Millennials require a different marketing game from the rest of the generations. This is why companies find it challenging to effectively target and market for this generation.
Today, the millennial generation doesn’t seem to respond to traditional marketing strategies that have worked for the Baby Boomers and Generation X markets.
Selling to millennials may require a different approach, but that doesn’t mean you need to allocate more of your budget to your marketing strategy or find marketing experts. You only need to adapt to how millennials think.
This generation has been influenced by technology, and they didn’t have to learn how to interact with brands and businesses online. They have literally grown up doing it, which is why most of them have high expectations for online selling.
Understanding what millennials want is an unavoidable step, especially if you’re planning to grow your business and remain competitive for an extended period of time.
Hopefully, these simple eight tips will help you understand how to sell to millennials.
1. Learn How Millennials Communicate
If you need to let millennials know about your company, you need to join in existing conversations. They’re more than likely to be using phones or devices, communicating with people via different Social Media Channels.
According to a study done by the Center for Generational Kinetics, millennials prefer to communicate using these ways(from the most used to the least used);
- Texting in texting apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger
- Emails with the subject line being crucial
- Social media
- Phone calls
- In-person talks
While trying to sell or market to millennials and offering customer support, always keep this hierarchy in mind. You should not only use one method of communication. It is best to use multiple methods because some users might prefer one method over the other one.
You can use Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Instagram DMs for general inquiries, but for more lengthy conversations or personalized inquires, emails and phone calls could come in handy. Another option would be the self-help portals to answer any question millennials want to know, which helps improve the customer experience and reduce the customer service budget.
2. Show Them That You Care
Telling millennial customers that your product is the cheapest one or the best one out there won’t work. This is because they don’t just buy into anything you tell them. Instead, they will do a quick Google search and prove you wrong.
The best approach is to show them how you relate to their problems and how your company has the capability of solving their problems. For example, they want a fitting dress? Show them how it fits their peers and why they should buy it.
However, you do not have to spend so much time on explanations and instead focus on stroking their ego. Despite the problems, make them feel good about themselves and deliver value for people who haven’t purchased your products before.
Make the millennials fall in love with what you are selling and let them blow the trumpet for you on all platforms instead of doing it yourself.
3. Be Informative, But Keep it Short
Millennials are always busy moving from one activity to another or moving from one platform to another. So, they easily get bored when you keep them there for longer than they want to be, making your sales pitch useless.
However, these individuals are curious and attentive, and they may only pay attention to what they want. Keep it short and give them a chance to explore. Your main aim should be to tell them why they need your products in the shortest time possible and leave out the other comprehensive details for them to explore.
Avoid going into a full description about your products unless you’re sure they are willing to listen or they asked for it. You can just list a few benefits of the products to keep your speech short and leave the rest for them to explore. Instead, you can ask them to click a specific button if they are interested in knowing more.
4. Have a Social Media Presence
If the primary target customers of your products are the millennials, then having social media is not an option but rather compulsory. In this digital age, social media has proven to be one of the best marketing methods for millennials.
Sign up your businesses to the most used social media platforms, if not all. For example, having an Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter present and updating it a few times a week could really grow your business.
You don’t have to look for a social media person, as you can do it yourself. But if you’re unable to do it, then one of your employees can take on the task.
Another way you can engage on social media is through social media influencers. These are people, most of the time millennials, who help you get discovered on social media. Millennials tend to relate to their fellow millennials, and they’re most likely to influence their purchasing decisions. So, the best way to reach or market to a millennial is through their friends or other millennials.
5. Be Transparent, Don’t Try To Trick Them
As we have mentioned above, millennials are curious people, and they have a tendency to fact-check every information you give them. If they do their research and find out what you’re telling them is untrue or are caught up in surprises, millennials are fast to spread the word to their peers, which in turn makes business hard for you.
Be transparent with whatever you’re telling them such that their research will show the same. This way, they will be eager to listen to you more in the future.
You might be wondering, how do millennials conduct their fact-checking process? They simply check for reviews from consumers, refer to comments on social media posts, and they also ask their peers for recommendations or reviews.
Don’t try too hard to sell to them. If you try to trick them into buying your product or service, just know they will figure it out soon enough, and it may negatively affect your business. Millennials associate with companies that are transparent and connect with them.
6. Relate with their emotions
When millennials are engaging on social media and other platforms, emotions are one of the essential ruling factors for their engagement tendencies.
For you to succeed in marketing to millennials, you need to give them information that will affect their beliefs and change their world. You need to make them laugh, cry, sad, or just make them feel good or have a great time. This, however, is easier said than done.
To do this, you can engage in environmentally-affective projects and other social issues that are likely to affect their futures. This can be done through stating facts or storytelling.
Storytelling is a great way to give your consumers something they can relate to. Get personal, ask questions, and share your stories. It could be an issue that has greatly affected you or other people.
If you’re very observant, you could see that some companies have grown just by speaking about issues that millennials felt strongly about them. They are always all over social media trying to share their opinions, which is a great marketing strategy for your business.
If such is not doable for your company, you can create funny content by making and sharing memes. However, don’t try too hard to relate to their emotions because they will definitely know.
7. Make Buying Easy- Innovate for convenience
Many companies have become successful just by using technology that is convenient and very easy to use. E-commerce websites should be straightforward and easy to use, with incredible speeds. Focus on improving the user experience by removing the unnecessary steps, data, or categories from your website.
Another way to make buying easy is to use a variety of payment options to adapt to the purchasing power of different millennials. Depending on the country you’re selling your services to, find different payment methods that they have access to.
In some countries, a millennial may prefer to pay using credit or debit cards. In contrast, people may lack access to credit cards in other countries and may prefer other payment methods such as cash on delivery. If you’re looking to reach more sales, do market research to find out and incorporate different and preferred payment methods.
8. Encourage Your Customers To Do The Selling
To better sell to millennials in your target market, you need to let the consumers do the advertising for you. How?
This is simple. You only need to encourage your consumers to share photos or their experiences using your products or services. While they do so, ask them to tag your business so the potential customers can easily find your brand.
In addition to sharing their experiences on social media, encourage them to talk to their friends. The smartest retailers know the importance of the customers to boost their audience, which in turn boosts their sales.
The bottom line is to ensure you have loyal and happy customers who will act as a salesperson for your company. By doing this, you really don’t have to work on boosting your social media accounts using special offers or promotional codes. You can quickly get it done using this method.
