58. HeartLegacy- Revolutionizing Senior Living Sales & Communication Using Video

On our latest episode, we have HeartLegacy joining us for the second time! We are excited to welcome Christie Freeze, the Partnership Growth Manager at Heart Legacy. We’re diving into how HeartLegacy and SalesMail have evolved post-COVID and discussing the innovative ways senior living communities are maintaining human connections through digital interactions.

In this episode, Christie shares her journey, best practices, and real-life examples of how SalesMail has transformed communication in senior living—from personalized video messages for leads to engaging content for residents.  Don't miss out on the insightful conversation about the future of digital communication, AI's role, and some impressive success stats that showcase the power of personalized video messaging.

Tune in now to hear all about it and learn how you can leverage these tools to enhance your community's communication and engagement!

You can find HeartLegacy on LinkedIn or on their website.

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Transcript

Amber: [00:00:00] Welcome to Raising Tech Podcast. I'm your host, Amber Bardon. And today we have HeartLegacy on for the second time. Christie Freeze is the Partnership Growth Manager. Welcome to the show, Christie. 

Christie: Thanks so much for having me excited to be here. 

Amber: So Christie, I know we've done a podcast in the past with HeartLegacy. And on that episode, we dived a lot into what is HeartLegacy? How did you come to be those types of things?

So we're not going to spend a lot of time on that today, but just so our listeners know, if they didn't listen to the previous episode, can you just give us a really brief intro on both HeartLegacy, SalesMail, and yourself? 

Christie: Yeah, for sure. So HeartLegacy was actually founded back in 2018 as a legacy preservation, video editing solution.

And so in 2019 is when I was personally introduced to SalesMail, which is more of a sales centric tool. So think HeartLegacy, more like edited video marketing videos and SalesMail, more personalized one to one video. And I was actually introduced when I [00:01:00] was a sales director. So my whole career has been in senior living sales and marketing.

And then fast forward, I joined the team here at the top of the year in January. And I'm now the partnership growth manager, which really what that means is really supporting our external partners, which is what we call our customers and our clients. And then also working really closely with our sales team, marketing team, and client success team really to focus on our pilot program.

So we offer, a trial or a pilot, and I'm really stewarding those pilots into success. And then doing a lot of trade shows, conferences, that kind of thing.

Amber: So Christie, one of the things I wanted to talk to you about today is how HeartLegacy and sales and all has evolved since COVID. So obviously we all know as part of COVID, we saw more and more digital interactions. We saw more and more things happening virtually. So in this new world that we're in both during COVID and post COVID, how can senior living communities maintain that human connection in their communications?

Christie: Yeah. Love this question. So I also really think that [00:02:00] during COVID times, We really started to lean on like zoom and teams, which is obviously how we're connecting, but I think that we started to really lean on those forms of communication. And so for SalesMail to be able to allow really one to one, more of the asynchronous communication versus having to all be on the same zoom call or same team's call.

I think that really shifted. It really shifted it for me during that time where I could send a message in a really meaningful way and it would land in the inbox or text message or whatever. And that family or prospect or referral partner could watch it when they wanted and they could respond when they wanted.

And it was still a really meaningful communication method because I was, I talk like this and my tone and my inflection, but it wasn't something that I needed them to agree to a time to be on the call with me. So I think that really opened up the world of possibilities and allows people, like I said, send it via text or send it via LinkedIn message and still have that personal touch if you're not able to [00:03:00] be in person or be on the call at the same time.

Amber: So can you give me some real life examples of how this would work in a community? 

Christie: For sure. So I'll share with you first my personal best practices where I found it the most impactful.

So the first stage, if you are, Getting like in a place for mom or caring. com lead, any type of third party lead coming in. This is an opportunity, which I think we're going to talk a little bit about automation a little later on, but this is an opportunity to make an evergreen video, which is just a video you can make and use over and over again.

That just basically says Hey, I wouldn't say, Hey, Amber, in that video, I would say, Hi, I'm Christie with so and so community. We'd love an opportunity to show you around, answer any questions you might have and send that when the new lead comes in. And then once the lead responds to you and you're like, hi, I'm Amber.

I'm a real person. I would then really start personalizing that followup. So it doesn't need to be at every stage of the process by any capacity. But I think inbound lead, I also think post tour, once somebody has come into tour. If you're not doing it [00:04:00] on the inbound lead, I think pre tour is a really impactful place to be able to like, say, Hey, I'm wearing this butterfly, top, and I'm going to be outside of the front entrance. This is where you part just letting them know. I think that in senior living in general, there's still a stigma sometimes attached to walking into a senior living community and not knowing what to expect. And so if you can tell them what to expect or show them what to expect, that's really going to start removing the mystery of what this whole process even looks like.

And then, like I said, post tour recapping the things that you heard, the things that were important and then using it throughout the rest of your process. 

Amber: Yeah, that makes sense. I think one of our clients is actually doing this as well on the employee side.

So when someone is coming on site for a job interview, they're sending them a video welcome to our community. This is where you park. This is where you can find the front desk. Cause as we all know, some of these communities can be a little confusing and complicated to figure out where you're supposed to go.

Christie: They for sure can. Actually, that's one of the stats that I have [00:05:00] to share is that one of our partners has seen an 85 percent increase in responses from employee candidates using it on the recruiting side, which again, right? Like I, I've only used it in the sales capacity, but really being able to see How the team interacts, how people are going to treat you through getting those types of videos.

 It's almost like dating, right? Like where both parties need to be involved. It's not just all of these people want to come work for us, or these people want to come live with us. Let's have some back and forth dynamic and make that a really enjoyable experience. 

Amber: Yeah, absolutely.

It's most of our day to day interactions that we're just on our phone and we're just looking things up. It's all through those videos now, like text based messaging, email communication just seems a little antiquated at this point. So you mentioned earlier automation and. AI is a huge buzzword.

We just published a white paper about it. And so let's talk a little bit about how automation can be used in the sales environment in senior living. How can it be personalized? Not just feel [00:06:00] like a mass email. Let's talk a little bit about that. 

Christie: Yeah. So I think it's still a really delicate balance. I think that, I know I personally am always going to be on the human connection, like a true human being is always going to be the gold standard, but I think that evergreen videos are going to be able to bridge the gap with them.

I want to personally be the one that makes that initial evergreen video, or perhaps it's after a webinar or after some type of an event, an email that goes out in mass. With one email that or one video that was made for many people versus one to one. I still think that there are going to be hiccups when you try to do one to one videos at mass.

I think that's just something that you need a really easy tool. Like I think that SalesMail makes it really easy to sit and crank out 15, 20 videos in a really meaningful way. Because it's so easy to do. It takes me like 45 seconds, right? I just sit there and crank them [00:07:00] out. But I think that you can also leverage those evergreen videos in an automation type campaign.

I know I've used in the past like outreach or sales loft or things like that when I was in more of a SDR type role. And those are fantastic if the video is really general. Because if not, we're going to have, Amanda's video going to Amber and Christie's video going to Sally, and it's going to just potentially be a mess.

So I do think that's on the horizon, but I really would love to see it stay a little bit personalized in that automation type sequence. 

Amber: You can never fully automate or it just becomes too, just because a lot of noise, right? Everyone's, you're getting hit all in automated communication.

We talked a little bit about how are we getting the videos out and personalizing those and automating those and things like that. But people who are listening to this may be thinking about like, how do I even make a video in the first place? 

Christie: Yeah, for sure. So that's my favorite thing about SalesMail is that it's you need nothing but your phone. And if people [00:08:00] can get on a zoom call, which we've all had to do through COVID times and beyond, you can use this app. It's just an app on your phone. And the reason that I get this question a lot.

So this might help unpack it a little bit. I get the question a lot. Like, why wouldn't I just make a video on my phone? And the answer is you could. You can now upload that video to SalesMail. But the reason that we record and want to send out of SalesMail is that it's going to come through branded and it's going to come through as an animated gif over a hyperlink image in the email body.

So the full video file is not coming in the email. So if you were to send a video raw from your phone, it's probably going to get flagged in spam. It's probably going to look suspicious because it's a heavy file. And so by using our tool and this platform, it's coming right into the inbox or text message or LinkedIn already branded.

And for senior living communities that brand awareness and that trust that they're able to build by seeing, a spectrum retirement logo or, something like that. That's oh, yeah, [00:09:00] that's who I'm talking to. Now that face matches that. And then that logo hyperlinks back to their website.

And then there's the contact information down below. So we have over 6, 000, 7, 000 users now. And those people are trained when they're onboarded to say, click the link above to maybe check out our website, click the link below for a call to action, or here's my contact information. And so it's just that very smooth process that makes it super quick and easy, but also really impactful when it's delivered in that way.

 Another kind of pro tip that I encourage people to think about, if you're not watching yourself or re watching your video, I think you can move forward.

If you re watch and you re watch and re watch, you're going to pick things apart. That's just like, how we operate. But I think if you create these and think of these as a video voicemail, the cadence that you would leave a voicemail in, that helps you to just kind of like, rinse and repeat, start cranking them out.

And I do always tell people when I'm training them, that the [00:10:00] recipient on the other end cares so much less about what you look like, what you're wearing, they're so still captivated that a person took 30, 45 seconds to make them this personalized message, if you were to ask them what your hair looks like or what you were wearing, they couldn't tell you.

Like that part's not actually important to them. I'm not saying go stand outside of a dumpster, but even if you did, it'd probably still be okay. 

Amber: Yeah. I think I've heard that the person who looks at your own social media and your own recordings as yourself, 

Christie: 100%, especially through that lens, right?

If anyone's coming to your platform, they're coming to gain value and to learn what you have to share, not to pick apart what you're wearing.

Amber: So I think we're talking primarily about the staff side of that, but can you share any stories about the resident side and how residents get involved in some of these videos and content creation? 

Christie: Yeah, so I know for me when I was using it, which I have seen a [00:11:00] lot of examples of these 2 with other users, but introducing typically there's like a resident ambassador or somebody that's been at the community for a long time.

And having the ability to again, I would do this in more of an evergreen format. I would have them introduce themselves and just like how long they've been here and what they love about the community and be able to have that as one of my like value add touch points. But it's also really impactful when that family walks in to tour and sees Betty and they're like, Oh my gosh, it feels like they've already met her or at least know some things about her.

You can do that with so many other areas of the community. I've really encouraged teams to do this with their executive directors. If the executive director is not able to meet a family or a prospect upon touring, this is a really awesome time to have a quick video from them that you can fire off.

And then just being able to capture activities as they're happening. If it's something that, if they're really passionate about. Pickleball, record pickleball being played in the [00:12:00] community and say, Hey, we can't wait to have you here on Tuesday to play pickleball with us at 4 p. m. or whatever that looks like.

So I think there's a lot of ways, like I said, because it's so easy to just point, shoot, send it, save it. You have this queue or this library full of really meaningful content that you can share when it makes sense. I think that's the other misconception is that people think they need to record the video and send the video.

And that's just not my personal best practice. I would rather sit down and make all of the videos for tours I've had this week, referral partners. I've connected with this week and then send it out when I may be more in front of my computer and able to just type out these quick little emails that I'm embedding a video into.

Amber: Yeah, it's almost like using your phone personally to share videos and photos when you think of something in the moment, you can just go in your library and just send it out as it makes sense. Yeah. Are there some statistics that you can share about success stories from teams [00:13:00] using SalesMail successfully?

Christie: Yeah, there's a couple, but I picked one of my favorites because I think it speaks to sales teams, but I think it speaks to operators too, just in general, right? Like we're all trying to get new leads to convert to tours and we're all trying to get those tours to convert to move ins.

And Julie Potowitz is a name that many will recognize and it's probably familiar with. And this is during her time at Vitality Living, not while she's been at Grow Your Occupancy. But when she was at Vitality Living, she did a really good job of capturing the statistics pre SalesMail and post SalesMail, and I think that was really impactful.

So one of the stats that she's provided to us is that she saw a 22% increase of inquiry to tour. So converting those inquiries into tours, an increase of 22%, and then an increase of 37% of two, or to move in by adding SalesMail. Like I said, not at every stage of the process, but at some of the most meaningful times.[00:14:00] 

And I think that is just huge. When we're trying to get people to convert from an internet lead via phone call, text, email carrier pigeon, that part's dramatic. I know, but it feels like we're trying all of these really I don't know, outdated ways and expecting them to just walk in and tour, we send them a personalized video.

Our chances truly are going to increase. That's just, that makes complete sense to me. And so then it's just refining that process. But those are two stats that I really love to share. I think those are really impactful. 

Amber: Yeah. And I think it's just, it looks a lot more fresh and current, I think to see those videos in a communication versus just the traditional text based messaging that we've had in the past.

Christie: For sure. 

Amber: I think, we're moving through post COVID technology changes, but what do you see is going to happen in the future? What's next? So we've made this transition to more digital communication, more videos, but what's going to be after that?

Christie: Yeah, I feel like as far as the AI [00:15:00] front goes, I think that's going to continue to evolve and grow and I've personally dabbled with it like a fair amount and I'm no expert by any capacity, but I think that has the potential to really just shift this journey as a whole. I think that still having personalized video.

And video in general is not going anywhere. I think that's going to continue to increase and be on the forefront. And so I think that, it reminds me of like back when email first came out or phones first came out. And when we got phones. We were like, we'll never text on those, or we'll never have a social media platform on those.

That's all we do on them now. And so I think it's. It's not when is that going to happen? It's it's happening. How do we leverage it? How do we lean into it? And so I think that it's going to take the humans behind the AI to really lean into this type of, resources, essentially what it is and this tool and use that to enhance this entire journey for people.

And I think that the [00:16:00] buyer, like the consumer on the other end, Is way more well versed in technology than they ever were before. And so I think that, back in the day I started in 2012. So I'm allowed to say that back in the day, I think that it was just like, Oh, they don't know anything.

Meaning the family, they know nothing. So it's up to us to educate them. And now they do. And now they have the ability to educate themselves. And so now we really get to come in as sales folks and be a true trusted advisor and more of a guide. Is this the right fit for you? Doesn't sound like it. You should consider here, or here.

Because we've done really good research. So I think it's just going to continue to evolve and grow really at a rapid rate. And so we just need to be on board for that. 

Amber: Yeah, that's a really good point. In the past, people didn't know anything. So you had to educate them, like you said, and now it's almost like the inverse where people have too much information.

And you have to try to be more selective, which with what information actually want them to know and pay attention [00:17:00] to. 

Christie: We need to shift of hey, did you maybe just go to Google and type in senior living? Nah, that might not be what it exactly looks like right now.

And that might not be what the community that the person's representing offers or looks like right now. But I think it's great. I think that gives us, like I said, an opportunity to be more of a guide versus trying to educate and then guide. 

Amber: Christie, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you want to make sure listeners know from this podcast?

Christie: So I think really just humanizing whatever it is you're doing. And I think that, for salespeople specifically, this is just for sales folks and marketing folks. I think that getting over the hump of being nervous on camera, Or being fearful of what you sound like or look like, I think that needs to come sooner than later.

I'm personally super down and offering my time and resources to help people overcome that because. It's so impactful when you can do that through the sales process. And the quicker that folks [00:18:00] can hop on board with that, the better it's going to be for the family, for the prospect, whoever. And it always blows my mind that people are really fearful because a family is going to walk in and see who you are.

Like they're going to see your face. They're going to see what you look like and what you sound like. And so it almost feels like a competitive edge to send them a video first. And let them start to get to know you. So when they walk in, it's not like a brand new first meeting. Just starts to remove that barrier a little bit.

So I would just say, be brave, just be brave, dive in, give it a try. So I think that the success and the results that will come will be really worth it. 

Amber: Yeah, I've heard an analogy before when you're meeting people remotely that it's almost like you're moving through the process and dimensions. So maybe you've seen like a picture of them and that's one dimension and a really good video call and that's like this next dimension and then you meet in person and so they become more and more familiar to you as you introduce these different dimensions [00:19:00] of technology.

Christie: I

love that. I can 

visually see that happening. So that's a really awesome analogy.

Amber: Christie, where can our listeners learn more about HeartLegacy, SalesMail, and where can they find you? 

Christie: Yeah, for sure. So LinkedIn is our jam right now. You can look up SalesMail or HeartLegacy over on LinkedIn.

You can find me on LinkedIn. And then our website offers a ton of really great blog posts, help articles, things like that. So if you're just getting started into SalesMail and you want to check that out great resource. Demo Day has recently been launched. And that's just a great opportunity to learn more. 15 minute demo, 15 minute Q& A. We'll be hosting those every month, so be on the lookout for the next one. You can get signed up, register for the Zoom, and we'll see you then.

Amber: Fabulous. Thank you so much for coming on the show. 

Christie: You're welcome. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. 

Amber: You can find us online at RaisingTechPodcast. com where you can see all of our episodes and contact us to provide feedback or submit an episode [00:20:00] idea. We are on social media everywhere at Raising Tech Podcast. If you enjoy Raising Tech, please leave us a review and share with a friend. Music is an original production by Tim Resig, one of our very own Parasol Alliance employees.

As always, thank you for listening.