technology
DRIVING TRAFFIC
Mythbusting online
marketing to seniors
Digital marketing has often been
positioned as a tool to capture
the youth market, but the truth
is our ageing population is also
online and ready for business.
By Sabri Suby
S
eniors are the generation that digital
forgot. But as the Australian population
ages, the number of people entering
the Baby Boomer (65+) age group makes this
segment the fastest growing demographic.
By 2020, seniors will hit 16 per cent of
the Australian population and it is time
organisations realised that a digital marketing
solution can be a very effective game plan.
Not only is the 65+ demographic
growing, they also make up a good chunk
of online shoppers. According to finder.com,
31 per cent of online shoppers are Baby
Boomers but advertisers ignore them in
favour of their younger counterparts.
So what opportunities are there
for businesses to reach this market
through a digital strategy? Let’s Get Care
partnered with King Kong to tap into this
demographic, resulting in a 400 per cent
increase in clients that smashed all targets.
THE OLD RULES STILL APPLY
Let’s Get Care is a home care package
provider that supports older Australians to
remain living safely in their own home. The
end-user is typically over the age of 65,
with the average age being 82.
36 agedcareinsite.com.au
While the 65+ demographic accounts
for nearly a third of all online shoppers,
they aren’t online as frequently as younger
generations, accounting for less traffic.
This means businesses need to effectively
convert the traffic they do get. Our approach
began with a bid to optimise conversion so
any traffic that landed on Let’s Get Care had
the best chance of converting.
In this case, the tried and true rules of
conversion applied. The copy needed to
hook the visitors immediately, as well as be
straightforward and easy to understand.
Images were also part of the arsenal. They
needed to show people who were relatable,
while standing out from competitors – no
cheesy stock photos here!
The one key change we made in order
to target this demographic was in the call
to action. We always suggest businesses
pull their traffic along a funnel, converting
visitors to leads with an irresistible offer. For
example, enticing them to download a free
report or ebook, to capture their contact
details, and then following up on warm
leads from there. However, a portion of the
Baby Boomer demographic appeared less
receptive to downloading ebooks, likely
stemming from a greater mistrust of the
internet. So this was combined with a ‘Call
Now’ call-to-action button.
The ‘Call Now’ copy was equally
prominent on the landing page, and this
helped increase conversions and build a
greater sense of trust. Having a physical
number to call reassured visitors to the
website that Let’s Get Care was a legitimate
organisation with a physical presence.
Collectively, these improvements saw
a 12 per cent increase in the website
conversion rate. And when you drive huge
numbers of traffic to your site, that kind of
increase in conversions results in a massive
number of enquiries. And remember, ROI is
the ultimate victory.
Once the website was optimised to
convert, we dialled up the traffic using
Google AdWords. The goal for the
AdWords campaign was to continually
increase the number of leads generated for
Let’s Get Care while acquiring these leads
at the lowest possible cost.
As with any digital marketing, it’s never
‘set and forget’.
Success comes down
to how you adjust elements
of the campaign after
continual testing.
Each month the AdWords specialist
and account manager would assess the
campaign by monitoring the data, then
optimise elements — the effectiveness
of keywords, ad copy and targeting – to
improve results.
We also trialled new keywords and ad
copy to compare market responses – this
is something we constantly do. Since
starting the lead acquisition campaign
there has been a 30 per cent increase in
leads generated directly from AdWords
and a 47 per cent decrease in the
cost-per-lead.
Another issue we noted was the poor
conversion rate from mobile traffic.
Once Let’s Get Care optimised its site
for mobile users and altered the ‘device
type’ in its AdWords campaign, it saw an
incredible 188 per cent uplift in mobile
traffic conversions.
All up, this represents a 400 per cent
increase in Let’s Get Care’s client base,
which has prompted the business to move
into bigger premises.
More than 60 per cent of leads from
the organisation’s digital marketing came
from people over the age of 55, which
tells us that people in this demographic
are actively searching on Google for
products and services they need. This
is clear evidence that the aged care
industry – and any business targeting the
more senior demographic – shouldn’t
dismiss digital marketing as a tool to
acquire customers.
Older customers are online and they are
ready for your business. ■
Sabri Suby is the founder of full-service
digital marketing agency King Kong.
Based in Melbourne, King Kong has
clients across Australia and overseas.