Millennial Marketing - The Generation Gap

The generational marketing landscape has changed;  unanimous in conversations of marketers at digital summits and recent agency meetings.  All conversations and data lead back to this: Millennials matter.  Many questions remain unanswered. Who are they? How are they communicating? 

If your business is not reaching millennials, you are likely looking at data with annual declining stats.  We spent the last few weeks at digital summits and agency meetings holding client discussions on the topic.  Local businesses, enterprise marketers and agencies are struggling to reach this new demographic of consumers.

Some Numbers on Millennials

Millennial encompass those aged 20-36 in 2017. In fact, Pew Research states that the youngest millennial was born in 1997 and the oldest was born in 1981.

Millennials now number 75.4 million, surpassing the 74.9 million baby boomers (ages 53-71). They are communicating on mobile devices, active on the newest social media platforms and not responding to emails.  If you are building marketing budgets for 2017, read on.

Who are they?

Most research shows that millennials have a strong sense of community both locally and globally. Millennials care about sharing local information; this transpires in the number of reviews and photos they post and the rankings they allot using maps, apps or their mobile devices in that capacity.

Businesses are affected by the content that is ranking online and those engaging customers through review marketing are outranking their competitors in online and mobile search.

Other research has defined these individuals as the influential “me generation” with a sense of entitlement and narcissism.  A 2016 study goes as far as finding that millennials exhibited 18% more narcissism than older adults, with males scoring higher on average than females.  This study defines two types of narcissism: extraverts, characterized by attention seeking and power dominance, and introverts, characterized by an acute sense of self-entitlement and defensiveness.  Call it narcissism perhaps but be mindful that this new group of consumers is flocking to social media and they are more likely to take advice from friends and contacts than they are from any marketing messages they see on television.  

Memo to Marketers

Millennials are holding conversations on social media about your products and services.  You can join the conversation or sit back and watch sales decline.  Social conversations are impacting sales.  Consumers are finding information ranking on Google, maps, apps and within car navigation systems and in turn their buying decisions are made from data originating from social media posts. Why? Because this seemingly entitled group of narcissists have money to buy.  

Millennials have a strong purchasing power and a high desire to make more money than their parents. Snapchat “that”.

The University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future" study of high school seniors (conducted continuously since 1975) and the American Freshman survey, conducted by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute of new college students since 1966, showed an increase in the proportion of students who consider wealth a very important attribute, from 45% for Baby Boomers (surveyed between 1967 and 1985) to 70% for Gen Xers, and 75% for Millennials.

According to authors from the Florida International University, original research performed by Howe and Strauss as well as Yu & Miller suggests that baby boomers resonate primarily with loyalty, work ethic, steady career path, and compensation when it comes to their professional lives. Generation X on the other hand, started shifting preferences towards an improved work-life balance with a heightened focus on individualistic advancement, stability, and job satisfaction.

How are Millennials Communicating?
Since their emphasis is on collaboration, most Millennials consider email inefficient and prefer not to receive emails at all.  New collaboration platforms integrated with mobile apps, lower email consumption by over 30%.

The Millennial Generation gravitates to collaboration tools like Google Docs, #Slack, and ZenDesk to enable new goals for work life balance. Gen X coined the phrase. Gen Y realized how to accomplish it in less time.  New collaboration tools provide creative outlets for communication with benefits of immediate feedback.  Augmentation of social media enables the remote worker to collaborate with a team.  

How Do We reach this New Generation of Buyers? 
A generation gap remains in effect with subpar marketing standards in place perhaps due to a lack of understanding and experience with new technologies, and unrealized trends in consumer behavior.

Consider these stats: Each office worker receives an average of 120 emails daily.  Over 800,000,000 emails are sent every hour in the US.  We might want to rethink marketing strategies that include email marketing to reach millennials, who do not like to use email.

75% of Gmail’s 900M users access their accounts on mobile devices. According to TechCrunch, we need to consider the fact that email marketing campaigns should be optimized for mobile.

Marketers, stop linking to websites with anchor text that reads “Click Here.”  Please stop. No one is clicking. You are 64 times more likely to climb Mount Everest than click on a banner ad.  If we know and understand this reality, why are we still running banner advertising campaigns without defining consumer interests via targeted local interests?

So What is Working?

2017 Marketing plans for Millennial Marketing should include video; that is video online, not necessarily television.

Millennials are responding to video.  Video marketing on YouTube reaches demographics of 18-34 year olds and 18-49 year olds who watch more video online each day than they do on any cable television in the US.

To keep this audience engaged, use humor and stay relevant.  Video is effective in targeting both B2B and B2C markets.  Case and point - Cisco demonstrates creative use of humor in video for B2B Comedy in Content Marketing: The Perfect Gift for Valentine's Day, from Cisco.

Keep up with the times.  Did you know Snapchat passed Twitter in consumer use?  Are you using Snapchat for marketing?  B2B and B2C consumer markets are using the platform.  Bloomberg and Forbes are reporting 150 Snapchat / 136 Twitter active users.  Why?  Because it matters to businesses.  Social media matters to Millennials and in order to keep in front of them, brands must keep up with the times.

Promo, a new platform for video creation, allows users to create original digital content using curated media. Join 100,000 businesses winning with Promo. 

7 Content Marketing Strategies to Share

Is content marketing part of your brand marketing plan?  Use these proven strategies to build brand awareness, social media engagement, customer loyalty, website traffic, leads and sales. 

Content marketers use their writing and advertising skills to create high-quality blog posts and articles that will increase traffic to websites of the small business to the enterprise.  Creating content that is intriguing, eye-catching, and presented in a shareable way is essential in promoting your brand, and there are a variety of ways to improve upon your content marketing strategy for the coming year.

State Interesting Facts.

Quotes and fun facts are a great way to keep readers interested in your content.   Facts add value to your content and build credibility.  This information is the easiest for others to share, and it may keep readers intrigued enough to check out other things that you have to offer. Data-driven articles are also highly successful for SEO purposes. 

The fact is – people search for information and everyone enjoys being able to provide answers.  Give them the answers and they will share your content with their friends.  The more people you have reading and sharing your content, the higher your content will rank in search results.

Build in Visuals.

Content that is visually stimulating builds audiences. Today’s reader begins with visual ques.  Video, photos, and infographics are key components to include to increase engagement.

A post that is well formatted and includes an image is more likely to be shared, read, and liked than posts that do not feature an image. Incorporating multiple visuals throughout a post increases the readers’ time on page, engagement, and brand recall.

Video Engagement – Example

Go to your YouTube Channel.  Click on Analytics below your video.  Look at your audience retention – relative retention engagement stats on your videos.   

What images are your viewers responding to?  Where does your viewership move beyond the average, into engaged? 

Use those images to add to other online and mobile content

Photography Engagement

It was easier to understand the video engagement example through use of photography.  The depth of photography allows the consumer to identify with content.  Test image responses in social media to repeat use within article content.

We discovered one of these images was more likely to be shared within social media.   Guess which one it is.  Comment on this article with your response.  We’ll show you where you can find the answers to this question as well as which images you can use to engage your audiences.

  

Infographic – Example

Infographics have become a staple in content development.  Illustrations of a process can be defined through infographics.  Consumers are responding and sharing these files with their friends and contacts in social media.

The result of the most popular photos listed in tweets is shown on Twitter.com.  A graphic image was listed as the “Top Tweet, including a Photo,” which illustrates the value of infographics.  Notice how the image illustrates increased activity of brands engaging social audiences.

 

Format List Articles.

The title of this article included 7 content marketing strategies.  You are still reading.

List articles are one of the most popular types of content available, as they feed the human desire for organization and education.  Make sure you fulfill your promise to the reader.  A structure should be followed, when writing a list article in order to fulfill your readers’ expectations and achieve your desired result.

Large headlines, an introduction, and a conclusion are essential.  Some readers may just scan your article and move on.  Others will read every word.  Lists feed both readers with the information they are looking for. 

Lists are also easily shared, so make sure that you are adding social plug-ins to your page to enable your readers to share articles within social media, tweet and retweet article content, share images and video content.

Post Long Articles.

Some companies tend to stick to short posts when creating online content, believing that no one will be reading their articles anyway.   Believe that, and it will be true! 

The right people will read your articles, even lengthy posts. In fact, research from SerpIQ 2014 found that the average word length from the top 10 results on a Google search exceeded 2,000 words. A similar research initiative by Moz found that their posts with the most words were also the most frequently shared.

The short of it:  Give your readers information and keep them interested.

Write for Readability.

Although we tend to tend to use industry related words in conversation, we need to remember how to write for the market we are trying to reach.  While it’s important to write posts that convey your knowledge about a particular subject matter, being overly wordy or too technical in your descriptions can be problematic. Many social media professionals recommend writing at a middle school reading level, but most importantly, you should always write for your audience.

In summary: Produce content that your readers can understand and enjoy.

Construct Good Arguments.

Engage in debate.  A good argument can create a great piece of content.   While an angry rant isn’t likely to get your business or brand any positive attention, a blog post with intent, structure, and a clear point of view can be a powerful piece of content.

Bottom line: Get to the point.  

Choose a position, stick to it, & use the article to prove your point.  Engage in Debate.  Remember that there are two sides to every story, so be sure that you not only are accurately representing the position that you are arguing for, but also the opposite position.

Engage in Conversations.

If your business operates in a well-defined niche, it is highly likely that you’ll know the names of your biggest competitors and fellow bloggers. You may get their emails, read their articles, and interact with them regularly. One of the benefits of content marketing is that you’ll be able to respond to their content, allowing you to provide a structured assertion of your viewpoint in the event that a competitor writes an article that you feel compelled to respond to. Be careful to be courteous, and you can create an arena of interaction with your intelligent readers.

If you want to attract smart readers that will be willing to share your pieces with others, you’ll need to create smart content.  Follow up your content with the action you want your readers to take.  You will enjoy greater shareability and increased website traffic.

We look forward to engaging in social conversation with you.  SearchAMP Marketing reviews social media marketing campaigns of the small business to the enterprise company at SearchAMPSocial.Blogspot.com.  Please contact us to review and promote your strategy to our network in social media.  We look forward to showcasing campaigns which meet the noted principles in this article:  State facts, build visuals within content that are engaging enough to share in social media.  Send us examples! 

  

In the nature of social engagement – please share your comments!  We welcome promotional comments as long as they bring value to the discussion.  Please – comment and share in social media. Share this idea. P.S. Get #1 on Google with PR4-PR8 Contextual Links - GUARANTEED rankings & PageRank increase on Google. Check out the details.