Have you been making assumptions about your clients' buying habits?

Several studies have debunked previous myths about the way consumers respond to marketing tactics. Be careful when making assumptions about how your patient demographics will respond to your marketing efforts. How well do you know your patients’ buying habits?
Myth 1: My baby-boomer patients will only come by word-of-mouth. They aren’t into the internet.
Truth: Boomers actually spend more time and money online than any other generation. People in this generation falling between ages 47-55 spend an average of 40 hours online every week. Those ages 56-65 only slightly fall short at 36 hour per week.
Remember this is the generation that saw the advent of the television, computer, and mobile marketing. They may actually be your most adaptive and tech savvy generation. While this generation may discover digital trends a little later than your Generation Y patients, they flock to them at more rapid paces. Women over the age of 55 are actually the fasting growing segment on Facebook as of 2011. Users ages 35-49 are the fastest growing segment on Twitter.
Myth 2: My younger patients don’t have the money to make large purchases.
Truth: In recent years, luxury brands have been targeting young, affluent consumers for a couple of reasons. 1) They are proactively preparing to retain the attention and loyalty of younger consumers. The successful 20-somethings of today are the CEOs of tomorrow. When a brand engages them prior to the peak of their purchasing power, they become pre-committed to the brand. 2) Generation Y has significant buying power. According to recent reports from Ad Age, the average member of this generation has approximately $100/ week of disposable income. Cumulatively, the generation has $150 billion/ year to blow on whatever they desire… including your services. This generation has also grown up in an era of consumerism and bombardment from online, television, and print advertisement, and they are inclined to spend in order to maintain a lifestyle.
Myth 3: I’m a high-end practice, so I don’t have to worry about price shoppers. Those aren’t my kind of patients. Wealthy people don’t price shop.
Truth: In The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy, a book by Thomas J. Stanley and William Danko, the authors identify a study where they analyzed the purchasing habits when millionaires buy a high-cost good, a vehicle. They found that most millionaires actually price shop. (Perhaps this is why they are millionaires.) While millionaires preferred to save money and time by purchasing a new car, they still wanted price options and were not willing to invest more than necessary in car. Thirty-six percent of millionaires were not willing to buy a new car, in order to maximize value for cost. To tackle price shoppers, contact us and ask about our coaching webinars on telephone strategies, credentialing boards, and safety charts. All of these tools are proven to provide price shoppers with the incentive they need to look past price and book an appointment based on the quality of your credentials and service.