Every system we install for clients was developed and tested on our own home care agency. Here is the full story.
Our founding team owns an independently operated home care referral agency serving multiple territories in North Carolina. Like most small agencies, the primary growth challenge was building consistent referral relationships with facilities: skilled nursing facilities, assisted living communities, hospitals, and rehab centers.
The agency had a business development manager making in person visits, but there was no system to stay in front of referral sources between visits. The typical pattern was drive by drop ins, leaving flyers, buying the occasional catered lunch, and hoping someone remembered the agency name when a patient needed home care.
Our team developed what we now call the E.CLT Email Nurture Campaign, a targeted email and print system designed specifically to warm referral relationships before, between, and after in person visits. Here is what the system included:
We built a structured research workflow (we call it SCR, Senior Care Research) with tiered sources to identify every relevant referral partner in the territory. Each facility was profiled with decision maker names, emails, and the specific services they refer for most often.
Instead of one generic email blast, we wrote separate sequences for each facility type. A skilled nursing facility discharge planner gets different messaging than an assisted living admissions director. The emails address their specific pain points and position the agency as the solution to their specific challenges.
All sequences were loaded into HubSpot with automated scheduling, open and click tracking, and reply notifications. The system sends on a cadence of one email every 4 to 5 days, keeping the agency name visible without being intrusive.
Every email uses compliant referral agency language. "Caregivers we place" instead of "our caregivers." Clinical terminology that matches what referral sources actually use. This attention to detail signals to facilities that the agency understands their world.
The email system was designed to work in coordination with in person visits, not replace them. The sequence creates familiarity and warmth so that when the BDM walks into a facility, the discharge planner already recognizes the agency name. The emails do the heavy lifting of consistent touchpoints (the 7 to 12 touches research shows are needed before a referral source thinks of you first), while the BDM focuses limited in person time on the facilities showing the most engagement. Monthly printed authority materials, crafted by our team of Doctors and marketing professionals, reinforce the agency's expertise between email touches.
Most home care agencies that try email marketing send a monthly newsletter to everyone on their list. One generic message, once a month, to a mixed audience. That approach gets ignored because it is not relevant to anyone specifically.
Our system segments by facility type and sends targeted, relevant content on a cadence that keeps the agency visible without being annoying. The messaging is educational, not promotional. It positions the agency as a knowledgeable partner, not just another vendor asking for referrals.
The E.CLT campaign is the exact system our team now installs for clients. We did not build a product in a vacuum and then go looking for customers. We built a system to solve our own problem, refined it in our own territory in North Carolina, and then packaged it for other agencies facing the same challenge.
When you hire Small Agency Big Results, you are getting a system that has been tested on a real agency, in a real market, with real referral partners. 47 new facility contacts and 12 booked meetings in 90 days. Not a theoretical framework. Not a marketing template. A working system.
SNFs, ALFs, Hospitals, and CCRCs targeted with facility specific messaging
Email cadence that keeps your name visible without overwhelming inboxes
From signing up to your first emails going out to referral partners
Book a free 15 minute call. We will look at your territory together and show you exactly how the system would work in your market.
Schedule Your Free Strategy Call