Marketing to: Baby Boomers

Not to sound like a Baby Boomer right off the bat here, but it really does seem like everything – at least in terms of advertising – revolves around Millennials these days.

Why is that?

It doesn’t make sense from a monetary standpoint, especially when you realize Boomers control 70% of the disposable income in the country. It’s important for businesses to be able to communicate to this group if they want to take advantage of their immense amount of buying power.

In order to do this, marketers might have to “un-learn” some of the tactics they’ve been successfully employing to reach younger demographics like Gen X and Millennials.

First of all, forget mobile. While younger crowds love that they can shop via their phones and tablets, Boomers are more comfortable with their desktop computer.

They’re also much less likely to succumb to the allure of the “impulse buy”. They take their time, research products, and yes, they’ll actually read the fine print. This makes marketing difficult, because the usual gimmicks won’t work with this group.

Don’t bother with flash, bother with facts. They’ve done their research, and they want to know exactly why they should buy your product and not the next guy’s.

Another tip that might seem to go against everything we generally preach via this blog is coming your way, so get ready – video might not be the most effective communication tool here.

Boomers aren’t put off by text like their younger counterparts. While we encourage clean, to-the-point design and copy in most instances, we’re going to walk that back a little bit here.

Spell things out for them. You don’t need to worry about sounding “relatable” or using the most recent slang with this crowd. Just give them an honest pitch on why you’re worth their time, and they’ll listen.

It might seem like we’ve just told you to forget everything you ever learned about how to stay relevant in the marketing world, but remember – sometimes, you just have to listen to your elders.