Based on industry surveys and statistics, generational marketing is vital to your overall marketing strategy.
It is common sense that the marketing strategy, content and mediums or channels used to reach people in their 40s are completely different than the strategy, content, and channels used to reach teens.
As a website owner, you have to use brochures, newspaper ads, or other traditional means to reach those in the over 50 age range, but if you are trying to reach out to teens, you need more video content and social media platforms like Snapchat.
This is why it is important to divide your audience into different segments based on age, and then work on different marketing strategies for each segment. This is called generational marketing.
Is Generational Marketing Key to the Success of Your Marketing Campaign?
Yes, it is. In fact, ignoring generational marketing is often the prime reason why many website owners had to ask themselves at the end of their marketing campaign, “What exactly went wrong with my marketing campaign?”
Generational marketing is not only a great strategy, it is a necessity. It allows your business to focus more on each market segment, increase your competitiveness, allow you to improve communication with your customers, and help with customer retention. In the end, all this result in more profits.
If you are a business based in North America, the market here is segmented into six categories. These generations include:
- GI Generation: People born between 1901 and 1926.
- Mature/Silent: People born between 1927 and 1945.
- Baby Boomers: People born between 1946 and 1964.
- Generation X: People born between 1965 and 1980.
- Millenniums/Generation Y: People born between 1981 and 1999.
- Generation Z/Boomlets: People born after 2000.
All of the above generational segments have different preferences and require different generational marketing strategies to get their attention. You simply cannot use Snapchat to market your business to Baby Boomers or even Generation X. Can you?
Here is one example:
According to a survey conducted by Pew Research, only 34 percent of the people aged 65 or above use social media, but more than 86 percent of the people between 18 and 29 use social media.
What does this tell a website owner? If you want to reach out to those 29 and younger, you cannot ignore social media. In fact, social media is the prime channel to promote your marketing content for this segment.
Similarly, if your prime target audience is 50 and older, social media may not work here. According to survey results published in The New York Times, people aged 50 or more watch 50 hours of TV a week, but people between 25 and 34 watch only 26.5 hours of TV.
Different age groups, different preferred mediums.
Content Consumption Habits of Each Age Group Are Also Different
Age groups also have different content consumption habits as well. For example, baby boomers are easy to reach through online content marketing or digital media as they actively consume online and digital content. They prefer desktops over Smartphone and tablets and are more interested in global news and informational blogs.
Millennial or Generation Y, on the other hand, prefer Smartphones and tablets over desktops. Their attention span is much shorter than that of baby boomers, meaning they are more interested in brief content. Generation Z is more interested in video content and uses Smartphones more than any other age group.
The point of this article is – generational marketing is more important than you might think. There is simply too much of a difference between each generation’s content preference and habits to ignore.
For more in-depth information about each age group, their habits, and how to cater to their interests, check out the following infographic prepared by HandMadeWritings.
