5 rules for marketing to millenials
Your problem: The traditional media methods you have been using are failing to start a conver-sation with millennial buyers.
The solution: A conscious effort to reach out in a way that makes your brand stand out among the other choices young customers have.
Here's a short introduction to what you should know about changing your strategy to reach out to the digitally focused millennial population.
Make it accessible.
Your outreach efforts could be loud and clear, but if they aren't in the right language, they won't be heard by your intended audience. Millennial buyers aren't transitioning out of traditional media; they're already long gone. The challenge for the modern business is to be everywhere its audience is to make strong connections. To reach millennials, cultivate your company presence on established social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with the intent to start connecting directly to your audience. Accessibility also means staying abreast of emerging platforms and creating new company accounts as those platforms become popular.
Make it personal.
Successful connection through social media means stepping off the brand podium and into the crowd with your customers. Although a marketing statement is still valuable, having a marketing conversation is more important. Your customers want to know you're actually engaging them rather than yelling statements into the digital void. Avoid using social media to sell your product directly. Instead, use these platforms to connect with your customer base about things they care about. Prove there's a person rather than a company on the other end.
Make it honest.
If making the connection is the marketing equivalent of a return to personalized customer service, the honesty you show in these encounters corresponds directly to a return to word of mouth being able to make or break your brand. Millennials want transparency and accountability in the brands they love: If a mistake is made, admit it. This is where your pride in your work will shine through, as the honest love you have for your brand will translate to customer con-versations and, at times, constructive criticism that will better your brand as you increase your outreach.
Make it shareable.
The conversation you have with your potential audience will be the same one they have with their audiences. Creating something that's easily shared means making meaningful and enter-taining choices in an easy-to-digest form. Share something entertaining, relevant and topical that's tied to your brand and create a conversation your audience will want to have with their networks. Usually, the best examples of a shareable item contain something that can be read or seen in only a few seconds, such as a picture or list. If your content is something that can be viewed and understood or related to within a few seconds and seems like something you'd tell others, chances are the people in your social networks will do the same.
Make it count.
The value in digital outreach is calculated in how many people see, experience and share your message. While you can make a lot of waves by throwing handfuls of rocks into a pond, you can replicate the effect with a single larger stone if it's placed correctly. In plain English: A well thought out and easily digestible message made viewable over as many channels as possible and with the backing of an honest brand is sure to get desirable attention due to its undeniable authenticity. And when it comes to millennial buyers who are more interested in buying the right brands than the right products, authenticity is everything.
Your brand is great on its own, but the key to successfully conveying that depends on your ability to convince everyone else what you already know. In most cases, the best way to adopt a strategy that reaches your desired audience is to constantly work with people who are on top of the latest technologically communicative trends. But these five tactics can help you tap into the mindset of the millennial consumer.
Chris Booth is a communications specialist at James and Matthew, a Leominster firm that helps businesses with their branding efforts. Contact him at cb@jamesandmatthew.com.
WBJ Web Partners
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