Some intel on how to successfully reach each generation

If you are like many small businesses, you take the business from any stream you can tap into. Each different generation has their own particular characteristics with regard to how they buy and how they prefer to be marketed to. What you have found successful with a particular generation, is not likely to travel well to a different one. Here is some intel to remember when you are putting together that next generation specific SEO and content marketing campaign.

• Baby Boomers (ages 50-65) are quite likely your wealthiest source of revenue. They control over 70% of the disposable income in the country and nearly 60% of them use smartphones. Around 60% of Baby Boomers will discover a product on social media and then proceed to the company’s website for more information. There are about 40% of them, mostly women, that have Pinterest accounts and around 85% of them have Facebook pages. In addition to all of your SEO and online marketing efforts, Baby Boomers still respond well to traditional marketing and advertising strategies.
• Generation X (ages 34-49) seems to be the generation that is in the midst of being the oil that keeps the world and economic machines going. This is the generation that makes up the bulk of the workforce and middle and upper management at companies. They are also highly mobile and do about 70% of their searches on their mobile devices. They are new parents and new homeowners and are most responsive to SEO and online branding efforts. They are, perhaps, the largest current market for just about everything and they do most of their buying online.
• Millennials (ages 20-33) are beginning to greatly make their presence felt in the world. This generation spends an average of $2,000 each online every year. When considering your SEO and content strategies, remember that this generation’s social networks are huge compared the the other generations. Getting them to participate in your brand awareness is key. Nearly 90% of them have Facebook accounts and they respond enthusiastically to being marketed via email. Content carries enormous credibility with them. They respond to it 50 times more readily than just standard branding images and logos.
• Generation Z (ages 13-19) seem to be marching to a different drummer than the other generations. Two years ago, a full quarter of them left Facebook for other social media platforms. Like the Millennials, you can best drive them to your site through the use of email campaigns. This generation lets loose about $40 billion a year in disposable income simply because they don’t have a lot of the overhead and debt of the other generations. Quick and to the point, especially by utilizing visuals, is the best way to get to them because they only have the attention spans of babies at around eight seconds.

– Written by Kevin Sawyer