Just like every other process, marketing has its own rule of thumb. That being said, this might sound simple, but it is hard to execute. The first rule is to take your time and understand the groups of people you’ll be marketing to. It is the first rule to do a lot of things. This is the prerequisite of how to market products and services to millennials and baby boomers.
Start by learning about your target audience, their interests, preferences, and age groups; in addition, behavior patterns and anything that makes them unique enable you to sell your products and services with a more personalized experience.
Creating consumer personas for potential customers must go beyond the standard profile of what you expect. You need real facts and figures to understand the consumer before you can convert them into customers.
For instance, you won’t find baby boomers buying a lot of childcare products. On the other hand, millennials will be at a stage where they are raising children and need those products.
What’s the Difference Between Millenials and Baby Boomers?
Before you start to market your products to millennials and baby boomers, it is important to understand who they are. So, millennials are people born between 1981 to 1996, and baby boomers are a bit older.
You might already be familiar with plenty of stereotypes around these generations. Now, only some are true, while others are more of a “banter” by the younger generations.
However, a stereotype regarding millennials being lazy and spending too much time on their phones and computers is true. Data reveals that millennials spend on average, 211 minutes per day on the internet. This only accounts for the time spent on their phones. An additional half an hour is spent on computers and laptops.
On the other hand, research reveals that baby boomers spend a lot of time, particularly on Facebook. This ratio has only doubled in less than a decade.
How to Market Products to Millenials
Selling to millennials is slightly trickier than one might assume. To clarify, this generation grew up with countless advertisements thrown at them left and right. It is quite rare to have a millennial click your ad unless it's extraordinarily engaging.
Therefore, you want to get in touch with their emotions and make them feel some deep-down buried memory or emotion that they can resonate with.
Consider the following three crucial factors when you try to market your products to millennials.
1. Offer Help
Millennials are quite different from the current generations. They are swayed by value and help over the most brilliant sale pitches you can come up with. If you want to sell to a millennial, you’ll need to cut out the flashy things and address their pain points right away.
2. Be Honest
According to a recent study, millennial consumers have exhibited far greater loyalty to the brands they buy from, so long as the company remains honest with them.
In other words, even if your product is not as superior as your competitors, millennials will always prefer you over them if you build trust through transparency.
3. Make Visually Appealing Ads
As aforementioned, millennials have their eyes buried in their phones most of the time. Therefore, you must stay aware of this and understand they have seen a lot when making your commercials. Ensure that it is visually appealing and entertaining.
Video advertisements are the key to a millennial’s heart and convert them into your dear buyers. There is enough research to back up the fact that millennials connect and engage more with the brand that posts appealing videos/advertisements.
How to Market Products to Baby Boomers?
Baby boomers are not as tech-savvy as millennials. Therefore, the way you can market products to them is through personalized buying experiences. They will prioritize whatever is easy for them.
The best way you can target baby boomers is through offline advertisements. Boomers like to visit their local shops instead of going online to buy something. Therefore, you’ll need to start with the local baby boomers.
Now, you are equipped with fundamentals and basic knowledge of baby boomers and millennials. Here are the three factors to consider before marketing to baby boomers.
1. Start Local, Start Offline
Baby boomers cherish physical interaction over virtual ones. That means your sales will depend on the physical advertisement and customer service in stores. If your products are for baby boomers, go offline and advertise locally.
2. Be a Better Listener
This is a bit similar to millennials. With baby boomers, you need to show that you care and are paying attention. Address all their pain points with practical solutions. Baby boomers commonly talk about their positive purchase experiences, and word of mouth is a powerful marketing method.
3. Facebook is Your Friend
As aforementioned, Facebook is commonly used by baby boomers as it is one of the few social media channels they can navigate through. Make personalized ads and commercials that specifically speak to baby boomers.
Final Thoughts
Learning how to market products to millennials and baby boomers is a matter of studying both generations. You will only come to realize that both are entirely different and have differing preferences. The only common aspect they have is addressing their pain points.
With these two generations, you might want to skip the flashy sale pitches and cut right to the chase. They don’t care about ads and promises, they search only for a quick fix for their pain points. So long as you can address them and provide them with working solutions. You will have yourself long-term loyal customers.
