If you run a business, you know what it’s like to try to get the word out about your product. Did you know, though, that you may be wasting resources reaching out to the wrong age groups? Or to the right age groups but in the wrong way? Understanding age demographics can help you get the most bang for your advertising buck.
With the right insight and demographic data, you can spend your time and resources reaching out to your most enthusiastic clientele. Digital marketing experts like the team at InnoVision can help you get a lock on your marketing age demographics. Keep reading for more information about why age demographics matter so much.
Why Age?
Demographics are informational data available for nearly all population segments. Examples of demographic data are gender, race, ethnicity, occupation, annual income, location, and marital status—the list goes on and on. Age is only one of these factors, so why consider age such an important variable? The answer comes down to technology.
Different age groups tend to use digital spaces differently. When you use digital marketing, data on your clientele’s age will help you quickly target their preferred online media in the way that is most likely to speak to them.
How Age Can Affect Strategy
The largest segments of age stratification are generations. There are the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z (a.k.a. Zoomers). Below are some of the ways your marketing strategy can adapt to accommodate each age group:
Baby Boomer Generation
Contrary to popular belief, Boomers spend more time online than any other generation. By far, Facebook is their social media platform of choice, with Twitter in second place. If you want to reach people born between 1945 and 1964, Facebook is a great choice of platform for a digital marketing campaign.
The key here is to give your ads a clean, simple, and professional look. Brand loyalty and product quality are important to this cohort. You can let them know you’re reliable with a polished look and practiced approach.
Generation X
Gen Xers spend more time each week on social media than Millennials. Unlike Boomers, however, Gen Xers (1961–1981) came of age during the technical revolution. They’re more adept at social media and more willing to engage with different types of media than the Boomers. You’ll still find most of them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but they also spend more time on every type of device than Millennials do.
Consequently, Gen Xers may be more receptive to texting campaigns or push notifications associated with apps than either Boomers or Millennials.
Millennials
This generation overlaps somewhat with Gen X, with the broadest spectrum of age being the birth years between 1975 and 1995. Most Millennials, however, are in their late twenties to mid-thirties. This is a valuable target market, and as a result, Millennials are extremely used to being marketed to. Having been the focus of so much marketing, Millennials value a personal approach.
Brand values, an honest approach, and a one-on-one style of speaking to your customers work best for folks in this age group. Essentially, this generation has spent their whole lives adapting to new technologies. Brands that want to stand out to Millennials must adopt a strong digital strategy that includes mobile-optimized websites, multiple social media campaigns across many different platforms, and multimedia content.
Generation Z
Though still young, Zoomers are responsible for influencing $600 billion of family spending. Those born between 1995 and 2015 have never known a world without a rapidly expanding and changing set of digital options. They are adaptable and ready for change.
Zoomers use the most digital platforms of any age cohort, typically using five screens—smartphones, TVs, laptops, desktops, and tablets. Zoomers are used to flicking back and forth between media platforms to avoid advertising that interrupts streaming or entertainment media. Staying on top of new trends in the digital space and making your content entertaining are the best strategies for appealing to Gen Z.
Generational Segmentation Can Add Value
You can see how much digital strategy might change in order to capture the attention of a certain age group. You can probably also see that generational segmentation is broad and overlapping. While it can help you develop a refined digital marketing strategy, generational data can only go so far.
Gathering analytics on your existing online forums—who visits them and when—can help you narrow down and target more specific age segments. This will change your overall strategy as well. Older Boomers, for instance, tend to be turned off by discounts and coupons. They feel that a discounted product is of lower quality. Older Gen Xers are responsive to coupons while younger Gen Xers and older Millennials are more likely than other age groups to join loyalty reward programs.
When you work with a digital marketing professional, they’ll be able to provide you with a strategy to meet the preferences of the folks you’re selling to. They can also tell you which age groups are currently accessing your brand. It may not be the ones you think.
Grow your customer base and make sure every ad dollar counts by adjusting your digital marketing strategy for the age of your clientele. Digital expertise is crucial at a time when more people access shopping, media, news, entertainment, and even food through digital platforms than by any other route. Make sure you look for a digital media team with a keen knowledge of the digital landscape. They should be able to build a customized digital strategy based on your brand, your customer, and your budget. If you’re curious about what a digital marketing expert can do for you, contact InnoVision.
