An Ultimate Guide To Millennial Marketing
According to Pew Research Centre, millennials are now the largest generation in the US overtaking the baby boomers. These young adults between the age 18–34 are a hugely sought-after market and with an estimated buying power of over a trillion dollars. Winning their trust comes with an added bonus of word-of-mouth marketing at a potentially viral level as they put out social signals like crazy.
However, marketing to them is not that easy. They are smart enough to know when they are being pitched to and they have built up resistance to it. Their purchasing decisions differ from other generations as they are a group of people who intend to make up their own minds. Hence, marketing to them requires a different touch. Below are several ways you can adjust and tailor your marketing efforts to best reach millennials.
Be authentic
Since 2016, just about every business has a social presence, but not everyone is using it best to engage with the millennials. To stand out you need to make sure you create your content with their interest in mind and not their wallet. By doing this, they will be organically more drawn to purchasing your products and services.
So instead of going in for a hard sell, try providing educational content through which they can learn from or simply be entertained by. This type of content will help build strong brand-consumer relationships. It will also give millennials the sense that your brand shares their core values. Therefore, avoid being ‘pushy’ with your content. People appreciate honesty, and brands with transparent campaigns win. So, give them exactly that!
Be minimal
When you are marketing to millennials, minimal is always the best approach. Arrive to the point quickly because, if their attention is lost, they will close your app, leave the browser tab, or worse, unfollow you.
Let’s look at Google as an example. There is nothing too fancy about the Google brand or their items. However, people flock to them! This is because their focus is on a clean interface that lends itself well to better user experience, and their brand messaging is short, quick, and friendly. Now we are not suggesting you become the next Google. Just keep it simple! Use simple graphics, and little text highlighting the key product.
Be visual
Millennials would rather watch your content than read about it. Their short attention span and busy lifestyle make it easier for them to digest visual content than reading a lengthy paragraph describing your product or service.
Here are a few tips to make your visual content stand out:
- Avoid stock photos as much as possible and instead, use real photos which reflect your company.
- Make sure your visual content is always of high quality.
- Be creative! Play around with different types of content that fit your brand’s personality. For example, memes, GIFs, and infographics.
Remember the design of your website is important too! Your website needs to consistently tell a story and your text needs to be sharp and crisp. This means less copy and more images and visual content.
Use incentives
Everyone loves a good deal. Even millennials! Those money-saving offers can play an instrumental role in the decision to convert. So, why not utilise this information as an advantage when marketing to them? Enhance customer engagement with loyalty programs, promotions, and other incentives that’ll offer your subscribers a feel-good experience. Doing so will place you into the category of brands that offer something of real value to them.
Collaborate with them
Today, Millennials are interested in taking on the more hands-on role of co-creator. Normally, companies usually create products hoping the target market would buy them. However, now with multiple options out there, it makes sense to inform your decisions based on input directly from your audience. This makes them feel empowered, and you have the knowledge that your product has a built-in fanbase. So, marketers need to focus on building relationships with consumers by fuelling their self-expression and assisting them to establish their own personal brand.
Take Coca-Cola’s “Energizing refreshment” as an example. Coca-Cola promoted its audience to unleash their creativity by interpreting Coca-Cola as an energizing refreshment in whatever style or format they wished. This method mutually benefited the millennials as they got to pour a bit of themselves into a product made for them while helping Coca-Cola bring fresh authenticity to the market.
In conclusion, marketing to millennials isn’t rocket science. It just requires an extra effort and a human touch! This group searches for authentic, content-driven, honest experiences that cater to who they are and their voices which they yearn to share. So empower them with what they are looking for by simply just providing them and listening to what they are asking for through your brand.
Thank you for your attention. It goes without saying that it means the absolute world to our team. We hope this piece of content helped you in even the slightest bit and if it did, please share with a friend/co-worker/etc. that could also benefit from this.
About the author:
Mariam Khalid Khan — “A die-hard food lover with a passion for marketing and writing”.
