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Pressing The Reset Button: The Gap Years / Part 3:
In the first two parts of this series, we discussed what the Third Age means for reverse mortgage professionals (Pressing the Reset Button/Part 1) and where to find (Pressing the Reset Button/Part 2) the inhabitants of this new demographic. Now the question is: how best to share reverse mortgage information with your evolving target market?
Seniors And The Internet
Reaching Reverse Mortgage Prospects Online
It’s safe to say that the Internet has captured all but the most diehard of the old guard. One woman I know learned to use a computer at age 90, and began sending email at 91. I recently saw a photo of a 99-year-old rapturously using her iPad. While these elders may be an exception, many people in their sixties and seventies have embraced technology; in a typical WIFI hotspot it’s common to find gray-haired laptop users side by side with people more than half their age.
Given that there are more seniors online all the time, and that Third Age adults are a dynamic departure from their forebears, new media is an ideal forum for reaching reverse mortgage prospects who may be online, enrolled in a distance learning course, researching a career change, blogging about health or civic leadership, or perhaps posting Facebook pictures of their recent archaeological adventure.
Online Reverse Mortgage Marketing Ideas
How can you engage this new demographic? Here are several ideas:
- Offer a no-cost webinar. Regardless of their midlife career savvy, many adults still need to get up to speed on financial planning for later life. You can parlay your expertise in financial assessment and home equity conversion mortgages to address the shifting requirements of today’s sixty-plus population.
- Create a LinkedIn profile. As the premier online business-networking platform, this is the logical place web savvy Third Agers might find you first. Once you have a LinkedIn profile, you can post updates — such as an upcoming webinar or in-person presentation.
- Set up a Facebook page. Create a reverse mortgage information portal: post excerpts with links to useful articles that help educate this demographic about the value of reverse mortgage to fund their dreams and goals. (check with your compliance department first)
- Tweet! Your Twitter account can supplement webinars, Facebook posts, articles, etc. Tweeting a few intriguing words with a link to other offerings will cross-promote the material you’re making available online.
With any social media (or print, in-person, and other forms of communication), you obviously want to be careful about compliance. By providing information and education, you’ll perform a tremendous public service, and generate interest in reverse mortgage among your target market.
In Part 4, we’ll discuss innovative ways Third Stage adults can fund post-midlife pursuits.
2 Comments
Some might not like the emphasis you made on compliance in the Social Media but count me as one who does.
What most forget is that the Boomer generation made the Internet (no not Al Gore although he once claimed that accomplishment) work. Others of us proved its practicality in the business world.
More recent generations have extended its use in ways none of us imagined. Most boomers are running to catch up.
Today I was talking to a long-time computer consultant about how I used to travel to Northern California in the mid 80s carrying a 15 pound “portable” computer that could not connect to the Internet but had a 10 Meg hard drive and speeds which allowed getting coffee while waiting for the results. That was High Tech back then.
Now my nearly bed ridden mother-in-law watches church meetings, shops on line, and uses Facebook (she does not tweet) on a small laptop. Between that and her cell phone, she uses her television much less and is much more connected to her extended family and friends.
James,
Thanks as always for your timely and thoughtful response. In an article on the Millernnial generation (those born 1981-1993) I just read in a local business magazine, the author reminds us not to discount the influence of Boomers, and even of the generation prior to them. She quotes her 85-year-old mother as saying, “If we don’t die soon, I told your dad we’re going to have to buy one of those computers!”
Humorous, but true: people of every age and life stage are embracing technology; computer classes are the most heavily attended at senior centers. It’s a wonderful way, as you show with your mother-in-law’s example, for elders to stay connected to family and friends, and to the world in general, especially if they’re not as mobile as they once were.