According to AARP, for the next 13 to 14 years, baby boomers will be turning 65 at a rate of 10,000 per day. This means that a lot of people are retiring. Your job is to make them your customer. But, how?
Turning A Corner On Your Marketing
Seniors don’t always feel their chronological age. According to Southern Methodist University, marketing to seniors based on “feel age” rather than actual age yields superior results. In other words, gear your marketing to more active seniors.
Seniors who aren’t active likely aren’t living the lifestyle that’s conducive to being sold. They likely have little money to spend, and they’re not likely to buy new products or learn something new. Translation: no sales for you.
Free Giveaways
Seniors still love freebies. One of the perks of getting older is that society tends to treat you differently. You get discounts at coffee shops. You get free gifts just for being old. This is a trend that isn’t likely to change. When you want to sell seniors, consider custom playing cards as a good freebie. Many active seniors join card game groups, so this is a great way to get your brand in front of more than one person.
Staying Organized
One of the ways seniors and boomers stay active is with the right medical care. This means medications to combat arthritis, hormonal changes, and high blood pressure. Seniors who are “young at heart” want to do things that their bodies often can’t do – at least not without some help.
Don’t treat them as “old.” You’ll lose the sale. Instead, promote products that position your business as a company that helps them overcome known problems so that they can get back to doing what they really want to do – live.
Focus On Lifestyle, Not Finances
Seniors are driven by lifestyle choices. When a person retires, they are often thought to be restricted by a fixed income. But, while many seniors do often complain about living on a limited income, they also do more traveling and live more active lifestyles than most people half their age.
Of course, you can’t totally ignore pricing. Seniors still want a good deal. But, they’re also willing to pay for value. Offer it to them.
Focus On Easy Solutions
Seniors want easy solutions to problems. Many of them are busy people, despite having a lot of free or “discretionary” time. They learn to fill that time up, stay active, and thus they don’t have the time or patience for marketing gimmicks and complicated solutions.
When you show them how a product solves their problem, price is less of an issue.
Educate
Educate your audience. Seniors love to learn. Learning means growing, and that’s a way to slow down the mental aging process.
Seniors want to be independent – they want to understand things and not rely on someone else to do things for them. So, incorporate an educational element into your marketing, while still making it easy to understand.
Increase Font Sizes
One of the things that most marketers forget is that people over the age of 40 often develop a condition called “presbyopia.” This is an age-related form of far-sightedness and it makes it harder to read.
If your web and print fonts are in smaller type, it’s super-hard for seniors to read. Increase the font size. If your message doesn’t get read, you don’t make any sales.
Darrell Gonzalez is an experienced marketing executive. He imparts his views and advice online as well as providing mentoring for those looking to make their mark in marketing. He has written a number of different articles for business advice and related websites.
