of staff, gold standard service. However, benefits are what make the sale and keep the Assisted Living dry not flooded by the rain.

So here are some benefits you can offer to Assisted Living when you are seeking referrals and you have a service for residents that involves Quality Of Life

YOUR GCM ALCA AGENCIES BENEFITS

The problem: Assisted Living does not want residents to move out most facilities are strictly non-medical and do not have one to one companion and geriatric care management services. Your agency can solve that problem.

The assisted living and retirement community population sometimes have clients with needs that cannot be met with their nonmedical, non-one-on-one support services, (usually just an activities director)

You will help facility with residents who are not adjusting to the facility or considering moving by engaging them in activities that will enhance the quality of their life, SO WHAT so they remain in the facility
You will help residents not engaging in activities to participate in the ALF’s activities program or outside activities and socialization program through a quality of life assessment & companion, SO WHAT so they do not want to move out of the facility
You will engage with new residents who are just adjusting both to the facility and their move, to engage in socialization and activity programs. You can help them make friends & engage in outside activities through a quality of life assessment and companion, SO WHAT so they do not consider moving out
You will make monthly monitoring visits to make sure Companion is meeting all the client’s needs, keep in touch with the family and facility with frequent e-mails, texts or telephone updates plus sending a monthly report SO WHAT so everyone is on the same page through your great communication skills.

So, selling the benefits to the third party, who will refer your agency to families of residents who are struggling, is a much more potent selling point that features of your agency.

Free Webinar –

Join me in my new FREE Webinar
Learn to Sell Benefits not Features to Third Parties to Grow Your Care Management Bottom Line

When: February,20th 2020
2 PM-3:30 PM PST
Learn

What is a benefit vs features and how to find benefits for each 3rd party you market to?

What specific problems you solve for wealth managers, elderlaw attorneys and concierge physicians

What specific problems to solve for upscale Assisted Living, accountants, financial planners, MD’s

Step by Step how to set up meetings with 3rd parties to make the sale

Contact

Connect with Cathy

Get Cathy’s “10 Critical Success Steps to a Profitable Aging Life or GCM Business”