Seniors are a rapidly growing demographic online, yet tech-savvy millennials often remain the focus of digital marketers, says Shannon Sloan, director of new business development at Rich Media in Toronto.
According to Statistics Canada, 60% of Canadians between 65 and 75 years of age are regular Internet users. And those numbers are even greater for higher income seniors (90%) and university or college-educated seniors (87%), reports the PewResearch Internet Project.
You don’t want to neglect this demographic online because they’re often your ideal clients: they typically have a high net-worth and are more inclined to read information from financial advisors, Sloan adds.
Here are three tips for connecting with seniors online:
1. Create a Facebook business page
That same PewResearch study revealed that over half of seniors are regularly using Facebook. While LinkedIn and Twitter remain powerful social media channels, seniors prefer Facebook because it lets them stay connected with family members.
One simple way to market your services on Facebook is to create a business page and ask clients to follow or “like” your page. That way, those “likes” will be seen by everyone on your clients’ friends lists, Sloan says, attracting more attention to your online profile.
2. Prioritize a desktop experience
Mobile-friendly platforms are a hot topic these days, but seniors are still more likely to be accessing the web from a desktop, says Sloan, citing a recent ComScore study. The user experience should be targeted towards seniors using a desktop computer.
“The average senior is looking at about 43 hours a month from a desktop versus about 18 hours a month from a mobile device,” Sloan says. And for seniors reading content via mobile, they’re opting for large format technology such as tablets or e-readers. Higher income seniors will be more likely to use tablets, Sloan adds, so advisors can still benefit from offering multi-platform content.
3. Make content accessible
A large number of seniors face accessibility challenges, so you’ll want to keep that in mind when marketing to senior prospects online. Creating strong, consistent visual clues for navigating your website is important; however, don’t condescend or patronize seniors with the content itself, Sloan says. Seniors want content sections to be short, but they’re still interested in complex information.
Stay away from patterned backgrounds and try to use as much white space as possible for visual clarity, Sloan adds.