Webinar Q&A: From Clicks to Carers: 5 Digital Marketing Secrets for Councils

We hope you enjoyed our webinar From Clicks to Carers: 5 Digital Marketing Secrets to Help Your Council Find More Foster Families. If you missed the webinar, you can watch it on demand. For now though, here are your Q&As from the live webinar.

Q: How do you ask qualifying questions on Facebook forms?

If you’re using Facebook Lead Ads for a campaign to target prospective foster carers, you can utilise qualification questions to gather important information from interested individuals. These questions help you assess their suitability as foster carers and gather insights about their motivations and capabilities. There are several suitable questions to consider, from “Do you currently have a spare bedroom?” to “Do you have any experience working with children or vulnerable individuals?”. LOCALiQ have a wealth of experience in formulating appropriate questions to help you improve the quality of your enquiries from social media channels. Come and talk with us if you’d like some support in this area.

Q: What would be the better search engine to advertise on to attract empty nesters?

While Google still has over 90% of the total search traffic on the internet, Bing may be the better search engine to advertise on. Over 70% of Bing users are over 35 – a great fit for prospective foster carers!

There can be several reasons why an empty nester might prefer using Bing over Google:

• Familiarity: Some empty nesters may have been using Bing as their preferred search engine for a long time and are comfortable with its interface and features. They may have developed habits and preferences around using Bing and find it convenient to continue using it.
• Search Experience: Bing offers a different search experience compared to Google. It may provide search results that align better with the preferences or interests of empty nesters. For example, Bing’s homepage features stunning images and offers daily quizzes and trivia, which some users find enjoyable.
• Privacy Concerns: Bing has made efforts to emphasise user privacy and data protection. Empty nesters who are concerned about their online privacy may prefer Bing’s approach to handling personal data over Google’s. They may perceive Bing as a more privacy-conscious alternative.
• Integration with Microsoft Products: If an empty nester already uses Microsoft products like Windows or Office, they might find Bing’s integration with these tools convenient. Bing may provide seamless integration and complementary features that enhance their overall productivity and user experience.
• Different Search Results: Bing and Google may provide different search results for certain queries. Empty nesters might find that Bing’s search results are more relevant or useful for their specific information needs, depending on the topics they search for.

It’s important to note that these reasons are generalisations, and individual preferences may vary. Ultimately, the choice between Bing and Google is subjective and depends on personal preferences, habits, and specific search requirements. According to Microsoft, 57% of Bing users have children living at home and 53% are married.

Q: What tools would you recommend Is there a way to target households with more than 2 bedrooms?

We recommend Experian Mosaic. Within Experian Mosaic, it is possible to identify households based on the number of bedrooms they have. The segmentation may include categories such as “Small Households” or “Large Households”, based on the number of bedrooms in the property. If we’re interested in targeting households with 2 of more ‘empty’ bedrooms, we consider focusing on “Large Households” owned by users whose profiles suggest they could be, for example, empty nesters. empty nesters typically have different lifestyle preferences, spending habits, and needs compared to households with children. Mosaic profiling can help identify and target this specific demographic group by analysing data such as age, household composition, income level and homeownership status.

Q: Have you seen a change in the number of leads received by your clients in 2023?

There are a lot of factors external to marketing that have impacted fostering recruitment efforts, nationally, over the last few years. For example, there have been changes to social and economic conditions following the pandemic. For many local authorities this challenge is increasingly compounded by the need to meet approval targets amidst budget constraints. Another recent challenge local councils have faced is the increase in competition to recruit carers. Despite this, for some councils we work with we’ve actually been able to increase lead volumes this year! For one client, we were able to quadruple enquiries levels January to May 2023, vs 2022. We put this down to conducting extensive competitor analysis to help identify a clients’ strongest USPs and data analysis to help guide our messaging and call to action for campaigns.

Q: Do you think councils should regionalise to pool resources and advertising for fostering services?

Pooling advertising budgets among a group of councils to generate leads from prospective foster carers offers a range of benefits such as:

• Increased reach
• Cost efficiencies
• Enhanced targeting
• Collaborative strategies
• Shared resources
• Unified branding

We have seen instances where councils have developed collaborations with other local authorities to great success. Clearly, there are some potential drawbacks, such as potentially having a reduced level of autonomy in decision-making. It’s also worth considering one of your biggest USPs – your brand! Are you still going to be able to promote your individual council branding and control your advertising messaging in the way that you want to? It’s important if you collaborate with another authority to consider whether your strategies and working practices are aligned.

Q. How can we ensure our marketing campaigns stand out from our competitors?

It’s a complex dynamic – as advertisers you compete, but as fostering professionals you collaborate. We advise focusing your marketing messages on what makes your organisation different. That gives prospective foster carers a choice to make in line with their personal motivation to become a foster carer. It’s also important for councils to consider the positive impact of working alongside independent fostering agencies and the flexibility a strong collaboration between a local authority and IFA can create.
Ultimately, the primary concern for anyone working within fostering should be the welfare of children in foster care and the provision of adequate support and resources to foster carers, regardless of the organisational structure.

Don’t forget you can watch the webinar on demand!

If you want to see how we can help your organisation find more foster families, you can contact us today for a free consultation. Alternatively, you can read more about our work within the care industry.

About the author

Richard Dowling

Richard is the Regional Sales Manager for LOCALiQ’s digital marketing business. He has worked for the company for nine years, holding roles in local publishing and digital marketing services. Richard is a specialist in lead generation for local governmental services, specifically for fostering recruitment and the education industry – focusing on using targeting techniques to improve lead quality.