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Developing an effective marketing strategy will be quite a challenge for a startup or entrepreneur. The goal is to reach as many people in your goal market as possible without breaking the bank. Because small businesses don’t have the same resources as large corporations, every marketing dollar have to be spent rigorously.
We currently live in an era where multiple generations coexist in the marketplace, each with unique preferences and behaviors. For some brands, this poses a significant challenge for marketers who must navigate an increasingly fragmented landscape to reach their goal audiences.
There are seven fundamental generations in the market today – the silent generation, baby boomers, generation X, millennials, generation Z and generation alpha. Given that these generations span roughly a century, it ought to be no surprise that marketing practices to reach each generation will vary. The excellent news is that there are some consistent practices you may employ to reach the majority of your audience at once without much effort. For entrepreneurs and marketers in small businesses, it is extremely necessary to understand how to build a unified marketing strategy.
Why is each generation so different?
Every generation is completely different when it comes to searching for products, interacting with brands and making purchases. The fundamental factor is the impact that technology has had on each of those groups. It is necessary to remember that older generations didn’t have the same access to technology as younger generations do today, resulting in various levels of trust, openness and access to information and promoting.
The Silent Generation (born 1928–1945) and the Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964) grew up in the pre-Internet era. Most of the promoting they have been exposed to and proceed to respond to involves traditional media similar to television commercials and print promoting. This group is more than likely to trust recommendations from close friends and family.
The earliest people to come into contact with technology include Generation X (born 1965–1980) and millennials (born 1981–1996). These two generations accessed the early phases of the Internet as children or young adults. These groups tend to be more tech-savvy and comfortable with each digital and traditional promoting messages. Gen X tends to be a bit more skeptical of marketing, while Millennials are the most interested brands that align with their personal values.
The youngest generations, Generation Z (born 1997–2012) and Alpha (born 2013–2025), have never experienced the pre-internet world. They are often called “digital natives” who rely heavily on social media, mobile devices and video content.
Creating a uniform marketing strategy
To effectively reach multi-generational audiences, entrepreneurs must rigorously develop a marketing strategy that includes a number of various techniques. For any multi-generational marketing strategy to achieve success, it should incorporate three key elements – data-driven insights, personalization, and omnichannel reach.
1. Data-driven insights
Marketing to a wide selection of demographic groups can create challenges when it comes to measuring campaign effectiveness. By using data analytics tools, marketers gain invaluable insight into consumer behavior and discover which generations respond to their marketing messages. This information will help business owners track campaign performance and modify their strategy over time if one or more groups are not responding well to the campaign.
2. Personalized marketing
Marketing tools now offer a wide selection of personalization options that allow firms to create unique marketing messages for individuals based on their online behavior and activity, preferences and recent interaction with the brand. According to one McKinsey study three quarters of all consumers admit that after receiving personalized marketing, they are more likely to purchase a given brand. Many of those tools use artificial intelligence, which allows the company to create campaigns tailored to the needs of each generation without having to employ a huge marketing or content creation team.
3. Multi-channel marketing
Every generation seems to congregate in consistent corners of the web. For example, baby boomers are more likely to spend time on Facebook, while Gen Z prefers platforms like TikTok. Creating compelling content is a good first step in any digital marketing strategy. However, to reach multi-generational audiences, chances are you’ll need to adapt your content to multiple channels.
The excellent news is that most content will be reused across multiple platforms with little effort. For example, an entire podcast video will be posted to YouTube, and short clips of the same recording will be uploaded to TikTok. To take it further, video content will be quickly turned into a whitepaper and uploaded to Facebook. Using strategies like this is the best way to create multi-channel content without having to create completely recent content for each platform individually.
Whether you wish to maximize sales or expand to a recent goal group, the key to success is understanding the unique characteristics of each generation and implementing a comprehensive marketing strategy. Entrepreneurs and small businesses that can reach across generations will more than likely avoid limiting their marketing reach.