5 Marketing Tips For Care And Support Business Owners

How to grow your care and support business

Whether you’re a counsellor, professional nurse, disability carer, or anything in between, providing support & care for others is what you do best. But is relying on the quality of your service enough to grow your small business when there’s so much competition around?

This article will give you 5 marketing tips to help your care and support business thrive:

• Have a content-rich website
• Claim (and update) your Google listing
• Ask for reviews and show them off
• Get social, the right way
• Network your existing network

Have a content-rich website

I’m sure you already have a mobile-friendly, visually pleasing and easy-to-navigate website (if you don’t, you should probably get right onto fixing that), but is your website stagnant? Regularly posting content on your business website not only helps improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), but it also provides your clients with substance they can sink their teeth into.

Three things every social worker should do on their website are:

1. Regularly post new blog articles - these can be about the latest seminar in your field, the newest technology around, or even a feel-good story.
2. Be informative - help your potential clients understand the services you provide, how you provide them, and how they will benefit from them.
3. Educate your clients - if there’s something that you find clients are always asking about, or there’s technicalities that need to be explained, provide this information in easy-to-digest articles on your website.

Claim (and update) your Google listing

Google provides a free service called Google My Business which is an essential marketing tool for care and support workers. When people search for your services, or businesses like yours, your business has a chance of appearing in the search results, the sidebar and inside of Google Maps. Here, you want to make sure that your address, your hours of operation and your business contact information is clearly visible for potential clients. This is also where existing customers can leave a review, which I’ll go into next. 

Ask for reviews, and show them off

Being an awesome social worker is great, but if no one knows just how good you are how do you expect to grow? Asking your clients for feedback in the form of a Google (or Facebook) review is a great way to let the world know you really are the best there is! Just be sure you get reviews off real people, and if applicable, your reviews are compliant.

Once you start getting reviews, go ahead and share them on your social media, website and in other marketing collateral (flyers, info packs etc). The majority of your clients that come to you from your marketing efforts will actively look for, and read, your reviews. 

One last thing - good or bad, always reply to reviews left about your social worker business, and be professional about it! If someone does leave a bad review, don’t get on the defensive and insult them, acknowledge what they’ve said and attempt to resolve the issue. The best way to do this is to ask them to contact you directly for a conversation. This takes the problem offline but still shows you’re willing to actively reach out to your clients.

Get social, the right way

Yes, the world is now more social than ever thanks to social media. Make sure you’re active on your social channels, but do it right. Being a care and support worker, you have knowledge and skills that not many other people share. Use this to your advantage by providing content that educates and inspires your audience.

A few good tips for your social media include:

1. Be where your customers are - you don’t need to have every social app out there, there’s no point being on TikTok if your clientele are 50+ years old.
2. Engage with your audience - ask questions, provide responses, give feedback.
3. Be active - don’t just create a social media account if you’re never going to use it.
4. Use groups and forums - these are great ways to engage directly with your audience on a more personal level.

Network your existing network

Being a care and support worker you most likely have a pretty big network of peers - do they offer the same services you do? If not, ask them to help you out by passing on your contact information if they ever get an inquiry. In return, you can do the same thing for them. Another network you might not realise exists is your current clientbase. More often than not, your clients will be in groups, or know of, other people who share their circumstances. Don’t be afraid to ask to be recommended.

No matter what type of social work you do, it’s important to invest in appropriate professional indemnity, public liability and product liability insurance. Check out upcover’s instant quote to see how you can protect yourself from tricky situations and get covered in minutes! You can also click here to read more about our care and support workers insurance.‍

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Information provided is general advice only and has been prepared without taking into account any person's particular objectives, financial situation or needs. Read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement or Policy Document available at www.upcover.com and consider whether it's appropriate before making any decisions about whether to buy a product.