Emphasizing your practice’s cutting edge technical capabilities, combined with a warm, face-to-face experience, is an excellent strategy in marketing to boomers and seniors
You’ve no doubt read countless articles on marketing to boomers and seniors (those born between 1946-64), and many of these articles describe Baby Boomers as one giant monolith – multiple health issues, inactive, and not very tech savvy.
As a result, most recommendations for marketing to boomers and seniors emphasize the importance of simple, easily-understood marketing pieces that are not digital. Although this advice is good for some patients within the Boomer demographics, it certainly does not apply to all. Even more importantly, it ignores the younger end of the demographic, which represents patients who are far more tech savvy than their older counterparts.
This younger Boomer cohort requires a somewhat different marketing approach that relies more on tech and digital campaigns. Let’s take a look at the unique position of these tail-end Boomers, as well as how you can target them in your marketing campaigns.
Marketing to boomers and seniors: ‘Generation Jones’
Although the Boomer generation covers 20 years, recent marketing surveys and research in the social sciences make a strong case for the presence of a micro-generation, making up the latter half of the Boomer generation (those born between 1954-64).1
Some researchers also include older members of Generation X within this group. This mini-demographic, dubbed “Generation Jones” by researcher Jonathan Pontell, has proven itself to be extremely influential, both politically and in terms of buying power.1 It also marks Generation Jones as “early adopters,” in terms of tech and digital communications, meaning that they were among the first to make the switch from analogue to digital and work with personal computers and mobile phones.
Tech Use and Generation Jones
The overall perception of Boomers is that they are very anti-tech and not interested in digital devices. Although this may be the case for older Boomers, the exact opposite is true for Generation Jones.
A 2020 survey by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) found that 86% of Americans between the ages of 50-59 use smart phones on a regular basis, while half of Americans over the age of 50 own at least one tablet device.
In looking specifically at technology and health care, the AARP survey showed that approximately 20% of older Americans are interested in using telemedicine to talk to their health care providers.2 This survey data clearly shows that the Generation Jones demographic is very tech savvy and open to digital forms of communication.
Marketing to Generation Jones
The fact that Generation Jones shows not only familiarity with digital communication, but willingly embraces it, should open the way for new avenues of digital marketing.
Based on the AARP survey, you should certainly be looking at adding some type of tele-health presence into your practice. Other digital features of your practice to promote could include:
- Email and electronic newsletters
- Virtual office tours
- Special online promotional offers
- Online classes, lectures, and demonstrations
- Podcasts
- Texting
- Online and text booking and appointment reminder systems
Of course, you will want to still retain the personal touch that your patients expect of you. A marketing approach that emphasizes your practice’s cutting edge technical capabilities, combined with a warm, face to face experience, is an excellent strategy in marketing to boomers and seniors.
These patients are old enough to remember a time before the prevalence of the digital age, yet still are comfortable navigating its waters. By carefully honing your marketing strategy to Generation Jones patients, you may find them to be very receptive to chiropractic overall, and your practice in particular.
References
- Generation Jones has now cleared its throat.com. Accessed Dec. 18, 2021.
- Kakulla BN. 2020 Tech Trends of the 50+. Washington, DC: AARP Research, January 2020.
