So much for the myth that senior citizens don’t access the Internet. According to a recent Nielsen survey, 17.5 million Americans who are 65 and older got online last month.
And their activities online mirror general Internet usage trends. 10 million seniors used Google search, nearly 8 million logged on to Facebook and 7.6 million watched video on YouTube in November.
While seniors aren’t getting online at the same rate as younger generations—only 43 percent of all senior citizens use the Internet today—6 million more seniors are online today than there were in 2004. Small businesses need to take note that the last group to adopt the Internet is now doing so in droves.
It’s important for small business marketing to take into account the different subsets of people that are accessing their materials online. Just as small business owners are conscious of different ways of serving customers that enter their brick-and-mortar stores, they need to craft an online identity that connects with the 23-year old recent college graduate as well as it does the 68-year old recent retiree.
This takes a certain amount of flexibility, but simplicity almost always rules the day. Make your service or product offering crystal clear to visitors of your site, and don’t waste time and money attempting to create a “hip” new website. It may alienate some of your customers who are just learning how to navigate the Web.
Instead, be open and friendly in your greeting, and clear and concise in your marketing message. You know why your service is worth buying, so make your small business marketing reflect your expertise in a simple way that all of your users can relate to.
Small business marketing strategy has to evolve as its customers do. Are your marketing ideas up to date and relevant to all of your customers?
