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Life Health > Long-Term Care Planning

Q&A with Maribeth Hearn

By Nichole Morford

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Maribeth HearnAs executive director of sales and marketing at Shay Health Care Services, Maribeth Hearn has a well-defined target market (women between the ages of 40-60), a comprehensive approach to social media (Pinterest is her new favorite tool) and a healthy sense of foresight (her workshops have application for Gen Y, too).

Hearn offers this peek inside Shay’s practice: “We market to the sandwich generation in an effort to educate them on their options to provide care for aging parents and relatives. I created a 20-minute workshop that helps them answer a checklist of needed information. Once completed, it can truly help both the senior and their child.”

LHP: Tell me about your practice.

MH: We provide in-home health care and caregiver services, as well as 24-hour live-in care. We often work with doctor’s offices to provide those services. The other key consumer for us would be the public; an individual might call in and say I need somebody to help provide care for a certain number of hours a day, and we would work with them directly.

LHP: Describe your ideal client.

MH: I market to a 40-60 year old woman, who typically works outside the home, has children at home and aging parents. So, even though the care is for her parents, she’s the one who will get the burden of deciding what to do. She will research online and help her parents figure out what they should do.

LHP: Your No. 1 tip is about marketing to the sandwich generation. How has this technique grown your business?

MH: We produce workshops that are about 20 minutes long. The topic might be about putting together a checklist of what caregiver services your parents need, or even about putting together a checklist for your own kids. Let’s say you’re 49 years old and you’re perfectly healthy, but you want to provide your kids with a list of information they would need in case of an emergency, such as who your primary caregiver is, what medications you take, etc. With this list, they’ll be much better prepared to take care of you, taking all that stress, or at least a good portion of it, away — all because you’ve had a chance to cover some of these issues.

LHP: What adjective best describes your prospecting style? MH: Targeted. We work with women’s groups. The majority of our clients are working women — some are men, of course, but the vast majority are women — and we find that they largely conduct research on caregiving at work. So, we reach out to them directly, but we also communicate with employers, and alert them to what a beneficial resource our programs can be for them. Not only are they something employees have clearly expressed need around, providing services like the ones we offer will also help make employees more productive.

LHP: Any new marketing tools or applications that you find interesting?

MH: We’re focusing more on social media, such as Pinterest, which has 11 million women users, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Through Pinterest, we try to provide resources for our clients that are relevant to the programs we offer. So, you might find a recipe for a healthy chocolate cake, or a visual about identifying diabetes symptoms.

LHP: What goal(s) do you have for your practice for the remainder of 2012?

MH: Reaching more of our potential clients to let them know about the different programs we offer. The first program is Woundcare, and we’re a leader in this area. Our new marketing campaign shows clients and prospects that we’re in the top 10% in Illinois. The second is a pediatric nursing program, and the third is a small PT/OT program. This year, we’re focusing on sharing all of this information with consumers and doctor’s offices in order to expand our client reach.

For more sales & marketing tips, see LifeHealthPro’s 100 Best Sales & Marketing Ideas Ever.

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