How to market your aged care or home care business

Marketing an aged care or home care business is not like marketing a plumber or a cafe. The person who needs your service is often at a stressful moment, and the decision is frequently made by someone else: an adult child, a spouse, or a hospital discharge planner acting on a parent's behalf. Trust is doing most of the work. A family will choose the provider that feels safe and legitimate long before they compare prices.

The good news is that you do not need a large budget to compete. The channels that actually bring aged care and home care providers new clients are mostly free or cheap: showing up in local search, a clear website, genuine reviews, strong referral relationships, and visible proof that you are who you say you are. Bigger competitors often neglect these basics.

This guide walks through those channels in the order most operators should tackle them. If your focus is specifically home care, read it alongside our guide to getting more clients for your home care service. If you run NDIS supports, the referral map is different, and our guide to growing your NDIS provider business covers that.

Know who actually chooses you

Before spending a dollar, get clear on who makes the decision and where they look. For most aged care and home care providers there are two audiences:

• Families and decision-makers. Often an adult child, in their 40s to 60s, searching online, usually at night, usually anxious. They Google, read reviews, look at your website, and shortlist two or three providers to call.
• Professional referrers. Hospital discharge planners, aged care assessors, GPs, allied health professionals, and social workers who point people to providers they trust.

Your marketing should speak to both. The family wants reassurance, plain answers, and a fast response. The referrer wants a provider who is reliable, contactable, and easy to hand a client to. Everything below serves one or both of these groups.

Get your Google Business Profile working

For a local service business, a complete Google Business Profile is the single highest-value free asset you have. When someone searches "home care near me" or "aged care in [suburb]", the map results come from Business Profiles, and they sit above the normal web results.

Make yours work:

• Claim and verify the profile, then fill in every field: services, service area or address, hours, phone, and website.
• Choose the most accurate primary category, for example "Home health care service" or "Aged care". The category strongly affects which searches you appear in.
• Add real photos of your team, vehicles, or premises. Faces build trust; stock images do not.
• Keep your name, address, and phone number identical everywhere online. Inconsistent details confuse search engines and hurt ranking.
• Post updates and answer the questions section. An active profile outranks a dormant one.

Build a website that answers the real questions

Your website does not need to be fancy. It needs to load fast on a phone, look legitimate, and answer the questions a worried family actually has:

• What services do you provide, and what areas do you cover?
• Are you funded through Home Care Packages, the Commonwealth Home Support Programme, privately, or all three?
• How do people start, and how quickly can you help?
• Who are you? Show real people, qualifications, and how long you have operated.
• How do they contact you, with a phone number visible on every page?

Write in plain language, not corporate jargon. Put a clear phone number and enquiry form near the top of the page. If a visitor has to hunt for how to contact you, they will call the next provider instead.

Turn happy clients and families into reviews and referrals

Reviews are the closest thing to word of mouth at scale, and in a trust-driven category they carry real weight. A provider with plenty of genuine, recent reviews will beat one with only a handful, even if both are equally good at the actual care.

• Ask, simply and at the right moment. After a positive interaction, ask the family if they would be willing to share a few words on Google. Most people say yes when asked directly; almost nobody does it unprompted.
• Make it easy. Send the direct link to your review page by text or email.
• Respond to every review, positive or negative. A calm, professional reply to a critical review reassures future readers more than a wall of five stars.
• Never buy or fake reviews. It breaches Google's rules and Australian consumer law, and families can smell it.

Build referral relationships with hospitals, GPs and allied health

A large share of aged care and home care work arrives by referral, not by search. The people who send those referrals are worth cultivating deliberately:

• Hospital discharge planners and social workers. They arrange support for people going home after a stay. Being known, reachable, and quick to accept a referral makes you their easy choice.
• Aged care assessors. After an assessment, people need providers. Make sure local assessment teams know you exist and what you offer.
• GPs and practice nurses. Often the first professional a family asks. A short introduction and a simple leaflet they can hand over goes a long way.
• Allied health professionals. Physios, occupational therapists, and podiatrists who see older clients regularly and are asked for recommendations.

Referral relationships are built by being consistently reliable, not by a single sales visit. When a referrer sends someone your way, respond fast and close the loop so they know it went well. That is what earns the next referral.

Show your trust and verification everywhere

In a category with real risk of harm, proof that you are legitimate is a marketing asset, not just compliance. Make it visible:

• State your accreditations, registrations, and how long you have operated.
• If you are an approved aged care provider or NDIS registered, say so plainly.
• Make sure families can find you on official channels like the My Aged Care find-a-provider tool, where many begin their search.
• List your business in reputable directories that verify providers, so your details appear consistently in the places families check. Our guide on why listing in a directory is worth it weighs that up honestly.

Verification and consistency compound. The more places a family sees the same legitimate business with the same details and the same good reviews, the safer you feel, and the more likely they are to call.

Frequently asked questions

How much should an aged care or home care business spend on marketing?

Less than most people assume. The highest-value channels for care providers, a complete Google Business Profile, a clear website, genuine reviews, and referral relationships, are mostly free or low cost. Get those working before spending on paid advertising. If you do advertise, start small, track which enquiries turn into clients, and put money only into what actually converts.

What is the single most effective thing I can do to get more clients?

Respond faster. In a trust-driven, often urgent category, the provider who answers the phone or replies to an enquiry within minutes usually wins the client, even against larger competitors. Make sure enquiries reach a real person quickly during business hours, and that nothing sits unanswered overnight.

How do I get reviews without seeming pushy?

Ask at a natural moment, after a positive interaction, and make it effortless by sending the direct link. Most families are glad to help a provider who has looked after someone well; they just never think to do it unprompted. Asking once, politely, is not pushy. Never offer payment or incentives for reviews.

Do I need to pay for ads to show up on Google?

No. Most local care searches are won through the free map results from your Google Business Profile and the organic listings, not paid ads. A complete, active profile with good reviews and consistent business details will often outrank competitors who are paying. Paid ads can supplement that, but they are not a substitute for the free basics.

How long does marketing take to work for a care business?

Referral relationships and search visibility build over months, not days. A Google Business Profile can start producing calls within weeks, but reviews, referrer trust, and organic ranking accumulate steadily. Treat it as a compounding investment: the consistent, reliable provider who keeps showing up wins more of the market each year.