Targeting the Trend of Baby Boomers on Mobile Devices
Baby Boomers and Mobile Device Use
Baby Boomers have disposable income to spare, and they increasingly do their research on decisions like travel with their mobile device.
It may no longer be their Age of Aquarius, but for Baby Boomers aged 55-73, it is now their age to reap the rewards of their life’s work. In step with making these dreams happen is the information they are finding with increasing use of their mobile device.
This generation that pioneered the development of personal computing has been steadily stepping away from their desktop computer and more towards smartphones and tablets. While their use may not be at the numbers of their children or grandchildren yet, their rates are growing faster each year as they catch up: between 2011 and 2019 they increased their smartphone use by 43% (Pew Research Center 2019). Now, 68% of Boomers own a smartphone and 52% own tablets. As technology gets better and cheaper – and as mobile sites improve and lure them in - these numbers will continue to grow.
2019 data from Pew Research Center the increase in Baby Boomer smartphone and tablet use since 2011.
Many Baby Boomers are easing into retirement and have been identified as the generation with the highest purchasing power. They are using their disposable income on hard-earned luxuries like travel and shopping, and investment in healthy living (Mobile Marketer 2019). These statistics should make business owners and marketing specialists recognize the opportunity to cater to this generation. One way to ensure that Baby Boomers utilize your online presence is to meet the need of “mobile first”.
How to Make Your Business Mobile-Boomer Friendly
They want to discover new lifestyles, shopping and travel - will the Baby Boomers do it with your site?
Every business wants to attract new customers who use Google to find information. Search engine rankings have typically been based on standard website development practices such as engaging content, loading speed, and SEO. The new standard instituted by Google, however, now sets the priority to “mobile first” sites – ones that are designed specifically for mobile use and will be inducted into Google’s mobile index (Moz 2018). How can you leverage this new priority to bring in the Boomer generation? Below are 5 suggestions to design your business’ website for the mobile user and to make it more accessible to this targeted audience:
1) Make your content as organized as possible
Baby Boomers will read the content if it contains facts and data, statistics, charts, and graphs. On a mobile device this is an opportunity to use collapsed sections or tabbed sections. (Media Space 2019). Don’t shy away from writing more content. They will read it if the page is designed well for their device and the information is easy to read (McFadden Gavender 2019) Consider putting together a Table of Contents at the top, using heading tags in a logical order so they can skim to what they need to know, and using expandable content for things like product descriptions, specs, reviews, Q&A and documentation (Search Engine Land 2017)
2) Design test for the Not-so-Nimble
Baby Boomers may be wearing reading glasses, and can be “fat fingered” and not able to navigate a small smartphone as easily as their kids or grandkids. Because of this they may interact with tablets more easily so be sure to test your design on a variety of mobile devices to ensure all size fingers can engage with your content. (eMarketer 2019)
3) Respect their privacy
They still have reluctance in trusting mobile technology so when it comes to targeted ads, they do not appreciate location-based ads, they find it intrusive to their private lives. When in a store they would much rather talk face-to-face with a salesperson (eMarketer 2019) so consider implementing a prompt to meet or call a customer service representative.
4) They love YouTube
Incorporate YouTube video and encourage them to join your YouTube channel. You will tap into the 68% of Boomers who watch YouTube to be entertained, and the 1 in 3 who use it to learn about a product or service (Think with Google 2019)
5) They are not you
Finally, an important strategy to remember about content: Boomers are not just older Millennials so do not feed them the same content as a younger demographic. Just as marketers must craft different messages between men and women, there must be distinct messages for Boomers. On your site they want to see images that reflect who they are – graying but sophisticated, active and healthy, with language that speaks to their years of experience, not the latest hip slang, acronyms, or hashtags (AdAge 2019). Highlight how the product will benefit and improve their life. They are quick to judge in the first seconds interacting with your site, so make the effort to gain their trust by making it a personal experience for each Boomer who visits.
Ready to engage on your mobile first site.