Brands must gear sites to appeal to internet-savvy older users

25 June 2009

Ads for stairlifts and walk-in baths, funeral insurance policies with a free carriage clock. There’s nothing like daytime TV to make you appreciate why only 20% of people aged over 55 think advertisers treat them as intelligent and discerning customers. But alongside this world of faintly distasteful advertising is the revelation that there are more than 10m ‘mature’ internet users.

A recent survey by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) revealed that a quarter of over-55s consider online the most influential media channel for their buying decisions. A hefty 83% regularly use email and search the web. The research found 74% of this group shop online, spending on average £575 each in a six-month period - the average online shopper spends only £520.

With no mortgage and a steady income, this older group is spending more time and money online than ever before. You’d think that most marketers would be making their online activities more appealing to this mature market. However, only 19.9% of older users thought websites in general were designed with them in mind, according to a recent Webcredible survey.

Most silver surfers are huge fans of email. Any brand looking to engage them needs to make sure that messages don’t look like spam and are easy to read. It’s also important to make silver surfers feel like valued customers from the moment they arrive at your website. This means making an effort to be relevant. As with many other groups online, silver surfers are constantly on the hunt for bargains and better-than-high-street prices. As a demographic that has grown up with traditional shopping, senior users often prefer a sale section with all the bargains in the same place.

It’s important to bear in mind that silver surfers often use handed-down equipment and tend not to update their software frequently. So they may not have the largest monitor running the latest version of Internet Explorer. Sites targeting silver surfers should be designed for smaller monitor sizes (800x600 is ideal) and tested on older browsers.

We’re reaching a point when there will no longer be a division between silver surfers and everyone else, just internet users who want to use the web to find what they want in a straightforward way. Brands are beginning to realise this but not swiftly enough. And the sooner this happens, the better the experience for everyone.

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