Marketers Speak Millennials Language

Michele Warg
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With millennials making up such a large portion of the U.S. workforce, it's essential that marketers learn how to speak to them. While traditional routes may work with Generation X and baby boomers, a one-size-fits-all approach is frequently unsuccessful, as millennials require a different sales approach.

Millennials grew up with social media. This means that any sales approach must incorporate a variety of platforms to appeal to them, so Facebook and Twitter in particular are important. However, it's not enough just to establish a presence on the social media accounts. A cohesive marketing toolkit must incorporate organic marketing, gradually building up likes, followers and so on. This, however, is standard advice, and most marketing teams already have big presences on these two platforms.

There is one platform that is regularly ignored by marketers, which is unfortunate, as more than 60 percent of millennials are currently on it. This platform is Snapchat. Photos and videos posted by users through the social app often disappear after 10 seconds, which like much of traditional advertising, makes the delivered message instantly disposable. In some ways, it's actually safer than traditional social media for a more spontaneous sales approach, as these messages are less likely to be captured by a screenshot and reposted.

In addition, it uses Stories, which let you create a narrative of sorts. These Stories can be viewed an unlimited number of times over 24 hours by your followers, so you can gradually add to them and maintain an almost-live presence. This has major implications for the way that you conduct your sales approach, as well as your customer service approach.

Because the key to advertising to millennials is authenticity, it is essential that your brand appeals to that ideal. This means that platforms like Snapchat can offer a genuine behind-the-scenes look at how your brand works, which creates a feeling of belonging and helps identify the people and faces behind it — no matter what their age, people identify with faces.

Alternatively, your brand can offer very brief promotional codes that only last 24 hours. This raises brand awareness and loyalty, and it encourages you to fine-tune your sales approach so that you get people in on specific days and possibly even at specific times. This sense of urgency ensures that people are more likely change plans on a whim based on your sales approach. In addition, it creates a much-needed feeling of exclusivity that brands can cash in on.

Whatever your sales approach, Snapchat offers a variety of possibilities that you can use. While there's no guarantee that any one approach will work for your business, the affordability of Snapchat and the ability to access a huge market of potentially loyal millennial customers means that this is one social media platform that should be in your marketing toolkit.


Image courtesy of cuteimage at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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