Ground Game Business Development: A Case Study at Harbor’s Edge
Ground game, or local marketing, is one of the most successful strategies for building brand awareness and converting leads. When done correctly, it allows you to target your exact audience and reach them with low-cost strategies and campaigns. However, it’s often overlooked because of the amount of effort and persistence it takes. Here’s how we used ground game strategies to drive sustainable lead generation for one of our clients.
Harbor’s Edge in Norfolk faced a challenge—its reputation as a high-end Life Care community led many to overlook its month-to-month rental options for Assisted Living and Memory Support. To shift this perception, we launched a strategic business development campaign focused on community engagement and education.
Rebranding was key. We introduced The Center for Memory Support at Harbor’s Edge and using both print and digital campaigns, positioned it as a top-tier resource. Staff members received specialized dementia training from Positive Approach to Care expert Marcia Brodie, enhancing the quality of support and generating powerful resident success stories.
Lead generation evolved as we refined our referral strategy. Large providers like A Place for Mom and Caring.com delivered quantity but lacked quality. Instead, we prioritized boutique referral partners with deeper market insights, leading to stronger matches. We also forged connections with local memory institutes, civic groups, and churches, offering educational talks on brain health to establish credibility and trust.
Getting involved in the local community and inviting other businesses to use your building space helps bring people who never even knew you existed in to see the place for themselves. The same goes for hosting in-house events or partnering with others to bring their database to events. Bringing people directly into the community helps them gain a perspective that they’re unlikely to forget.
Utilize your team. Harbor’s Edge staff members were able to reach out to their communities and take a more grassroots approach to spread the word. We found a lot of good business development partners, with whom we went on to curate a strong relationship through attentive management and friendly conversation. Remember that you’re more likely to get referrals from people who like you, so not every second of every conversation has to be work-related.
By using both large-group outreach methods and more personal, individual approaches, we were able to reinvigorate the community’s memory support center and month-to-month assisted living options. We saw a fantastic rise in high-quality, non-paid referrals. These prospects came in understanding Harbor’s Edge’s offerings and value.
This ground game approach proved that strategic, community-focused business development can drive sustainable lead generation and reposition a brand for success. Looking for a strategy of your own that will get you similar results? Schedule a call with us to learn how we can work with your team to create a custom ground game business development strategy that will work for your community.
