Target group Best Ager - The most important points in brief: |
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Older people are regular customers at health food stores and pharmacies, buy rheumatism blankets on coffee runs, watch crime shows, and they are by no means to be found on the Internet. Clichés that may once have been true, but are now long outdated.
The so-called “best agers” in 2023 are hitting the gym, streaming Netflix, using social media, and increasingly making purchases online. This is a target group with tremendous potential that your company can tap into through targeted Best Ager marketing.
The “Best Ager” target group is not clearly defined. It includes people who are in their so-called “best age” and is usually equated with the 50plus generation, i.e., people between the ages of 50 and 70. Regarding their internet usage, the target group is also referred to as “Silver Surfers.”
The Best Ager target group is not heterogeneous. Nevertheless, there are some characteristics that apply to a large proportion of Best Agers:
Although the Best Ager target group prefers print advertising that is dropped in the mailbox every week, they can definitely be reached through online marketing as well. You can appeal to the 50-plus generation with the following tips:
Be clear about whether your product is at all appealing to people over 50. Fast fashion, for example, is completely uninteresting for best agers.
If your product is potentially interesting for Best Agers, such as a smartphone, also check its suitability for older people. For the smartphone, for example, this would mean perhaps producing a separate “senior” version with a larger display.
Refer to the special adaptations of your product for older people on your website and in your ads. Be careful with your choice of words, though: “Senior smartphone” suggests to your customers that they are old. Instead, use descriptions such as “50+” and the like.
If you are sure that Best Agers definitely belong to your target group, then you also need to adapt your website and online store accordingly:
If you want to address best agers with your social media platforms, you should first be clear about where they spend their time. Platforms like TikTok or Snapchat are hardly frequented by silver surfers. Less than five percent of them are active there. Instagram is still used by 6.6% of 55-64-year-olds, but only 2.5% of those aged 65 and older use it. Facebook, on the other hand, is used by 23% of 50-69-year-olds and 8% of those over 70. So if you want to target Best Agers on social media, Facebook is the place to go.
Even if Best Agers probably won’t buy products directly from you via Facebook, they still like to use the medium to find out about companies and their offers and to get in touch with them. So make sure that your Facebook page contains all the important information, offers meaningful images and posts, and has a good community. Messages and comments should always be responded to quickly, because Best Agers don’t like to wait and have no problem expressing their displeasure via comments. If, on the other hand, silver surfers feel they are in good hands with you and your Facebook community, Facebook is a good way to retain them as customers.
Surprisingly, best agers are also increasingly found on YouTube. In 2022, 52.4 percent of 50-59-year-olds in Germany, 37.2 percent of 60-69-year-olds, 23.2 percent of 70-79-year-olds and even 7.9 percent of over-80s used YouTube. A perfect platform, therefore, to appeal to silver surfers.
The 50-plus generation uses YouTube primarily to find out about specific topics. From gardening topics such as “How do I plant a perennial garden?” to presentations of new car models, product tests, videos of travel, and DIY or needlework videos, everything is represented. Some people even learn an instrument or a new language on YouTube in their retirement years. Doctors’ channels that provide information on health topics are also very popular with the older generation.
Companies can therefore use YouTube in their best-ager marketing primarily for videos on products that require explanation, or for video ads on channels that silver surfers like to use. YouTube is also suitable for service topics in Best Ager Marketing.
There are many other ways to reach Best Agers with your online marketing:
Make sure that you are found for the keywords relevant to your offers. Do some research to find out exactly which combinations of keywords best agers use. Words such as “quality“, “qualitative” or “age-appropriate” are often found in the search queries. However, there are also product-specific terms for which you should be found, such as “large display” for smartphones or “regional” for regional products, of course, and also under the name of the respective region, for example “Franconian”.
Best agers are even better targeted with newsletters than younger generations. Again, be informative, use quality images and content, and be careful that your wording doesn’t include words like “retirees” or “seniors” that would scare off the young-at-heart Silver Surfers.
Influencers are only for young people? Far from it. Especially because best agers like to have things explained and shown to them, influencer marketing is also ideally suited for the 50-plus generation. However, there is one restriction: Silver surfers naturally don’t want to be told anything by people who are half their age or even younger. That’s why there are more and more “senior models” and “granfluencers“. These present not only the correct use of gardening tools and the like, but also trendy fashion and the latest technical products.
Of course, you can also reach Best Agers via ads. Because of the tendency to research products in detail before buying, native advertising is particularly suitable for this. Here, advertising content is placed in an editorial environment, such as on the website of newspapers, and adapted to the design and style. It is important, however, that although the ad is intended to look like an article, it is labeled as such.
Since such “promotional articles” are usually much longer than banner ads or other ads, you can talk in more detail about your product and the problem it solves, and give your potential customers so much information that they can immediately decide to buy it.
The fact that beauty products are not just for young people or those who want to stay that way is shown by the example of L’Oréal. With “Age Perfect,” the company has developed its own product line specifically tailored to the needs of older skin. The accompanying online and offline campaigns feature older, often prominent women as ambassadors for beauty and self-confidence.
The Best Ager target group is addressed by L’Oréal by showing prominent, young-at-heart Best Agers.
Deutsche Bahn skillfully exploits the travel enthusiasm of the Best Ager generation for its own purposes. For example, special offers have been developed for seniors that enable them to travel inexpensively and comfortably. The matching advertising campaign emphasizes the advantages of rail travel for older people, such as the opportunity to discover new places without having to worry about driving. The campaigns always feature older but still young and active-looking people, for example, already sitting on the train and relaxing or happily studying their travel documents, about to board the train, or emphatically relaxed, buying their ticket on their smartphone.
Deutsche Bahn wants to appeal to the travel enthusiasm of the Best Agers target group.
Celebrities are often used in Best Ager marketing. At Adler, for example, everyone thinks of Birgit Schrowange, and at Geers, the manufacturer of hearing aids, everyone has an image of Thomas Gottschalk with a hearing aid in their head, even though he says he doesn’t actually need a hearing aid.
Showing people who are still successful and dynamic in their old age and who have both feet on the ground is very promising. What’s more, best agers have known Thomas Gottschalk for decades. If Germans trust anyone, it’s him and maybe Günther Jauch, who now also does advertising, for example for Lidl’s circulatory bottle.
In summary, it can be said that marketing specifically for the Best Ager target group is worthwhile above all for companies that offer high-quality products or services and want to reach a loyal target group with great purchasing power. By specifically addressing the needs, interests and life situation of this ever-growing target group and using suitable channels and advertising methods, you can successfully address best agers with your online marketing, win them as customers and build a long-term customer relationship with them.
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