Today was our final day of exhibiting. Tomorrow we spend the day at the Boomer Summit. As a marketing firm in this marketplace, three powerful themes resonated from this year's ASA event. I'll focus the two of those themes the next two blog posts. These themes include:
Let's first look at theme #1 - As a company selling to seniors you will fail if you rely only on traditional marketing. Three points I want to make here. First, you need to be allocating a significant part of your budget to non-traditional internet marketing - SEO, SEM, PPC, etc. A good model to follow is from our sister company HRmarketer - The Lead Generation model.
We were talking to one vendor who said his company didn't really need to worry about online marketing because their customers - the aging demographic - would rather hold a physical brochure in their hands and would be unlikely to go online to get information.
OK.
These were some statistics released last year by Pew Internet & American Life Project - they will only increase as Boomer's age.
Secondly, the messaging you used in your marketing last decade will not work with aging Boomers. Old people playing checkers and smiling will not sell your assisted living community. Many thought leaders have written about this topic including most notably David Wolfe in his book Ageless Marketing: Strategies for Reaching the Hearts and Minds of the New Customer Majority.
Finally, your marketing must account for the fact that most of the products and services relating to the care of an aging individual will not be purchased by the individual. As a result, you must also build brand awareness with numerous purchase "influencers" including the children of aging parents, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, care managers, in-home care companies, etc., etc. etc. This what our SeniorCareMarketer product is all about. Even employers and human resource departments may be involved.
My next blog post will focus on the second theme I took away from the ASA event - The concept of "retirement" is going through a transformation.
- As a company selling to seniors you will fail if you rely only on traditional marketing.
- The concept of "retirement" is going through a transformation.
Let's first look at theme #1 - As a company selling to seniors you will fail if you rely only on traditional marketing. Three points I want to make here. First, you need to be allocating a significant part of your budget to non-traditional internet marketing - SEO, SEM, PPC, etc. A good model to follow is from our sister company HRmarketer - The Lead Generation model.
We were talking to one vendor who said his company didn't really need to worry about online marketing because their customers - the aging demographic - would rather hold a physical brochure in their hands and would be unlikely to go online to get information.
OK.
These were some statistics released last year by Pew Internet & American Life Project - they will only increase as Boomer's age.
- 74 percent use the Internet
- 62 percent have broadband at home
- 72 percent use a cell phone
- 43 percent connect to the Internet wirelessly.
- 91 percent of boomers use search engines
- 78 percent search in health care
- 30 percent use online ratings
- 38 percent share video feeds
- 26 percent read blogs
- 17 percent share creations
- 16 percent have a social network profile
- 7 percent blog.
Secondly, the messaging you used in your marketing last decade will not work with aging Boomers. Old people playing checkers and smiling will not sell your assisted living community. Many thought leaders have written about this topic including most notably David Wolfe in his book Ageless Marketing: Strategies for Reaching the Hearts and Minds of the New Customer Majority.
Finally, your marketing must account for the fact that most of the products and services relating to the care of an aging individual will not be purchased by the individual. As a result, you must also build brand awareness with numerous purchase "influencers" including the children of aging parents, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, care managers, in-home care companies, etc., etc. etc. This what our SeniorCareMarketer product is all about. Even employers and human resource departments may be involved.
My next blog post will focus on the second theme I took away from the ASA event - The concept of "retirement" is going through a transformation.
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