Connecting with Multiple Audiences: Empathetic Marketing Strategies for Senior Living with Kristy Ruppe Craddock

Announcer: Welcome to the Ignite Podcast, the only healthcare marketing podcast that digs into the digital strategies and tactics that help you accelerate growth. Each week Cardinal’s experts explore innovative ways to build your digital presence and attract more patients. Buckle up for another episode of Ignite.

Alex Membrillo: What’s up, everybody? This is going to be a fun episode of Ignite. We’re going to pivot a little bit. Usually, we’re talking about patient acquisition for multi-site provider groups. Today, we get to talk about senior living, which is fun, because we’re the sandwich generation, aren’t we, Kristy? We’ve got the parents to care for. We’ve got our kids to care for. This is really vital. Kristy Ruppe Craddock, welcome to Ignite.

Kristy Ruppe Craddock: Thank you. Thank you. I’m very happy to be here, and appreciate you guys inviting me.

Alex: Yes, absolutely. All three of our listeners are going to love this one. Kristy, tell us, where do you hail from, where do you work, and what is it?

Kristy: Absolutely. I’m the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for Commonwealth Senior Living. We’re a mid-Atlantic, but have stretched up into Michigan and Connecticut as well company. We’re a grassroots senior living provider that started in Charlottesville, Virginia. Most of our communities in our portfolio of 33 are here in Virginia, but we do have a few in Maryland, one in Pennsylvania, four now in Michigan, and one in Connecticut. We offer assisted living, independent living, and memory care services.

Alex: I love it. I love it. I’m not as familiar with your space. Tell us, in 2024, what are some of the biggest challenges that are impacting senior living and acquiring residents? What’s going on?

Kristy: That’s a great question. I would say two of them are something that really hasn’t changed dramatically in my 20-plus years in the industry. I would say it’s fear of the unknown and guilt of the decision specifically for adult children, families who maybe are recognizing that their aging loved one is either struggling at home or maybe just not thriving or living their best life. The third one I would say is market disruption and noise.

Post-COVID, a couple of years, there’s been a lot of acquisitions and sales. We’re in the acquisition side of growth as well and on an active growth plan ourselves, but also in a lot of more metro markets, we’re seeing more new construction, new companies emerging in the senior living space. I think for families that are already trying to come to terms with those emotions of guilt and fear and fear of the unknown and what to do to then have a significant amount of market disruption, that noise can be confusing, and I think sometimes stall families because they’re overwhelmed.

Alex: The guilt has got to be incredible. It’s good that you know that– First of all, you can articulate the issues that your business is seeing and a lot of marketers can’t do that. Have you done focus groups? You’ve just been in the industry that long. How do you have that so well defined?

Kristy: Gosh, all the things. My own personal journey. I have lost my father and my mother is in the age demographic and lives in a 55-plus neighborhood now myself. I know it from a personal standpoint. I certainly grew up in the industry right out of college, started in senior living and that’s all I’ve done for the past– It’s really almost 25 years, but we don’t have to do math that hard today.

Then, yes, on the focus groups as well. That’s one of the things that I really love getting to do is going out into some of our markets and sitting and listening to real families and real seniors, and what they’re going through and what their thought path is. While I think there are a lot of similarities and nuances of what today’s customer is feeling and going through compared to same things we heard 25 years ago, there’s just more stress around it, because our lives are more complicated now than what they were 20 years ago. There’s more options. More doesn’t always mean better, right? It can really compound that emotional journey for families for sure.

Alex: Yes, absolutely. You’ve got two clients, which complicates your job even more. I imagine you have the actual residents that are looking for the children, and then you have the adult children. How do you divvy that out? How do you define the customer journey for both? How do you run two separate marketing kits? How do you do all that?

Kristy: It’s not an easy one, [chuckles] but it’s good, fulfilling work. The adult child or adult family member, their journey certainly is nuanced with similarities with the senior, but it definitely looks different. It really starts with even priorities and the things that they’re looking for for a loved one versus what the senior themselves are looking for. Top priorities for families oftentimes is security and peace of mind for them that their loved one, their most valued, treasured family member is getting the best care, the best support and living their best life.

Sometimes that has a financial component. Sometimes it’s safety, security. Oftentimes it is knowing that they’re engaged. I use the word thriving and living their best life. For the senior themselves, their journey can look a little bit different because they’re grappling with not wanting to be a burden on other people. They’re focused on, am I going to fit in? Oftentimes seniors have lived either by themselves or in a more traditional sense with a spouse, often in the same home, just like my mother for 40, 50 years. Then the thought of doing something different and then moving somewhere that has folks they likely don’t know.

It’s just two completely different journeys and priorities. We have to be able to speak to both of those. On the digital front, our customer is more the adult child because that’s what we do. We go online to look up and ask questions that are really big life questions, as well as, where did this word originate? For me, I’m definitely that sandwich generation where I’m having to Google some of the words that my daughter comes home and uses.

Alex: [unintelligible 00:05:57]

Kristy: I’m like, “What are you saying?”

Alex: We’re stuck right now, Kristy. [crosstalk].

Kristy: Should I be concerned that my child is getting rizzed up at school? I don’t know. I have to go to Google to tell me these things or ask Alexa. Even with big life decisions, the adult child journey typically is going to start online, and asking what, to me who’s worked in the industry for so long, may seem like basic questions, but they’re the questions that burn in the minds and the hearts of families that are faced with, “Now that I have an aging loved one, what do I do to walk this journey with them?” Less than 1% of our population in this country understands what senior living even is and what it does and what it doesn’t do. You find yourself walking that path or down that journey because you either work in it or you’re living through it with a family member now.

Alex: Let’s talk more and then we’ll go into how do you reach the actual client. We’ll talk first adult children. You said digital. What does that mix look like for you digitally? I’d like to cover that first.

Kristy: We’ve done a lot of research as well as both through our digital partners and then what our customers tell us, like what are those burning questions on the very front end of the journey? A couple of the ones that have been very consistent over the last few years is, how do I pay for it? What does it cost? Really the very basic beginning steps of cost. Then, how do I even start the journey? Where do I start? How do I have the conversation?

It all starts there with any digital or traditional strategy, any marketing strategy. You got to know what your consumers, the information they’re after, and then you’ve got to appeal to that. Obviously, we invest in Google AdWords and pay-per-click. We do email marketing. We use our website heavily to promote events and opportunities for customers to get a sneak peek or to understand what that day-to-day looks like. We try to provide educational opportunities both through our blog posts, through content with white papers, and even the grassroots educational events that we hold at the community level to speak to what those pain points are for families.

Alex: I got you. LEAD comes in and it sounds like it’s an education opportunity. Sometimes you use events to nurture them, like come check out the actual facility. How long is the process, and how do you nurture them along that process?

Kristy: On average, if they are care needs, like care support needs with activities of daily living, traditionally, somewhere between that 45 and 90 days is the life cycle or the buy cycle for customers. For our active adults, independent living, that can range really anywhere from three to six months. We nurture them in a lot of different ways. Some of those are passive through drip campaigns, events, posts. Our sales process on the human-to-human level is not emailing just a body of words and text.

Incorporating videos, sending photographs, especially for those families that may be looking from afar, but really the magic happens, Alex, when a family can physically come and experience what it looks like, feels like, and engage with actual consumers, engage with family members that have loved ones there, engage with residents. Making that person-to-person connection, I don’t think that will ever be replaced in our lifetime.

Now, how we make those connections obviously have evolved over the years with technology and being able to provide them anonymous assessments and surveys online, and having super clear transparency on cost and what they can expect with us. The nurturing is multifaceted. It typically takes at least 20 to 30 individual, unique touch points from the first inquiry to when someone actually makes the decision. That is a really effective sales professional guiding that family along the way.

There have been times, even in my career career when I started out a long time ago as a sales director at a community, I had one of those Stage 1 Clinger families. It took me 72 touches, and I promise you I didn’t log them all, but really it was because I wasn’t the most efficient and effective at guiding them through. I could have easily helped them realize the beauty and benefit of living at the community in a third of that time if I would have been more effective and purposeful in my connections with them.

Alex: We say, “Just come in guys.” We’ve been talking long enough. The nurturing digitally, so we got it. On the adult children, you said– I think you’re alluding to the actual residents themselves may be less digitally focused. Is it a lot of referral things, marketing?

Kristy: Yes. The savvy senior, especially more active adult, we’re reaching them through social media, specifically the demographic on Facebook, and that’s why it’s so important for social media and Facebook to be the window into the life at the community. We rely on our community teams to supply us with the content and to capture those magical moments that are happening and celebrate our resident stories. We’ve had a lot of success with TikTok, several of our TikTok videos of residents doing TikTok in our communities.

Alex: They’re putting themselves on TikTok, the residents.

Kristy: Correct.

Alex: No way.

Kristy: Absolutely. We’ve got a whole campaign. We’ve had two videos that have gone viral that– or a few that have gone viral, but two that have had over 3 million views each. One particular resident at our Commonwealth Stratford house location, in fact, the local media just came out to interview her about the fact that she’s a TikTok star and how she feels about it. It’s a really lovely story, but she is the best. She loves the TikTok. She didn’t know [crosstalk].

Alex: She loves the TikTok.

Kristy: [unintelligible 00:11:46]

Alex: It’s so crazy. I want all of our marketers to stop saying, “That demographic’s not on TikTok.” Everybody’s on that thing.

Kristy: What I find with seniors today, again, not drastically different than when I first entered the industry, is still in this country, there’s a stereotype of aging, and you stop learning as you get older. You’re not going to be as adventurous. You’re risk averse. We have had no trouble whatsoever challenging our communities to say, “Here are three or four things trending on TikTok. See if you can find some residents to participate.”

They love it. Even if at first they don’t have a clue what TikTok is, they’re like, “Oh, you want us to do this video and have fun?” Seniors are still craving connection and joy and humor and being silly. I am just so proud to work in an industry and to work for a company that embraces that, and really continuing that forward for the folks that we serve and who depend on us. Family members are shocked when they’re like, “I’m sorry, my mom did what on TikTok?” I think it’s great. I’ve put my own mom on TikTok. I’m like, “Oh, you got this, just say this or do this or whatever it is.” It’s another way to, I think, bridge the generational gap as we continue to move forward and advance with technology and other ways to stay connected through socials and digital platforms.

Alex: You said it well, it can be used as the way you do to stay connected. Oftentimes we get too carried away and then we just are death scrolling at night instead of talking to ourselves. It can be used, in moderation, to form connection and have some fun, and that’s cool. Grandma goes viral. What do you do with it? Can you use it for your own marketing?

Kristy: Yes, we use it. We use it all over the place. I would love, shameless plug, to have folks follow us on TikTok. It’s Commonwealth SL, S for senior, L for living. We obviously share it with families. We use it as part of our blogs. We use it on other social media platforms. One of the things that I think we are responsible for in this industry is to show the brighter, lighter, joyous side of senior living. I think we are going to be working on it for the next 50 years to dispel the perception of the general public that that’s the place you go to die, or, “I only want to go there if I can’t take care of myself wholly,” and to really highlight the social wellness and the emotional wellness benefits of considering senior living.

Alex: I don’t want to be alone with my wife. I love, I love her. It’s not bad. It’s like, “Let’s go be around friends. Why do we want to have a standalone home when we can be in a community that’s got tons of our people and we can be at happy hour?” I’ve done lots of tours of senior living communities. It’s fun. They got happy hours. They’re playing games together. The stigma is weird. It doesn’t need to be there.

It is fun. It is a place where people stay connected, and I bet it increases the length of life because you’re surrounded by communities instead of [unintelligible 00:14:47]. I think that would compare to living close to your adult children, but the adult children don’t [unintelligible 00:14:52] about you a lot of times. Looking forward for the senior living industry, what do you see happening or changing in the coming year? You mentioned more connection, changing the stigma. Is there any other shifts you’re seeing or trying to get ahead of?

Kristy: We try to stay ahead of the curve, obviously. I’m sure anyone you would bring on an interview is going to tell you that. Staying agile and not accepting the norm is the best business advice I can give any industry or any individual. Just because it’s been done this way doesn’t mean you have to continue doing it. I think the future of senior living, as I mentioned, it doesn’t matter how digitally or technologically advanced we become as a society. It is people taking care of people. It is about love, connection, being in each other’s personal space, embracing one another, providing those opportunities to be as social as you want or as private as you want, and being a family.

We believe in four key behaviors at Commonwealth. It’s we listen, we love, we care, and we serve. That will never change. Now, how we deliver care, how we serve our residents and potential families who need us in being a resource, that’s going to evolve over time, but the love and the connection is never going to change. I believe at some point the traditional advertising space will continue to phase out, but that doesn’t mean that the personal connection, the face-to-face interactions will be any less.

Alex: Yes, I agree. Hey, we’re all about the love, too. We love it [inaudible 00:16:20]. Having those values, I bet it helps recruit the right people, too. I think they’ll be like, “Whoa, Commonwealth is really serious about helping and they love the whole continuum. They really love these people.” If I’m just getting this for paycheck, probably not the best place for me. I better help recruit the right people who are going to care for your residents even better.

Kristy: 100%.

Alex: One final question for you, Kristy [unintelligible 00:16:43] what digital strategy are you going to invest in more in ’25 than you did in ’24?

Kristy: It’s going to be on the research and pivot side. What I mean by that is we’ve done more shifts in the past year than we probably did the prior five combined. By shifts, I mean it really goes back to that agility piece of keeping ourselves keenly aware, ear to the ground on that research front of what are our consumers searching for, looking for from a keyword strategy, and then continuing to optimize our website and our resources to quickly give the customer what it is they’re looking for.

I mentioned earlier about the two things that have been pretty consistent over the past year that families are researching are, how much does it cost, and how do I start this conversation? For us, we believe in price and transparency. We will continue to invest in the online cost calculator. Just as soon as you’re popping on our website, really paying attention, what pages do we have that there’s a higher jump rate? Which pages are the consumer lingering on a little bit more, and making sure that the information they’re looking for, they’re getting as quickly as possible.

Alex: I love that. Great answer, Kristy. A lot of people say, “Oh, more in Meta or PPC.” Kristy gave a different answer, which is more of research to make sure we’re attracting the right users and the right residents with the right content and messaging and value profit at the right time, guys. Before you enter ’25 with diversifying the channel, [unintelligible 00:18:16] investing, actually evaluate whether you’re converting correctly and you have the right content that people want to see today. Kristy, I want to say one final thing. Y’all went through the handbasket 2020 to 2022. It’s cool to hear that things are so optimistic, have gone back to normal. It’s a good example of resilience in this country. It’s very cool. Congrats. Kudos to you guys. Kristy, thanks for joining us on Ignite.

Kristy: I appreciate you.

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