Part 1: Marketing to millennials

Part 1 in a 3 Part Series

Talking ‘bout my generation: Marketing to millennials

No digital marketing spans all generations. But there are some distinct differences in the ways they consume information. Are influenced. And buy. Understand these differences and you’ll tap into what moves them. If your primary concern is the millennial, let’s take a look at what they’re all about.

Who are you people?

Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996. They’ve been raised in a digital world. Never known life without the internet. Millennials sometimes get a negative rap in the media, true.

But let’s gives them due credit by taking note of these 5 key traits:

1. They care deeply about bigger causes.

2. Giving back to the planet & fellow man is a big deal.

3. Work/life balance influences major life choices.

4. Social media is an integral part of their daily life.

○ Instagram-heavy and Snap-chat ready, they chronicle their lives to their world in stories and photos. This wins out over text on social media.

5. Smartphones are the primary means of communicating by voice, text and app.

Knowing these tiny details is prime time for immersing your marketing into this crowd.

Here’s a 5 step guide to marketing to millennials!

1. Launch anew or beef up social media platforms that matter to them. Thousands of businesses thrive on Instagram and Twitter. Don’t be intimidated. Meet them where they live to engage.

2. Over any other mobile device-generation marriage you’ll never break the smartphone-millennial tie! And why try? Make sure your site is smartphone smooth. Arm it with engaging but short video and striking images.

3. This is by far the most visual generation so give them those that speak to them. But their attention span is short. So video content needs to be no longer than 2 minutes.

4. Because they relate to bigger causes, get involved. They may be averse to commitment but they care about the planet, environment and others. Running a food drive? Donating 10% of profits to charity for a month? Let the millennial crowd know by posting to social media platforms. Engage them by inviting them to participate or share.

5. Millennials engage with brands in newer ways like social media messaging or tweets to a product page. Become familiar with and encourage this means of brand engagement to your own.

No-nos when marketing to millennials

If you market cross-generationally you can hang on to some tried and true tactics. But for millennials the following are last on the list to win their hearts.

• Long, wordy email marketing campaigns: Emails that rely on text alone. Yawn. Pass the Nyquil!
• Social media ignorance: before you give that Moby Dick tweet wings, take a day to get to know the platform. Better yet, enlist a pro. Nothing is worse than misusing a platform with very specific guidelines.
• Websites aligned for desktops only: they’ll just move on. Ensure yours is smartphone savvy.

If you’re really not sure what your primary market is, Lucid Advertising can help you identify your audience. From there, our digital marketing experts will help you design campaigns that #helpyoubeyou.