Monday, September 7, 2015

Grandparents Day 2015 is Sunday, September 13. With nearly 80 million baby boomers currently living in the United States¬—most of them grandparents—companies that fail to target this demographic are missing out.

The “grandparent generation” currently enjoys a financial stability that younger generations do not, having weathered the recent recession more smoothly. This group also tends to be more generous with what they have; in a recent poll, 72 percent of boomer grandparents stated that being a grandparent was the most important and satisfying part of their lives, and that they enjoyed spending their disposable income on their children and grandchildren.

If your marketing has turned digital, you might be losing the attention of this grand-parenting, grand-giving generation—but you don’t have to. Here’s how to target your digital marketing efforts so the right message reaches each audience:

Reaching the Baby Boomers On Screen

The old stereotype of grandma or grandpa being confused by technology is dead. Today’s “grandparent generation” grew up with televisions in the household and weathered rapid technological changes in the workplace, all the way from punch-card computer programming to tablets and smartphones.

Today, baby boomers still watch a great deal of television, and they also spend considerable time online—in fact, 35 percent spend 19 or more hours a week online, according to a recent DMN3 poll. More than 90 percent spend this online time using search engines, checking email, or shopping online.

Reaching the grandparent generation via screen is easy, if you know which screens to use. Studies show that the three most effective channels for reaching baby boomers are television, search engine advertising, and email marketing.

Go Mobile – For Younger Audiences

The recent push toward mobile advertising has prompted some companies to put all their eggs in this basket, doubling or tripling their efforts on creating mobile-friendly websites, mobile apps, and SMS messaging that targets various audiences.

While mobile is certainly the wave of the future, it also belongs to the younger generations. Baby boomers are less likely than their Generation X or millennial counterparts to use mobile, and they are even less likely to take kindly to text-message reminders or push notifications, according to a study by MilwardBrown Digital.

Because boomers spend most of their time on laptop or desktop computers, marketing in these media is crucial. And no method appears to be more effective for these users than search engine marketing, according to DMN3.

Meanwhile, MilwardBrown’s research shows that Gen X shoppers are the most likely of the three generations to be found on a tablet, while millennials are inseparable from their smartphones. And the younger the generation, the less likely it is to spend time in front of the television. MilwardBrown estimates that 91 percent of Boomers enjoy their TV time, while only 86 percent of Gen-Xers and 77 percent of Millennials watch television.

If your digital marketing needs some fine-tuning, don’t hesitate to contact a marketing expert who can help you reach the audiences that matter most.