How many of you know this following image: a savvy millennial attempting to help their parents or grandparents navigate a computer or a mobile device for research, online shopping, or social media? Probably all of you have seen this scenario before. It’s a common stereotype that has been played time and time again. It capitalizes on the idea that those who are older do not understand technology – which is completely untrue. And if you’re a medical practitioner with a patient base that is predominantly over 50, then you definitely cannot be thinking this way. These kinds of assumptions will hinder your online marketing strategies for engaging baby boomers.
Are Baby Boomers Online?
According to the PEW Research Center, 79% of online adults age 30-49 use Facebook along with 64% of those ages 50-64, and 48% of those that are 64 and older. Even if we focus on the oldest age groups (50+), we’re talking about well-over 100 million American baby boomers who are actively on Facebook. With that many people, how can you, as a working doctor, ignore that opportunity?
We also know there are multiple social media platforms out there, but the consensus seems to be the same throughout many of them – those who are 50+ seem to be gaining fast traction on social media. For instance, the fastest growing age group on Twitter is 55 to 64 year-olds, according to Fast Company.
So how do we get you to hone in on this age group? Here are some basic steps to engaging baby boomers online:
Do Not Ignore Them!
Your social media campaigns and ads should have your ideal patient in mind. Don’t attempt to target younger demographics when they make up a fraction of your business. Focus on your bulk audience. Find their pain points, represent them in your images and understand what their goals are. Engage with them, help them solve their problems, and acknowledge that they’re online and willing to communicate.
Do Not Call Them “Old”
Once you hit a certain age, you probably don’t want to be reminded of it – and trust us, your audience doesn’t want to be too. Words like “senior,” or “elderly” leave a bad taste in the mouth. Instead, baby boomers want to be reminded that they can live an active and good life. Just because they’re “older” it doesn’t mean that you can’t appeal to their youthful nature. And as a healthcare practitioner, that’s what you want to do. Your goal is to get them pain-free, active, healthy, and living the best life possible, so appeal to that.
Share Content
Baby boomers love to consume content! Investing in a strong content strategy will help you bring in a big ROI. When we talk about content we mean blogs, videos, infographics and email pieces. These individuals are hungry for information, and they want to get all the facts before they step into your office, so give them what they want. Producing note-worthy and educating content will have them coming back for more.
Make Communication Easy
Whether it’s on your website, your Facebook page or landing page, make your contact information easy to find and accessible. We all love to communicate via email, social media or instant messaging, but don’t forget to add your phone number to the list. Baby boomers don’t want to be directed link after link to make a contact. Sometimes the easiest way to have a question answered is to pick up the phone and call.
Follow-Up
Follow-up with each and every one of your contacts. This is the home-run in getting higher conversions. So many business owners and medical directors fail to follow-up with their current contacts. It may take 1, 3, 6 or 9 follow-ups in order to get a patient through the door (it may be through phone, email, or mail piece!). Be persistent, be helpful and know that most people won’t even consider your service or treatment with the first contact.
Make Your Offline Marketing Strategy as Strong as Your Online Strategy
Mail pieces, brochures, pamphlets, newspaper ads, and even seminars can help you bring in those ideal baby boomer patients. The key to all these offline marketing strategies is to key in on the specifics.
If you’re sending out a mail pieces, pamphlets or brochures, don’t send it out to all the neighborhoods in your area. Find out which areas most baby boomers reside in and target those locations. In your mailer, provide information that stresses the benefits of your service and how it can help your prospect in a particular way (will it help them regain their active lifestyle? Or maybe it will make it easier for them to get out of bed every morning?). Also make it easy for them to contact and get in touch with you – this information should be obvious and direct.
Appealing and engaging with baby boomers is like engaging with any other demographic. All you need to know is what their pain points are and demonstrate how you can help them solve their problem. Don’t dismiss their presence online, don’t refer to them as stereotypical “old and sedentary” people, provide them with useful content, and make it easy to be in contact. Your audience it out there, they’re just waiting to be reached.
If you need a comprehensive and effective digital marketing strategy, we can bring your practice to the next level. Call my team, invigoMEDIA at 1-844-ROI-GUYS.
