Author: Neil Patel / Source: Quick Sprout There’s a lot of buzz about millennials today and how to market to them. Marketers often tell yo
There’s a lot of buzz about millennials today and how to market to them.
Marketers often tell you that to appeal to millennials, you need to get on Snapchat and other popular social channels.
You need to learn how to create a video that will go viral.
You need to make sure you’ve got enough of a balance of the ordinary and extraordinary in the messages you try to deliver.
You can’t forget to make remarks about making a real difference in the world.
While we, as marketers, can do all this and more, it can get exhausting!
Why are we crafting the majority of our messages to millennials when there are 74.9 million baby boomers out there who want to buy our products too?
We do this because the number of millennials has surpassed the number of baby boomers. There are 75.4 million millennials today (millennials are defined as those between the ages of 18 and 34). But the difference between millennials and baby boomers is small.
Marketing to millennials can feel crazed. It means high-energy, quickly-consumable, frenzied marketing because they have a “fear of missing out,” also known as FOMO.
Baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, also have a need to be informed, but they’re a little more patient about it.
It’s true that no company can focus on just one generation. You have to have a strategy appealing to everyone on some level, and that’s why targeting is so important.
Whenever I work with a company to define its customer, I focus on understanding its target market and then segmenting it.
Often, what I find is that a single product or service can be marketed to each of the three generational segments:
- Baby boomers – born between 1946-1964
- Generation X – born between 1965-1980
- Millennials – born between 1981-2000
The generation that often gets overlooked is that first one—baby boomers!
When it comes to the 50+ demographic, only 10% of marketing budgets are used to reach this generation.
Why is this the case? Why such low marketing expenditure on a generation which, as I’m about to show you, could be incredibly lucrative?
Some marketers think the boomer generation is boring. They’re not sexy. They’re aging. They’re set in their ways. They’re not tech-savvy. Why even bother?
This is a huge mistake! Boomers can be sexy; they’re not as old as you think; they’re not that set in their ways; and they’re incredibly tech savvy.
Why bother? Because the baby-boom generation is probably the hottest age-defined marketing segment you can tap into.
Baby boomers have money
Millennials may have surpassed boomers in numbers, but more than 70% of the disposable income in the US comes from baby boomers.
And here’s the thing. They actually spend it!
How much do they spend?
Try 3.2 trillion every year.
Yes. Trillion. With a “t.”
And that’s just the US.
If you want to know who will go through with that credit card purchase online, you should probably bet on baby boomers.
Let’s face it. Most millennials don’t have a lot of money.
Look at the generational breakdown. Who has the biggest net worth? And who has the biggest total income?
Answers: Boomers, and boomers.
It’s great to get millennials energized and excited, but at the end of the day, they don’t have the collective power to turn that energy into money for you.
Baby boomers are on social media, big time
A big misconception about baby boomers is that they are old and traditional so they don’t use social media.
In fact, half of people aged 50 to 64 are on social media, likely on more traditional and well-established platforms such as Facebook.
The bottom line is you don’t have to do all your marketing on Periscope…
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