In my book, Communication Wins, I wrote about audience awareness and personality types. In this blog we’ll take a look at audiences by age group.

Succeeding in any business environment today requires getting the attention of one of the most entrepreneurial and text-friendly generations in history.  They are also the most stressed and distracted demographics ever to exist.  Understanding and developing new marketing strategies that appeal to customers and their personal lifestyle, both in learning and in information gathering, is the key to successfully marketing.  Finding a way to get through all the marketing noise that bombards the average person can be daunting and is more challenging than ever before.  

Who is your current market and why is understanding their information and learning style so important to the success?  They are divided into three groups: Generation X, Generation Y, and Global Tweens.  

Generation X is tech savvy and very skeptical.  They are between the ages of 30 and 50; they are the parents of children ages 8 to 18.  They are adults who want to understand their options.  Generation X is your number 1 target audience for most companies.  Marketing strategies aligned with the lifestyles and technological preferences of this age group are critical to success.

What do we know about Generation X?  We know they surf the web for information on every subject imaginable, including hobbies and specialized medical procedures.  Email, cell phones and text messaging are their primary, if not only, source of communication 24/7.  Digital organizers and recorders keep their busy lives on schedule.  They depend mostly on their friends and family for recommendations when making decisions, purchasing products and buying services.  Generation X women make the majority of buying decisions for the family.  Their purchasing decisions are based on emotion, trust, personal relationships and their own perceived value of return on investment.

Marketing studies show that traditional marketing strategies are relatively ineffective on the Gen X audience.  They retain less than 1% of the marketing messages they encounter on a daily basis and they are very skeptical of information they do retain.  Bottom line: Gen X consumers want verifiable proof of expertise, quality and good customer service with minimum sales hype.

Generation Y is Generation X on steroids.  They’re young, smart, and assuming, often to the point of arrogance.  They want to wear flip flops to work, they listen to iPods at their desk and text message to their friends every waking hour.  They want to work but they don’t want work to be their life.  They feel they are entitled to their parents’ lifestyle but without the hard work and effort it took to get there.  They are a force of as many as 70 million.  Tighten your chinstraps because this generation, ages 16 to 30, is different than any group that has come before, including their parents.

The impact of their personal attitudes and lifestyle will have a huge impact on how products and services are marketed.  Maintaining long term relationships will be very difficult with this ever questioning and fickle generation who has no tolerance for outdated thinking and lack of computer skills.  If you don’t have a good website and an effective online strategy, you are invisible to this group.  

Since childhood they were both pampered and programmed with nonstop activities, meaning they are now both high performance and high maintenance.  Gen Y do the majority of their window shopping online before buying and they are very discriminating.  Don’t be fooled by their casual dress, piercings and tattoos.  This generation appreciates quality.  They are tech savvy and a generation of multi-taskers; they can juggle emails, phone calls and Google searches on their iPhone’s simultaneously.  They would prefer to send a text message than make a cell phone call.  They are more comfortable working virtually (online) than face-to-face, through personal relationships or even on a phone like previous generations.  

For many their favorite pastime is going online to social networks such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.  Most spend more time surfing the web and communicating in social networks than they do watching television.  They put a high value on self fulfillment and think nothing of making constant changes in their life to get it.  Building relationships that contain loyalty will be very challenging with Generation Y.
    
The last group is Global Tweens.  They heavily influence the buying decisions of their parents.  Today’s children are increasingly aware and very well informed.  Global Tweens between the ages of 5 and 15 are much more tech savvy than prior generations.  They are the first generation to be totally raised in the digital age of computers, iPods, cell phones, text messaging, gaming, DVDs, and the ever expanding internet.  Most of these kids learn to read on a computer.  Digital technology is second nature to them.

It is easy to underestimate their highly developed preferences and the effect they have on global marketing, and the buying decisions of their parents.  They do not like being treated like the children they are.  These kids are 8 going on 18.  They learn more from interactive educational software than the written text, and they respond to trendy marketing that immediately grabs their attention and gives them something to talk about, photograph or text to their friends since the vast majority have their own cell phones.  

Tech savvy audiences of all ages have shifted their information gathering to the internet and are always on the go, and they look to the internet to quickly research their buying decisions.  They all respond to visual kinesthetic marketing mediums, like video, as one of their favorite forms of communication.  Your website, especially with video, is the first step in emotionally engaging these groups with your personal message.  Your first contact with new customers and clients is no longer a phone call; it is the Internet.  Does your website project your image the way you want it to?  Is your website keyword optimized so prospects can easily find you on Google in your demographic and geographic footprint?  Are you listed on Google Maps in all your surrounding areas?

Digital technology is changing and advancing at lightning speed.  It is difficult to keep up with it all.  Discovering how to synergistically meld your current internal and external marketing strategies under the umbrella of an internet marketing program will save you time, money, and level the playing field among competition if you know how to do it correctly.  No matter how big or small the practice or what your experience level, most websites look the same and deliver the same written message.  In order to stand out you must do or say something different to engage your audience today.  

Without the PR component advertising alone lacks credibility, third party endorsement and the ability to generate that elusive buzz to increase referrals.  Now Web 2.0, the latest in internet technologies, provides the missing link to complete the PR component with many different options available.  With the latest downturn in the country’s economy you can’t afford to lose existing or future customers.  Now is the time to reevaluate and update your current marketing plan to include Web 2.0 internet marketing tactics if you want to set your website apart.  

Don’t be left in the dust wondering what happened when you weren’t paying attention to your online competition.  The most valuable real estate you can own in any business is in your market’s mind.  Communicate with them on their terms in a format they are comfortable using.  It’s all up to you.  Are you going to be a leader on the digital road to success?  Or are you going to join the growing list of companies known as digital road-kill?

I’ve bludgeoned you all with survey results, spending information, and agency forecasts to drive home the point that a titanic shift is taking place from offline to online marketing. With 70% of product and service searches beginning online, it’s no surprise the marketing dollars are flowing in that direction, toward the people.

Your phone calls and emails are supportive but many of you are experiencing issues with your leadership. This is what I’m told:

Senior management refuses to act and are ignoring their own real-world experiences, since they too use Google and make purchases online. That frustrates people.  Here’s what that sounds like over the phone: “We sit around and talk about web-commerce and being found on Google all the time, but we never decide anything…” Line two: “We know our web-strategy is poor but we have other priorities that we're more comfortable working on, so that’s where our time and money goes. I guess it’s a comfort thing but it’s costing us sales.”

In second place (sorry senior management), leadership is dumb. Ever heard that one before? The grumbling comes because senior management says they believe the data and think of themselves as fairly web-literate. Really? One very frustrated VP said, “I’ve been pounding the table for over a year and they just don’t get it.” Another person said, “We spent a lot of money on a good website and they (senior management) actually think we’re done. That no other actions are required…it’s amazing.”

The grumbling and accusations are not new to senior managers. It’s no fun but when knowledge and action fail to intersect, they take the brunt of the storm. It comes with the big check.

The solution is having a clear marketing strategy that begins with a web-strategy. That’s right, new marketing strategies begin on the web, not the other way around.

Here’s the image:

It’s a three-part strategy that forms a virtuous cycle, with each part supporting the other two and all of them supported by traditional marketing tactics. The results are clearer messaging, better branding, new sales leads, increased revenue, higher margins and a lower cost-to-serve model. It’s a very productive cycle.

1. Social media locations like YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, or whatever works for your company, are great for having direct conversations with your customers. You need to know what they’re thinking. It’s Marketing 101 stuff; only the data-collection tools have changed. You can call your customers if you want but you’ll probably get voicemail. They’re online.
2. The reason social media activity is important is because it will improve your rankings on the search engines. That means all those great products and services you offer, as well as that fantastic website you invested in, can actually be found by customers. Did I mention 70% of product and service searches begin online, mostly on Google?
3. Marketing generated action, such as Blogs, search engine optimization (SEO) strategies, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and adding videos and photos to your site, not only provide fodder for social media, they also drive search engine rankings. Google bought YouTube so it’s no surprise that YouTube videos rank high in Google’s algorithms.

Traditional marketing doesn’t go away, advertising and print media still have their role. It’s a supporting role.

The payoff for all this strategy is more website traffic to drive sales. Finally, something we can all agree on.

Steve