Working with Seniors: Health, Financial, and Social Issues
Chapter 23: Marketing to Seniors
Florence Wallace is 84. She lives alone in her tidy San Francisco home, which she’s owned for nearly 50 years. An article about Florence appeared in the local newspaper around Mother’s Day. The reporter was the son of one of her neighbors, and he knew she’d been a working mom during World War II at the Richmond shipyards, helping to build battleships while her husband was away fighting the Germans. The article included a photo of young Florence working, tools in hand, as well as a more recent photo of her.
Florence’s granddaughter, Lynn, stops by a few times a week to help with chores and the like, but Florence is mighty independent—she’s sharp as a tack and still drives. During one of her granddaughter’s recent visits, Florence complained about the number of salesmen who have entered her life since the newspaper article appeared.
“It’s crazy,” she told her granddaughter. “I get phone calls and letters from these slick kids—and you wouldn’t believe the way they talk to me! Like I’m an imbecile or something. Everybody wants to sell me something—an insurance policy, estate planning—whatever they mean by that. The ones that annoy me the most are the real estate people—would you believe I’ve had nine calls from real estate salespeople? One man said, ‘Now, I know it must be too hard for you to keep up that big house by yourself! I have a buyer who wants to buy your house right away—when can I come over and discuss the offer with you?’ Can you believe the nerve?
“I started out just politely saying no thank you to these people, but that doesn’t seem to get through to some of them. The last few times I answered the phone, I let them get into their spiel then just told ’em, ‘I appreciate your interest, but I have a wonderful attorney, an insurance agent who’s handled business for my family for 22 years, and I’m all set on my financial planning—so please take me off your calling list.’ Thanks for telling me about that last bit, Lynn—I’m so glad I can tell these people to stop calling me!”
“Wow, Gram, I was so proud of you, being in that article,” Lynn said. “I had no idea it would cause such a headache.”
“Oh, shush, it doesn’t matter any,” Florence said. “Why, there actually was one nice person who found me through that article. She’s a breath of fresh air compared to the others.”
“Really?” Lynn said. “Who’s that?”
“Well, she helps older folks like me plan ahead in case we need long-term care. Now, you know I never ever want to go into a nursing home, Lynn—but this gal, her name’s Jane Taylor, she’s a Certified Senior Advisor, and she mostly works with older people like me. She sent me a copy of the article about me plus a little booklet of information on fun things for seniors to do in San Francisco. I thought that was sweet. There was also a nice note that said how much she enjoyed the article and asked if I’d like to bring a friend to a dinner event she was having the following week. I don’t think I told you about this last time I saw you. Anyway, I invited Helen from down the street—we figured if the gal were trying to sell us something, we’d just leave. But it was actually pretty fun! While we were having our dessert she had this gentleman give a little talk about staying healthy and fit as we age. I actually learned some things. And she had a drawing for a gift basket—would you believe Helen won it?
“I have to say, I felt a little guilty after that, because I knew I wasn’t going to buy anything from her. But when I told Jane that I really didn’t see a need for her services, she said that was okay, she’d just like to meet me, and if perhaps I knew anybody else who was looking for her help, maybe I’d remember her. I tell you, Lynn, it was so different than the pushy calls I’ve gotten from these other sharks!”
Florence and Helen attended Jane’s informational dinner last June. In the year since, Jane has stayed in touch with Florence and her friend—she sends them both copies of her monthly newsletter with interesting articles. Florence has referred six of her friends to Jane, and Helen has referred a few more, too—and Jane let them know how grateful she was for the recommendations. Jane has closed tens of thousands of dollars of business from those referrals. All because she was friendly, kind, and the opposite of pushy.
That’s effective marketing to seniors.
Introduction
This chapter provides an overview of some of the most effective ways you can market your business to older adults.
The cardinal rule in marketing is that you must know your audience in order to select the most appropriate and useful marketing tactics. You need to really understand what makes your target market tick and how to effectively segment the audience to meet your particular business goals. The watchword here is diversity. From a practical standpoint, this chapter is designed to give you very specific tools that will help you grow your business by reaching out to seniors. It will give you information that will help you understand the motivations and desires of various sectors of the senior market. With that information in mind, you can fine-tune your marketing efforts.
The senior population is not a homogenous group, so it is essential to understand how issues of diversity and the effects of aging will impact your marketing efforts. Seniors have differing needs and desires relative to their financial and employment status, health, gender, and social and family environment. To be effective in marketing to such a diverse audience, you will need to use a variety of marketing tools.
When marketing to seniors, you must learn how to build a solid relationship with prospects through your marketing efforts. This section covers the basics of relationship marketing and how to use relationship marketing tactics to develop a senior client base.
There are many marketing tools available that may be used to reach a senior audience and begin building a relationship with senior prospects that will ultimately lead to closed sales. This section focuses on the most effective tools you should consider for your marketing mix and offers guidelines on how to use them in concert. These marketing tools include face-to-face marketing, print marketing materials, electronic marketing, and word-of-mouth and referrals.
The most successful CSAs have mastered the art of extending their professional network by finding ways to work together with other professionals who serve the senior market. This aids in prospecting and helps them to build warm leads and referrals. This section discusses the benefits of building and using a professional network, and introduces the concept of fusion marketing—the tactic of creating mutually beneficial alliances with similar, but noncompeting, professionals who serve the senior market. This section also provides specific information on how you can start your own fusion marketing campaign.