1. The Silent Migration
6 insights into engaging seniors in the online space
Rob Reger,
SVP, Data
Solutions
Epsilon
Kevin Sacher
President
American Mint
Trish Mathe
VP, Database
Marketing
Life Line Screening
Steve Schlumpf
SVP, Marketing
Haband
Denis McSweeney
Director BS&A
AARP
2. How well do you know your seniors?
1. What makes them different?
2. What are the challenges marketers face
when encouraging seniors to transact
online?
3. What opportunities are available
to migrate seniors online and have
them embrace the change?
3. Insight 1: Engaging seniors online is a real challenge
• Studies show that consumers over
65 continue to prefer offline
communications and transactions.
• Epsilon’s Channel Preference Study
has consistently found that direct mail
is the more trustworthy marketing
channel and is preferred by older
audiences.
• Most organizations struggle to
persuade seniors to convert their
offline behaviors to online. How do
you migrate the seniors audience to
the online space?
5. 47% 43% 70%53% 57% 30%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Abacus Cooperative
Average
50-65 Year Olds 66+ Year Olds
2010 trends Offline
Online
42% 40% 68%58% 60% 32%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Abacus Cooperative
Average
50-65 Year Olds 66+ Year Olds
2011 trends Offline
Online
40% 38% 67%60% 62% 33%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Abacus Cooperative
Average
50-65 Year Olds 66+ Year Olds
2012 trends Offline
Online
37% 35% 66%63% 65% 34%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Abacus Cooperative
Average
50-65 Year Olds 66+ Year Olds
2013 trends Offline
Online
The shift in channel preference
6. The online channel is experiencing growth
each year across the board
Overall, more than 60% of purchases
are made online
In the last 4 years, seniors ages 55–65
have increased online shopping by 8%
In the last 4 years, seniors ages 66+
have increased online shopping by 4%
While these are small YOY increases,
the younger senior group’s increase
doubled the older senior group
55 to 65 and 66+ engage differently
Insight 2: Seniors do not all behave equally
7. overall purchase behavior
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18%
2011 2012 2013
Abacus Cooperative Overall
$ Trans HHs AOV $/HH Trans/HH
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18%
20%
2011 2012 2013
50-65 Year Olds
$ Trans HHs AOV $/HH Trans/HH
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
2011 2012 2013
66+ Year Olds
$ Trans HHs AOV $/HH Trans/HH
Key findings:
All KPIs are up over the previous year
co-op wide
The 50-65 year old market is outpacing
the national average in sales growth and
active households
The 66+ year old market is still growing,
but at a slower-than-average rate
8. 55–65 66+
Boomers entering this category
More online savvy
More credit affinity
Universe is still increasing
Boomer migration
Higher life expectancy
Still pay through the mail
Use checks or money
orders
Some as high as 80% (50%
plus the norm in most)
• DTC offers
• Sweepstakes
• Collectibles
• Fundraising
• Publishing
Insight 3: Segmenting your seniors is a good idea
9. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
50-65 Year Olds 66+ Year Olds
2010
2011
2012
2013
Both age groups are
comfortable online,
showing growth each
year
The % of households
converting online
is accelerating in
the most recent
12 months
Insight 4: Senior online purchase behavior is increasing!
10. Insight 5: Capitalize on data trends for 50–65 year
olds when targeting online offers
2% growth
Arts & crafts
Collectibles
Backyard gardening
Positive growth
Children’s apparel
Fundraising
Health & wellness
Home décor
Media
Sports
Active wear & outdoor
Gifts
0% growth
Tools & electronics
–4% decline
Senior health goods
11. Insight 5: Capitalize on data trends for 66+ year
olds when targeting online offers
2% growth
Children’s apparel
Gifts
Health & wellness
Home décor
Senior products
Sports
Active wear
Outdoor
Negative
fluctuations
Arts & crafts
Collectibles
Fundraising
Garden & backyard
12. Insight 6: Let data drive your senior targeted
segmentation strategy
SENIORS 50+
OFFER | LIST | CREATIVE
BEFORE
Prospecting segmentation!
50–65
Active
purch in
A
Lifestyle
A
High $
50–65
Active
purch in
B
Lifestyle
B
Low $
66+
Active
purch in
C
66+
Active
purch in
D
70+
Active
purch in
E
AFTER
13. Case in point
Kevin Sacher
President
American Mint
Trish Mathe
VP, Database
Marketing
Life Line Screening
Steve Schlumpf
SVP, Marketing
Haband
Denis McSweeney
Director BS&A
AARP
14. About Haband
“You’ll never get a better deal!”
That’s been the motto of the Haband Company
ever since it’s beginning back in 1925. Originally,
the company sold handmade ties at a few local
banks. But once the founder got the great idea to
take photographs of the ties and mail those
“advertisements” to banks, the business was off
and running.
Today, Haband is the headquarters for savings to
over 5 million customers, and it’s still growing.
15. 4 steps to understanding your senior buyers
Break out your senior
group by age1
2
3
4
Show what items are
selling best to the
different groups
Generate data
regarding what is being
bought by your
customers
Cater your marketing
16. Break out your seniors by age
0 to 12 month 2X+
# of Cust Response % AOV $ Per Cust
Age % Index Index Index
0 to 54 6.1% 99% 106% 91%
55 to 64 10.7% 99% 107% 92%
65 to 74 20.4% 97% 107% 101%
75 to 84 33.5% 102% 98% 104%
85+ 16.8% 102% 93% 100%
Unknown 12.4% 99% 98% 98%
Total 100% 100% 100%
Given the population growth in the 65+ age group and
different performance at various age groups, you need to
break out your customers by age groups—don’t stop at
age 75!
1
17. Research which items are selling the best
to different age groups
Break out product
purchases by age
group
Find the % of the
demand
Compare the
differences of each
individual age
group and their
purchases
For example:
• Age 75+ is 50% of the demand
• Age 75+ group comprised 55% of the
demand for dress shirts
• Therefore, dress shirts are being bought
proportionally better by the age 75+
group
Consider doing this age
analysis by style and
merchandise categories
Show the differences to the
marketing, merchandise, and
creative departments
2
18. Analyze data to learn what is being bought
by customers in the age group segments
3
Lifestyle
differences
Order
incentives
Sweepstakes
Continuity
19. Cater your marketing4
Copy is important
Use relevant headlines
Remember, members of this
group are readers!
20. Checklist for increasing online demand penetration
1
•Increased order incentives
2
•Make a benefit slogan the feature of your advertising
3
•Be specific about benefits (e.g., more SKUs, faster shipping, more clearance, etc.)
4
•Utilize targeted alternation if seniors are responding better to a specific item or copy
5
•Seek out partners and drop ship programs that offer other items that your seniors want
6
•Seniors are especially active in the fundraising area, so use your company’s activities to
generate content for blog posts or in print
7
•Gather email addresses! Incentivize phone operators and include in print advertising.
8
•Use some catalog space to promote online as a special information source
22. About Life Line Screening
Since our inception in 1993, we have screened
nearly 8 million people, and currently screen 1
million people each year at over 16,000 screening
events nationwide.
Through this experience, we often identify serious
health issues and have helped save thousands of
lives. We are dedicated to providing the highest
quality preventative screenings at affordable
rates.
23. •Life Line Screening, Inc. is the leading provider of
community-based preventative health screenings in the
U.S.
•Our mission is to make people aware of unrecognized
health problems and encourage them to seek follow-up
care with their personal physician.
Who we are
•Disease can be present before symptoms occur
•Doctors do not prescribe testing for asymptomatic
individuals without other relevant risk factors
•Resulting problem: Individuals remain at risk for a
catastrophic event.
Why screen?
•Preventative screenings
•Life Line Screening, Inc. screens over 1 million people
annually on 3 continents and holds over 20,000 screening
events each year.
Solution
Life Line Screening, Inc.
24. Screening process: The patient experience
Screening
scheduled
Participant
screened
Results letter
mailed
• By phone or online • At a local venue
(church, community
center, etc.)
• Results reviewed by a
board-certified
physician
• Within 3 weeks
• Advised to share with
physician for appropriate
follow up
• If anything critical is found,
patient is provided a
“Doctor’s Review Kit”
immediately and advised to
go to physician or ER within
24 hours
25. Social strategy
Last year, Life Line Screening evolved
toward social-based community to
support our future retention goals.
• While email marketing has proven effective at driving
repeat customers, social provides a level of
engagement that cannot be matched.
• This also helps us create an army of defenders where
we can point media inquiries.
• Better engagement will lead to:
– Higher rescreening rates
– One-to-one customer interaction
– A platform for word of mouth marketing to allow our
members to share their experience with prospective
customers
28. Connecting our members with others
Crowdsourcing discussions
allow our members to get
support and learn from others
Members can ask questions that may
be answered by our Community
Advocates or by other members of
the site.
All questions are answered within 24
hours.
Marketing reviews the discussions
and other user-generated content for
ideas on products & services.
29. Educating our members
Keeping health top of mind
throughout the year
We want to keep our customers engaged in
managing their health throughout the year.
Our editors pick articles that are easily
digestible by our audience.
Of our 1 million email subscribers, over
95,000 read this news story featured in our
Life Long Health newsletter.
31. Creating “superfans”
Earning status in the
community
All members are allowed to post
articles, create discussions, and
respond to posts. However, it’s
the “superfans” that drive the
content and friendships within
the community.
We continue to reward the
superfans by allowing them to
earn badges through actions
taken in the community.
34. About AARP
Founded in 1958, AARP is a nonprofit,
nonpartisan membership organization that helps
people 50 and over improve the quality of their
lives.
AARP’s mission is to enhance the quality of life for
all as we age, leading positive social change and
delivering value to members through information,
advocacy, and service.
Membership dues are $16 for a one-year term.
36. Caregiving facts
32.6 million aged 40+ individuals
are caring for someone aged 50+
• Parent or relative: 82%
• Spouse or partner: 8%
• Friend or neighbor: 12%
Over two-thirds of caregiving
situations are long term
37. Caregiving facts
On average, caregivers spend 20.4
hours a week providing care
For caregivers…
• 15% care for someone more than
an hour’s distance away from their
home
• 35% have a heavy caregiving
burden
38. Caregiving facts
Information is a key need of
caregivers:
• Managing time:
caregiving v. other
responsibilities
• Dealing with emotional
stress
• Arranging backup
resources
• Financial burden from
providing caregiving
services
• Keeping their caregiving
recipient safe
39. Campaign analysis:
Caregiving themed month
•Increase engagements: as defined by page views
to the caregiving content of aarp.org during a
one-month period
OBJECTIVE
•Execute a consistent, integrated member
experience, demonstrating AARP has the
resources and tools to make it easier to manage
caregiving
STRATEGY
•50+ caregivers
•AARP email newsletter subscribers
•aarp.org
AUDIENCE
40. Campaign analysis: tactics
Caregiving Resource
Email
Webletter
Health
News
Member
Benefits
Alert
AARPTips
Billboard
Ads
PaidSearch
Caregiving Resource Center X X X X X X
8 Rules for New Caregivers X
Tools to Help Caregivers Communicate with Health Care
Professionals Webinar
X X
Balancing Work and Caregiving X
Caregivers Can Get Paid X
Long-Term Care Cost Calculator X
Caregiving Community X
Drug Interaction Checker X
Home Modifications Every Caregiver Should Know
Webinar
X
41. Caregiving email
results
3% of
clicks
10% of
clicks
80% of
clicks
Email 1
Audience: Caregiving model
Subject line: Get help caring
for those you love
Share of clicks:
• 80% resource center
• 10% living will
• 3% webinar
42. Caregiving email
results
4% of
clicks
84% of
clicks
Email 2
Audience: Female boomers
(ages 50–64)
Subject line: Make taking care
of a loved one easier
Share of clicks:
• 84% resource center
• 6% financial help
• 4% webinar
6% of
clicks
43. Caregiving email results
Similar open rates
The female boomer audience
had a higher CTO
What we learned
Resource Center “how-to”
guidance generated the most
interest
Audience selection impacts
the level of engagement (as
measured by CTO)
44. Member Benefit Alert (MBA)
monthly newsletter email
34% of
clicks
11% of clicks
6% of clicks
2% of
clicks
5% of
clicks
2% of
clicks
5% of
clicks
Caregiving
45. MBA newsletter results
While the MBA newsletter had a broader
audience, discounts and savings messaging
complete with social benefits messaging
(including caregiving)
Caregiving accounted for 2% of the total
clicks, similar to the Medicare open
enrollment webinar
46. Top 10 caregiving content pages
Get paid as a family caregiver (2)
Long-term care center
Housing options
Providing care
Legal & financial matters
Getting started
New caregivers rules
Get paid as a family caregiver
Balancing work & caregiving
Caregiving Resource Center
Health News
Email #1
2 emails & MBA
47. Caregiving resource center traffic
Visits
Page Views
Email #1
Email #2
MBA
Themed Month
Change in visits:
+340%
Change in page views:
+33%
48. Conclusions from caregiving month
Overall, the caregiving-themed month was
judged to be a success: 66% increase in
overall traffic
Follow-up testing has focused on targeting
and audience selection—relative to the
payback from added data costs
AARP views caregiving as an important part
of its social mission
49. Questions on engaging the
50+ audience
What types of online and offline engagement with AARP
are most meaningful to each 50+ individual?
How does this vary by segment?
How does this vary by generation (e.g., Baby Boomers
v. Gen X)?
How does this vary by financial health?
How can AARP link online and offline engagement to
provide meaningful benefits to each 50+ individual and,
over time, build and deepen their relationship with AARP?
50. Questions on engaging the
50+ audience
In engaging the 50+ segment, how does AARP best
balance different expectations of the AARP brand?
Social mission/advocacy
Discounts
Information
Insurance & health services
What is the best tradeoff in paying for information to
increase the accuracy of targeting v. allowing individuals to
self-select based on needs and interests?
51. Questions on engaging the
50+ audience
How can AARP best improve member experience and level
of engagement?
Personalization
Targeting
Communication frequency
Online/offline mix
Member control of the level and type of
communications received
Digital infrastructure for meeting tomorrow’s needs of
the 50+ age group
52. Questions on engaging the
50+ audience
How can AARP increase the percentage of members who
give AARP permission to engage with them digitally and
want AARP to engage with them digitally?
What is the role of social media and mobile devices in
engaging the 50+ segment?
53. About American Mint
Located near historic Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
American Mint is a leading provider of high-
quality collectible coins, knives, die-cast replicas,
and other memorabilia. As an international direct
mail marketer, American Mint serves millions of
serious collectors around the word.
American Mint guarantees commitment to
quality, product authenticity, and product
exclusivity.
