The Generation Gap

Scott and I have noticed a pattern when talking to small business owners about internet marketing, especially when it comes to creating a website for them. The older the business owner, the more likely he or she is to believe that the traditional forms of marketing are the way to go. These business owners believe that the sole purpose of a website is to give out more information about their business, and that putting their website address on their other outbound marketing tools is all they need to do. They believe that the best way to increase sales is get their message in front of as many people as possible, whether or not the consumer wants to hear or see that message. Outbound marketing tools like Direct Mail, Television Commercials, Radio Advertising and Print Ads are their world, and a website is just another sign on another highway. If they could afford to rent a billboard, they would, but a website is the next best thing.

These business owners see the internet as “too big” to get involved in, and don’t understand the value of engaging potential customers/clients in any way until they walk through the front door, money in hand.

Where Traditional Marketing Often Fails

It doesn’t matter to them that an entire generation of people — I’d venture they range in age from teen to early or late 30’s — use DVRs to fast forward through television commercials, or that they simply watch their programs online. This same younger generation uses iPods and satellite radio in their cars so they don’t have to be bothered with advertisements. They get their news online and will never see a print ad, and they’ve learned to tune out banner ads while they’re at it. This tech-proficient generation is so inundated with information, when they get “junk mail” most of it ends up in the recycling bin without ever being read. They want the older business owner’s services and products, but unless the business can reach them, they have little or no idea the business even exists.

In a nutshell, a business using outbound marketing tools will rarely reach anyone of the tech-proficient generation.

I’m in my late 40’s, and they won’t reach me. But that’s because I belong to a subset of the “older business owner” world, a subset who spends almost all of their free time online, building relationships, and often building them with that younger generation. We’re women. Women of all ages. We use the internet’s relationship-building strengths to drive business to our own doors, and we’re doing so in droves. And if you want to reach us with your marketing message, you’d better be doing it online, because that’s where we already are.

You’d better be using inbound marketing.

Inbound Marketing and Relationships

Inbound marketing is the practice of reaching out to your target market is such a way that they are driven to engage with your brand online, and eventually offline as well. Most of inbound marketing is based on relationship-building with your target market.

Women understand relationships and seek them out. It often comes naturally to us, so inbound marketing is a no-brainer for this subset of business owners. We also see inbound marketing as a great way to combine our natural bent for relationships with making a living in our businesses.

Yes, we get paid to be online, if we’re using our time wisely and we understand at least the basics of inbound marketing.

Inbound Marketing Tools

Inbound marketing tools include blogging and social media, especially on social media platforms where your market congregates. For most small businesses and their markets, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are the big guns right now. Use social media to build relationships, then drive traffic to your blog or website, where you can show off your services, products, and expertise further. A well-written, thoughtful blog is a powerful tool for targeting your market even more directly, and building your online credibility and visibility.

Using video on your website offers interactivity with the person who’s found you through your outbound or inbound marketing efforts, and puts a face and a personality behind your brand. There are hundreds of ways to use video to increase your credibility and visibility online. Read “Using Video To Inspire Confidence In Your Brand” to see how Steve St. Onge, owner of Rhode Island Kitchen & Bath, uses video to drive sales once web traffic comes his way through his other marketing efforts.

I love the way KayakFishingSupplies.com uses web video on their own YouTube channel to give tips and show off their expertise, at the same time they’re increasing their search engine ranking and establishing their brand online. (Thanks to George Ross, a web designer, photographer, and SEO pro, for sharing!)

For businesses of any size, a critical inbound marketing tool is search engine optimization, to make sure your brand is on the radar when a potential customer is searching for your services without having the benefit of having seen your website address anywhere. Blogging, video and social media all work together to increase your website’s SEO rankings, when they’re done with SEO in mind. Small businesses who use the relational power of inbound marketing, combined with SEO and search engine marketing efforts, have an immediate and incredible advantage over those who don’t.

Again, women of all ages lead the pack in this arena of marketing, except among younger people who inherently understand that since the internet is home to their generation, that’s where their heaviest marketing efforts should be targeted. Sadly, an entire generation of business owners is missing out and falling by the wayside, unless we can get across to them that there are millions of people online who are interested in learning more about them.

But how do we do it?

Have you seen this generation and gender gap yourself when talking to people about marketing their businesses? How do you get across to the older generation of business owner that they’re missing the wave and paddling in shallow waters when they only use outbound marketing tools?

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Michelle handles all Social Media for New England Multimedia. You can contact her by email, on our Facebook, or on our Twitter.