Marketing Spotlight Interview: National Church Residences

For Blind Acre's second monthly "Marketing Spotlight Interview", we sat down with Sherri Mixter, Manager of Marketing Communications at National Church Residences, to discuss how they keep their digital marketing program innovative, engaging, and measurable.

Could please share with us the National Church Residences mission and tell us a little bit about what your organization does?

"National Church Residences provides quality housing and care to low income and no income seniors, as well as low income families, through a network of communities. We own and manage properties in 28 states plus Puerto Rico.

We have been expanding our services to include senior-focused health care options, including assisted living communities, occupational therapy, adult day care, hospice care, and in-home care. We’re currently offering these services in Ohio only, but we see an opportunity to grow them nationally."

National Church Residences offers a very diverse array of services, and works with numerous partners, so you're marketing to and communicating with a lot different audiences. How does National Church Residences approach segmenting, creating messaging for, and marketing to those audiences.

"Yes, we do engage a very diverse set of audience segments. Obviously our residents and their families are the most important audience- that’s who we serve and care about day in and day out.

But in supporting our residents, we are also very active in communicating with government officials at the local, state and federal level. Affordable senior housing and senior care is a national consideration with more and more Boomers reaching an age where they do need assistance.

We also need to take into consideration that fact that each of our many communities need the freedom to strategize and manager their marketing and communications at a local level- they know their market intimately.

Not to mention that we are also heavily involved in historic building preservation and property management, so there is a whole separate group of partners with a different set of communication needs.

Because we are expanding our services and properties so quickly, we are currently working through a comprehensive branding study to help improve our communications with each of these audiences in a truly cohesive way. So to answer your question, we are always evaluating our communications in the context of our national brand."

How does National Church Residences leverage digital marketing channels such as Social Media, Search Engine Marketing, Pay-per-Click advertising, and even mobiel browser optimization?

"We have not historically relied heavily on all of the digital channels. Search Engine Optimization and keyword research has been our primary online focus, since online searches are so important to people looking for affordable senior housing.

We do have a Facebook page and Twitter account, so the challenge is engaging an older resident population through those channels. But we have seen that Boomers are becoming more active in Social Media, especially Facebook, as a way to keep in touch with family.

As seniors do become more active, we will continue to strategize ways to use social media.  I will say that the majority of web-based questions we get through our site are actually from the senior residents, which you may not necessarily expect to see.

A big portion of our ongoing branding and communications study revolves around creating our social media strategy and policy at the corporate and individual community level."

From a digital marketing perspective, what you see as National Church Residence’s greatest hurdle in implementing digital strategies and engaging your audience(s)?

"There aren’t a lot of social cases out there in our area (senior housing & care). Many organizations that do what we do are smaller, so we are often the organization really setting the precedent. Because so few similar organization are leveraging digital heavily communication, there hasn’t been a sense of urgency to implement many of the digital tools out there.

So I would say the biggest hurdle is identifying the best practices in the senior care field. You need to strike that balance between intelligent innovation and using resources incorrectly. We want to move more deliberately in discovering what those best practices are. Paradigm shifts can be a hurdle for any organization."

How are you measuring your digital marketing channels against your goals?

"We’re using Google Analytics for our website, and our IT team keeps a close eye on our website traffic and organic search. We also utilize Insights on Facebook."

What is your favorite National Church Residences campaign?

"It isn’t necessarily a single campaign, and it may not be digital, but we have our direct marketing targeting down to a science. When I purchase a list and send out direct marketing communication, I can usually estimate within 5% what our response rates and inbound lead numbers will be before hand.

I would love to reach that level of predictability digitally."

How do you keep you and your team up to date with emerging digital trends, and how do you evaluate them as potential tools for National Church Residences?

"We communicate with each other a lot. Our marketing & communications team share campaigns and emerging trends as much as possible."

What is your dream digital campaign for National Church Residences?

"I would love to develop a mobile app for our communications team and development officers to take into the field and show our properties in much more in-depth way. Virtual tours of the facilities, video testimonials, etc.

I think a completely online fund-raising campaign, without traditional components, would be really interesting. It give us a really unique view of how digital can serve us as a fundraising tool."

If you would like to learn more about the National Church Residences mission, connect with Sherri Mixter, or if you would like to be featured in an upcoming Marketing Spotlight Interview, please contact David Ringler: dringler@blindacre.com.