More than 70% of senior living sales and marketing professionals are held directly accountable for occupancy in their communities, according to a new “Senior Living Marketing Guide” from Independence, OH-based Linkmedia360.

The integrated digital marketing agency said it wrote the 12-page guide using information from more than 200 recent interviews with senior living sales and marketing leaders. Here are five tactics that can help these professionals increase occupancy, according to the guide.

1. Make the community’s website the hub of the community’s marketing strategy. “In today’s day and age, your website is your most important, most influential marketing resource,” according to the report. Optimize the site with non-branded and branded keywords so that users can find the community on search engines.

2. Invest in software to automate some of your communication, to make the most of limited staff time and ensure that leads are pursued. “Be advised that automation isn’t a ‘set it and forget it’ tactic,” however, the authors note.

3. Publish. Post new content on your website frequently to aid your search engine optimization and marketing automation efforts. “Fresh webpages, blog posts, infographics, videos, whitepapers — all of it can build trust with your audience by answering their questions, providing advice, and making their search for senior living options easy — which in turn will help you build brand affinity,” according to the report. “Over time, this tactic will not only power your other digital marketing efforts, it will build such strong relationships with your audience that the leads will come pouring in.”

4. Use paid media. While your search engine optimization efforts kick into gear, consider shelling out money for paid media, especially paid social media, so that the community appears at the top of searches conducted by prospective residents and their families.

5. Use data analytics to understand information. Measure your efforts to ensure they are having the intended effect and match anecdotal evidence. Make sure Google Analytics and call-tracking and customer relationship management programs are set up properly, that you are looking at the right data and that you are are interpreting it correctly.

Download the guide here.