Marketing to the 50+ population is all about making connections and building relationships. It is important that you try to find ways to get a positive emotional response up front so that you can then deliver the factual information more effectively (this approach is what I call Whole Brain Marketing). One of the most powerful and positive emotional connections that most Boomers and Seniors have is with their grandchildren. It is a connection that you want to leverage in some of your marketing strategies – email, blog, newsletter, direct mail, personal conversations, etc.

Consider these facts and points (source: The Grandparent Economy by Lori K. Bitter)
• The median age is 50 for first time grandmothers and 54 for first time grandfathers (psst, that’s not very old)
• Today’s grandparents are highly educated and working (75%)
• Boomers will benefit financially from the greatest transfer of wealth (from their parents and grandparents) than any other generation in history (yes the wealthy Boomers are going to become even wealthier)
• Boomers want to leave a legacy by transferring their values on to the next generations but they don’t want to wait until they die to leave their legacy. They want to create their legacy by creating memories with their grandchildren right now.
• The biggest motivation for Boomers to use social media and texting is to stay connected with their grandchildren
• Today’s grandparents have a strong desire to provide experiences for and with their grandchildren rather than just stuff (although they still buy a lot of stuff for them too)
• Nearly 70% of grandparents live within 50 miles of their grandchildren
• Grand parenting stands out as the most positive life stage in later life.
• “They take better care of themselves so they can be in their grandchildren’s lives for a long time. Their own health and wellness becomes important.”

How does these facts impact your marketing and sales strategies?

For one, realize that while older adults still want to look better they are not going to be nearly as motivated by aesthetic changes as they are ability changes. A big motivator is to live long enough to fully invest in the lives of their grandchildren AND to be physically capable of creating all sorts of fun memories with them. From the big moments like riding rides all day at Disney World to the small moments like taken them to the park and swinging or sliding down the slides with them. We use the Trajectory Sales SystemTM in our business and teach it to our coaching clients as a way to communicate the incredible improvement and extension of functional abilities with our training program.

Secondly, figure out how to communicate the benefits of your fitness program or training for their grand parenting. Instead of simply telling them that they will get stronger, describe to them how they will be able to swing their grandbabies around or go biking with them without getting tired. This is the emotional connection that you want to utilize. It is very likely that they have already started to hear that little voice in their head when they lay down at night telling them that they might not be around to see their grandkids graduate school or get married. The worry that their grandkids will think they are boring and uninteresting because they can’t physically play with them will keep them up at night. These are real pain points. Pains that you have a solution for. Solutions that they are interested in.

Thirdly, in all of this, remember the NLW Marketing. What do they NEED to do? What do they LIKE to do? What do they WANT to do? Once you understand what these three answers are for your ideal Boomer clients then you can start proactively addressing these in your marketing messages and sales approaches. Spending active time with their grandchildren falls squarely into the LIKE and WANT categories for sure but in their mind it is also viewed as a NEED just like the most basic activities of life. They have a strong NEED to spend time with their grandchildren because that is how they are going to create a legacy. That, in their minds, is not optional.

I encourage you to consider how you can connect with potential clients through the strong emotional connection they have with their grandchildren. Mastering this aspect will lead to more effective marketing that drives a higher number of qualified leads and more effective sales processes that closes 9/10 (or more) consults.

Join us at the 2017 Functional Aging Summit.