Shoppers aged 54 to 72 represent a significant portion of the total U.S. consumer market. And they have the financial wherewithal to be among the top customers of an ecommerce company. This group of potential customers can be reached with content marketing via Facebook, YouTube, and internal blogs.
The term “Baby Boomers” describes the demographic cohort born between 1946 and 1964. America’s 73 million or so Baby Boomers have significant buying power.
For example, a 2017 report from KPMG found that Baby Boomers were as likely to shop online as were Millennials (born from the early 1980s to roughly 2000). Moreover, on average Baby Boomers spent more on each transaction. Baby Boomers may also be slightly more likely to purchase from ecommerce-only retailers than Generation X (early 1960s to early 1980s) and Millennials.
As a segment, Baby Boomers may be just as likely as Millennials to shop online, and they tend to spend more.
Don’t Stereotype Shoppers
There is much diversity within this group — so much so that marketers should be careful not to stereotype Baby Boomers, lest they end up with meaningless generalizations. There are, nonetheless, some trends within the group that could inform content marketing campaigns for ecommerce companies.
Remember, content marketing is the act of creating, publishing, and distributing content with the goal of attracting, engaging, and retaining customers. In context, this may mean marketers will want to adjust or be mindful of Baby Boomers’ preferences as they create, publish, and distribute that content.
Facebook is popular with every generation. Baby Boomers, however, tend to favor Facebook over most other social media networks by a relatively larger margin.
Some 65 percent of Americans aged 50 to 64 (remember Baby Boomers are between 54 and 72 in 2018) and 41 percent of Americans 65 years old or older use Facebook regularly, according to the Pew Research Center’s Social Media Factsheet. In contrast, only 21 percent of U.S. adults between age 50 and age 64 use Instagram, and just 19 percent of that same group uses Twitter.
What’s more, the Baby Boomers who are on Facebook (and other social media platforms) may spend as much as 20 hours a week reading and sharing posts, according to a 2017 MediaPost commentary.
For ecommerce content marketers, these facts may simply reinforce what you already know: Facebook is an excellent distribution channel for content.
The fundamentals of content marketing apply. Create useful, informative, or entertaining content that is relevant for target customers in the Baby Boomer generation. Then distribute that content as teasers, posts, graphics, or similar on Facebook, driving traffic back to your company’s website.
YouTube
About 68 percent of Americans age 50 to 64 are regular YouTube users, according to the Pew Research Center — 40 percent for folks 65 years old or older.
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