As the franchise owner of Just Better Care Gold Coast for over 10 years, Bram knows the importance of local area marketing for the success of small business.

In 2017 Bram and his team at Just Better Care Gold Coast sought to increase their brand awareness with a local area marketing campaign called ‘The Year of Possibilities’.

The campaign was built on the national Just Better Care campaign ‘Possible’ by localising the key messaging, tools and tactics.

‘The Year of Possibilities’ offered local winners five free hours of aged care and disability support each week, for a whole year.

“The campaign was less about finding immediate customers and more about raising our profile within the Gold Coast area by reaching out to staff, customers, providers and our local community, highlighting the support we can provide,” said Bram.

Bram and his team used a wide variety of tools to communicate with their target audiences. Social media was the main channel for communication but he also engaged local media and used search engine marketing.

He also reached out to other local service providers to let them know about the campaign, collaborating with them in order to strengthen service offerings for customers.

“Word of mouth was important too. Our staff would leave a ‘Year of Possibilities’ nomination form with the customer and pick it up next time they visited. We wanted it to be easy and accessible for our customers to enter,” Bram said.

The consistent, targeted marketing approach paid off. ‘The Year of Possibilities’ had over 100 applicants from current customers and from people who had never accessed in-home services before.

 “Choosing a winner was certainly difficult. There were a lot of people who could have used the support,” said Bram.

“I used my aged care contacts to establish an expert panel to help us make a fair and considered decision. We also engaged a PR company to connect us with disability influencers to assist us choosing the winner of the disability support package.”

Bram is now expanding and opening a new Just Better Care franchise in Northern Rivers, NSW - a success, which he attributes in part, to his dedication to local area marketing.

“A national campaign cannot always do what a local campaign does. It is important that the community sees that we are local; it is an important part of the equation.”
 
About Just Better Care

With offices across Australia​,​ and part of the global Caring Brands International group, Just Better Care is one of Australia’s largest franchised providers of​ ​in-home aged care and disability support services.​ Visit our franchise website to find out more information about franchising opportunities.