Cracking the Millennial Market

This post was originally published on Writcomm

Ahhhhh Millennials… riddles wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in an enigma. Or at least that how it feels trying to market to them. Their loyalty is mercurial, their tastes appear fickle and the minute they feel they’re being marketed to they shut up shop quicker than a startled echidna.

But there is a way into their wily hearts and it really is at your fingertips.

I have two words for you. Social. Media. If your social is not on fleek then you need to get busy.

According to Kantar TNS Research, the average Millennial (aged 16-30) with internet access, spends 3.1 hours a day on their mobile devices – the equivalent of 21.7 hours – almost a whole day – every week. That’s 47 days over the course of a year. 47 days!

And these folks are listening to someone – and you need to jump on board and wring the hell out of that opportunity.

Using relevant key influencers, especially when it comes to Instagram, is waaaaay up there in importance. People scouring, following and interacting on Insta are indeed to be swayed by what their fave people are doing, saying, buying. Do not be scared to approach your chosen Influencer with the idea of getting them to help you out with spreading the word.

But don’t just jump blindly into thinking someone with 1.5 million followers is definitely your best bet – check out their engagement stats before you send off anything. Someone with a lower number of followers, say only 5000 but an engagement rate of 30% is a much better bet than your 1.5 million follower Influencer who can only dredge up 0.2% engagement. Hate to point this out but your mother was right – always look for quality over quantity. Don’t you just detest it when that happens?

Your more Micro Influencers are also less likely to want cold, hard cash for their blessings, but it doesn’t hurt to offer a little somethin’, somethin’. Always, and I mean always, offer your product or service for free to them and make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to expectations of how many posts, links in their bio to your site and so on..

Now here’s a thing…guess what social platform Millennials jump onto first thing when they wake up?

Insta? Nah.
Facebook? Nope
Snapchat? Bingo!

If you want to reach your M peeps – than you gotta get snappy about it! Millennials account for 7 out of 10 Snapchatters. If you can afford to walk away from a platform 70% of your target market is sitting on…. well you’re a bigger (wo)man than me.

So I hear you have a beauuuuttifuulllll website? Hate to break this to you – well no I actually I don’t, it’s my job – but unless you are spruiking a link to your website through social media then Millennials ain’t going to visit. They get their online cues from social platforms and don’t just do random searches. That was so yesterday. They buy through Insta and Facebook and they are heavily influenced through Snapchat. Having a website without social media drivers to it is the same giving a bicycle to a fish. You get my drift.

Final word. You need to incorporate your brand into the social world these Millennials are inhabiting seamlessly. Straight up advertising doesn’t work with them, you’ll be ignored and at worse slammed by them. Just ask Kendall Jenner.