Activities Assistance

Marketing Activities


The same concepts that encourage you to buy a specific brand of salad dressing can be used to market your activities to your customers. Why have a marketing campaign for activities? We know that we spend a great deal of time developing an activities calendar and that every one in the home has a calendar. As our number one marketing tool we forget that not everyone in the home actually reads it or understands it. Sometimes that big old calendar on the wall becomes “wallpaper”. It's always there, but no one pays any attention to it. We pass out calendars, highlight events for each resident and hang them in the resident's room. And we still have staff that doesn't see it or read it. So sometimes we need to look at the way companies market their services and take some tips.

An activities marketing plan serves to highlight the attributes of your program and brings the “regular” programs a boost in attendance and participation. A plan of what activities that the resident's are interested in and how to advertise them to them and their families will assist you in encouraging people to participate and become active in their quality of life. As with all plans this takes some time and some proven marketing techniques that can be utilized in your facility. Think of investing some time as an investment in your activities program.

Think about the family members who visit only in the evenings or weekend when traditional activities are limited. How do they know that their loved one actually participates in activities? How do they know that activities visit regularly? What types of materials are there in the resident’s room saying that they are involved in programs? Does the resident have “proof” that they participated? What about the resident that is involved in all of your activities? Can family members say that their loved one is actively involved and helps plan the programs? Are families encouraged to be a part of the program?

Now the obvious answer is that you have an activity calendar in their room. But as we just discussed, it just hangs there. Families are visiting, but rarely look at the calendar that is in the room. They need to see that there are programs that their particular family member is interested in. We know that the resident participates, but they don't see Mom or Dad attending the program. It boils down to what people see and how they see it. Our job is to make them see that their loved one is involved. We have the activities when the family is working and involved in their own lives. Now besides changing the activities department schedule, using some marketing techniques will assist families and residents in actively contributing to their quality of life.


Getting Started

Using your existing calendar take a good hard look at it. If you were a resident would you know what the various activities were? If you were newly admitted to the facility would you know what programs were actually designed just for you? Even after they participated in the Activities Assessment process, and the nice activity lady told us about all the activities a few weeks ago, do we really know that “Pencil Olympics” is actually a program about Word Searches? The program may be exactly what the resident would really like to participate in, but because there is no additional information, may not attend. If the resident (our primary customer) doesn't know what the program is, then families and staff may not know as well.

After assessing your calendar the next step would be to write out a marketing plan. This will give you a clear path toward making an advertising program a reality. Look at the programs that you regularly have and pick at least five of them that need a boost in attendance and that would enhance the quality of life for your residents. Those programs that your particular residents have expressed an interest in. Even individuals who are considered “low functioning” would benefit from having some advertising and marketing as we are all familiar with having companies market their products and services to us.