You have a database full of prospects, some of which you and your team have been nurturing for months or even years. You are having all the right conversations and doing all the right things you have done before to fill occupancy. Still, tours are down, move-ins are dwindling and census is low.

In this article we illustrate the opportunity to tell a cohesive story across the full experience of the resident and family journey into your community. At each point, we detail how to expand on that story at various points in the journey.

People defined storytelling primarily as a means to evoke feeling or elicit an emotional response. The feeling may be one of pleasure, a sense of belonging, a sense of loyalty or confirmation of previous experiences, thoughts or feelings.

What you want is to align with the right partners who will elevate your marketing far beyond your competition’s efforts – who will showcase your organization’s best for the people who need you most to find you now.

Last November, Big Buzz CEO Wendy O'Donovan Phillips sat down for an inspiring interview with Steve Moran, founder of Big Buzz partner Senior Living Foresight. The two discussed building marketing relationships with senior living organizations, getting to the heart of what makes their communities shine and Wendy's big ideas on empowering women and minorities in senior living marketing.

Lack of decision is the death of done. In my 15 years at the helm of Big Buzz, never have I seen a marketing executive so swiftly and gracefully move through a series of decisions culminating in a massive rollout as I did Missy Day of Sinceri Senior Living (formerly JEA Senior Living).

An increasing number of professionals are opting to avoid events and conferences in the new year. As the nation stares down a potential reprise of last year's isolation, we wanted to remind our readers that it’s more important than ever to connect with others in meaningful ways.

While many of your competitors spend time thinking critically about their brand, most only do so in siloed meetings with internal executives. This negates that brand comes from those served rather than those in service to the organization. Research is the critical precursor to an accurate and lasting brand strategy and should be completed at minimum once every 3 years to provide actionable data to inform each component of the brand lifecycle.

You cannot get to where you are going without first understanding where you have been. A thorough review will offer up keen insights into what worked well in the past, what to replicate, what to adjust and how to build a stronger marketing machine. Empower each of your key people to complete various parts of the review.