Stephan Baldwin is the Director of Business Development for Assisted Living Center, a resource for senior care communities.
If your app is one that the elderly would find useful, then you know that it can be difficult to break into that demographic. The following tips will make it much easier for you to reach your potential senior customers.
1. Make it Simple Without Oversimplifying
Many seniors are not as tech-savvy as other age groups, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t quick learners who are eager to broaden their horizons. Because of this reason, it’s important to simplify – without making your content too simple.
Simplicity is nice, but seniors don’t like to feel as if they’re being talked down to – no one likes it! Make your content and your approach easy to understand without making it so bare-bones that it loses users’ interest. Add elements that are instinctive and easy to understand, and do all you can to avoid seeming as though you’re condescending to the elderly demographic.
2. Find the Right Balance
Work to give your marketing approach the right balance of textual information and visual aspects. This will help provide your desired demographic with the information they need to make an educated decision about your app – without being overly focused on details.
Finding the right balance can make all the difference in the demographic you attract and keep. A well-balanced campaign is not only more beneficial and effective, it also gives your users a feeling of security, as it shows your investment in your app and that you want to help your app’s users.
3. Provide the Facts
Senior citizens, like just about every other age group, value information. While younger generations tend to react best to visual elements, seniors are more attracted to straight information, without all the bells and whistles. As mentioned above, find a way to incorporate the textual information that seniors desire while still adding elements of fun such as visuals and .gifs, which are common in more recent advertising campaigns.
4. Be Ready for Questions
For the most part, senior citizens aren’t afraid of asking questions. In order to better understand your app and make the best possible purchasing decision, they’ll likely have a question or two. If you launch an intense marketing campaign with an email address or phone number included, be prepared to answer questions thoroughly and accurately.
Your answers should alleviate any fears or concerns that your potential user could have. It’s best to map out potential questions, find the best possible answers, and either post the questions and answers as a FAQ page on your app’s website, or give your customer service team access to this list. Questions can also help you, the app owner, to fill in holes or gaps that may be present.
5. Make it Accessible
Though the internet is the main means of information transfer these days, it’s important that you keep other, more traditional marketing venues open as well. Magazine articles, newspaper ads, books, television commercials, radio ads, and more are all means of accessing the elderly demographic, on top of whatever internet marketing you have planned. You want to ensure that your potential users know about your app, and marketing offline as well as online will ensure that more folks are in tune with what you have to offer.
With the right information and techniques, you can successfully push your app into the senior demographic. What other methods can you think of for reaching senior citizens and encouraging them to download your app?
