Fast facts about marketing to boomers online

Provide relevant information. Boomers pay attention to advertising about products and services they’ve decided to purchase. And they’re very willing to go online to find out more about those products and services, whether they heard about them from a friend or were motivated by ads in other media.

Don’t waste their time. Boomers view the Internet as a tool to help them accomplish tasks and lead better lives. They don’t spend as much time online as younger generations in part because of their utilitarian attitude. Prepare your landing pages to reflect the search terms Internet users type in so they don’t hit the back button to return to the search engine results page.

Helpful statistics:

• 74 percent use the Internet at least once a month;
• Younger boomers outnumber older boomers online 35.3 million to 21.4 million;
• More boomer women are Internet users than boomer men;
• 21 percent of boomers report not having Internet access;
• 62 percent of households headed by someone age 50 or older had annual incomes of $75,000 or more, nearly 5 percent higher than in 2004;
• 61 percent said it doesn’t pay to be loyal to one brand, especially in today’s marketplace;
• 68 percent of baby boomer women trust recommendations and rated information they heard in conversations as credible; and
• Further underscoring these findings, in a recent survey from the public relations firm Edelman, 54 percent of baby boomers said the advertising industry misrepresents and neglects them, especially online, where 72.5 percent of younger boomers and 83.2 percent of older boomers said online advertising focused on younger age groups.