Marketers often get overly confident when considering an audience of millennials, the group that increasingly makes up the lion’s share of modern, digital consumers.
It’s often thought the way to engage with a more digital audience is a simple ramp up in social media, but as some brands have shown, it’s not as easy as it seems. It takes a well-planned digital marketing strategy to reach an audience when it’s comprised mostly of millennials. Here are some ways to slow down your strategy and engage this unique demographic group:
Don’t Simply Sell, Target
According to Forbes, an estimated 84 percent of millennials don’t trust traditional advertising. That number isn’t just a blip on the radar; it’s indicative of an entire generation’s weariness of standard, broadly sweeping ad campaigns.
Personalized Content is Key
Instead of simply treating younger audiences like dollar signs, marketers need to take the time to understand exactly what their audience wants to see. Rather than simply communicating an audience to buy, brands should produce practical content that benefits millennials outside of existing solely as marketing material.
Another way to create advertising that millennials feel is authentic is to collaborate with the audience. Nothing is more customized than content that speaks directly to the reader, and this demographic wants to provide input into how the products they use are designed. Social media provides a perfect voice to speak to younger consumers, and collaboration and feedback never hurts the creative process.
Don’t Disregard Causes
Insights points to a study that suggests millennial consumers are more likely to positively interact with brands that are committed to social causes. They directly point to brands with charitable interactions tied in with their marketing, like Toms’ “One for One” campaign.
These companies use sustainable advertising methods that tie all aspects of the sales process to a good cause. This shows consumers that not only is the company providing a net benefit to the community with their purchase, their gestures of good faith go far to foster brand loyalty in the future.
As the younger, “connected” generation has increased their power to consume over the recent decade, marketers have struggled to understand their unique approach to advertising, as evidenced by numerous hasty social media faux pas.
Brands that play fast and loose in their social marketing strategy do so because millennials are considered to be more casual than any other group in advertising history, but perhaps taking a step back and using more well-researched advertising strategies is the best way into the hearts and minds of this group.
