Marketing – Bay Haven Care Community

*The final collage from the Valentine’s Day Love Photo marketing event*

The entire Recreation Department and Marco, the Marketing Specialist, worked hard to create a two-week long Valentine’s Day event for the residents at Bay Haven Care Community. The Recreation Department organized Valentine’s Day themed programs throughout the first and second week of February. Some of the programs included creating a Valentine’s Day posters, arts and crafts, trivia, drama performances, and even making heart-shaped Topper’s pizza with Emaan, a new volunteer who owns all of the Topper’s Pizza in Canada with her family.

This year, Bay Haven Care Community and the Georgian Tringle Humane Society collaborated on a Valentine’s Day idea to raise money for the Humane Society. The Recreation Department created two program that allowed the residents on the retirement home and the nursing home side to bake and decorate Valentine’s Day themed cupcakes. These cupcakes were then sold on Wednesday, February 5^th to all residents, staff, and guests at Bay Haven. On that day, we had two volunteers from the Therapeutic Paws of Canada bring in their dogs to help celebrate our bake sale! Virginia brought in her dog Poodle Enzo, and Alex brought in her Golden Retriever Georgia. The residents absolutely loved buying cupcakes and having a dog visit. Bay Haven Care Community raised $183.00 during the bake sale, with all proceeds going to the Georgian Triangle Humane Society.

Throughout the two weeks of February, Marco created a campaign titled “Valentine’s Day Love Photo.” This campaign allowed family members of residents and staff to submit a photo of their loved ones and to add a short description about why you love them, and what kind of inspiration that particular person gave you throughout your life. Since February 1^st, Marco has been posting a new submitted photo on the Bay Haven Care Community Facebook page until Valentine’s Day. The marketing campaign was a huge success! The campaign generated 14 new “Likes” for the Bay Haven Care Community Facebook page, which is a 250% increase since January 17th, 2020. The campaign also got a 79% increase in “Post Engagement,” meaning there were more people commenting and liking our Facebook pictures and posts during this week than any other. After the campaign was over, Marco created a collage of everyone’s pictures and posted them on Facebook, as well as around the building.

Overall, Bay Haven’s 2020 Valentine’s Day was very successful and we are excited to continue providing the best quality care for all of our residents.

Marco Sanfilippo
Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant

*Modernizing Bay Haven’s Digital Presences*

We are officially in the year 2020, which is a crucial year for many businesses to finally focus on digitizing their business to become up-to-date with the modern world. All types of businesses are digitizing faster than we can comprehend, and it is important for you to not fall behind. Any small town or local business needs to begin planning an online presences of their company, whether focusing on a new modernized website, or adjusting their social media pages to stand out from their competitors, these are the tools that will make your business grow and become better than ever.

1) Phones > Newspapers: To begin, we have to understand the evolution process of human beings and how we receive our information. Simply put, humans do not read newspapers anymore. At one point in history, the newspaper was the only source of news that a person could get. But now, everyone uses their phone or computer to look up whatever they want. If you truly understood how many people use the internet to look things up, wouldn’t you want your website to look better than your competitors? As Bay Haven’s Marketing Specialist, I am planning on updating the website to modernize it for 2020. This is a project that I am excited to work on for the new year.

2) Pictures Speak A Thousand Words: It is simply true; pictures speak a thousand words. We are living in a fast-pace culture where images and pictures stand out a lot more than words. In our new fast-pace culture, people do not have time to read anymore. This is why it is important to post beautiful pictures on your website or social media pages. For Bay Haven, pictures are a very important way for us to communicate with resident’s family members that live far away. This is the most ideal way for family members to see their parents or grandparents living life at Bay Haven. This is why we try to post as many pictures and videos as we can on our Facebook page.

3) Social Media Interaction: For 2020, I plan on creating new social media pages for Bay Haven Care Community. I would like to create a Bay Haven Twitter, Instagram, and a TikTok account. I believe it is important for Bay Haven to communicate with all major social media platforms, because it is a way to express Bay Haven’s culture to families. Even though Facebook is the most used social media page for Bay Haven, I would like to expand Bay Haven’s horizons by interacting with members through other popular social media pages. This is important to do for any kind of business.

4) Website Representation: To make your business stand out from your competitors, it is important to show a good representation of your company through your website. Having a clean, fresh, and new look of your company through your website can really create an amazing image for your company. Here at Bay Haven, we want people to know that we are strive for the best possible care for our residents, and that our core values of respect, quality, staff, and community is positively represented over our website. The first thing that people do when they look up a retirement or nursing home for their loved ones, they search the company through Google. Having a great representation through our website is an amazing way to promote the excellence that comes from Bay Haven.

As a Marketing Specialist, I can confidentially say that these are four important first steps to bring your company into the online world. I am excited to work on Bay Haven’s marketing plan for 2020, so please continue to follow us as you venture on a journey with us to see new modern changes coming to Bay Haven’s online presences.

Marco Sanfilippo
Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant