Inbound Marketing Reduces Customer Acquisition Cost & Shortens Sales Cycle

Introduction

“After I retire, do I really have to move into a retirement facility?”

This is the question every CCRC must address as industry studies show that baby boomers and even Generation X populations continue to question whether they ever want to live in a retirement facility. Many have watched family members go through these phases, and they aren’t thrilled with the idea of going down the same path. In light of this many, CCRCs are quickly creating and expanding services that allow older adults to safely and comfortably remain in their homes as they age.

In this scenario, expanding a not-for-profit continuing care retirement community with at-home services across four metro areas posed a unique marketing challenge. Traditional methods such as direct mail, print and radio had become less effective and increasingly costly as the organization looked to scale. With a sales cycle that averaged three to five years, leadership needed to lower CAC and drive faster, more efficient conversions.

The Challenge

Just like marketing CCRCs, promoting at-home services is complex and emotionally charged. Choosing these services is a major life decision, often involving family members and months—or even years—of consideration. Despite some past success with traditional channels, including direct mail, the cost of acquiring new customers remained high. Results were tapering off, especially in markets where the organization had previously seen strong performance. As they expanded services into three new metro areas, they knew it was time to shift focus and budget toward digital marketing.

The Partnership

Strategic Content Creation

Kuno Creative conducted research and discovered that many older adults didn’t realize they could safely age at home. To educate them, the content team created blog posts, eBooks and infographics that better spelled out the benefits and availability of at-home care.

Demand Generation Campaigns

The demand generation and content teams collaborated to promote upcoming seminar events and gated content. They leveraged Facebook to reach precisely segmented audiences interested in aging, brain health and memory care diseases such as dementia, while Google Ads campaigns pushed mid-funnel content like event sign-ups and webinars.

Marketing Automation & Nurturing

Using HubSpot, Kuno implemented a marketing automation strategy to nurture leads over time, helping to move top-funnel prospects to a sales-ready state. Email nurturing and behavior-based workflows ensured timely, relevant follow-up.

Key Wins

With a more targeted and scalable approach to marketing, the organization saw significant improvements:

• 42-month decrease in the sales cycle for half of new sales
• 24% decrease in customer acquisition cost (CAC) while expanding into 3 new locations
• 95% YoY increase in bottom-funnel offer conversions