1. Design tips for making your website senior-friendly
Seniors have specific ways that they like to receive information that is usually different from millennials. If your audience consists of older people, then you need to ensure that you organize your site correctly.
* Use Shorter Sections – Seniors want to find the information they need without a lot of clicking around. Use shorter sections and make it clear how to get to the next section with directional cues and images.
* Put Important Info Up Front – Older people aren’t going to search around for the information that you want to give them. If it’s not up front and first, they may not ever see it.
* Use Consistent Navigation – Show your audience immediately how your website is designed and how navigation works on your website. If you make it clear how it is organized right away, they’ll be less likely to click away because they’ll understand how it works. Keep the navigation the same on every page of your site for consistency.
* Make Opening and Closing One Click/Tap – This is very important because a lot of seniors don’t have quick reflexes and need it to be simple to click through. Make it one click or one tap to do things and provide instructions.
* Keep Website Visually Clean – White space is very important to make it easier for seniors to read the content on your website. Remember the refrain, “less is more” when it comes to designing the pages of your website.
* Use Larger Buttons – This is very important for touch screens, because some elderly people have shaky hands and it will be easier for them to tap and find larger buttons that have good descriptions of what they do if you tap them.
* Use Larger Body Text That’s Adjustable – Try to use at least 16-point font as your standard font for sites designed for older people, and make the font easily adjustable. While it’s true that most computers and tablets enable you to adjust these things yourself, many seniors won’t take the time or don’t know how, so if you can provide instructions that will be helpful too.
* Use Colors That Are High Contrast – As people age their eyesight changes, and it’s harder to see certain colors. If you use high contrast colors such as black text on white background, and fewer colors, it will look better to them and look great to everyone else too.
* Provide Text Transcripts of Multimedia Content – While using a lot of different types of media is a good thing for the content on your website since people learn in different ways, always provide a transcript in text of all multimedia content for your non-hearing audience members.
Of course, all your websites should be responsive. They should work seamlessly on any device. Consider which device your audience most likely uses and optimize for that device to ensure that the seniors using your website can get the information they need easily.
Next time we’ll look at some common mistakes you’ll want to avoid when marketing to seniors.
2. 9 common mistakes when marketing to seniors
It’s imperative that you pay attention to how different your audience may be compared to other audiences. Part of it has to do with familiarity with technology, but other aspects simply have to do with getting older and having certain expectations for how content should be delivered.
1. Not Using Old Media – Newspapers and magazines are still well-loved and read by boomers and seniors. They still like the feeling of the paper in their hands. While they are transitioning to tablets and digital media, they still have the highest subscription rates to newspapers and magazines.
2. Not Getting Published in Senior-Focused Media – Certain media such as AARP are focused on their senior audience. If you’re serious about marketing to seniors, you should be focusing on these types of publications too.
3. Not Considering Authorship – Just like many seniors like to hold a paper or magazine in their hand, they also like books. There is a high respect for authors among boomers and seniors that is even greater than younger audiences. If you go the publishing route to express subject matter authority, be sure to publish a paper book in addition to a digital book.
4. Not Considering Coupon Mailers – The audience that uses and looks through those coupon mailers are mostly seniors. They love them. If your audience is seniors, you should highly consider running a test with coupon mailers.
5. Not Using Facebook – Don’t assume that just because your senior audience likes paper that they don’t also use social media. A lot of grandmas are on Facebook because they like watching their grown children and grandchildren’s lives unfold before them. That means they’re right there where you can market to them.
6. Not Advertising on Cable TV – Your senior audience likes to watch TV. If you can afford to run an advertisement on late-night TV cable channels that your audience watches, you can rake it in. Because many seniors sleep less and watch TV more, they’re almost a captive audience.
7. Not Using Sponsorships of Senior Focused Events – What do seniors like to do where you live? Do they play bingo? Do they hang out at the senior center learning to paint? Do they like to take courses at the Lifetime Learning Center in your area? What events do these places have that you can sponsor? Sponsorship of live events is a great way to get your brand made aware to seniors.
8. Not Marketing on Radio – Many seniors love to listen to the radio, especially talk radio. They like listening and even calling in. Find out which shows your audience listens to and buy spots on those shows. You can even appear on the radio show to be interviewed about your product or service.
9. Not Using Church Functions in Marketing – Over 60 percent of seniors go to church each week. Churches like to do things for their members and if you can help them out by sponsoring programs and events, you’ll make a name for yourself among the members.
These are all advertising and marketing ideas that your senior audience may respond to. The best way to find out is to test your market with some well-placed advertisements and content in the spaces where seniors are already.
3. 7 content marketing tips for attracting seniors
First, understand what senior marketing is. Today, most senior-focused publications and groups consider anyone over 50 to be in their market. When you consider that, your market for seniors is a lot larger than you may have thought.
And yes, you can use content marketing to get the word out to seniors. Use these tips to ensure that your content marketing attracts seniors.
1. Don’t BS Them – Seniors are a lot savvier than some people give them credit for. Think about it; seniors have been marketed to their entire lives. They know tricks when they see them and aren’t easily fooled, despite what you may have heard.
2. Use Video – Seniors do watch video but the key here is to make them short, to the point, and include closed captions so that if there are issues with hearing they can understand what is being said on the video.
3. Blog – You can still blog for seniors. Seniors do read blogs but they may not search for them in the same way, so promoting on social media, via email marketing, and even ensuring that you’re published in magazines will make it more likely that you’re found.
4. Use Word of Mouth – One way to get content to your senior audience is to ensure that you ask anyone who reads your content to share it with their friends. Seniors trust word of mouth more than slick advertising, because they know and trust their friends.
5. Know Your Audience – Every senior audience is not the same. It’s imperative that you don’t treat them that way. For example, if your senior market is retired computer programmers they obviously understand more about technology than if your senior market consists of quilters.
6. Use Direct Mail Content – Content marketing isn’t just for the internet. In fact, content marketing was around long before the internet. Therefore, since seniors usually really like direct mail that they can hold and look at, your audience may respond very well to direct mail.
7. Get Published in Print – Don’t focus all your content online. Submit articles to print magazines and senior-focused newsletters. Many magazines and newsletters will pay you for your content, but in some cases, you may have to pay to publish your content as if it’s an advertorial.
If you really want seniors to respond to you, present content to them where they are. Make it easy for them to find, to act on, and to use. Plus, promote any content that you create as well as you would promote the actual products and services you create.
4. Tips for marketing to senior men
If your audience is senior men, you’ll need to adjust your marketing methods to appeal to them. The first thing you need to do is study your audience so that you know what they spend their time doing. What are their hopes and dreams?
Contrary to some beliefs, seniors aren’t finished having dreams. In fact, many of them are just starting to live the life they want to live. Plus, despite the news media’s dim view of seniors, they’re the ones with most of the money to spend.
* Study Your Audience – While you can use statistics about seniors to help you with your marketing, the best course of action is to study your own audience.
* Know Their Fears – What does your audience fear the most? What will make them feel as if they’re missing out on something? How can you address and alleviate their fears?
* Know Their Dreams – As you study your audience, narrow everyone down until you know what most of your audience dreams about.
* Know Where They Hang Out – A great way to find out about your audience is to find out where they’re hanging out and then hang out there too. Be a fly on the wall at first to learn about them, then join in.
* Be Seen Where They Are – A great way to gain credibility with your audience is to hang out where they hang out. Whether it’s the gym, church, the race track or the bingo hall doesn’t matter. What matters is that you are where they are.
* Use the Right Images – Don’t condescend to your senior male audience by putting up the wrong type of images based on a stereotype. Seniors don’t like being played and are a lot smarter than that.
* Provide a Lot of Information – Senior men usually like a lot of information about subjects they care about. They like it delivered in many ways including text, images, print, and audio. Back up the information with sources and facts to make it even more impressive.
* Know How You Can Enhance Their Lives – It’s also important to know how you improve their lives and solve their problems enough that you can speak intelligently about why you do it, how you do it, and with whom.
* Use Lots of Testimonials – Senior men (like most of the population) also like proof through testimonials. But, you need to find testimonials from the types of people that they respect, and the only way to know that is to get to know them.
* Give Free or Low-Cost Trials – Senior men love to try things out for themselves before making a commitment. That is one thing you can do easily depending on what you’re offering. You can offer a big discount on those parts you’re selling, or you can offer a free 7-day membership to your site devoted to the topic they love, and so forth.
Marketing to senior men is really the same as marketing to anyone. Get to know who they are, where they are, and what they want, and then educate them using content and information marketing that fits where they are in their decision-making process and lives.
5. Tips for marketing to senior women
Women over 50 comprise a lot of different audiences. Therefore, you’ll need to identify your audience to properly market to them. Stats that you can find about senior women may or may not apply to your niche audience, and you won’t know whether that’s true or not unless you study your own audience.
* Know Their Values – What values do your subset of the senior women market have? You can’t assume that all boomer women care about the exact same thing; however, overall you can guess that they’re concerned about retirement, midlife health issues, grandchildren, and older or adult children.
* Create and Share Experiences – Women of a certain age value experiences. They like to listen to other people’s experiences and relate best to women in their own demographic when it comes to talking about almost any topic. If you can create an experience for them that they can talk about and share, plus share other women’s stories, you’ll be able to connect with them on a whole new level.
* Remember, Women Live Longer – Stats show that women tend to live longer than men, so there are a lot of widows out there to market to. If they fit into your audience in some way, you can create a persona of the widow within your niche, and market to her as a sub-niche.
* It’s the Prime of Her Life – Older women aren’t invalids for the most part. In fact, once a woman reaches 50 she may live the next 25 years as a healthier, happier, version of herself who is confident and ready for what the future brings her. Market to that woman and you’ll create a vibrant community of powerful women.
* The Self-Confident Woman – Women older than 50 are usually a lot more confident than women in their 20s, even though media often portrays the opposite. It’s just smoke and mirrors, because inside younger women are over-worrying about silly things like stretch marks or a stray gray hair.
* Boomer Women as Game Changers – Women that are over 50 can be seriously confident about their lives. They know that they have control over themselves and their own futures. They respond well to powerful images of women who know what they want and how to get it.
* Avoid Stereotypes – The worst thing you can do when marketing to older women is to fall into a stereotype trap of the insomniac watching the home shopping network while wearing her poise pads. This is a depressing image that isn’t accurate of older women and should be avoided at all costs, even if you sell poise pads.
Like most marketing, you need to know who your audience is, where they hang out, and what their hope, dreams, and fears are. The senior woman’s market isn’t comprised of all the same woman. Their values and interests are more important than their age, although their age also informs a lot of their values and interests.
6. Tips for marketing to grandparents
When marketing to grandparents, the best thing you can do is focus on what grandparents like – their grandchildren. And, grandparents love spoiling their grandchildren more than doing almost anything else in life.
* Understand Their Point of View – Grandparents are very perceptive and have seen it and heard it all in their lives. They’re not as trusting about information as their younger counterparts, and need more proof that a claim is real. They’re very sensitive to false information designed to sway them. Therefore, try to filter all information through your audience’s point of view.
* They’re More Mellow – Most people naturally become more mellow with age and this is especially true of grandparents who get to spend time with their grandchildren. Parents the world over will try to convince their children that grandma and grandpa were strict when they grew up, but the children just can’t see it because the grandparents’ life experiences have made them more mellow and less judgmental.
* They’re More Spontaneous – Grandparents feel a sense of awe when they’re with their grandchildren. They appreciate more than parents how fast childhood goes by. So, when their grandkids want to run around outside and blow bubbles, grandparents are ready to do it because they know for sure that this is more important than going to bed at a certain time or sweeping the floor.
* They’re More Outwardly Focused – In their youth many grandparents were just like other youthful people and very self-centered. But, now that they’ve crossed the hill and are on the other side, they realize how important it is to leave behind a better world than they had to their children and grandkids.
* They Spend a Lot on Grandkids – Grandparents spend more than 50 billion a year on their grandchildren. When you put that into perspective and your audience is grandparents, if you can frame any purchase with how it helps grandchildren, you’ll be able to persuade them to buy faster.
* They’re Not All Seniors – One thing to remember is that grandparents come in many ages. There are 40-year-old grandparents and 70-year-old grandparents. Therefore, when you focus on marketing to grandparents, you shouldn’t always assume the gray-haired older lady in a bun as the image of grandma.
* Many Industries Can Market to Grandparents – Whether you’re in the toy sector or the financial sector, there are many industries that can and should market specifically to grandparents. Think toys, travel, consumer goods, financial services, automotive, sports, apparel, entertainment and more.
* Know the Right Marketing Channels to Use – Today grandparents use a lot of different platforms so you can safely market to grandparents using email, blogging, video, digital magazines, and other content. These all work well, and so does television, radio, print magazines and offline marketing.
* Grandparents Are More Deal Focused – Grandparents aren’t as brand loyal as some markets. This is because they have lived a lifetime and know that often less expensive versions offer the same quality. So if you focus on providing quality to them, it makes a huge difference. Speak directly to them as grandparents.
* Customize Your Ads – When marketing directly to grandparents, it’s imperative that you customize and direct your ads and messages to them and not just change the images and use the same copy. Be very specific about who you’re targeting.
When marketing to grandparents, remember that they’re not all seniors. Many grandparents are young and even youthful. Market to them based on their standing as grandparents using the values your audience cares most about, and you’ll be successful.
7. Tips for marketing to wealthy seniors
Over one-third of the buying public today is over 50, and more than 75 percent of the wealth is in the hands of these people. This means that it is a huge market for you to attack – as long as you know what you’re doing, because this subset of the senior market is wise to the tricks of the trade and won’t fall for hype and hyperbole.
* No Stereotypes – In your marketing materials, avoid stereotypes like the plague. You want to use images of the types of seniors you’re marketing to, but use images based on how they see themselves.
* Technology Is Good – Don’t avoid technology. Most boomers and successful seniors either know how to use most technology or have assistants who do it for them. They will get messages via tech if you place them in their line of vision.
* Use Multimedia Experiences – While you do want to use tech, you also want to use old media. Seniors still love reading magazines, newspapers, and listen to the radio and watch cable TV. This could change as younger people become seniors but as of today, a multimedia approach is best.
* Focus on Benefits – It’s very tempting to talk about the features of your product or services but they don’t care about that. Like most markets, they care about what the service or product does for them. What are the benefits? Does it make them more money? Does it save them time? Does it get rid of heartburn so they can eat more?
* Provide the Information – Seniors who have money like to read information before making a buying decision. Provide white papers, infographics, charts, graphs and any type of information you can to educate your audience on the benefits of your product or service, as well as the problem you’re solving.
* Be Empathetic – Some seniors took a big hit during the financial downturn of the economy in 2008. They may still be technically rich and wealthy but due to the situation, they’re a lot less trusting. If you show empathy to them for their losses and celebrate gains, you’ll be a lot more trustworthy.
* Remember Humor – Wealthy seniors, like most human beings, like some humor in their advertising. They like to make fun of themselves and others. But not in a cruel way. It’s important to maintain a sense of decorum.
* Focus on the Stages of Life – Today seniors are a lot healthier, smarter, and more with modernism than the elderly of the past. They’ve grown with technology, and become more progressive in their ideas and values than you might think. It’s imperative to study your audience before making assumptions.
* Be Relevant – With more than two trillion dollars in spending power, this demographic demands that advertising and marketing be more relevant to them and their needs. Even if you also have a younger audience, create marketing materials just for your older wealthy audience.
If you take these tips and apply them to your audience within your niche, you’ll start getting more results from your senior wealthy audience.
8. Tips for marketing to new retirees
New retirees are largely an untapped market. Most people focus their marketing on younger people and forget about retirees. But every single day about 10,000 people join the ranks of retirees. If you really want to unlock the potential of this market, consider the following tips.
* Focus on Value – What value do you bring to the table for your audience? Find ways to show your audience that value through the content and information that you provide. Share your personal story and your why with them, so that they know you have their best interest at heart.
* Study Your Market – There are subgroups within the retiree market, so it’s important to know which group you’re marketing to. Is your retiree on a fixed income, do they have money to spare, are they in a senior living community, or something else? Understanding the exact niche your market fills is imperative for messaging.
* Identify Your Segment – Your segment isn’t “all new retirees”. As mentioned above, you need to niche down that market to identify the exact subgroup or niche that the retirees you want to get your message to belong to.
* Create Your Message – Based on the information you discover, focus your message on the value you bring to the table, and the benefits of your product or service. Then work on crafting the message toward your niche audience in a way that they understand, in many formats.
* Polish Your Message – It’s not enough to focus only on your value. You also need to know how to message directly to the specific group you’re targeting. Sure, it’s retirees. But as mentioned above, which group does your audience belong in and how can you best approach them with your information?
* Test Your Messages – The only way to know if you’re doing the right thing is to test each message that you send. Survey your audience, watch social media discussions, conduct interviews of happy customers and even angry customers so that you can improve your message even more.
* Keep Going – As you perfect your message, you’ll start to see results. Now is the time that you want to maintain consistency and build rapport with your audience, in such a way that you can build relationships that last long enough for them to trust you enough to spend money with you.
Remember, with this niche you can literally own the market, since most seniors don’t feel as if the market is reaching them in a manner sufficient for them. As long as you can offer value to your audience in a manner that provides the benefits that they need, you’ll be a winner.
Whilst seniors are a lot more tech-savvy these days, there are still some who never use computers.
9. Tips for marketing to seniors who never use computers
Even in these modern times, there are seniors who don’t use technology. That doesn’t mean you can’t and shouldn’t market to them. Advertising and marketing have been around a lot longer than technology, after all.
* TV – Find out which shows your audience likes to watch and the time that they’re watching. Then find out how to place an advertisement. If you work with a local station, you’ll have better luck getting your ad live than if you try to go through the cable provider.
* Sponsorships – Another way to get your name known is to sponsor nationwide and local events that seniors enjoy. For example, many older Americans enjoy being in their local “Friends of the Library” club or their gardening club. You can sponsor both national and local events to get your name known.
* Radio – Many seniors make it a daily habit of listening to the radio, especially talk radio. If you can get your advertisement on during prime listening time for seniors, you’ll get a good response, provided you create the spot with your audience in mind and focus on the benefits of what you offer to them.
* Magazines – Seniors still like reading paper magazines, as well as giving them as gifts to their family and friends. Focus on magazines that you know your niche audience reads as a place to put articles and ads for them to find.
* Direct Mail – Coupon packs and other mailers are great ways to market to seniors who don’t use computers. One thing to keep in mind when you create such ads for this audience is to direct your information toward them in a way that isn’t stereotypical but respects their way of doing things.
* Snail Mail Newsletters – A great way to market to an audience that isn’t using computers is to start a snail mail newsletter. In fact, you can even earn money with the newsletter by charging for a subscription, plus putting advertisements into the newsletter. Many industries still use snail mail newsletters with great results.
* Church – The church may seem like a strange place to market, and you don’t want to do it in a way that’s obvious. Instead, donate money in the business’s name, help people in the church, and get known for what you do by the way you help and add value to the community. Plus, hand out your business card. This is a very popular way for photographers to earn money. They offer free sittings with one free 5×7 to each family and then take orders from the congregants.
* Senior Centers – These centers are usually in every area and town in some form. They often allow people in to teach classes such as yoga, painting, and even computer classes. You can plan functions with the senior center and offer sponsorships for events to get the word out about your products and services.
* Live Events – Host live events in local areas about your products and services. For example, if you want to teach people to eat healthier you can go to senior centers, 55-plus communities, libraries, and even churches to host a free event to inform your audience about your offerings.
* Books – Publish short books about your topic directed toward and marketed toward your audience. If you can get your book published and printed, you can use the local library, bookstores, and other events to market your book and your products and services.
* Book Stores – Speaking of books, if you are a published author you can make bookstores a target of your marketing efforts for your audience who doesn’t use computers. Host readings, host workshops based on your books, and other presentations.
Just because a market isn’t on computers doesn’t mean you can’t reach them. You simply need to find out who they are, where they are, and what they want, and then deliver it to them in the method that works for them.
10. Tips for marketing to senior entrepreneurs
Marketing to entrepreneurs is a whole different ballgame than marketing to average citizens. Marketing to senior entrepreneurs is a special niche that can be very lucrative to break into. For example, you can offer services to mom-and-pop stores such as social media marketing.
It depends on your service or product which senior entrepreneurs are your market, but in general senior entrepreneurs are great to do business with. And, the biggest group of new entrepreneurs happens to be seniors as they seek ways to spend their time after retirement.
* Choose Your Niche – You’ve already picked your audience: senior entrepreneurs. But there is more to it than that. Now you need to decide which type of senior entrepreneurs you want to work with. Do you want to help seniors start online businesses, or do you want to provide services to seniors with bricks-and-mortar businesses?
* Find Out What They Need – Once you have chosen your subset of senior entrepreneurs to focus on, find out what they need. It’s a lot easier marketing products and services to a group of people when you’re handing them what they need.
* Create Products and Services That They Need – Once you know what they need, match their needs with your skills or the offerings you already have so that you can get into that senior market more easily.
* Know Where They Are and Be Where They Are – Study your audience to find out where they are. Do they get online? If so where? What medium do they use and like? If they’re not online, how can you reach them?
* Develop Marketing Materials Based on Research – How you market to your audience will depend on who they are. You can’t make assumptions about seniors. You must do the research and then create the types of materials that the audience needs to decide.
* Provide Plenty of Information – One thing that you can be sure about is that seniors are smarter than your average customer, especially if they’re entrepreneurs. They can smell BS a mile away. You need to provide the information in formats that they can access so that they make the choices you want them to make.
* Build Relationships – Something senior entrepreneurs appreciate is a good relationship built on mutual respect and trust. How you build the relationship will largely be determined by the type of senior entrepreneur they are. They are firm believers of the good old-fashioned handshake so if you can, talk to them on the phone, meet them in person, or somehow make yourself more available to them in real time.
Building a business based on B2B marketing to senior entrepreneurs will be very lucrative if you learn how to niche down your audience. The idea is to create an audience of one that you have in mind for every product, service, and marketing material that you create.
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