Marketing to Seniors - Seniors Real Estate in Canada

Marketing to Seniors  - Seniors Real Estate in Canada – The Lifestyle55+ Affiliate

Marketing to senior clients in the real estate sector poses unique challenges and opportunities. This demographic has specific needs and preferences that differ from younger buyers. For Canadian REALTORS® targeting seniors real estate, specialized training programs such as those available on www.Lifestyle55Training.com can provide invaluable insights and tools for success.

Understanding the Senior Demographic

Canada has an aging population, with seniors projected to outnumber children in the near future. They often look for different features in a property, such as:

• Single-level living
• Proximity to healthcare services
• Age-friendly community settings

Understanding their unique needs is the first step in successfully marketing to senior clients.  Like in any marketing program, the importance of knowing and understanding your client is paramount.  The more you know about their likes-dislikes-needs-wants-influences-motivations and challenges the better prepared you will be in your marketing strategy.

Importance of Specialized Training

Programs like the Lifestyle55+ Affiliate and Lifestyle55+ MASTER programs offer Canadian REALTORS® specialized knowledge and credentials to cater to the senior demographic. These programs can cover:

• Effective communication strategies
• Understanding the financial aspects of downsizing
• Legal aspects such as power of attorney and wills
• Senior motivations
• Adult children
• Housing options
• Support services
• Referring partnerships and more.

Marketing for Seniors Real Estate

Although we are heavily into the digital age, many older adults still cling to the old ways of doing things.  Related to marketing these could be: direct mail – newspaper – flyers or tv commercials.  However, we need to look at the progression of marketing and include Seniors as increasingly tech-savvy, and at the very least, their adult children are fully engaged in digital. So today’s marketers stress strategies such as:

Online Marketing Strategies:

• User-friendly website designs.  There are cheap sites, complicated sites, cookie cutter sites, custom sites and directories.
• Informative blogs/articles targeting seniors
• Social media ads specifically geared towards the 55+ demographic
• Email marketing with tailored content
• Social media
• Online newspapers
• Radio, local tv.
• Listings on senior specific directories or promotions

Offline Marketing Strategies

• Local Community Events: Participation in health fairs and other community events.
• Direct Mail: Sending informational brochures or newsletters.
• Partnerships: Partnering with local businesses or healthcare providers can offer mutual benefits.

But there’s a difference between Advertising and Marketing.

To the average REALTOR® or business, the idea of doing a promotional item should translate to a dollar value in return. 
Example:  if I pay for a ¼ page ad in the local real estate paper with a cost of $450 (one time, one ad), then that agent wants to get a deal out of it.  Although this would be a GREAT ROI, the reality is the agent may not even get a phone call or a website visit.  So why do we advertise?

Advertising is the single effort in delivering your message and contact info (hopefully a call to action).  Marketing, however, is the planning or strategy (that may include a single effort or a series of efforts) to move towards a goal. 

The goal can be anything such as:

• Increase visitors to your website.
• Receiving contact information from a lead form.
• Getting ‘Likes’ or shares.
• Organic or paid positioning for a certain keyword (Google).
• Out position your competition.
• Build awareness.

Ultimately, we want people to buy what we are selling – but it is often an uphill battle and involves a potentially long sales cycle before a sale is made (or a listing is taken).  So, for REALTORS® working in seniors’ real estate, it poses a difficult challenge involving money, strategy, effort, commitment, and time.

Understanding the digital client.

We cannot dismiss the importance of where we are within the digital age and the fact that it will only become the dominant source.  So, for those who are targeting seniors clients here are a few tips and keywords you may want to consider:

• What is specific about your client (can you take advantage in marketing to that).
• Think local and specific – too many REALTORS® are broad minded in fear of loosing business – this is niche market, work it as a niche market.
   

Key terms to consider:  Depending on your location and volume of older adults, you may consider to include topics or key phrases that seniors relate to or are searching information for.

• Seniors
• Real estate
• Downsizing
• Retirement
• 55+ communities
• Canadian REALTORS®
• Age-friendly
• Estate planning
• Senior living
• Elderly
• Independent living
• Assisted living
• Canada
• Baby Boomers
• Accessibility
• Condominiums
• Health care
• Pensions
• Senior finance

Not sure where to start?  Register for the Lifestyle55+ Affiliate course and we can help you!

This is just an article about marketing to seniors – the reality is that working the senior real estate sector is complicated and requires a nuanced approach and specialized training to give you an edge over your competition.

Specialized training and working your database.

In the August 18^th, 2023 edition of Real Estate Magazine (REM), Lifestyle55+ Network’s senior partner wrote an article titled: Harnessing the power of your database to serve Canada’s aging population.
In the article, Paul Cutajar wrote about the power within your database as it relates to your seniors business, touching on the adult children having to face many challenges their aging parents will and are facing and how that database (your past clients) are an excellent source to mine for senior business.

Caution – marketing to seniors is not for the ill-equipped.  There are many professional REALTORS® (and other professions), that have training, education, and experience in being able to deliver their services to seniors.  Training, support and a consultative approach are key.

About the author:
Paul Cutajar, along with Esther Goldstein run and operate the Lifestyle55+ Network Inc. organization which delivers Canada’s largest unbiased seniors’ housing directory – www.SeniorCareAccess.com.  They also deliver the Lifestyle55+ Affiliate and Lifestyle55+ MASTER training programs for seniors real estate and professional services.

If you are considering adding seniors to your client base, it would be advised to receive education related to working with older adults.  The Lifestyle55+ Affiliate program is available to all Canadian professionals, delivered as a comprehensive - Live online course, several times throughout the year and offers tangible exercises to get members ready for business.

For more information, please visit www.Lifestyle55Training.com or www.SeniorCareAccess.com

Contant: connect@Lifestyle55PlusNetwork.com
844 585 7255