Getting Your Message Across to Boomers

By William L. Willard, CLU

Millions of Boomers are turning 50 every year, but you can still market to them as though they were still in their 30s or 40s. This homogeneous, yet diverse generation never has wanted to be like their parents, and will always be young in their minds. Boomers may have been careless with money in the past, but you can give them another shot at the brass ring. Your message? It's never too late, but the sooner you start, the more you can do.

Here are a few tips you can put to the test.

Customize Your Message - Boomers are quick studies, want to self-manage every part of their lives, like living well, and see themselves as savvy, in-the-know consumers. Make it clear that you can help Boomers make sense of their busy, often chaotic situations and control their future financial security.

Recommended: short, to-the-point written communications that promise Boomers something extra, and use a lot of "you" language.

Make it Simple and Satisfying - Boomers will expect you to demonstrate how you can help them harness their long-term earning power to achieve a quality lifestyle. Make building a solid financial future a hands-on participatory project, which they control; encourage networking and sharing inside information, and do not assume the male is the primary decision-maker.

"Workshops" (note the word choice) for entrepreneurial-minded Boomers can provide relevant, hands-on learning experiences.

Boomers will expect you to demonstrate how you can help them harness their long-term earning power to achieve a quality lifestyle. Make building a solid financial future a hands-on participatory project, which they control; encourage networking and sharing inside information, and do not assume the male is the primary decision-maker. "Workshops" (note the word choice) for entrepreneurial-minded Boomers can provide relevant, hands-on learning experiences.

Appeal to Boomers’ Individuality and Exclusivity - Try sending consumer newsletters or bulletins providing useful information targeted to Boomer market segments you wish to develop. Not only are these marketing tools an easy way to keep your name out there and generate interest among Boomer prospects, providing need-to-know information about financial products and issues is part of your client-service obligations. For example…

• Boomers are beginning to accept the inevitable; they’re getting old! Despite the enormous amount of information available today, however, many Boomers are quickly closing in on retirement age without knowing much about what lies ahead. Current retirement education is falling short, so newsletters or client bulletins that can help pre-retirees determine how much their retirement will cost, and where their income will come from can get Boomers’ attention in very positive ways.
  
  
• Boomers are beginning to understand what it means to be the "Sandwich Generation." Caught between their own children and aging parents--between child-rearing and care-giving—many Boomers, to their credit, are seeking ways to meet their financial obligations to both. For them, crisis-care management, pre-need long-term care planning and estate protection, as well as wealth accumulation, education funding, and other financial security issues, have strong appeal. Note: It is usually Boomer women who bear the brunt of these responsibilities.
  
  
• When marketing to Boomer women, remember your audience is made up of information-seekers looking for companies that will listen to their needs, understand what they want, and deliver products and services that will make them eager to become loyal long-term clients.

Mind Boomers’ Time and Space (They Are!) - "The gated community is edging out open-hearth suburbia," observes columnist, Florence King, "and gates are only the beginning: there is talk of moats and drawbridges…According to a spokeswoman for the Direct Marketing Association, a majority of Americans now do some of their shopping from home, and the numbers are rising. The trend is attributed to gridlock traffic and time constraints on two-career couples and single parents, but the spokeswoman alluded gingerly to another reason: 'people's growing disdain of crowded places.’"

Welcome this trend. It will significantly expand the acceptance of timesaving technologies…e-mail, the Internet, cell phones…in virtually every area of your marketing, selling and client-management activities.

"The gated community is edging out open-hearth suburbia," observes columnist, Florence King, "and gates are only the beginning: there is talk of moats and drawbridges…According to a spokeswoman for the Direct Marketing Association, a majority of Americans now do some of their shopping from home, and the numbers are rising. The trend is attributed to gridlock traffic and time constraints on two-career couples and single parents, but the spokeswoman alluded gingerly to another reason: 'people's growing disdain of crowded places.’" Welcome this trend. It will significantly expand the acceptance of timesaving technologies…e-mail, the Internet, cell phones…in virtually every area of your marketing, selling and client-management activities.

Want to Know More?

Financial services representatives who want to know more about Generational Marketing should not miss these Marketing Guides available from Pelican Island Publishing:

1. The Mature Market - A Generation at the Crossroads

2. Boomers! - Marketing to the "Me Generation"

3. Marketing to Generation X - New Ideas in a Changing World

(Each is available for $25. per single copy)

These publications offer profiles of key generational "markers," a review of the expectations each age group has of financial services advisors, plus cohort-specific prospecting tips and hands-on approach techniques. Interested? See William L. Willard, CLU below and address inquiries to Bill at w.willard3@knology.net.

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