To anyone who has been online at all during the past year, it’s impossible to have avoided one of the 2013s buzzwords – Millennials. This term is the ultimate way to describe Generation Y – loosely encapsulating those born between 1980 and 2000.
With Millennials practically being synonymous with digital, it’s important to understand the value this demographic has within the online world, and thus to see the bigger picture. Just how CAN you target, and keep the interest of, these young – but tech-savvy – seasoned pros?
Social media does play an important role in how us Millennials use the internet, but our increasing connectivity has extended usage far beyond the social world. From how we consume news, to what we currently search online, it would be ignorant to pretend that observing these trends shouldn’t form a huge part of your marketing strategy. For example, these young men and women aren’t going to catch your ad in the commercial break of their favourite show – they don’t need their TV for that!
Having grown up in a digital world practically from the word go, the online world isn’t just a new world – it IS our world. Obviously, it doesn’t incorporate our every waking second, but if something is worth doing, you can bet it will easily translate to digital.
Approach marketing to Millennials the way you’d approach speaking to us – some of the most successful campaigns are those which don’t even feel like campaigns at all. It’s all about the content. Be inspiring, be informative, thought-provoking, unique, funny, creative – the list goes on. But do not be patronising. Ever. Why not try getting them involved? Us Millennials are creators, not followers – and were the ones consuming your brand, after all. So, you should never underestimate our value.
Millennials don’t know everything – and we don’t claim to. That’s why your SEO strategy must be well executed – we still use search terms, too! Make sure you’re reputable, not abusing Google’s Guidelines, and ultimately embody the personality of your brand in EVERYTHING you promote. Don’t make sloppy errors, don’t ignore a social presence (take the time to design an actual strategy), and, most importantly, keep up-to-date with trends. The online world rapidly changes, and you have to stay up-to-date if you want to stay afloat. Believe it or not, the majority of us actually still step offline to make purchases, we do still talk to people in real life, and we can still function as humans without a data connection/Wi-Fi – but the initial interaction is likely going to originate online, so it needs to be strong.
If you’re only going to take one thing from this, it should be this – old methods just won’t wash. Yes, there are some absolutely fantastic offline marketing campaigns which will work brilliantly, tradition isn’t completely dead. But what people need to realise now is that Millennials know when they’re being marketed to, and if it feels too much like faceless advertising, were not interested. Of course, not everyone is the same – but really, isn’t that the point?
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