Younger people – those under 40 – don’t rely on email. They may use it, but rarely check their inbox. Conversely, the over-40s love email so much, they feel their life would not be complete without it.

If you run an online business these differences are important to notice. If you want to get in touch with people in your target market, you need to choose the right message medium. So, for the under 40s you need text messaging, instant messaging and entries into social networking inboxes. For the over 40s, email is essential.

The different requirements of different age groups mean that your communications strategy for your online business needs to be segmented according to age. And if you use email campaigns for marketing, such as in sequential autoresponders, they are going to have decreasing value as more and more young people come online.

In the past, before email, all age groups read printed material. True fashions changed in terms of fonts, colours and design standards, but at hear the message medium was the same – print. Now, different age groups require different media and that means more strategic analysis is required for any online business.