New twists on an old marketing standby.

Community affairs activities are the most traditional and dominant form of marketing in the long-term care industry -- an effective grass-roots approach to achieving good-will and maintaining marketplace exposure. Calling on local hospitals or other primary referral sources and making presentations to civic groups are approaches common to many facilities. However, there are a number of additional ways a facility can enhance and integrate its community affairs activities to achieve even greater market awareness.

Think about the referral and community groups with which most facilities interact. Do they represent all potential medical, civic, and business groups in the community, or only a limited few? Operators should avoid the vulnerable market position of having all referrals come from a select few sources, especially hospitals. We all know that hospitals are growing major players in the long-term care industry. Facilities that limit their community courtship to area discharge planners are, in essence, courting potential competitors. A well-integrated community affairs effort requires that outreach activities encompass as many target market groups as possible. Examples of these groups include: churches, employers, banks, colleges, and a host of civic organizations comprised of decision-influencers and family members of prospective residents.

How frequently should a facility interact with these groups? Should presentations be made only in response to requests, or should the staff actively solicit presentation opportunities? As a rule of thumb, effective outreach requires that a facility initiate community interaction with as many groups as possible, as often as possible. The standard performance goal for community affairs activities is that a facility should contact at least four to six organizations per month, with objectives such as: providing facility brochures, making a formal presentation about programs and services, offering the facility as a group meeting place, and/or exchanging information for inclusion in the respective organizational newsletters or other publications.

While community affairs activities are the most credible and low-cost way to build and maintain market awareness, putting together a well-coordinated and consistent program can, nevertheless, be a time- and staff-intensive endeavor. Most facility staff would no doubt like to call upon more groups more often, but may feel limited in their ability to do so because of their day-to-day responsibilities. To facilitate the development of an effective program, an operator should establish a speakers' bureau consisting of specially selected and trained facility representatives who share outreach responsibilities.

However, with this team approach to marketing, there need to be good procedural structures and sufficient staff resources to ensure that the bureau gets beyond the "good idea" stage. The most successful programs generally develop a computerized list of all target groups in their marketplace. A facility can easily compile such a list with the assistance of volunteers or a marketing intern from a local college. Sources for obtaining community group information include the Yellow Pages and the Chamber of Commerce.

Having instructions in place on how to contact an organization for the first time is helpful for staff when introducing themselves to prospective audiences. The staff should also have prepared speeches of approximately 20 minutes in length on topics of interest to the older adult market, with accompanying materials, for use by the speakers' bureau. These tools, combined with staff training on public speaking, go a long way toward overcoming speaker anxiety and will help ensure smooth and professional presentations.

Many facilities say that they do have a speakers' bureau, but no one ever calls on them to make a presentation. Remember, as with any general networking, the burden is upon the facility to initiate the contact. Successful outreach is very similar to sales -- you have to "ask for the business."

Another objective of interacting with community groups is to identify opportunities for collaborative marketing, i.e., where an operator joins forces with another business in the area to host biannual or quarterly marketing events of mutual benefit to each organization. An example would be to host a seminar on a topic of interest to the older adult market, such as estate planning. The program would feature speakers from the legal or financial planning professions, whose clienteles are similar to those of the long-term care market. By sponsoring such an event, a facility presents itself as an informed and involved provider of services, while gaining access to consumers a facility would otherwise not reach.

Special events marketing should not be confused with resident activities. A special event is an external program, designed to generate interest in a facility within the target market, i.e., decision-influencers and the family members of prospective residents. Resident activities are separate internal programs, designed to maintain the interest and involvement of current residents and their families.

A special event must be aggressively promoted, not only to boost attendance, but to generate good-will by letting the market know about the many ways the facility is contributing to the community, beyond providing good quality care and service. Limited newspaper advertising, direct-mail marketing, the facility newsletter, and public service announcements will all get your message across. The facility should also be sure to access the marketing communication tools of the co-sponsoring organization, such as their client lists, newsletters, and distribution points for literature. The co-sponsoring organization also needs to share in the costs of promoting and hosting the event.

An event needs to be carefully choreographed, and key facility staff should be included in the planning process. Event logistics such as parking, refreshments, facility tours, and program literature are just a few of the areas that need to be planned for and coordinated at least 60 days before the event takes place.

One final caution: Many facilities are hosting special events as a way to supplement their community affairs activities beyond delivering the token baskets of fruit and trays of cookies to key referral sources. Before putting together any type of special event, organizers should carefully review the activities of other providers, to be sure they are not hosting a "rerun" the market has already seen.

Phyllis M. Thornton is President of Signum Marketing Services and a principal of Ethos, Inc., both Louisville, KY firms specializing in marketing and customer service programs designed for the long-term care and retirement housing industries. This is the third in a series of articles by Ms. Thornton.