It’s time to start thinking seriously about how to sell to millennials.
You heard me. It’s time to stop complaining about their sense of entitlement or their inability to grow up or any of the things we perceive them to have ruined about life. The fact is, these people are growing up. Some are pretty close to 30 years old already. That means they live in a grownup world and make grownup decisions every day.
They are also very shrewd with how they spend their money. They aren’t the most money-conscious generation, but theirs is the first one that buys almost solely on how a product makes them feel versus how well it performs, how good it looks, etc. That first part can really work to your advantage if you just learn how to approach them.
With that in mind, I want to give you some helpful tips on how to approach a millennial market. There are a few things you need to understand about how they consume content, what they buy, and how they decide to buy it.
#1 – You Can’t Sell to Millennials
Millennials do not respond favorably to sales-speak. If you are attempting to sell to millennials, you need to skirt around the whole uncomfortable issue of wanting them to buy something. Why? Well, more than 80% of them don’t like or trust traditional advertising in the first place. That’s for starters.
The average millennial puts a good bit of emotion into their buying decisions. It’s not just about the fact that you need toilet paper; it’s about which brand deserves the sale. The way that is determined, in the mind of a millennial, is by which one does the best job of making a person want to experience its version of the product.
Scrap any kind of features and benefits-based marketing plan you might be devising. These people view sales pitches like they do YouTube ads: They aren’t hearing a word you’re saying. They have their thumbs poised to tap “Skip Ad” at precisely five seconds in so they can focus on something more interesting. In short, you need to talk to them, not at them.
#2 – You Need To Understand Social Media and Its Impact
There’s no way around it – if you intend to sell anything to a millennial, you’d better have a strong, positive, and engaging presence on social media. This is the language they speak, and they speak it across more channels than you realize.
While older millennials might set up home base for social media on Facebook, the younger they get, the further they branch out. Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram all have very young audiences, so if you haven’t gotten around to including any of them in your social strategy, it might be time to get educated about them (and get a great custom writing service to start developing some killer content for them, too). You should also keep your ear to the ground and adopt emerging social networks early on. It will help you gain an audience well ahead of your competition and paint yours as a relevant brand that knows what’s new and noteworthy.
#3 – You Need Responsive Content
That means that everything you put out there, from ads to blog content, has to be mobile friendly. The small screen rules in the lives of twenty-somethings and younger, and that trend is only going to become more prevalent over time.
If you haven’t given your website the onceover in a while, now is the time to talk to your IT department or hosting company about optimizing your site for responsiveness. One thing most millennials are not is patient. Instant gratification is a must, especially when it comes to online content. Pages loading too slow or with content that is too small to be viewed easily on a small screen will only help increase your bounce rates (which impacts SEO). To that end…
#4 – You MUST Pair Pain Points with Solutions
Younger audiences are trending away from taking the hook in a traditional marketing scenario. If you pull out the pain points early in the conversation, you had best be prepared to not only promise a fast solution but also show definitively how you plan to deliver it. Deliver anything short of that and your content will get a collective, “Yeah… whatever,” from your prospects.
Millennials like the idea of being taken care of. It’s not a “failure to grow up” thing. It’s more an “I need to look out for myself first” sort of thing. They want to be reassured that they are in good hands with your brand – that you’re not going to let them down. That’s why it’s not enough to acknowledge the problem. You need to be able to convince a millennial audience that you have the solution – and provide proof – right away.
#5 – You Have to Steer Away from Corporate Images
Your content has to present your brand as one that is caring, understanding, and on the side of its customers. Some millennials have an almost innate distrust of corporations, so do not inadvertently present yourself as the enemy by being too corporate in your approach.
Keep things lively, fun, upbeat, and relatable. Engage with your social media audiences and respond to questions and inquiries quickly. If you sit on an inquiry from a millennial for too long, it has the same effect as that YouTube ad, only somewhat in reverse. They feel like you have hit the skip button on them.
The Last Word
Millennials are a fascinating group if you’d care to get to know them. They engage in blunt-force honesty, and they are some of the biggest influencers out there. I’m not talking specifically about social media, either. This age group is quickly taking over the global economy, so it’s time to start embracing them and learning how to interact with them if we all want to stay in business.