Two years ago, Sequoia Senior Solutions co-owner and chief financial officer, Stanton Lawson, and his wife, co-owner and CEO, Gabriella Ambrosi, decided they wanted to make the Internet the number-one source of referrals for their in-home care small business based in Petaluma, Calif. “At the time, it was number five,” says Lawson. “We had more referrals coming from sources like physicians and care facilities.”
To achieve their goal, they started planning. Their first step involved working with Petaluma, Calif.-based digital marketing firm Broad Vision Marketing. The company developed an inbound marketing program for Sequoia Senior Solutions that includes: managing the company’s blog and social media activities, search engine optimization, automated lead-nurturing campaigns designed to increase website traffic and convert visitors to sales-ready leads, “and anything else we can do to make their phones ring!” says Jon Sooy, marketing technologist and partner at Broad Vision Marketing.
Search engine optimization (SEO) has enabled customers who are interested in finding information on in-home care for individuals suffering from conditions like dementia, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and cancer, or who are recovering from a surgery, to easily find Sequoia Senior Solutions’ blog, website and social media sites. The company’s blog is updated two or three times a week with informational articles, and the content is automatically pushed out to Facebook and Twitter as well, which helps increase efficiency. Visitors can then start conversations with Sequoia Senior Solutions or provide their contact information if they wish to receive an e-newsletter with topics targeted to their interests.
“We get quite a few conversations going on a number of topics,” says Lawson. “It is important then to keep the conversation going and make sure they understand that we are the experts in this field. Once they know that, then sooner or later they will give us a call.”
While many small business owners are focused on how many likes they have on Facebook or how many visitors their blog is receiving, Lawson is more concerned with attracting the right type of visitor. He says his company achieves this by posting meaningful, valuable content intended to help people, which does require a significant amount of planning, but the results make it worth the effort. “If you talk about the solutions to the issues seniors are having, then they will come to your website more often,” says Lawson. “We don’t need a huge following. When somebody needs 24-hour care, we don’t need a lot of those clients to make all that work worthwhile.”
Earlier this year, Lawson says the company achieved its goal of making the Internet its number-one source of referrals. “We’re pretty pleased with that,” says Lawson. “I think the part that I’m most proud of, though, is the quality of what we write and the ability for us to now position ourselves as the local leader in what we do. It takes a lot of work, but it’s definitely paid off.”