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Boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, account for approximately 40 percent of consumer spending and as much as 80 percent of personal wealth—so your business can’t afford to ignore this group.

I recently came across a top-ten list of dos and don’ts to follow when marketing to the Baby Boomer generation. I’ve whittled the list to what I consider the most relevant five:

5. Do not use terms like “grab bars” and “hand rails.” Use something like “belay,” a term borrowed from mountain climbing.
4. Do make the packaging of certain products, like a canister of snacks, easier to open.
3. Do make the fonts on your packaging and in your advertising larger and sharper.
2. Do concentrate on your product’s appearance to appeal to their senses. Yes, Boomers are aging; no, they don’t want bland.
1. Do not—under any circumstance—remind or suggest to Baby Boomers that they’re getting old!

The Silent Generation, born between 1925 and 1945, is more likely to read traditional media than younger people (one study found that 81 percent of 65-74s and 86 percent of those 75-plus said they had read a book, magazine or newspaper within the 24 hours before being queried) but this doesn’t mean they want to read long blocks of text. Be sure to keep your message short, use bullet lists when appropriate and talk about how the product/service benefits the reader.

Engaging older people with images and messages that evoke an emotion are much more effective than technical articles. Be careful also, not to be too familiar in tone. Give them the respect they expect and don’t try to bully with “last chance, buy it today” types of marketing. Instead, using personal testimonials from real clients or customers gives your message validity.

But no matter how much they exercise, how much anti-aging cream they apply or how well they otherwise take care of themselves, neither of these groups have discovered the fountain of youth. As anyone over age 40 knows, eyesight begins to deteriorate. Although our creative department sometimes makes exceptions, at VIA we keep in mind that plain typefaces, larger fonts and high contrast color combinations work better for “older” consumers.

These fonts are all the same size. Which would you prefer to read in an ad?

I’ll close with this advice: don’t be blatant when marketing to Boomers or their parents. As you work on developing messages, materials or packaging, refer again and again to #1 above.

If you’d like more ideas or help with the plan, contact us or click to viamarketing.net

Whether you’re selling energy drinks, lumber or healthcare services, businesses can no longer just “push” their goods and services and expect results. This is especially true when targeting Gen Y.

Also referred to as Millennials, Eco Boomers and the Net Generation, this group defies pigeonholing in many other ways. Even their birth years aren’t agreed upon. Various sources list them as early as 1976 and as late as 2005. Most don’t remember phones with cords, typewriters or TVs without remotes. For them, a phone call is reserved for emergencies but they’ll send up to 3000 text messages a month.

They number nearly 100 million, are the largest generation in U.S. history and influence up to half of the buying decisions made. They’ve grown up with the Internet and its virtual world. Gaming and conversing with people they’ve never met who may live next door or halfway around the world is common. They’re comfortable shopping online but first do their homework regarding the quality of the product and the company.

Some factors to consider when marketing to this group: • They’re skeptical of what they see, read or hear (suspicious of mass media). • Hard sell doesn’t fly. For example, when communicating via Facebook, aim for 80 percent education/entertainment and 20 percent promotional. • They have a greater sense of immediacy—life moves faster and their expectations for services and relationships are higher. • They’re environmentally aware and committed to the planet. • They live in a multi-sensory world. For example, if they get lost while driving (unlikely since they’ve got GPS at their fingertips) they’ll pull over and look at a map with stereo still blasting. A boomer will turn down the radio first. • Peer influence is strong. Social media is where they learn about products and trends as well as catch up with friends and plan weekends. Speaking of social media, how much information your business shares and how often you share is critical. They’ll “like” your company on Facebook but if you post too often or push your products/services, they’ll “unlike” you or hide your feed. And timing is crucial: you’re viewed as overeager if you respond too quickly or frequently to a comment or post.

Even in personal relationships, Gen Y is aware of the time element. According to the recent Ad Age “Millennials, Decoded” study, half of the group who carry smartphones are “very concerned” that if they answer a text right away, they look like they have nothing better to do.

How can you connect with this group? • Gain their trust through more than one medium. • Invite them to experience your brand—offer information and include a link to your website.
• Give them the opportunity to interact—add a QR code to a direct mail piece. • Add an IM option on your website. • Create a buzz: share a video that can be uploaded to social media or forwarded via text.
Keep in mind that this group loves to communicate and will respond to the right message. Just don’t tell them what to think!

If you’d like more ideas or help with the plan, contact us.

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” This saying has been around for so long that it’s not known who first spoke it. But it still rings true, especially for a small business that wants to grow. Trust me; making marketing and sales plans a high priority this year will pay off.

Yes, you need TWO plans as marketing and sales are two distinct areas: a marketing plan is what a business does to make itself known to the public, while a sales plan focuses on getting one-on-one time with a customer or prospective customer. Marketing may be considered “pulling” while sales is the “push.”

1) Marketing Plan
I highly recommend you take a few hours and outline plans for marketing and for sales. For marketing, here’s a simplified set of instructions: start with a blank piece of paper (or excel spreadsheet) and make 12 rows. Label the columns, starting with January or the current month. Then start listing tasks in the appropriate months (see example). Make a third column, include the cost for each line item, and you’ve got a plan for the year.

Month	Item/task	Cost
Jan	New mobile website Finish annual report, post to website Write & post blog entry Paid online search	$3500 $1500 $0 $200
Feb	First direct mail to prospects Write & post blog entry Run ad in professional directory Paid online search	$1200 $0 $300 $200
Mar	Sponsor little league team Write & post blog entry Paid online search	$400 $0 $200
Apr	Submit story to local paper Complete brochure, send to printer in time for expo Order give-away items for expo Write & post blog entry Paid online search	$0 $700 $225 $0 $200
May	Booth at chamber expo Write & post blog entry Paid online search	$250 $0 $200
June	Write & post blog entry Paid online search	$0 $200

2) Sales Plan
Next, think about how you and your sales people will turn all that marketing exposure into ROI. Tools and tactics you’ll use to develop your sales efforts include:

• • A defined, qualified prospect list
• • A database application to track contacts (preferably cloud-based so you and your team can access it easily)
• • One or more people at your company who are willing to make calls to prospects
• • A research methodology for developing “touches” that will personalize and add interest to those prospect calls
• • A method to document progress
• • Regular, scheduled meetings to discuss progress

Having these plans and sharing them with the appropriate staff will help keep you and your team focused. But, like a road trip, your marketing and sales plans should be flexible. Pay attention when opportunities arise to pull or push to grow business!

If you’d like more ideas or help with the plan, contact us.