Filling a New Care Home Extension: A Practical, Proven Approach

Opening an extension or newly refurbished wing is a major investment and once the doors are ready, every empty room carries a cost. For operators aiming for private-pay occupancy, the priority is clear: fill the rooms quickly and with the right families.

To do that, you need two things working in tandem, a clear way of reaching people who are actively searching for care and a sales process that makes sure every enquiry is handled effectively and with care.

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Why Targeting Families Already Searching for Care Works So Well

A care home that has been part of its community for years already has some level of recognition but after an extension, you’re not introducing the home from scratch, you’re looking to reach families who are actively looking now. This means the focus of your marketing should shift from disruption marketing (pushing your message to the masses through leaflet distribution, billboards etc) to target people with an intent led strategy, which targets people actively seeking care right now.

By focusing on high-intent channels such as Google Ads, you put yourself in front of people who are in the middle of making a care decision. It shortens the time needed to build awareness and helps concentrate your budget where it matters: on families who are ready to enquire.

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What Happens When You Start Early: A Real Example from the Sector

A useful illustration of this comes from CHD Living, a well-known and long-established family operator in the South and one of Prosperwell’s clients.

Ahead of a large refurbishment project their Commercial Director, Shaleeza Hasham, recognised that waiting until the new rooms were complete would create a delay in demand. Instead, our marketing approach began several months early, combining targeted search campaigns for people seeking care in their area with their internal enquiry-handling process.

This created a warm pipeline of families who were informed, engaged and already considering the home before the rooms opened. Alongside this, the team sharpened their response times and their follow-up system to make sure that interest translated into booked viewings rather than slipping away.

The outcome demonstrated the value of early, intent-driven preparation: the refurbished rooms reached full occupancy within two weeks of opening.

What matters most about this example is what it shows:

• extensions fill faster when marketing begins ahead of completion,
  
  
• search-led activity works because it reaches families already actively looking, and
  
  
• small improvements to enquiry handling can dramatically change the outcome.

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Three Pillars for Filling a New Wing Quickly

To replicate this level of momentum, your strategy should rest on three foundations.

1. Prepare Your Digital Foundations Before Launch

Your website needs to be built with conversions in mind and ideally, feature your extension or refurbishment prominently. This page or section should:

• Clear USPs for your care home.
  
  
• Match your ad messaging so families don’t feel misled.
  
  
• Show trust signals immediately, reviews, ratings, accreditations or awards.
  
  

Think of your website as the first “tour.” Families should be able to understand what’s special, feel reassured, and take the next step without confusion. Even if you don’t create a new page, clarity, focus, and usability are essential to converting enquiries quickly.

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2. Capture High-Intent Leads with 24/7 Live Chat

A significant amount of research into care happens in the evenings or at weekends, when your office isn’t staffed.

A 24 hour live chat service allows families to reach out discreetly, ask questions, and get reassurance whenever it is convenient for them. Homes introducing 24-hour live chat consistently see uplift in conversion because far fewer visitors slip away without making contact.

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3. Strengthen Your Sales Conversion System

Even the best marketing approach will underperform without a reliable follow-up process. When families enquire, three elements matter most:

• Speed: replying within an hour dramatically increases the likelihood of a viewing, particularly if there is competition in the area.
  
  
• Empathy: open with questions that invite the family to share their situation, rather than information-dumping.
  
  
• Ownership: someone must be clearly responsible for driving the journey forward from enquiry to move-in.
  
  

The Importance of Monitoring and Optimisation

Once your website is designed for conversions, you have the right marketing approach and a sales process down, then it’s just about monitoring and fine tuning. 

Launching a new wing or refurbished extension is a big investment, but the key to success lies in preparation, precision and consistency. By combining early, intent-driven marketing with a conversion-focused website and a disciplined, empathetic follow-up system, care homes can turn potential interest into permanent residents, faster, more efficiently and with the right families.

As CHD Living’s experience shows, an intent led strategy and small but deliberate improvements to your website, from messaging to trust signals online and an empathetic follow-up, can deliver occupancy within weeks rather than months and lay the foundations for sustained success.