As a freelance consultant, it is very common for me to see business owners have absolutely no idea how to market their products to millennials.
If you are wondering, millennials are the children of Baby Boomers or also known as Gen X. They are those between the age of 18 to 33 years and born in 1981 to 1996 (read more on Wikipedia).
Business owners are using social media as freemium marketing tool to reach out to millennials and I totally get it. Social media is free (up to a certain extend) and you can literally connect with fans and influencers with just a few clicks of the button. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, this group of consumers spends 18 hours a day on media and majority of them are content created by their peers.
With this being laid out, the potential to increase marketing results is enormous thanks to the millennial generation.
However, it is always easier said than done. There are so many social media platforms out there such as Facebook, Twitter, Vine, SnapChat, Tumblr and a zillion others, we are often stuck with one common question, “Which is the most popular social media platforms for marketers to leverage today?”
Well the answer is typically everything. Success lies in any social media platform as long as you have the right strategy. You can build brand awareness and monetize from every social media platforms but time is the biggest problem for most of us. We only have that limited time a day and just like me, you are looking for the best way to market your products to the millions of millennials.
And that’s what you’ll get today. In this article, you’ll find 3 powerful methods you can use before starting any marketing focusing by targeting millennials.
The best part?
These methods will work for every … single … social media platforms out there.
3 Powerful Social Media Marketing Tips Targeting Millennials
Step 1 – Paying attention to the millennials’ needs
- I am not talking about your customers but I’m talking about millennials
- It is not about what they will buy from you but it is all about your products solving their problems
I totally get it – you want to market your product to the world and dominate the Mount Everest if you have the chance. But you aren’t going anywhere without the right marketing strategy.
Most importantly, marketing to millennials require a whole different approach … which most businesses fail to achieve (or realize).
Social media marketing solutions targeting millennials
The first step is to understand what their problems are and this can easily be done thanks to social media. For many, it is called as social listening.
I consider social listening as keeping loop with the current trends on social media. In this case, it means listening to what millennials are sharing on the media.
Social media listening can be done in 3 ways:
- Understanding what topics or problems are being shared by millennials (create content that serves a purpose instead of playing the guessing game)
- Participating in communities or groups millennials are active in (you can consider Google+ communities or Facebook groups) and become an influence in information sharing
- Listening to your advocates or fans (you can reach out to your fans and ask for feedbacks and promotions plus, listening to the negativity of your products)
You can fine tune your social media strategy by responding to the comments or even providing solution to their problems.
In some cases, you may even attract potential customers directly from your competitors just by listening to the problem (and reaching out to them personally).
Step 2: Product marketing as a solution
If you want to market your product, start making it as a need and not a want. Make your product indispensable and you will (stand a good chance of making) make the product go viral.
This step basically compliments the above step, which is all about understanding your potential customers. If you know your customer is seeking help for a specific topic on social media, chances are there is more than one who are having the same problem.
If you are able to make your product as an ultimate solution to the problem, walaa! You just made some good marketing.
This method is practiced by Post Planner in a huge way. Take this post for example.
Did you know why Post Planner published such?
On October 17th 2014, CopyBlogger announced to the world that they are closing down their Facebook page and that was huge. As a matter of fact, it was so huge that hundreds or thousands of people was blogging about it. Indirectly, it hit ground zero and a huge number of people tend to believe that it was ultimately, the time to say “goodbye” to Facebook page.
Here’s a question for you: Did Post Planner published this in a timely moment or just for the sake of it?
Publishing contents on social media at the right time is also very important especially for paid marketing.
Facebook advertisement only allows a mere 25 characters on the headline and 90 characters in the body text.
Can you imagine the effects of the advertisement if you are able to place in call-to-actions relating to solving the millennials’ problems?
Step 3: Build trust and relationship before selling
Since majority of millennials are very active on social media, how do you built trust for your brand in social media?
This may and may not relate to millennials but in terms of customer relationship and trust building, here is one great example:
Now, take a look at Starbucks. We know how many people in this world dig in to StarBucks.
StarBucks uses Twitter as an engagement tool to indirectly promote their products by providing support and yes, the plain ol’ conversation. The above tweets looked personalized and most importantly, there were human touches in most of their tweets.
Let’s face it. Millennials are fast in social media response and brands like StarBucks make it real easy to create healthy conversation and trust between both parties.
The biggest question right now is, “Are you doing what it takes to grow your trust among your fans on social media?”
Over to you
Do you have any social media marketing strategies that you find useful especially when targeting millennials group? Leave a comment below and let’s discuss further.
See also: Is there a science behind Word of Mouth Marketing?
