This is what I happen to say every time someone asks me how I would approach millennials with a new product or service.
Millenials are one of the most misunderstood demographics and what companies fail to realize that many of the ways to seek their attention are universal for any demographic.
Back to the point where I began by making a too generalized statement of Millenials being people too, just like any other demographic, Millenials to seek products that are value adding and backed up with good services.
What makes Millenials completely misunderstood by companies is their approach to services or products.
Although millennials too prefer products/services that add value to their daily lives, go about in a particularly different fashion as compared to Baby boomers, Generation X or Y. Marketing to millennials has always been a daunting task for marketers and companies.
Millenials are considered to be in the present age groups of 18 to 34 years old. Millenials have accounted for $600 Billion of spending in the United States alone and this number is projected to top $1.4 Trillion by 2020.
Being one of the demographics with the highest spending power, businesses are starting to take not and seeking out ways to get a piece of the millennial chunk of dollars. These are the people who grew among the Internet, Smartphones, Google, Facebook, Twitter, PayPal and the likes.
and these people have the highest rate of technology adoption. All of these factors place an increased impetus in driving the attention of millennials for their products and services and how to market to these ‘narcissistic and me-me’ tagged people is one of the big questions almost everywhere!
How to Nail the Marketing to Millenials like a boss?
Again, as I’ve said before, Millenials too are people! Millenials too prefer products/services that add value to their daily lives and also care a lot about the after-sales service for your products.A subpar product/service won’t get you the attention of Millenials, no matter how many dollars you spend in Marketing (Good try with the IE ads, Microsoft. We still love Google Chrome!).
Provided that you have a product/service that you believe would benefit the Millenials, how do you go about seeking their attention? Below are five of the tips to tackle the problem of marketing to Millenials.
Make your campaigns Mobile-First
By the end of 2017, one-third of the entire population (2.6 Billion) are estimated to possess a smartphone. Given such an accelerated rise in the usage of smartphones in our daily lives, Millenials are the groups of people who are more likely to make purchases over their mobile devices.
Making sure that your products or services could be bought over a mobile website or mobile application is essential to find a place in the books of Millenials. Apart from the mobile application or a mobile-optimized website, an easy payment gateway is also something millennials crave for.
Filling out all of the credit card details every time a purchase has to be made is something that millennials do not prefer. A simple payment gateway like PayPal, Google Wallet or PayTm Wallet is something which would make the lives of these people even easier to reach out to your products/services.
Making unnecessarily complex tasks simpler is something which particularly appeals to millennials. Replacing the traditional with a contemporary and explicit choice would place your company in the good books of millennials. Before you spend thousands of dollars on that flashy website, make sure that your campaign is easily accessible and convenient for mobile users to efficiently market to millennials.
Make your content relevant and appealing
Millenials are the groups of people who prefer product value and usability much more over brand value or luxury.
What does your product/service provide to these people to make their lives easier?
In your efforts to promote why your products/services might be valuable, make sure that you are concentrating on the relevancy of these products for millennials. Being more connected to the internet, millennials are often the groups of people who look out thoroughly through forums and blogs to investigate more about a particular product they care about. While tumbling through this information, checking the content curated by the company itself is one of the primary tasks and you must make sure you make it relevant to them.
You do not always need to make your content viral, all you need to do is make it short and appealing to them for gaining their attention. Being transparent about your products or services while creating such content would even earn you the respect of millennials.
Create content that is informational, relevant, fun and transparent to further your marketing efforts on these groups of people.
Out with Outbound marketing, In with Inbound marketing
Although traditional marketing techniques like display or pop-up advertisements have often performed well for Baby boomers or Gen X/Y, millennials are the groups of people who distrust traditional advertisements the most. Traditional advertisements are often known as ‘Outbound’ marketing, primarily them driving users away from your service onto the services of other companies who are paying you. Nothing sounds more fishy to millennials than this and they prefer ‘Inbound’ marketing over it. Creating valuable content, as mentioned in the previous step would be the beginning step to establish in place an effective Inbound marketing.
Traditional advertisements are often known as ‘Outbound’ marketing,’ primarily them driving users away from your service onto the services of other companies who are paying you. Nothing sounds more fishy to millennials than this and they prefer ‘Inbound’ marketing over it. Creating valuable content, as mentioned in the previous step would be the beginning step to establish in place an effective Inbound marketing.
Creating content that is informational and valuable and later sharing it across different platforms to be further shared by people who find it useful is how Inbound marketing works and is particularly appealing to Millenials.
Rather than a company raving biased reviews about itself, millennials love to hear it from the people who’ve found it useful and then learn more about the product/service themselves.
Now it would be hard to strike a balance between both Inbound and Outbound marketing and there is a trade-off that ought to be considered here, depending the primary target audience of your company.
Target user groups that match the company’s personality
A ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution is something that definitely doesn’t work for millennials.
Targeting down your audience to a specific group of these millennials is essential to make an impact. Millenials are a rather large group of people with varied interests and beliefs and these people stand for what they believe in. It has been said that millennials care for families and communities a lot.
Rather than a marketing statement that aims to target ‘Millenials in their entirety‘, target a group of millennials more inclined to social causes or virtual reality or something in the similar lines.
Make your message, whatever it is, personal and relatable for millennials to jump into your company’s bandwagon.
Also, it is one of the biggest myths that having an account on all of the social media networks is one way to cater to all of the Millenials in the world.
You must remember that millennials are very specific in what online platforms they use. Having an account on all of the social media networks only to be inactive on a majority of them is not better than being active on a handful of the networks.
Identify your target audience and find out which platforms they are the most active on. Some prefer Facebook, some Twitter, some Instagram and others prefer Tumblr or Pinterest.
Only when you’ve identified your target audience and the platforms they’re the most active on, is when your company’s personality is in the match to those of your millennial customers.
Millenials prefer companies who possess a touch of personality and maintain transparency when it comes to revealing what the company’s values and beliefs.
Make Millenials a part of the Feedback Loop
One of the major mistakes companies or marketers make when considering marketing to millennials is with not maintaining an active ‘feedback loop’ with the millennials.
Being ‘engaging’ with your customers is the key here, especially if millennials make a major portion of your target audience.
Taking inputs regarding your products/services from your millennial customers or employers is one great way to engage them while also deriving key insights.
Alienating millennials is not a great way to earn their trust for your company or services. Becoming co-creators of content and collaborating with people is something millennials seek actively.
Involving millennials with the process of the creation of a product is a surefire to make these people connect with your company and its offerings. Millennials also make a group of people who are the most loyal to the brands and products that they care about.
While the marketer or the company gains authenticity in such a collaboration, the millennials feel more invited and involved with the community.
Moreover, millennials love to have fun and giving them a platform to collaborate and have fun is essential to any marketer or company to market effectively to Millennials.
So, as we come to the closure of the article, there are many more factors which could help it make for companies to market to millennials. Millennials are a more diverse demographics than people expect them to be and there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution.
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