A Simple Guide for Marketing to Baby Boomers

In our guide to generational marketing, we touch on how to create marketing and branding messaging that resonates with different age cohorts. In this post, we will take a deeper dive into an age group that values a strong work ethic, witnessed the civil rights movement, fought in and protested the Vietnam war, and has a large disposable budget they just love to spend.

Born after the end of World War II, the Baby Boomers are on Facebook and ready to connect with your brand online or over the phone!

Let’s get started with marketing to Baby Boomers.

Baby Boomers Have Bucks

While every generation has money to spend, the Baby Boomer market is especially lucrative, with members of this cohort not only having significant disposable income available, but also being more than willing to part with it – especially for large big-ticket purchases.

That is, of course, if your brand successfully connects with their ideals.

Understanding Baby Boomers’ Digital Habits

Before we get into breaking down messaging strategy for reaching Baby Boomers, we should first cover their digital habits and how their interaction with the internet and technology differs compared to younger generations.

• Heavy reliance on search engines – Whereas younger cohorts are more likely to search for new information within their favorite social media platforms, Baby Boomers mostly stick to Google, Bing or other search engines when initiating any sort of research, product or otherwise.
• It’s all about the laptop – While Baby Boomers are most definitely on mobile, they tend to open up their laptop when it is time to go shopping. This choice may reflect comfort with the traditional computing devices they’ve used during their working years, or be as simple as preferring the bigger screen. 
• Facebook reigns supreme for social – No surprises here. Facebook is the platform for reaching Baby Boomers, whether it be via paid advertising, organic content, or driving traffic off-platform to your blog. 

What does this mean?

If Baby Boomers are heading to search engines to find products and services, investing in on-site SEO can fast-track new traffic to your website. In addition to working hard to rank for general keywords associated with your product or company, try to include keywords that specifically target Baby Boomer ideals as relate to your brand.

While Baby Boomers who are still in the workforce can absolutely be found on LinkedIn, Facebook is still your best bet for all but professional services targeting people in the heart of their careers.

And because this generation makes final purchases on larger screens, don’t forget to optimize the user interface and user experience for desktop, too – even if mobile responsiveness is 100% a must.

Let’s Go Blogging

Baby Boomers are readers and unafraid to consume long-form content when the subject matter resonates with their needs, ideals, or life experiences. Using the written word to get your message across is a powerful method for reaching this age bracket, and investing in blog content offers several benefits compared to social media or paid advertising:

• Blog content permanently lives on your page, boosting SEO and providing benefits in perpetuity
• Quality blogs can be linked to from social media or email newsletters to recycle and reuse great content
• Long-form content establishes your brand as an expert in your field, something Baby Boomers value highly in the companies they give their money to

Messaging That Matters

Crafting marketing messaging that connects with Baby Boomers is all about recreating the old school customer service experience that once was king in Main Street America. No matter what the platform, try to imagine how a small town hardware store owner would interact with a customer in the 1970s and you’ll be half way there. And it’s not so much about the words you use or the way you speak, but more so, how well you communicate this one simple fact: If you do business with us, we’ll take care of you.

You must position your customer service as superior, or you will lose this generation.

Focus on Product Value

Baby Boomers are old enough to remember the times before disposable consumerism was a thing. Back in the “good old days” products were better made and lasted forever. 

Whether these ideas are true or not is irrelevant. Baby Boomers’ life experience is that investing in quality matters. This means they are less likely to make purchasing decisions based on price alone, but instead focus on product value.

When marketing your goods and services, choose high-quality products and position them as being reliable, long-lasting, durable, strong, etc. 

Trust is Everything

To Baby Boomers, information is only as reliable as the source it comes from. Honesty is always going to be the best policy for this cohort, so keep messaging clear, concise, relevant, and above all else, truthful.

It is vital that you never lie, or even bend the truth, when marketing to Baby Boomers. They won’t forget.

10 Quick-Hitting Tips

Need a cheat sheet to up your Baby Boomer marketing game? Here goes:

• Don’t use slang, keep things simple
• Cut the fluff, provide useful information
• Create video content that can be watched without sound. No, Baby Boomers aren’t deaf 🙂 but this is how most prefer to watch videos on their phone
• Avoid any language referring to “old”, “elderly”, etc., this should be a no-brainer but selling products associated with aging can sometimes be tricky
• Use big fonts and big buttons
• Link to company policies and disclaimers; yes, they will read this stuff and feel more confident buying after they do
• Always offer phone support–or at least email at a bare minimum
• Use short, easy-to-understand bullet points
• Stick to benefit-based messaging
• Be patient–Baby Boomers take longer to buy but spend more money when they do

Need Help Marketing to Baby Boomers?

Our talented team is here to help. Whether your brand applies to Baby Boomers alone or multiple generations, we can create a campaign to reach and connect with all relevant age groups.

To get started, contact us to schedule a consultation.