// Tips For Marketing To Gen X //

Generation X may be small, but they are a mighty generation that marketers often overlook. Gen X is sandwiched between the much larger segments of baby boomers and millennials, and crafting your campaigns with this market in mind has its advantages.

First, let’s identify the people who are part of what many call "the forgotten generation." Born between 1965 and 1980, many of the Gen Xers are in their prime spending years, having settled into a career, home and family. They spent their formative years without technology, only to embrace it slowly as teenagers or in their 20s or 30s. In some ways, they are a little bit boomer and a little bit millennial.

Here are three things to keep in mind when marketing to Gen X.

1. Find Gen X Where They Live Online

Marketing to Gen X should include social media, but while most Gen Xers aren’t creating or consuming content on TikTok, you can find many of them on Facebook and YouTube. They may use Facebook to engage with friends, family and even brands. As with many generations, many Gen Xers rely on YouTube for entertainment, staying in the know and even learning how to tackle DIY home and family projects.

Using Facebook and YouTube for marketing to Generation X means more than just paid advertising. Create and maintain active pages that offer how-tos, educational content or even a little nostalgia (who doesn’t love a throwback to the days of The Smurfs, snap bracelets and doing the running man?).

2. Don’t Neglect Traditional Advertising

Remember when I said that Gen X is sandwiched between baby boomers (a traditionally, well, traditional generation) and millennials (a more tech-savvy generation)? This creates an exciting opportunity for omnichannel marketing. It provides marketers the convenience of a full-fledged campaign that can start anywhere from a Facebook ad to a billboard on a popular highway and end with sales on an e-commerce website or with foot traffic in a store.

Consider all of the channels that Gen X may use, both digital and traditional, from email to direct mailers. Reaching this consumer segment with authentic messaging is important (as it should be for everyone) because many of them grew up independent and self-sufficient. Taking care of themselves and perhaps even our siblings after school, making their own snacks, and doing their homework on our own (Google, they could have used you so much sooner) fostered a generation of consumers who tend to want authenticity and clear-headed marketing without any fuzzy logic or lack of clarity. They don’t have time for it.

3. Offer Rewards And Loyalty Programs

Rewards and loyalty programs are popular with this generation. Who doesn’t love a good deal? Offering rewards points for purchases, as many brands, including Macy's and Starbucks, do, provides an incentive for customers to come back often to be rewarded for their loyalty to the brand. Taking into consideration consumers' actual spending in return for redemption for other products or services also provides consumers with flexibility.

Because many Gen Xers are in their prime spending years, don't forget them in your advertising efforts — particularly if this age group has a place in your target market. Customizing your strategy, messaging and approach for each generation within your market individually is critical. Meeting Gen Xers where we are online, utilizing traditional advertising, and offering rewards and loyalty programs can help strike a balance between the two poles of Gen X/boomer and Gen X/millennial that seem to define the range of character in this unique generation.

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