Smart Marketing To Seniors Strategies To Help You Communicate With Older Generations

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By Margaret Wagner


America's population is aging, and savvy business owners have discovered that senior citizens have money to spend and are willing to do it if the circumstances are right. In many ways, they are interested in the same products as younger people, but have different reasons for it. In order to capture this growing market, you need to use good sense marketing to seniors strategies.

Some older citizens feel like the world has been invaded by aliens with all the emojis, sound bites, creative spelling, and online media feeds. If you want their business, you need to drop the jargon and speak a language they understand. Dramatic testimonies and trendy graphics aren't going to move them. What does succeed is straight talk and an honest dialog clearly stating what your service or product will do to make life easier for them.

Savvy marketers know that they will never sell a product by describing what is looks like or how it's made. You have to let the consumer know what the product will do for them and why they need it. This law is true whether you are targeting teenagers or septuagenarians. They may not be interested in the same product for the same reasons though.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make with senior citizens is to talk down to them. These are not kindergartners or mentally impaired individuals. Seniors have lived long lives and learned a lot. Many have been very successful in their careers. Nothing disgusts them more or makes them angrier than someone who is disrespectful or condescending. If you are going to market to this age group, you should implant this lesson squarely in your brain.

A lot of older citizens are very technologically savvy. They have smart phones, download apps, and are active on social media. Other seniors have no interest. When you want to appeal to both, you need to make technology an option, but not the only one. Burying vital information in fine print or requiring them to understand icons, will cause you to lose older, paying customers.

You might be tempted to drop your print advertising and concentrate on your website, believing everyone shops online these days. Seniors grew up when landlines and mail were the main forms of long distance communication. They still check books out of the library. Many look forward to seeing catalogs and brochures in their mailboxes, and enjoy the tactile nature of printed materials.

A lot of older people get frustrated and annoyed when they call to make a purchase or request information and keep getting automated responses. Some will hang up unless a real person answers the phone. Automation is great, but having a customer service department staffed by live, knowledgeable personnel can make all the difference with aging customers.

If you mistakenly assume senior citizens aren't active consumers, you are going to miss a big portion of the buying public. You will have to learn what motivates them to buy. You will also have to speak their language when you are trying to sell them your service.




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