Marketing to Seniors 101: 6 Considerations for Leveraging Content Offers in Senior Living

With the senior population projected to comprise 19 percent of the population by 2030, marketers in all industries are starting to consider how to use content offers to turn seniors into customers.

Whether you're growing your own medical practice, trying to reach an elderly audience for a product launch, or wanting to acquire new residents for a senior living community, content marketing can be a really effective way to reach an elderly audience.

What Is a Content Offer?

A content offer is a valuable piece of information that is leveraged to gather contact information on websites. Content offers help marketers generate leads from their company’s website and can be delivered in a number of formats, such as: 

• E-book: X Ways to Stay Active After Retirement
• Template: Weekly Healthy Eating Chart
• Webinar: Q&A on Senior Living Costs with the Experts

Content offers are an integral part of your customer’s buying process. Actually, content offers can simplify the buying process by educating website visitors about problems you help them solve and build trust. Here are six things we recommend you consider when marketing to seniors through content offers.

1. Build Trust

Trust is something that is important to sales and marketing with a target prospect of any age, but it is especially important for seniors. Use “stamps of approval” on your website to show that you can be trusted. Testimonials, certifications, and awards can all be used to show that your content offers are worth exchanging information for. 

2. Don’t Assume Seniors Are All Alike

The term “senior” can theoretically apply to anyone older than the age of 50. With that in mind, seniors who range in age from 50 to 100 are significantly different from one another. In some cases, a woman in her eighties is more likely to be widowed and less active, while a man in his early sixties may be working and married. But seniors cover the gamut of lifestyles and experiences, which is why your buyer personas are crucial for creating content offers.

With that said, there are some data trends with seniors that should be considered in developing and launching content offers—just keep in mind that you should always carefully evaluate whether those trends will apply to your audience.

3. Develop Offers for the Children or Loved Ones of Seniors

When your target audience includes seniors who are significantly influenced by their children or loved ones, create offers that appeal to those influencers. For example, “How to Tell if a Parent Requires Senior Living” is a content offer that would appeal to a concerned child.

4. Integrate Online and Offline Marketing

Although seniors are becoming more and more tech savvy and digitally connected, they do still frequently engage with offline content. There are several ways you can integrate online and offline offers, including: 

• Make it easy to print e-books and other online content.
• Invite seniors to view your website content offers through offline media.
• For brick-and-mortar companies, offer exclusive online offers to bring seniors to your storefront.

5. Promote Offers on Social Media

According to data from Mashable, 60 percent of 50 to 64 year olds and 43 percent of Americans over the age of 65 actively use social media. With more seniors adopting social media every day, there is a big advantage to spreading the word about your content offers through social media.

6. Use the Right Design Elements

Seniors are more likely to have vision problems, which means it's important to keep your website design simple. Use a lot of white space and larger fonts; avoid using green, blue, or yellow; and use imagery of active, happy seniors that best represent the senior population you're targeting.