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Marketing strategies come and go, but it looks like ABM is here to stay, since it has been proven to deliver the highest return on investment of any strategic B2B marketing approach. If you think you haven’t been using ABM, you may be surprised to find you are using some aspects of it.

Developed in 2004 by ITSMA (the Information Technology Services Marketing Association), Account-Based Marketing (ABM) turns the traditional inbound marketing funnel upside down for B2B marketing. Traditional marketing consists of attracting as many people to your site to fill out forms, nurture them with emails, and then identify which of those leads are potential companies to target.

There are two different scenarios where ABM is appropriate:

• When you’re targeting a small amount of large key accounts
• When you’re targeting groups of accounts that share similar characteristics 

The high level overview of ABM includes the following steps:

Sales and marketing works together (yes, together) to identify their targeted companies, or the characteristics of their targeted companies. Examples include company size, annual revenue, financial strength, business strategies, organizational structure and more. To determine these companies and characteristics, evaluate your profitable satisfied customers in your existing base. From there, leverage your CRM, other technology and market research to identify your target accounts.

2. Identify Personas

Once the targeted accounts are identified, sales and marketing again collaborate to determine what role the decision makers, influencers and blockers typically hold in the organization. They develop those personas to find their pain points, typical demographics, what factors drive them, and methods to effectively reach them with your message.

3. Develop a Personalized Engagement Plan

Some marketers refer to this step as “Develop Engaging Content.” However, taking into account how different personas make purchasing decisions, content may not be enough. For example, an IT director may take time to read a white paper or eBook, but don’t assume the same for the C-level persona. This is where learning how to effectively reach the target personas comes in. In addition to personalized content, consider adding face-to-face opportunities, such as social and informative events.

Several decision makers place high value on developing trusting, personal relationships with their sales representative, who they want to see as a consultant. These relationships may take several months or longer when selling products or services with long sales cycles.

Develop key metrics and your expected goals for each content asset, campaign, event, social media strategy, etc.

4. Measure, Analyze, Adjust

In order to prove the value of your ABM strategy, you need to be able to measure it over time. Results should be visible and actionable. Compare KPIs such as email clicks, opens, MQLs, SQLs, opportunities created and new business won against previous campaigns, and determine the marketing ROI.

Create dashboards and reports in your CRM to analyze the activity on your target accounts, and compare results to your goals.

While ABM strategy is not new, it is becoming more expected from customers who want a personalized and engaged buyer journey. Understanding their influence level and engaging them across the entire sales cycle does not take a huge investment but can mean increased revenue and a solid partnership with customers.

A recent National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC) blog post caught my eye because it covers some important topics and research relevant to senior living providers and their prospective customers. Author Lana Peck outlined studies on Social Security, medical spending, and retirement and security. Specifically, the post covers how Social Security will impact the behavior and consumption patterns of seniors and health costs and their impact on retirement security.

One study that examined how Social Security benefits are affected by out-of-pocket medical spending found that the average retiree spends a substantial share of his or her Social Security income to health expenses. What’s more, premiums make up largest share of medical spending for most retirees. Not really a surprise, I know, but consider the following additional stats from the study:

• 75% is the average amount of social security benefit left for non-medical expenses for the average retiree.
• 30% of retirees’ household income is spent on housing, taxes, and non-housing debt.
• 10% of retirees (give or take) have less than one half of their OASI (Old Age Survivors Income) remaining for non-medical expenses.

Peck also noted that, in addition to these findings, Medicare beneficiaries also pay more out-of-pocket for health care as a share of household expenses than non-Medicare households, “and with health costs projected to rise more rapidly than Social Security income, these trends are likely to continue and worsen over time,” she said.

In another study, researchers determined the anticipated costs for “health shocks” (one or more of eight health conditions and three intensive health events) that they found specifically cause significant declines in net worth including stroke, cancer, lung disease, and health-related events such as hospital and nursing home stays, (including the loss of a spouse), and applied factors of net worth including home equity, other real estate, and business and financial holdings. Their findings:

• Someone at age 65 could expect a decline of between $30,000 and $90,000 in overall wealth depending on their gender and marital status due to health conditions.
• Some health shocks are more costly than others. Specifically, lung disease ($29,000), stroke ($25,000), nursing home care ($15,000), and spousal death ($30,000).
• The “wealth cost” of health shocks is about 9% of household net worth at age 65 for married individuals and for single men, but about 22% of net worth for single women.

Yet another study looks at issues around using homeownership as an investment that can be used in late life as income for health costs in retirement. This may be a sure safety net for current, older homeowners but for future cohorts, the ability to buy homes is fast becoming more and more elusive.

As the blog’s author puts it: “This research is especially important because of the aging population, increased life expectancy, and increasing health costs which shed light on the need for retirement planning that includes preparing for late life health shocks.”

I couldn’t have said it any better. This research is worth a deeper dive to get at the heart of the relationship between consumer health and financial trends to help inform your strategic decisions.

If you want a focused approach to your strategic decisions, facilitated by experts in the senior living field and candid feedback, contact Quantum Age today.

Confidence in the 55-plus housing market and continued spending growth among baby boomers in the remodeling industry are painting a rosy picture of the future of the longevity economy. But will builders, remodelers, and contractors create affordable and accessible housing that is appropriately designed?

Before we get to that, let’s examine the evidence. There are many factors contributing to this positive outlook, including two recent reports: One is the 55+ Housing Market Index (HMI), published by the National Association of Home Builders, and the other is the Demographic Change and the Remodeling Outlook report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

The first report proclaims that builder confidence in the single-family 55-plus housing market was high for the second quarter of 2017. Builders registered a confidence level of “good versus poor” (above 50) for the 13^th consecutive quarter, according to a press release. What’s more, four indices that track production and demand of 55+ multifamily rentals posted gains in the second quarter: Present production rose three points to 53, expected future production climbed eight points to 52, current demand for existing units increased two points to 66, and expected future demand rose five points to 67.

Contributing to the strong demand, said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz, are “favorable market conditions, such as record highs in the stock market and rising home prices.”

Even more interesting than the builder/developer outlook is the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies report, which asserts that in addition to baby boomers leading home improvement spending for the past 20 years, “older homeowners will continue to dominate the remodeling market as they make investments to age in place safely and comfortably.”

Indeed—the residential remodeling market, which includes spending on improvements and repairs by both homeowners and rental property owners, reached an all-time high of $340 billion in 2015, surpassing the prior peak in 2007. And homeowners age 55 and over are expected to increase spending in remodeling by nearly 33 percent by 2025, the report predicts. Put another way, the share of market spending by this cohort is projected to reach 56 percent by 2025, up from only 31 percent in 2005.

While these projections and predictions are heartening, will fever for the longevity economy keep up with the need for affordability, access, and appropriate design? To that end, a QA blog post from last December outlines another Harvard report finding that only 1 percent of the current U.S. housing stock offers the five design elements that would allow older adults to live comfortably. Those design elements include the following: zero-step entrances, single-floor designs, wide halls and doorways, electrical controls reachable from a wheelchair, and lever-style handles on faucets and doors. The report also notes that “public investment and private sector efforts to expand access to affordable in-home supportive services will be critical going forward.”

There you have it. Let’s take some steps now to make housing accessible, affordable, and livable for older adults.

If you would like to take lead on housing access, design, and affordability for seniors and also raise your profile within the longevity economy, contact Quantum Age today.

The associations believe the companies only want to do a “hard sell” on their members. Associations contend that since they are not-for-profit organizations, communications from companies is a commercial intrusion.

The result of this company-association butting of heads does little to help the company or the association. More importantly, it does little to help the association’s members.

A survey conducted in August 2017 by the DC-Area Partnership Professionals Network (PPN), an organization of corporate sponsorship and partnership executives with associations and not-for-profit organizations, revealed some findings that might provide companies with ideas on how to bridge the gap and have more successful relationships with associations.

• Associations obviously need money to fulfill their missions to provide services to members. Two-thirds of the respondents to the PPN survey reported their revenue from corporate partners had increased in the past year (though the survey didn’t ask how much it increased). What is more revealing is that one-third reported their revenue from corporate partners had decreased or stayed the same.
• It’s important for associations’ programs to meet the current needs of their stakeholders. Member needs change, business trends change, etc. When asked if they had undertaken a review of their corporate partner program in the past three years, half of the association executives responding to the survey said “no”.
• Boards of directors play a critical role for associations. They set policy; they are a barometer of member needs; they are a gateway to members. While survey respondents report their boards were aware of revenue from corporate partners, only one-quarter of boards meet with corporate partners and one-quarter are not involved in any way with corporate partners.
• Companies that partner with associations have specific business goals. These goals can be repositioning their company, launching a new product, meeting the challenges of competitor companies, etc. While almost 100% of the associations responding to the survey offer transactional benefits like logo visibility, the percentage of association offering more substantive benefits like speaking opportunities and content development drops to about 50%.
• Lastly, most of the organizations surveyed acknowledged they are competing for their corporate partners’ attention with other associations and other marketing channels.

To recap: associations need the revenue from corporate partners; many associations haven’t revamped their corporate partnership programs recently; many boards are not involved in corporate partnership programs; associations are offering predominantly low-value transactional benefits; and associations realize they are competing for corporate partners.

What can you do with this knowledge from the Partnership Professionals Network survey? Have a conversation with each association that represents businesses who are your customers and prospective customers.

Explain that your company and their association each have a mission and goals. Ironically, there is a common thread in these missions and goals: to meet the needs of the businesses who are your customers and their members.

Identify ideas, solutions, and strategies that your company can offer to help the association’s members. Discuss ways the association can make changes to its current corporate partnership program to get their board members more engaged and offer benefits that will help your company help their members.

Strive for the triple-win: value for the association, its members, and your company.

If you would like more information on how your company can achieve its business goals by partnering with trade associations, contact Quantum Age today.

B2B marketers continue to face pressures to prove return on their marketing investment. In the ever-changing landscape of marketing, determining how to distribute your budget to the most impactful methods can be challenging. The four strategies below have been proven to improve results for B2B marketers.

1. Social Selling

Ninety percent of executives never return cold calls, resulting in very poor return on investment. Stop cold calling and start using social media to demonstrate your value and receive warm introductions. LinkedIn research found that 78% of salespeople using social media perform better than their peers. If your sales team isn’t using social media to sell, help them go social by providing training.

2. Account-Based Marketing

Developed in 2004 by ITSMA (the Information Technology Services Marketing Association), Account-Based Marketing (ABM) turns the traditional inbound marketing funnel upside down for B2B marketing. Traditional marketing consists of attracting as many people to your site to fill out forms, nurture them with emails, and then identify which of those leads are potential companies to target.

ABM is a strategic approach where sales and marketing identifies the characteristics of their targeted companies, then finds those companies and determines who the decision makers and influencers are. The relationships are nurtured with personalized content and campaigns to drive interest and engagement. As a result, ABM delivers the highest return on investment of any strategic B2B marketing approach.

3. In-Person Events

With the explosion in digital marketing, marketers may feel like they don’t need any face time with prospects and customers. However, for products and services that require significant investment or adoption of staff (software, for example), it is likely that you will benefit from relationship marketing.

Consider integrating opportunities for face-to-face interactions into your mix, including user groups, social and informational events at conferences targeted to your top prospects, and experiential marketing.

4. Customer Advocacy Marketing

Satisfied customers can generate a gold mine in leads and revenue. Seventy-three percent of executives prefer to work with sales professionals referred by someone they know. Referral leads convert 30% better than leads generated from other marketing channels.

If you don’t currently have a customer experience program in place to ensure happy customers who will give referrals, start one now. Make sure you have an action plan in place to address any concerns that arise. Expand your marketing efforts with testimonials, a formal referral program, and an online customer community to increase lead generation.

Are you overwhelmed with your current marketing program and don't have the bandwidth to add any of these strategies? Contact us and we can help plan and implement for you. 

FYI: most people who are now between 57 and 61 will experience short stays in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). Yes, you read that correctly. According to new research from the RAND Corp., 56 percent of people within this age range will stay in a nursing home at least one night during their lifetime.

Why this isn’t getting more ink in the industry press, I don’t know, but the research asserts that the average American’s lifetime risk of needing SNF care is 60% greater than previously estimated. The U.S. Department 

of Health and Human Services has previously estimated that only 35 percent of older Americans are likely to use a nursing home in their later years, and other studies have concurred with this finding.

Although the costs of the stays are expected to be “relatively affordable,” the RAND researchers expressed concerned that consumers be informed of their findings so they are prepared. But their message is also an important eye opener (and opportunity) for LTPAC operators.

To get to their conclusion, the researchers analyzed 18 years of data from the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal project of the National Institute on Aging and the Social Security Administration. They found that for most people, “nursing home care will be relatively affordable—about $7,300 per person over a lifetime.”

Also interesting about the finding is the fact that some 43 percent of Americans between 57 and 61 will be completely covered by private or public insurance for their nursing home stay, while about one-third will spend any of their money on nursing home care over their lifetimes.

What’s the reason behind this revelation? According to RAND, the cause could be the shift to shorter stays. The study found that nursing home stays of short duration (21 nights or fewer) rose from 28 percent in 1998 to nearly 34 percent in 2010.

In the release, head researcher on the study, Michael Hurd, posited that the increase may reflect efforts to control Medicare and Medicaid costs by more quickly discharging patients from hospitals to nursing homes, where rehabilitation costs are lower.

While the opportunity here for LTPAC operators is apparent, experts who have recently weighed in on the outlook for this segment point to the fact that CMS is on track to ensure that 50 percent of fee-for-service Medicare payments be made through alternative payments models by the end of 2018. Providers who have learned to adapt to this new climate and take on risk through bundled payment initiatives, accountable care organizations, managed care models, among others, will likely be better off in the long run.

If you would like to raise your profile and tap into the longevity economy, contact Quantum Age today.

By now you’ve likely heard there is evidence that harboring negative attitudes about aging and older adults is bad for your health. In fact, a 2016 World Values Survey found that 60 percent of its respondents felt that older people are not respected. More than 83,000 people in 57 countries took part in the survey, which assessed attitudes to older people across all age groups. Interestingly (and sadly), the lowest levels of respect were reported in high-income countries.

This is just one of many sources that cite the presence of ageism and prejudice about older adults in our culture. And given that the demographic make-up of most of the world is becoming older and older, the impact of this kind of discrimination is destined to get worse, unless someone takes the lead in an effort to change it.

Which is where we, as aging services professionals, come in. Why should we take the lead? Well, there’s the obvious reason: ageism impacts the health and wellbeing of older adults—which it’s our business to protect.

To that end, a group of aging advocacy organizations, in collaboration with the Frameworks Institute, has created an excellent set of resources aimed at helping “advocates drive a more productive narrative about how to capture the benefits of an increase in the average lifespan.”

The Frameworks Institute set out to answer this question: How can the field of aging help build a better understanding of aging, ageism, and what will it take to create a more age-integrated society? To get the answer, the institute collaborated with a number of national aging organizations to conduct an “empirical investigation into the communications aspect of aging issues.”

Among other things, they conducted a Strategic Frame Analysis®—an investigation that combines theory and methods from different social science disciplines to arrive at reliable, research-based recommendations for reframing a social issue. They sought “expert consensus” from aging researchers, reviewed academic and advocacy literature, and interviewed members of the public and analyzed the transcripts to identify the
“implicit, shared understandings, and assumptions that structured public opinion.”

The toolkit offers the original research, evidence-based insights from it, and a “variety of materials to help you apply it.” The authors of the toolkit advise that while you won’t find ready-to-print “turnkey” handouts, it does include examples and guidelines that “help you work more intentionally and strategically to advance the conversation about older people in the United States.”

The Frameworks Institute research report includes the following four parts:

• Anticipating Public Thinking outlines how Americans mentally model aging and related issues, and it pinpoints where these patterns of thinking are likely to challenge efforts to advance an informed public conversation.
• Communication Traps cautions advocates against reframing strategies that seem plausible but are likely to have unintended consequences.
• Redirections outlines a series of thoroughly tested communications tools and techniques for reframing aging and ageism.
• Moving Forward offers concluding thoughts and a call to action.

The authors come to the conclusion that sharing and telling a common story is part of what it takes for a movement to drive major and meaningful social change.

If you would like a focused approach to taking the lead on reframing aging, facilitated by experts in the field, contact Quantum Age today.

The fine folks at AARP have once again produced an excellent and useful report for those of us in aging services who are always on the lookout for data, resources, and expert analysis. Released last month, the “Aging Readiness & Competiveness Report” accomplishes this on several levels: it helps us get a handle on how the rest of the world is responding to their aging populations, it gives us a perspective on how other countries treat their elders, and it helps us better understand how to maneuver in the longevity economy.

Developed in conjunction with FP Analytics, the report is lengthy but certainly worth a review. Following are some highlights that I hope will help you navigate it better:

1. It’s divided into sections by the 12 countries it covers: Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil, China, Mexico, Turkey, and South Africa. 

2. The countries were chosen because they are the largest economies by region, with the exception of Africa, where the largest upper middle-income economy was chosen. Together, they represent “61 percent of the global economy and nearly half of people aged 65 or older, and include a diversity of economic, social, and cultural contexts.” 

3. The countries are analyzed according to the pressures and opportunities each faces, as well as by their policy responses as they related to the following four pillars: Community Social Infrastructure, Productive Opportunity, Technological Engagement, and Healthcare and Wellness.

Regarding the latter item, this is where it gets interesting. The report offers a deeper dive into how each country is preparing for longer lifespans and declining birthrates. That said, here are some highlights:

• Community Social Infrastructure: As the authors point out, some of the most innovative projects around fostering social engagement, healthier lives and even economics returns can be found not in national policy but among local stakeholders such as municipalities, schools, and community organizations. In Japan, for example, the post office network in each community is being leveraged to conduct routine check-ins for older adults at a rather low cost. 

• Productive Opportunity: Among other things, a number of countries have created flexible retirement policies that enable older adults to reduce their work hours in exchange for working later into their lives. The report also cites the recognition of ageism among employers as prevalent among both high-income and upper middle-income countries. While this is not a new phenomenon here in the U.S., it is heartening to see that it’s being addressed around the world. In the U.K., for instance, the Age Positive Initiative (API) is cited as exemplary because it offers employers a toolkit to address “retaining, retraining, and recruiting older workers, as well as guidance for employers and staff regarding a range of issues related to ageism in the workplace.” Also in the U.K., the Now Teach program aims to “start a movement of senior professionals [by] redeploying their skills in the classroom and teaching the children who need it most.”

• Technological Engagement: According to the report, digital literacy programs tailored specifically for older students have yielded better results than those that are designed to serve a broader audience. This may be obvious, but the report cites “particular success” in training technology-savvy older adults who then help their peers learn digital skills. Senior Planet is noted as a “pioneering community center network that has placed digital skills at the center of all its activities.” Based in New York City, the organization shares information and resources “that support aging with attitude, and helps people who were born long before the digital revolution to stay engaged and active by bringing a digital-technology focus to a range of topics.” 

• Healthcare and Wellness: With only three countries of the 12 countries studied for the report requiring their citizens to have long-term care insurance, shortages in institutional capacity, and ever-present fiscal constraints, countries are looking to foster more home- and community-based care options. As in the U.S., many countries are turning to robotics and e-health as possible solutions to improve healthcare and remote access. In Korea, where Internet speeds are the fastest in the world, the nationwide broadband network is being leveraged to offer “more efficient and higher-quality care to its rural population” with services that include remote checkups.

Take the time to read as much of the report as you can, as it contains vastly more detailed information about policies, programs, and innovations in each of the countries examined. I promise you will find something of interest.

If you would like to raise the profile of your innovative services and products with a focused approach that is facilitated by experts in the longevity economy, contact Quantum Age today.

Why are most consumer marketers still segmenting by generation and focusing nearly all of their resources at the 18 to 34 year-old demographic? I am not aware of a solid answer for this phenomenon, except that these marketers are simply not as savvy as they ought to be on the potential of the older consumer.

The fact is that despite Millennials now being the largest generation (yes, larger than Baby Boomers), it’s theGen Xers (those born between 1965 and 1980) who spend the most money, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Yes, Xers spend more on housing, clothing, dining out, entertainment, and food at home—to the tune of nearly $67,000 per year. The next cohort of big spenders is—you guessed it—Baby Boomers (at $59,646). This BLS video explains in more detail how Millennials spend compared with other generations.

A recent article in The Telegraph examines how middle-aged women today are still saddled by stereotypes that have them wearing frumpy dresses, elasticized jeans, and “old-lady” comfort shoes, despite evidence to the contrary. According to a survey of women conducted by the British newspaper, 84 percent of respondents used “products and services they felt were aimed at younger women.” What’s more, 90 percent consider themselves to have a much younger attitude than their own mother’s generation at the same age.

And yet, marketers continue to zero in on Millennials “despite the greater financial firepower of 40-plussers,” the article notes. “We know that 85 percent of purchasing decisions are made by women and yet 91 percent of women don’t believe advertisers understand them. This isn’t good enough,” Rebecca Rhodes, cofounder of marketing agency SuperHuman, told the The Telegraph.

Gina Pell, a self-described “early internet entrepreneur who built a cult brand” (according to her LinkedIn page), recently coined the term “perennial” to explain why marketers should stop targeting and stereotyping people based on their age: “we are ever-blooming, relevant people of all ages who live in the present time, know what’s happening in the world, stay current with technology, and have friends of all ages,” she said in her blog post. 

There are several takeaways here for anyone selling, providing, or promoting services or products in this space. If you aren’t considering Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, you may want to rethink your strategy. If you’re already targeting these consumers, get to know them better! To begin with, none of the generations are made up of homogenous people. This may make it trickier to know what they want, but one thing is for sure, “middle-aged” women don’t want to be pigeonholed into ageist stereotypes (this previous post contains more details and insights about the generations and the longevity economy).

Whatever the product, solution, or service you offer, Quantum Age Collaborative is here to help you create innovative and unique solutions that tap into the longevity economy to meet consumer demands in new and relevant ways.

If you want candid feedback from experts in the senior living field, contact Quantum Age today.