Residential Aged Care
Marketing Strategy
On 1 November 2025, the Aged Care Act 2024 replaced the Act that had governed residential aged care since 1997, the most significant overhaul of the sector in close to three decades. It landed in the same period the sector recorded some of its worst financial results on record. Providers are operating inside a new regulatory identity and a structurally tighter margin, often with marketing materials built for a different era. Has your residential aged care marketing kept pace?
Occupancy
More than 60% of residential aged care homes are now operating at a loss, according to StewartBrown's survey for the six months to 31 December 2025, with the average home recording an operating loss of $9.80 per bed per day. In that environment, occupancy and pricing confidence are inseparable. The organisations holding their pricing aren't the ones discounting hardest, they're the ones who can clearly explain why they're worth choosing. That's the exact pattern behind one of my published case studies, where repositioning gave an aged care provider the confidence to hold higher accommodation pricing rather than compete on price.
Source: StewartBrown Aged Care Financial Performance Survey, December 2025.
Enquiries and family decision-making
Families increasingly research before they call, comparing Star Ratings, reading reviews and forming an impression of a handful of homes before making contact. Star Ratings tightened further from 1 October 2025: homes now need to meet both their registered nurse and total care minute targets to hold a Staffing rating of three stars or more. A home with genuinely strong staffing has a stronger story to tell than it did a year ago, if that story is being told clearly in the materials a family actually sees.
Source: Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Star Ratings for residential aged care.
Reputation
Trust in residential aged care is still recovering from the Royal Commission, and the standard response, generic claims about person-centred care and quality outcomes, has become background noise. Every provider says it. The organisations that build genuine reputation are specific about what makes them different, and let families and referrers verify it rather than just asserting it.
Referrer relationships
Hospital discharge planners, GPs and aged care assessors influence where a meaningful share of residents end up, often before a family has done any research of their own. Most residential aged care marketing is built entirely around direct consumer acquisition and treats this referral channel as a relationship management task rather than a marketing one. It's both.
Workforce attraction
Australia is facing a shortfall of at least 110,000 direct aged care workers by 2036, growing past 400,000 by 2050, according to CEDA's analysis of the sector. The median direct care worker is 48, and around 23% are aged 55 or over and approaching retirement. Recruitment marketing in aged care is no longer a function sitting apart from your brand. It directly affects whether you can hit your care minute targets, hold your Star Rating, and tell families a credible staffing story. The organisations getting ahead of this are treating employer brand with the same strategic seriousness as consumer brand.
Sources: CEDA, Duty of Care: Meeting the Aged Care Workforce Challenge; AIHW, GEN Aged Care Data.
Residential aged care has changed. Has your positioning kept pace?
Many providers are still communicating as though the sector hasn't fundamentally shifted. Yet families, referrers, workforce candidates and regulators are evaluating organisations through a very different lens than they were even a few years ago.
If you're experiencing pressure on occupancy, reputation, referrals or workforce attraction, start with the Marketing and Growth Diagnostic.