Choosing Authenticity Over Differentiation

Senior Living Marketing 101 says to find and focus on your USP. Here’s why that can be bad advice.

by Jim Dudley, Director of Strategy

The unique selling point or USP. It’s a marketing fundamental, right? Well, it may be why your prospects are stalling out in the middle of the sales process after showing solid interest early on. 

The issue is that identifying a USP is more difficult than you might think. And even if you identify one, it can be fleeting, and it is rarely the thing that truly gets you a sale.

Finding clarity in an emotional process 

Moving to a senior living community is one of the bigger decisions your prospects will ever make. We’re talking about not just leaving a house, but leaving home—the living room where they first met their grandchild, grilling with their neighbors, having their favorite shops and restaurants nearby, taking evening walks in the neighborhood, etc.

They are considering uprooting their life to put down new roots in a new community. That’s huge! And it can feel overwhelming. So prospects often try to make sense of the process by focusing on the features and services various communities offer. By making a checklist—location, pricing, types of homes offered, a heated pool, a sunroom in the apartment, a putting green, multiple restaurants on campus—they can further narrow down potential communities to the ones that offer the best set of amenities.

Stuck in head thinking

We call this stage “head thinking.” Head thinking can temper emotions by turning the process into something akin to math—use the checklist to narrow community options to those that have the most desirable mix of features.

As marketers, we’re told to “meet your prospect where they are.” So we put our community’s amenities at the forefront of our marketing efforts. And let’s be clear—prospects must know what your community offers. But if your marketing message is simply “We have what you want,” you are unlikely to be as successful as you can be.

Maybe your community was the first in the region to add a set of pickleball courts just as the game was really catching on. Maybe you saw a boost in new leads and possibly even a sale—all because you were the only community to embrace pickleball as a feature.

But what happens when your main competition adds courts as well? Suddenly your USP is no longer unique—which means it’s not much of a selling point.

Features qualify. Authenticity earns the sale.

The truth is, you’re really not marketing against dozens of other communities that are highly differentiated. Your viable prospects are comparing your community against a small subset of communities that likely offer similar homes, with similar amenities, at similar pricing, in a similar (or equivalent) location. Features only get you in the discussion. They are not what leads to a sale.

So as prospects move through the process, what changes? If features are no longer the benchmark, what is? Over the last 20+ years as an agency specializing in senior living, what we’ve found is simple. Once the field of potential communities is narrowed down to the ones that offer all the right services, amenities, contract options, location, and other desired features, people choose the community that feels right.

Prospects aren’t just searching for a new home, but the feeling of being at home. Not just new people to be around, but finding their people. We’ve moved from analytical “head thinking” to more emotional “heart feeling.” When your mid- to late-stage marketing messaging moves along with your audience, you begin to connect with prospects on a far more personal and fundamental level.

Instead of “we have what you want,” your message should be focused on saying “you belong here with us.”  

Heart feeling messaging should guide every aspect of your late-stage marketing. Events for late-stage prospects should be focused on inviting them into the fold and treating them like residents. Give prospects a sense of what life is truly like at your community.

Rather than doing a presentation on the benefits of your refundable contract, have resident ambassadors lead an event sharing stories behind their favorite recipes. Or take a field trip off campus to a fun art show or sporting event with a mix of prospects and current residents so they can get to know one another.

Instead of “we have what you want,” your message should be focused on saying “you belong here with us.”

Share real-life stories about your residents on your website and in your marketing automation. Not just “I like living at this community because of X and Y,” but interview a resident who was a former flight attendant and let her share her story of her time in the skies. Share a video about the group of guys in the community with the old car club. Write a blog post about the ladies who make crafts to donate to the local children’s hospital. Send an email highlighting a group of residents who gather periodically by the lake to play campfire songs together on guitar.

Whatever the advertising medium might be, your community is full of life—that’s your message! By sharing what your community authentically and truly is all about, you are crafting the most compelling marketing possible for the prospects who will be the happiest at your community. And that’s what it’s all about isn’t it? Finding people who will love their life as part of your community? We think so.

These are marketing messages you can’t fake. People will sniff that out instantly. So it’s important to cultivate a robust community atmosphere so you can share that with your prospects to close the sales process.

Your community’s features matter, there is no doubt about that. But for mid- to late-stage prospects, the thing that gets them to move forward is less about amenities and more about finding the place they truly belong. And once they find that in your community, you’ve already won.