Dental implant marketing has a unique opportunity in marketing that often goes unrecognized. Here it is: Our target audience is primarily senior citizens and those approaching that status – let’s just say people over the age of 50.
Why is this such a unique opportunity?
For a few answers, we’ll briefly recap the points from the blog post entitled Four Major Reasons to Sharpen Your Senior Focus.
- The demographic is exploding, expected to reach 98 million people and make up 24% of the US population by 2060.
- Seniors need the most dental implants. (This is not news to dentists, of course, but the sheer number of edentulous (without teeth) people over the age of 65 – 1 in 5 is the number- still surprises many people.)
- Seniors control the most wealth. People over the age of 50 control approximately 75% of the nation’s household wealth and spend over 50% of the purchasing dollars.
- Older Adults Have Greater Trust in Authority Figures and Institutions. Marketing to seniors is easier in many ways than marketing to youngsters, especially when we’re talking about marketing by an older profession like dentistry, because institutional trust levels are higher.
You would think that marketing to seniors should be HIGH on the agenda of every business in America!
Yet, quoting from the Harvard Business Review, “to many businesses, people over 50 might as well be invisible. Only an estimated 5 to 10% of marketing budgets are devoted to winning them over. Only 5% of advertising images of people over 50 show them using technology, and even then, it’s usually a younger person teaching an older person how to use a device.”
Quoting further, “When people in this demographic are shown in ads, they’re often presented in a negative light. Portrayals of those over 50 are negative 28% of the time, compared to only 4% of the time for younger people. Seventy percent of the time, people in this demographic are shown in ‘isolated situations — often seated, alone, with a partner, or with a medical professional where they were the recipients of care,’ the AARP reported. That is, when they’re shown at all: ‘While 46% of the U.S. adult population is age 50-plus, only 15% of [online] images containing adults include people this age,’ a recent AARP study found.”
Wow! Did you realize that ad coverage of seniors was that sparse?
Don’t you think somebody might be able to find some opportunity in this situation?
The Tremendous Advantage Held by Dental Implant Marketing
Here are 4 reasons that dental implant marketing enjoys a tremendous advantage.
1. Seniors, in general, are CRAVING hope!
Dental implant marketing is all about offering powerful hope for their smiles – an area that is highly important to seniors because so many know they need help. Indeed, HOPE is intrinsically built into our marketing!
Dental implant marketing ads showcase people over 50 doing things that many older adults fear they will never do again.
- Dining confidently in company
- Smiling and laughing without embarrassment
- Eating apples, corn, and steak without worrying about their dentures.
We must always remember that we are reaching out to people who know that they’re not young anymore, but they still desperately want to enjoy life!
Their teeth have them worried, however. They find themselves embarrassed of smiling, dreading family occasions with their accompanying pictures, and fighting depression due to their declining self-image.
The fear of being judged by others or themselves is greater than their desire for the pleasure of connection with others.
And dental implant marketing offers these people HOPE!
2. We can easily stand out from general advertising due to our content.
Go back and re-read that quotation from the Harvard Review. In advertising, older people are shown in negative situations 7X more often than younger people!
What an opportunity for us to show pictures of people over 50 in flamboyantly positive terms! No more sitting, taking their medicine, recipients of care – dental implant marketing gets to show older adults up, active, and having a good time with their loved ones!
Seniors respond well to these positive portrayals in advertising, because they’re really not used to them. Those of us involved in dental implant marketing get to stand out just because almost every other marketing niche wants to appeal only to YOUTH!
And, isn’t standing out in the crowded field what it’s all about?
Talk about a built-in advantage!
Drawing again from the above quotation, we have a built-in advantage just to show seniors in our advertising at all! Only about 1/6 of online images picturing adults show people considered to be over the age of 50!
There aren’t many fields in advertising where competition is this limited!
3. Seniors are adopting social media and technology at a rapid clip.
This is good news for dental implant marketing since so much of it happens on social media. (In fact, here’s the real truth: For almost every industry, the potential for real growth in online advertising lies in the senior demographic.)
Look at the following infographic:
Although social media use has remained relatively constant among Millennials since 2012, older generations have each grown between 12 and 19 percentage points.
This represents an incredible number of new pairs of eyes and ears interacting with your ads!
And knowing that these are largely SENIOR eyes and ears gives you the inside track in your advertising!
4. Today’s seniors want to break the mold of aging.
Dental implant marketers should also remember this: Today’s seniors want to age differently than their parents and grandparents did. They are actually focused on ANTI-AGING.
(Since Baby Boomers have broken the mold for every demographic that they have passed through, there is no reason that they would stop now. And Gen Xers seem to harbor similar ambitions.)
Those over 50 are not nearly as “set in their ways” as many people believe. They are anxious to do and try things that they may feel that they missed earlier in their lives.
Any business that taps into the potential that these 110+ million people represent, stands to gain.
And dental implant marketing is perfectly poised to do just that!
Would you like help to better reach this growing demographic with your dental implant marketing?
For help getting this message out to the older adults in your community, reach out to Client Connection Group Today!
We have years of experience in educating seniors with our social media expertise, and we can’t wait to help you reach your goals as well!
Also by Client Connection Group:
Rewards of Building Goodwill Through Dental Implant Advertisin