GenerationTarget.com - Mature Market News

Appealing to the 50+ Market Online - Part 2

Most web sites are still built for the young, by the young. Understanding what mature consumers respond to online is essential to developing effective web brands.

Though web activity is increasing fastest in the 50+ age group, many companies with active online presences are failing to modify their approach. Brand values need to be clearly conveyed on websites, in email newsletters, in online order forms and online checkouts. Tailoring your communications to reach a teenaged or twenty-something target market, you risk squandering the interest of very lucrative consumers in the 50+ range.

Marketing professionals tend to misunderstand or misjudge exactly what the differences are between their youthful and mature target markets. For one thing, while it's inaccurate to assume mature people are enfeebled, the truth is that reaction time slows and eyesight diminishes with age. Websites interested in courting mature consumers should stay away from small print, therefore, and from too much rapid-fire flash features. The US Financial Services industry found that web users over 55 took 40% longer and made 20% more errors than their juniors. Research by Nielsen Norman, the web usability consultants, found that web users over the age of 65 took 66% more time completing tasks than those aged 21-55. Yes, younger people tend to have more experience using the web, but this rate of difference is also tied to physical aging.

Considerations about the age of your target market should also play into the style of language you choose, the content of text and your choice of iconography. For mature market consumers, web sites should be simple to use and deliver what is required in as fast and painless way as possible. Fail to meet this requirement and you are probably trying site visitors' patience. Research suggests that people 50+ are dissatisfied by the majority of web sites in this regard.

Look at it this way – the world's most popular web site may also be the easiest site to use: Google. Its home page contains 37 words and lots of blank space, and it hardly changes from year to year. But most companies aren't so focused on simple and consistent structure. As web pages expand and get "improved," they lose their structure and become harder to use.

A home page jumbling color, images and links is sure to overwhelm the majority of visitors, and mature market consumers in particular. Too much choice and movement can make it difficult for older people to concentrate and navigate. Pop-ups are especially disastrous, but business can be damaged even by menus that are not mindful of the purposes for which visitors are using the site. "Dynamic menus" are especially unsuited to a mature target market – people with dexterity problems can have difficulty getting the cursor to go where they want, and this prevents them from making any selection off the menu.

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