You can pick your clients – choose carefully

Streamline your marketing to find the right home care clients

You’ve made the decision to start your own business, and now the time has come to start finding home care clients.As much as you want to find enough clients to sustain your business, it’s also important to pick service users who are right for you. This will help you be more successful in the long run. A thoroughly thought-out marketing plan to attract the right clients can make or break your business.[ADS]In order to tailor your marketing to attract the right kind of clients, you need to have a very clear idea of who your ideal service user is. In this article, we’ll explore the key questions you need to ask yourself to build a picture of your target client base. You can then use this to refine your marketing and reach the right people. 

Your client profile

When it comes to finding home care clients, the first area to consider is the type of person you’re looking to work with. It might be that you already have experience with the type of client you’re looking to attract. This makes it easier, as you can use what you like about working with them to pin down your client profile. However, if you’re not yet working with personal clients, this exercise is a good starting point for building your marketing profile.First, think about the age of your client. Do you want to work with younger people, or specialise in later-life care? Both of these service users are very different to work with. It might be that you already have experience with a particular age group and want to stick with it. Or maybe you have a wide and varied experience, but want your own business to focus on one particular age group.It’s also important to think about the sort of care needs you wish to support. If you have a specific specialism, you can pin down what care and support services you wish to offer. Are you looking to help with general care and support for older people? Do you want to work with young adults with learning difficulties? Have you got training to support dementia patients?Where does your ideal client live? Are they in their own home, living independently? Maybe they live with family and need additional home care help?It’s also important to think about how your ideal client is financing their care. Some people may be self-payers and others could be funded by the Local Authority. This can make a difference to the rates you charge, but also who you’re invoicing for your services.By answering all of these questions, you can build up a profile of your perfect client. Not every client will match this profile exactly. But the point is you can start finding home care clients who you think are right for you and the vision you have for your business. 

Tailor your marketing

Now you have a very clear profile of the kind of client you would like to work with, you can think about how to reach those people. How can you find these clients?Location is a very important consideration. Think about where you are willing to travel and how far your client base should extend. The further away your clients live, the more time spent commuting and not working. Set yourself a maximum mileage and stick to it! Don’t accept clients from out of your area, unless your rates are adjusted to accommodate the extra driving time, petrol and lost work hours.Thinking about the location of your potential clients also gives you a marketing area. Only market in the location you want to work in, and make it clear on any leaflets or advertising where you work. You can list postcode areas or town names, which will ensure those who enquire meet your criteria.You should also consider who is likely to be looking for the services you offer. This can change who you target your marketing at. For example, if you are specialising in helping to care for older people living at home with early signs of dementia, it is likely to be family members looking for care and support. If, however, you want to help young adults with a disability that they need extra support with but are otherwise very independent, it is likely to be the service user themselves who is searching for care services. 

Plan a marketing strategy

By now, you should know who you want to market to and where you want to target. This helps you determine the right kind of marketing to engage in when finding home care clients.Let’s use the following scenario as an example. You’re setting up a care business to support older people who still live at home as independently as possible, but need some extra care and support day to day. The person looking for care and support is likely to be a family member or spouse. You’re looking for clients who live no more than 15 miles from your home. You have experience in this area and have a list of tasks you are capable of, as well as relevant qualifications and training. The care will be paid for by the family or the person themselves.In order to market your services to find these clients, you need to consider how the family member or spouse will be looking for care and support. They may do a website search as a first port of call, which means that it can benefit you to do some online advertising. Are there local news sites that offer job listings? Is there a local Facebook Group for the area you live in, could you let people know what you’re offering there.An effective way of having a ‘website’ showing all your experience and qualifications, without the hassle of creating a website, is to have a profile on the YtB Carers directory (which you have as part of your Premium Membership), this gives you a web address ytboss.care/your-name which you can use as your web-address on your marketing.  Do you wish to purchase social media advertising, which can be tailored to only reach certain people?Consider more traditional marketing too. The family member or spouse may currently escort the potential client to, for example, doctor’s appointments. Would your local surgery allow you to place leaflets in reception? Can you pin an advert in the supermarket, village shop or Post Office?Hopefully, you can see how to apply the same strategic thinking to your own scenario and business plan. You can tailor your marketing to suit the kinds of clients you want to work with. You are in control of picking your clients; by choosing the right people, you can build a successful care business.