How to Target 25-40 Year-olds Online

This guest post us by Genevieve Flintham of www.stagweb.co.uk.

Pictures of the day’s events, winter landscapes, and memorable quotes. Titles laden with puns, facts, and intrigue. An architectural layout that’s accomplished, savvy, and uncomplicated.

Each target group demands a different set of things when it comes to websites and blogs, but in this instance we’re going to look purely at users aged between 25 and 40. This is my target market. With ten years of experience targeting this commonsensical group, we’ve made some discoveries through our two blogs, The Antler for grooms-to-be and best men, and the GoHen Blog for brides-to-be and maids of honour.

Here’s what we’ve learned.

As with targeting any group online, it’s important to first understand this age group. They’ve grown up with technology and sales pitches hitting them from every side and are, to some degree, immune to the typical advertising approaches.

As a first piece of advice, ensure that any form of engagement, whether it’s a blog post, advertorial or product description, remains fairly non-promotional.

We’ve found that people in this age group prefer instructional, informational posts; the most-viewed posts on our blog are Top tips for your Sunday hen party and Stag weekend planning—managing number changes. If you’re targeting a younger demographic, less-wordy posts tend to be favoured, such as those including bullet points, infographics, and pictures.

Another factor we’ve found when targeting this particular age group is that the bare facts ain’t gonna cut it.

We make sure to state all the facts (including that we’re financially protected, our contact details, testimonials, etc.) whenever we get the opportunity. Make information about yourself readily available and if you’ve got great credentials, let them know!

This demographic tends to be wise to companies that could rip them off and have seen a fair share of reputed companies go bust, so they need to know that they can trust you. To back ourselves up, many of our blog posts link to the following page:

There are many benefits to having a target audience of 25-40 year-olds.

One example is that picture placement seems to have little effect; we’ve spent years trying various positions of quality pictures and call-to-action pictures, but the resulting enquiries for each page haven’t changed with each different position.

As well as that, they’re wise to the testimonies of the company—great for genuine, successful businesses, since this audience is able to weed out the fakes.

Only slightly less tech-savvy than their 18-25 counterparts, 25-40 year olds are spending increasingly more time online. Many people have suggested that offline advertising will soon become redundant, but Direct Marketing News does point out that when trying to reach the 20- to 45-year-old demographic that “word of mouth has always been a powerful marketing tool.”

Word of mouth has transformed to be word-of-mouse now though, and if you’re looking at online advertising then mix in the elements of the old (aiming to get people talking about your product) with parts of the new (finding innovative ways to target consumers).

If you don’t mind paying for social media advertising, the best fairly new way to target specifically 25-40 year olds might be to employ the use of Facebook hypertargeting; when going through the advertisement setup process, select this age group as the only ones to see your ad.

Overall, to avoid making any egregious errors when targeting the 25-40 age demographic, ensure that your content is informative, your company values are reflected, and that you bring contemporary elements into a traditional mix.

Do you target 25-40-year-olds? What extra tips can you share with us?

This is a guest post by Genevieve Flintham of www.stagweb.co.uk.

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Reusing Freelance Writing Online: the Pros and Pitfalls

This guest post is by Emma Merkas of $30 Date Night.

It was my blog that landed me my weekly newspaper column.

I’m a huge advocate of self-publishing, If you know you’re talented at something, and if you have an opinion you want to express, a song you want to sing, or a specific skill you want to teach, go right ahead and do it.

The Internet has more than levelled the publishing playing field—judging by the state of traditional media outlets right now, it’s all but demolished it.

I’d been thanklessly blogging for about 18 months—five posts a week, very little to show for it in the way of traffic, and regular comments … all was going steadily, but not gangbusters—when I received a call from the editor of mX newspaper here in Melbourne.

She’d been reading my blogs and since her relationship and dating columnist had left for another publication, she wondered if I could do for the paper what I’d been doing online.

Yes, I could! Of course I could. I remember jumping around the loungeroom like a complete idiot while trying to keep my voice steady on the phone. My husband wondered what the heck was going on.

Readership of 700,000 across the Eastern seaboard of Australia. My photo and byline printed alongside it every week. My website plugged at the bottom. And an opportunity for a legit writing job…

Suddenly, I was a real writer. A proper, paid, professional writer.

But the column also gives me great new content for my blog.

I have my newspaper deadline every week. Even on my off days, even through my uninspired weeks, and even when I just can’t be bothered writing (every blogger battles it), it gets done. Because it has to.

Which is amazing, because then I get to post it to my blog, giving me steady and quality content for my site and ensuring I’m not burnt out by constantly writing the same stuff over and over again. If I had to rewrite every article on the same topic just so I could publish something, I doubt I’d last very long.

So here are some key points on reusing your freelance content for your own website, based on my experience.

If it’s at all possible, retain the copyright on the works you produce for paying publications.

This should generally be standard if you are freelancing for a publication, rather than being employed as staff by the company, in which case they may have legal rights to the content.

The only way you can transfer your copyright is by signing a document. So be careful of what you’re signing!

If you don’t understand the agreement, wave it under the nose of a friend with some legal background (lawyers are a dime a dozen, right?).

While I do own the copyright to my content, the paper has exclusive rights to my work for a period of time, meaning that I can’t resell or licence the content to any other third party in that time.

However, I am entitled to use my own work on my own website. If you’re not sure about this, clear it with your editor first, or do it as a courtesy anyway.

Always, always credit the publication when you publish on your own site. This creates goodwill and they’ll welcome the cross-promotion.

In my case, after the paper’s exclusivity period runs out, it still owns perpetual rights to my work that the editors can use as they see fit in their standard publications. As my agreement includes a clause that my work should always run with a byline, I’m not too fussed by this arrangement. The more promotion and publicity, the better for me and my website.

Of course, the publication you’re writing for always has the right to publish the works first. In my case, I leave it at least a few days before I go live with my articles on my blog.

As mX newspaper is one of the rare beasts that doesn’t have an online portion, my columns are gone and forgotten—with no digital footprint—along with yesterday’s news. My blog ensures they live on.

Chances are, if a publication has taken you on to contribute work, they’re impressed already with your blog, your work, and your brand. Use that to your advantage when negotiating your contract and get as much access to reuse your own works as possible.

If you want to learn more about your rights as a content creator, the US Copyright Office or the Australian Copyright Council is a great resource for FAQs and legal advice.

Are you a freelance writer? Do you reuse your articles on your own blog? Share your negotiating tips and advice with us in the comments.

Emma Merkas is the author of the weekly ‘How Was It For You?’ relationships and dating column in Australian newspaper, mX. She is also the co-creator of the $30 Date Night date ideas website and blog. Find her on Twitter @30dollardate.

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