Top Tips to Captivate Your Senior Audience

Staying connected and engaged with your audience is important whatever your line of business, and that includes senior centers and community centers. While most organizations have a core group of members and visitors who always show up, there are likely others who are interested but not yet as invested. You might be able to change that by finding creative ways to stay top of mind (TOM) with them.

With TOM advertising and marketing practices, your goal is to remind your target audience of upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, and other reasons they should visit — in ways that don’t leave them feeling annoyed or oversold. To help you avoid that trap, we’ve assembled a list of ideas. You can work a few of these into your integrated marketing plans each quarter.

Staying Engaged with Your Senior Center Audience

• Send seasonal recipes: If your senior center is like many, meals are one of the services your members and visitors enjoy most. Pick a few recipes that are a hit with guests and have them printed up on cards with your logo. You can send them out by USPS, email them, or place them at locations popular with older adults in your community. Our library of content, WeCreate, has over 100 recipes available to get you started!
• Personalized email: Depending on your team’s tech abilities, running drip marketing email campaigns every few months is another idea. It can be as simple as a graphic that coordinates with an upcoming special event or an image of a few volunteers pitching in on a project.
• Print and digital newsletters: These remain one of the single best tools you can incorporate into your outreach efforts! Seniors like saving print collaterals to refer to when needed, such as to look up the date of an event or the name of a team member. And having your newsletter available digitally makes it even more accessible to your community. If you are interested in getting a newsletter started, LPi has a free ad-supported newsletter service that will provide you with design support, a content library, and more!
• Local print publications: In many cities and towns, small local papers continue to be very well read. Invite staff from your local paper to attend events. If they aren’t available, offer to write stories for them, and attach photos with your submission. Another option is to buy space for what is known as an advertorial — a longer-style ad that tells a story and usually includes an image.
• Handwritten notes: Many people, especially this generation of older adults, like receiving personalized, handwritten letters or notes. You can send an invitation for an upcoming event or a quick note after an event to let an older adult know you are happy they could attend.
• Text messages: With permission, you can gather cell phone numbers of adults in your target audience to use in marketing. While you don’t want to abuse the privilege of having their personal information, a few text message reminders about activities or special events might help increase engagement or attendance.
• Simple giveaways: Purchase giveaways with your logo and phone number on them. They don’t need to be elaborate or expensive. Small but useful items such as pens, sticky notes, measuring tape, notepads, or even nail files will likely be appreciated.
• Facebook and other social media: While it can be a time-intensive task, posting on Facebook and other visual social media platforms can be another avenue for sharing your stories in a low-key manner. Make sure to post after an event and include a few photos. And if you are promoting a program or an activity people need to RSVP to attend, set it up in the Events tab with all the details and necessary links. Check out the “Web and Social Media” section of our blog for inspiration.

Let Us Help You Share Your Message

LPi has a variety of solutions to consider, whether it’s support with print and digital newsletters, branding and design services, or launching a new website. See what we could do for you.