When it comes to ecommerce marketing strategies, understanding your customers is a pre-requisite for growth. Despite that Baby Boomers make up a significant portion of online shoppers, many online stores focus all their strategies on Millenials, leaving older shoppers as an after-thought. Although some stores may sell products catering exclusively to a younger audience, many sell to a range of shoppers across various ages. The Baby Boomer market typically has more to spend, too, making this a very powerful segment.
Today, we are sharing some tips on how you can target your ecommerce marketing strategies to Baby Boomers. Keep reading to find out more.
Ecommerce Marketing Strategies to Target Baby Boomers
Before we get started, what exactly is the Baby Boomer generation and where to do they stand in the grander scheme of ecommerce? This generation includes those born between the end of World War 2 and the mid-1960s. Due to the large size of this market along with their financial stability arising from many years within the job and business sector, this generation is one of the most financially important. For ecommerce, this generation will often have a larger spending power compared to Millenials, many of whom have not been in the workforce for long periods of time.
When planning ecommerce marketing strategies, understanding how to market to Boomers is essential. Here are some tips to keep in mind.
Understand that not all Boomers are alike
One of the most important things to remember is that Boomers make up a very large group. Treating all Boomers the same is a huge mistake. Instead, make sure that you use strategies such as buyer personas so that you are able to target the potential customers who are most likely to purchase your products.
Casting a net that is too wide can end up making it far harder to target those who are more likely to become customers. Rather than targeting all Baby Boomers, determine which segment is the most likely to purchase or find out which segment is most likely to show interest in your products. From there, it will become far easier to identify the channels that have the best chance of reaching your target audience, and then create messages and campaigns that appeal specifically to this audience.
Another thing to be wary of is lumping all Boomers into a single category – especially where adoption of social media and other channels is concerned. Many marketers assume that anyone over a certain age avoids social media, while a large number of older shoppers actually make use of a wide range of online tools.
Plan your loyalty programme carefully
Loyalty programmes are an excellent tool for online shoppers across all age groups. In order to get the most from your loyalty programmes, make sure that they are simple to understand and that they offer genuine rewards with no hoops to jump through or complicated tiers that can easily get confusing. Gamification and similar ecommerce marketing strategies may work for younger aged shoppers but most older shoppers simply want a loyalty programme that offers real rewards.
If your online store targets Boomers as a primary market, plan a loyalty programme that works simply. For example, you could have a programme that allows customers to earn Rands on purchases, reviews and a few other basic actions. Using points or other complex systems can very quickly become confusing.
Take advantage of brand loyalty
Many shoppers within the Baby Boomer generation take brand loyalty very seriously. In fact, shoppers across all generations are far more likely to stay loyal to an online store that they genuinely know, like and trust.
When you have high-quality products, excellent customer service and an online store that is easy to use, customers will want to come back time and time again. Making changes to products, offering inconsistent customer service or making any other changes that result in customers being unsure whether they can continue to trust your brand can be deadly. This is also why it is important to put time and effort into customer retention.
Tone down the slang
While slang might work for younger generations, it seldom works for older shoppers. Generation-specific language is a very quick way to make many age groups feel uncomfortable while targeting just a single age group. If your core market is Millenials, this is not a bad thing. If you are aiming to include Boomers and even Generation X customers, think carefully about the language you use across your website, product pages, social media accounts and even your email marketing campaigns.
Another problem with slang is that it can all too easily be misinterpreted. Slang can easily lead to miscommunication and a lack of clarity. If language ends up being inadvertently offensive, you can end up putting your reputation in serious jeopardy, alienating your customers at the same time.
Instead of slang and other generation-specific wording, aim to keep your language clear and simple. Include bullet points, keep your focus on customer motivations and needs and maintain value-based messaging across all channels.
Offer useful information
Whatever the age of your audience, you need to provide information that is genuinely useful. Focusing on clear benefits is especially important when targeting Boomers, helping to aid the decision-making process significantly.
Make sure that you keep product descriptions simple and centred around key selling points and benefits. User headers and simple formatting to make pages easy to read, so that customers can easily view information. Long chunks of text are always distracting. Showing value is also always a good idea that helps your audience make informed decisions before making a purchase.
Use video wisely
If you are making use of video within your ecommerce marketing strategies, opt for slower videos that clearly explain concepts. Trendy viral-type ecommerce videos may work for younger generations but these seldom end up being effective for other generations. Essentially, you want to make messages and information as easy to understand as possible.
Some tips to get more from Facebook video include the following:
- A large number of Facebook videos are watched without sound. Captions are not an absolute requisite – they can definitely help, however. Adding captions will allow videos to be watched without any additional clicks.
- Eye-catching visuals, larger-sized wording and shorter, easy to scan sentences will further make videos easy to watch.
- Different video formats will resonate with different audiences. Testing and experimenting with various styles such as interviews, animation or slideshow formats, for example, is a good way to see what works for your specific audience.
- Shorter videos are usually the best option, even if Boomers will happily watch longer videos. Shorter, focused videos have the best chance of getting the message across more quickly and more easily.
Offer email and phone support
Live chat remains a popular choice of support for Generation X and Millenials. For Baby Boomers, speaking to a real person is often preferred. This usually comes down to using the channel that feels the most comfortable. Talking to a real person can often feel more comforting, without the risk of misunderstandings or confusion.
Ideally, the best way to provide a world-class customer service option is to offer multiple channels for customers to reach your customer care team. This should include phone, email and other channels such as live chat. Make sure that your phone number and email address are clearly displayed on your online store or look at adding a feature that allows people to call directly from the website.
Ecommerce Marketing Strategies for Boomers
Putting a bit of thought and planning into how you market to Baby Boomers is the most effective way to target this segment of your audience. This, in turn, will allow you to create ecommerce marketing strategies that are far more focused and far more likely to convert customers.
