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Author: Jenna Fausey, Media Specialist, January 25, 2012
Not only can YouTube be an outlet for showcasing popular music videos and sub-par comedy clips, but if used correctly it can become a powerful marketing tool for senior care and living organizations. In fact, according to comScore’s rankings, YouTube is the number two search engine on the World Wide Web and tops all social media activities. Did you know that video watching is the number one activity dominating social media? Organizations are using video sharing sites like YouTube to search for content and share content that is very easy to take in. Whether a CEO is making a personal announcement, a nurse is sharing care giving tips, or a sales rep is sharing information about your service, online video supports social media by creating a visual and audio connection to make a meaningful impact.
Here are four important tips to keep in mind:
First: Play to viewers’ emotions
Because Internet users aren’t a very captive audience, you need to get their attention within the first few seconds. Videos involve your visitors emotionally, so you want your video content to capitalize on the emotional challenges your potential customers are experiencing. For example visit http://www.saginawassistedliving.org/
Second: Promote like with like
Prospective customers aren’t going to be randomly searching YouTube for relevant healthcare related videos (most of the time!). So direct them to your videos using your current social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) or through print ads by providing a link.
 Third: Keep the message positive
If you keep your videos’ content uplifting, you’re likely to receive positive comments and feedback in return. You should also be checking your comments regularly (probably daily) so that if a negative comment does pop up, you can address the comment and rectify the situation. For example, see the warm inviting video welcome at http://www.hswo.org/.
Fourth: Freshen up the content
Social Media is all about relevant and captivating content. Not keeping up-to-date with your YouTube channel (or Facebook, or Twitter) is just about as bad as not having one at all. Regularly create new, high-quality videos and you’re sure to maintain a much more generous following. Take a look at this for example: http://www.bucknervillas.org/
Videos can be embedded into blogs and on websites, shared on Facebook and tweeted to followers. In fact, research indicates that placing videos on your website can increase your SEO by more than 50%.
What success have you experience with YouTube videos?
At CISCO & CO, we frequently hear clients share they can’t afford to produce videos. The good news is, you have options that will fit your budget. Contact Jenna Fausey at CISCO & CO today and ask about our new “Capture” video option.
If you’d like to use this article in your own newsletter or on your web site, you are welcome to reprint it in its entirety with an active link to our web site and the following info:
“By Jenna Fausey, Media Specialist for CISCO & CO. For effective marketing, sales and customer strategies that connect you with your customers visit www.ciscoco.com.”
Author: Rebecca Oeltjenbruns, Coach & Catalyst, January 17, 2012
It’s the New Year! A time to start fresh. A chance, as a senior care and living leader, to discuss with your sales team what the goals for 2012 are and what you, as the “manager”, expect each salesperson to do to achieve these goals. In the past, however, you may have had limited success turning these individual sales goals into some real action that got better results from each of your team members. What could you do differently this year to motivate each of them to better performance?
Sales managers who motivate the highest level of production from each member of their teams are almost always those who excel at expectation clarity. Expectation clarity requires a manager to do three things. First, he or she must be crystal clear about all expectations. This includes what specific actions should be taken, how to do them, and to what specific and measurable outcome. Explain the “who, what, where, when, and how.” It’s not enough to say “Sell ten widgets today.” You also need to explain what activities must be done to sell ten widgets and how to do each of these activities effectively.
Next, the manager must explain how an expectation and the activities it entails are similar to and different from what the salesperson is doing currently. This helps the salesperson understand what he or she needs to do more of, less of, and/or what he or she should continue doing.
 Finally, the manager must help the salesperson understand “what’s in it for them.” Don’t forget, since every salesperson may have a different answer, your success in setting expectations and prompting results means you will have to treat each employee as an individual. Design motivations which play off each person’s strengths, weaknesses, “triggers,” and learning styles.
What if you don’t know what motivates the salespeople on your team? Asking is a good start. Ask open-ended questions. Ask more than once, and in different ways. You can always ask “What motivates you?” or “What is it you want?” The answers to these questions may reveal motivators.
There are additional ways to uncover personal motivators – ways which can help you connect to each employee as an individual. Here are some questions you might consider:
- What do you love most about this job (or a job you’ve had in the past)?
- What gives you the most satisfaction in the work you do on this team?
- Where do you see yourself in a year from now?
- When you tell someone what you love about your work, what do you say?
- When you’ve had a good day at work what does it look like?
Check your understanding of the answers you receive. Probe for details about these potential motivators. Discuss with the salesperson how and why these examples are important. Then, observe and listen. Use this motivator to help the salesperson understand what the expectation you’re setting (e.g., 110% of last year’s quota, 100% retention of existing clients, 3 new leads each week, etc.) will do for him or her if it’s achieved. If you know a salesperson is motivated by money, then explain how much more money he or she will make if they achieve the goal. If you know the salesperson is motivated by career advancement, then help him or her understand how meeting your expectations will improve the odds of a promotion.
What expectation clarity for 2012 will you be implementing to make a difference in the results your team gets?
If you’d like to use this article in your own newsletter or on your web site, you are welcome to reprint it in its entirety with an active link to our web site and the following author info:
Rebecca Oeltjenbruns recently joined CISCO & CO as a Coach & Catalyst. Rebecca is a high energy sales productivity coach who helps senior care and living organizations align strategy with sales and marketing efforts; develop business processes; and create supportive, values-based environments. Her primary goal is to help sales teams execute strategy that meets company revenue and retention goals.
For more than 20 years, Rebecca has coached and developed high-performing teams in sales and service organizations. She has facilitated hundreds of sales training sessions. Critical to her success is her ability to win the hearts and minds of managers who increase their coaching activities and their coaching effectiveness to help improve the sales performance of their team members following training events.
Rebecca holds a law degree from William Mitchell College of Law and has been employed as a senior executive or executive coach to several Fortune 500 companies.
Author: Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst, December 27, 2011
With only a few days remaining until 2012, are you confident with your game plan or are you feeling a bit overwhelmed and confused on where to focus? Usually the last week of the year finds senior care and living providers reflecting on what they actually achieved in the past year, and a feeling of the “unknown” as they look to the year ahead…especially 2012 with healthcare reform and severe reimbursement cuts looming on the horizon.
 If your 2012 plans include strategies and tactics to become more valuable, more visible and more indispensable to your customers, and your marketing and sales strategies reflect it, congratulations! You’ve done your planning and research and you should be looking at 2012 with confident anticipation.
On the other hand, if your 2012 plans are basically a re-run of what you’ve done in 2011 and prior, you’re probably stuck in a rut. You may be feeling stressed and anxious about what 2012 will bring and hoping for a little luck.
Unfortunately luck isn’t what you need. You need change, insight, education and a solid strategy. As much as I would love to give everyone the magic “quick fix” strategies, there really isn’t anything worth doing that doesn’t require pushing up the sleeves and getting the hands dirty with a little hard work. Every organization requires a different game plan.
A few things to consider for 2012 to give you a competitive advantage:
1. Customize marketing and sales strategies that make the most sense for your market area, target audiences and the services being offered. Don’t waste money on one-size fits all strategies.
2. Customer Service. Customer Service. Customer Service. Need I say more?
3. Integrate your marketing strategies. Don’t waste time and resources creating fly by night campaigns. Look for avenues to weave all of your marketing strategies together.
4. Internet marketing. From web site (if yours is older than 2 years this should be a priority for 2012) to social media…it is imperative that it’s part of your strategy and you use it correctly to gain the full benefit.
5. “Sales” is not a dirty word, and not just a warm smiley cookie-dropper person. Internal sales strategies are different from external sales strategies. Regardless of your service, having a sales system is imperative to engage both referral sources and leads.
6. Develop a competitive advantage message. Don’t be “vanilla” like your competitors. You need to have a clear message that defines your unique attributes and the benefit your customers and referral sources receive from working with you.
7. You need a brand identity, and no, that’s not just a logo! If you haven’t refreshed your brand in 5 years, it’s time.
8. Engage and provide value to your prospects and referral sources. From helpful rich internet content, to educational information it’s time to stop pushing out information about you, and start engaging and pulling people to connect with you on their terms.
9. Personal goals yield success. If you struggle to achieve your objectives, try using these strategies adapted from Five goal setting secrets to jumpstart your life, by Ed Sykes, on the Sykes Group to breathe life into your goals:
• Rephrase. Don’t say “I hope to” or “I want to.” Say “I will.” Treat achieving your goals as a foregone conclusion. Your certainty will fuel your progress.
• Anticipate. List the benefits you expect to receive from achieving your objectives. Shift the focus from what you must do to what you will gain.
• Visualize. Schedule time each day to meditate on your goals. Create a vivid mental picture of how your success will look and feel.
• Record. Write out your goals. Studies show that people who commit their goals to paper are more likely to achieve them.
10. Ask for help! I know what it feels like to try and manage so many fires and “everyone else’s priorities” as a senior care and living provider. It’s ok to ask for help and just brain storm with someone who understands. You would be amazed at the number of people just like you that take advantage of our “on-the-spot” tele-coaching calls to talk through sales, marketing, customer service and yes leadership challenges. Change begins by looking within. Never worked with a coach before? Let 2012 be your time to experience the benefits of working with a professional coach.
What do you think will be most challenging about 2012 in your marketing and sales efforts?
If you’d like to use this article in your own newsletter or on your web site, you are welcome to reprint it in its entirety with an active link to our web site and the following author info:
“By Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst for CISCO & CO. For effective marketing, sales and customer strategies that connect you with your customers visit www.ciscoco.com.”
Author: Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst, December 20, 2011
The holiday season always provide for me a time of reflection, what about you? I find myself looking back over the past year in how my team and I were able to use our special God given gifts and talents to touch the lives of so many. And in turn, how much we have been blessed by all of our clients and followers who have entrusted us to provide creative marketing and sales support. I’m sure you too can appreciate that things get crazy at times and thanks and appreciation are not always shown as much as they should be. Enjoy and share this free “present.”
The Present
In a university commencement address several years ago, Brian Dyson, CEO of Coca Cola Enterprises, spoke of the relation of work to one’s other commitments:
“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – work, family, health, friends, and spirit – and you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life. How?
Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special. Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you. Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.
Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life. Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying. Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us to each other. Don’t be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave. Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings. Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going. Don’t forget, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated. Don’t be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily. Don’t use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved.
Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way. Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery, and Today is a gift: that’s why we call it The Present.”
It can be easy to forget the “present” don’t you think?
My team and I and truly appreciate everything you have done to enrich our lives and help us to become better people. We wish you an abundantly filled Christmas with good health, happiness, and spiritual blessings.
Patty and CISCO & CO partners.
Author: Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst, December 13, 2011
Recently I shared with you the importance of using keywords to obtain optimum searchability when visitors are searching for a senior care and living service such as yours. It’s imperative today that when people are searching that your service appears on the first Google search page. Understanding the important “behind the scenes” of your website is necessary today to manage, or at least understand, how to be found on-line.
It’s important to utilize those keywords to create good on-page and off-page SEO.
-Good on-page SEO ensures that your site is well-positioned in an internet search. Important aspects of this are Title tags, Meta Descriptions, Header Tags, etc. These different elements need to be communicating the same message to the search engines: who you are and what you do. It needs to be clear what your company is about and what types of services you offer. Each page can have different, specific title tags and descriptions. These elements are all important parts of communicating with the search engines to ensure that you rank higher on Google searches.
-Good off-page SEO is all about links, links and more links! The more websites that link back to your own site, the better. Additionally, the more descriptive those link tags are, the better. Blogs and YouTube video links count towards this as well.
Here are some additional tips to gain optimal SEO:
 -Make sure the same keywords show up in the title tag, description, and all over your site.
-Have content, not just images, on your main page. The more information you provide about the services you offer, the better.
-When prospective visitors arrive at your site, they should have a clear direction as to what you want them to do. Should they call you? Email you? Download a brochure with more information? This information (contact info, etc.) should jump off the page. If you lose this critical connection point, they will likely click the “back” button and look for somewhere else.
In summary, Web Marketing in the senior care and living industry has many components, and these components need to fit together right to ensure that you rank high on Google searches and your site is visited often. This is the first critical step in making a connection between yourself and prospective visitors.
What plans do you have to focus on “searchability” improvement strategies on your web site for 2012?
If you’d like to use this article in your own newsletter or on your web site, you are welcome to reprint it in its entirety with an active link to our web site and the following author info:
“By Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst for CISCO & CO. For effective marketing, sales and customer strategies that connect you with your customers visit www.ciscoco.com.”
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Third: Keep the message positive
