Conference Buddies

How to Sell to Niche Markets Online

How to Market to Baby Boomers:

Panelist: Ali Moiz , COO, Peanut Labs Media, Virtual Currency Specialist

• Virtual currency is a new market, valued at $2 billion
• Baby Boomers are born between 1946 to 1964
• They have the highest income bracket
• Spends more than other age groups, especially in travel
• Fastest growing group of social networks users
• $1.2 billion in custom-sample market in 2008
• Fastest growing section of online gamers
• Only 5% to 15% are monetizing for gamers
• Example: Zombieland movie, finding a good trailer for that movie can generate $2 million more. Tested on baby boomers to find which trailer out of three they liked the best, used that one for the campaign
• Biggest segment of baby boomers make over $50,000 to $125,000 per year
• Commonly played online games for baby boomers: free to play (Yahoo! Games), casual games (Facebook, MySpace), Massively Multiplayer Games (MMO’s), downloadable games, virtual worlds, it’s a $1.5 billion market
• Baby boomer spend on average 7 hours a week playing online games
• Plays eight or more online games at the same time
• Works full time
• 23% are paying for online games
• 24% are buying goods online
• 14% pay for premium content online
• 18% watch ad-supported free streaming (i.e.Hulu)
• CPM’s generated online dollars

How to Market to Teens Online:

Panelist: Daniel Brusilovsky, 16-year-old CEO, Teens & Techs Networks, writes for Tech Crunch, Marketing Manager for Quick (iPhone apps)
Daniel@danielbru.com
www.danielbru.com
Twitter.com/danielbru

• Teens & Techs conference inspires teens to start their own business
• Second Life, a teen community
• Social media advertising: target teens.
• Why teens like Facebook: it’s simple to use, easy to understand, communication with friends (Facebook chat) helps each other with homework.
• Why teens don’t like Twitter: their media content, the open platform creates mistrust
• Why teens don’t like MySpace: too cluttered, but good for bands to upload their audio, too many Ads, it’s old news
• Print advertising is strong in schools because of the school newspaper
• Print Ads work for teens: people will read it, make it interesting
• eCommerce: teens like to buy clothes online, like to use Zappos and Amazon. Use eCommerce to your advantage. Integrate all your social media marketing to eCommerce
• If something doesn’t work, try something new. Teens are used to changes and are open-minded.

Questions from audience:

1) Why isn’t your school’s newsletter online? Daniel: It is, but it sucks
2) What is the return rate from teens buying online? Daniel: Zappos is a great example: easy returns, good customer service
3) What is the next big thing after Facebook? Daniel: It’s too soon to tell, but keep a look out for mobile, especially in social networking.
4) Where else are the baby boomers? Ali: They are also big on eCommerce, they search for news a lot, and they like informational sites
5) How can you sell to teens online when they don’t have credit cards? Daniel: get a link to your parents’ credit card, get PayPal. Ali: try Bill My Parents website
6) What is your favorite fan page on Facebook? Daniel: None, Ali: Just trying to avoid my mom on Facebook
7) Do kids influence their parents’ eCommerce activities? Ali: eCommerce will expand through friends’ recommendation. Daniel: Apple has a great example, influences kids to beg their parents for their products.
8) What’s the market for smartphone apps? Ali: Digital Chocolate, a company that is betting their market on smartphones, gaming is becoming huge on phones. Daniel: a flip phone is uncommon, most devices have internet access now
9) What’s a good online search for baby boomers’ buying trends without paying too much? Ali: check blogs, check Think Equity, a research firm. Compete.com and Quantcast.com
10) If I want to sell SAT study guides, who should I market to? Daniel: to the teens, the teens will want it, event thought the parents are buying it.
11) Are there more stats on baby boomers? Ollie: yes, more women are playing games online than men. (65% to 35%)
12) Is e-mail marketing effective on teens? Daniel: no, teens are not using email anymore.

Speaker: Marsha Collier, Author, eBay For Dummies Series
Conference Notes:

Changing mindset of the customer

1. Online customers are more sophisticated and demand to be engaged
2. Returning back to the personalized, engaging business mindset of your local business
3. People want personalized, meaningful, relevant information – not spam or just product promotions

• Good Example: Zappos advertising on LAX security bin when you place your shoes and items during security check
• Bad Example:Overstock running a promotion on “Free Shipping” when they only charge $2.95 for shipping on all purchases.

Engage the customer beyond just products and price

1. Don’t rule out any target audience
2. Use social media (MySpace, Twitter, Facebook) to reach audience that you may not have anticipated