What is Generational Marketing and why should I use it in 2023?

More than anyone else, marketers are aware of how crucial audience segmentation is to the success of a brand’s marketing efforts. Marketers must know which channels and types of content resonate with various target audiences the most because there are many different ad types accessible for businesses to leverage.

Generational Marketing

By considering how trends, advancements, and events affected a given age group’s upbringing, generational marketing uses techniques to understand how an age group acts from a consumer point of view. Four generations presently dominate the market. Your product or service and marketing strategy must consider the distinct tastes of each of these four generations. These generations are:

Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964)
Gen X (born between1965 and 1980)
Millennials (born between1981 and 1996)
Gen Z (born between1997 and 2012)

Why should I use generational marketing?

By using generational marketing, you can better understand your audience, engage with them in meaningful ways, and raise brand awareness. Marketing is not a one-size-fits-all activity; but also, rather than concentrating on a small group, you can target a larger audience. Cross-generational marketing helps you diversify your brand and enhance your return on content investment while cultivating client loyalty. You can tweak your marketing initiatives and social media to make them more appealing to different generations. If your message directly answers their needs, segmenting your material to the appropriate group will enhance conversion and improve communication.

Targeting each generation

Compared to Boomers, Gen X spends more time on social media but less time than Millennials and Gen Z (Zoomers). Generations across the board use social media for product research or purchases, with Millennials and Zoomers communicating with brands the most. There are a few similarities, which is good news. Email is the preferred contact method for most generations who seek personalised communication from the brands they support. At the moment, Millennials, Boomers, and members of Generation X favour it most. After social media, email is ranked second by Gen Z.

You can work on grasping each generation’s characteristics and attitudes to design your content marketing tactics once you have a firm handle on their preferred communication platforms. For example:

Baby Boomers

Contrary to popular belief, the baby boomer generation embraces new technology but is most receptive to traditional marketing. You should be cautious when marketing to them even though they are open to new technology and are on the internet. It’s best to speak directly and unambiguously to this generation because slang or acronyms could confuse them. Avoid using the word “old” and create age-specific content.

They are the generation with the biggest purchasing power and brand loyalty. Simple and useful information about the brand can aid customers in making informed judgments regarding content.

Gen X

Given that the majority of Gen X is at the height of their professions, Gen Xers are more financially secure than Millennials and Gen Z. Due to this, and the fact that they grew up during numerous recessions, they are picky consumers who search for the greatest deals.

While Gen Xers are still attentive to traditional marketing techniques, they are also open to more contemporary approaches like email marketing, social media, and customer service promotions. They will be won over by loyalty programs and by offering coupons and discounts because they enjoy getting benefits and adding value to their purchases.

Millennials

Brands specifically target millennials since they represent the largest market among all generations. The internet and peer recommendations are important factors in Millennials’ purchasing decisions because they were raised with modern technologies and social media.

Except for word-of-mouth advertising, they are unresponsive to conventional marketing techniques. Most millennials read product evaluations before making a purchase. Therefore, blogs are a well-liked content marketing strategy to reach them.

Millennials value research, so if you want them to buy from you, support your items with user testimonials on your official social media accounts and website.

Gen Z

Visual material is something that Gen Z adores beyond anything else. Gen Z is responsible for the growth of short-form video services like TikTok. Reels are a feature that apps like Instagram added in response to the short-form video craze, so you can utilise it to promote to Gen Z.

Gen Z will not be as interested in text-heavy content but eager to learn new facts through “bits and pieces” content. For Gen Z, influencer marketing is effective, but they prefer uniqueness. Even if one of their favourite celebrities supports a product, they will still examine the product and the business to see whether they can support it.

In conclusion

Despite the various marketing strategies that each generation demands, marketers must keep empathy in mind when conducting generational marketing. Marketing professionals must comprehend and relate to their target audience. Generational demographics are important in understanding how age affects how content is delivered and received, even though not all members of a given age group are the same.

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