Let’s play a game called “Name That Generation.” Here are the questions:
- What generation was born between the years 1981 and 1996?
- Which generation would cut spending on luxury goods before a vacation?
- What generation spends nearly seven hours daily using internet-connected devices?
- Which generation prefers Facebook over Instagram and TikTok?
If you answered “millennials” to every question — congrats, you know your stuff!
However, it’s not always easy to distinguish between millennials and other younger generations, such as Gen Z. After all, both groups spend a lot of time online and are more diverse than other generations. But the similarities tend to stop there. Millennials interact with online content differently, and they take a disparate approach to spending habits and what they do in their free time — all things that can impact how they react to brand marketing efforts.
In this guide, learn a few millennial marketing strategies that resonate with consumers, from leveraging social media influencers to successful email marketing automation.
The millennial consumer profile
What does the average millennial consumer value? Here are a few of their key traits.
Experiences come first
Millennials prioritize experiences over consumer goods. They’ll swiftly turn down a high-priced handbag or flat-screen TV in favor of jetting to the Caribbean or a few nights out with close friends and family. In general, millennials value the people around them more than their salary or tangible assets.
Take a practical approach to purchases
Millennials aren’t likely to trust your brand’s splashy commercial or captivating landing pages. Remember, their years of living in the internet age means they know all the tools available to get the lowdown on your products and services. Count on millennials to check verified customer reviews on sites like Google and Amazon. They’ll also check out third-party advice on Reddit and other social media platforms.
Authenticity is king
Exaggerated product claims aren’t likely to fool a millennial. They want to know that a brand truly values them as a customer, and they expect honesty and transparency from all interactions. If you can find a way to humanize your communications rather than making blanket statements or relying on catchphrases, you’ll go a long way to securing a millennial’s patronage.
The millennial’s natural habitat is the internet
If you hope a millennial will spot your brand via a magazine ad or a radio commercial, you won’t see the results you want. Millennials spend hours of their day on their favorite resource: the internet. Marketers seeking to connect with millennials should focus on digital marketing rather than traditional marketing tools.
Priority on social responsibility
Millennials emphasize a brand’s approach to social responsibility, including climate change, the environment, sustainability, and other social causes. Showing your brand identifies with their concerns and acts responsibly toward them can help draw in new millennial customers.
Marketing strategies for engaging millennials
Millennials tend to put more value on marketing materials from their inner circle, like friends and colleagues. However, they’ll also tune into sources they trust, like their favorite podcasts or NPR — which is why many brands, including Casper and Dollar Shave Club, use those platforms to reach them. To engage with millennials through marketing, try these tactics.
Use visual storytelling
Every generation loves stories, from books and movies to TV shows and social media shorts. But millennials truly prize visual storytelling, which includes compelling graphics, images, videos, and films. Try curating short-form visual storytelling marketing materials and distributing them on social media or your website.
Maintain an engaging brand blog
In the age of the internet, answers to nearly every question are just a Google search away. Do some keyword research to uncover topics related to your products and services, and start blogging. Try to differentiate your brand’s blog from similar competitors through industry expertise and collaborations with notable partners. If your blog ends up in the hands of a millennial who enjoys it, they may be your next customer.
Use social media marketing to reach new customers
Social media is great for expanding brand awareness and attracting new millennial clients. Try developing content on their favorite platforms — Instagram and Facebook — and keep your account active. Over time, you may attract more millennial followers. You can enhance results by paying to put your ads and content in front of your targeted millennial audience.
Try influencer marketing
Social media influencers attract followers from all walks of life. If you’re targeting millennials, partner with an influencer with a millennial audience and ask them to promote your brand. If the partnership makes sense, influencers will create content based on your brand or products for a fee.
Digital marketing tactics for a millennial audience
As of September 2023, 97% of Americans own a smartphone. That means they always have access to the internet and their favorite apps, no matter where they go. To reach them, focus on digital marketing techniques emphasizing email, social media, and the internet.
Personalization strategies to build trust and loyalty
Today’s marketers have access to vast amounts of customer data unheard of just a few decades ago. It’s possible to learn a lot about your customers and targeted audience by the digital footprints they leave on your website, social media accounts, email interactions, and other resources.
Use that data to form stronger personal relationships with millennials. Take every opportunity to tailor your messaging to fit into a millennial’s preferences, whether that’s recommending products they might like or recognizing a major moment in their life, like their birthday.
Shift from outbound to inbound marketing
Not every millennial marketing strategy you use needs to focus on proactively drumming up sales. Try incorporating inbound marketing, which involves using informational content to pique your audience’s interest. For instance, you might create whitepapers, blogs, videos, articles, and how-to guides aimed at helping them resolve an issue or answer a question, without being overly salesy.
Advertising to millennials
While millennials may value authenticity from the brands they choose, you can still develop an effective paid advertising strategy. Try these techniques.
Leverage multimedia social media platforms
Millennials spend the most time on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, and Pinterest. While you don’t need to run paid ads on every platform to be successful, it’s a good idea to pick one or two that align best with your audience and marketing strategy and use them to cultivate relationships and generate brand awareness.
Once you know what millennials like in a brand — authenticity and social responsibility — you can create ads targeted toward their interests. You don’t have to encourage an immediate purchase. Instead, concentrate on turning followers into leads and moving them through the buyer’s journey.
Psychology behind millennial responses to marketing and advertising
Remember that millennials don’t appreciate hard sells. They won’t buy a product because you create high-priced, glossy print ads or cold-called them at the office. Millennials grew up right when digital marketing started to become the norm. They’ve seen both sides of marketing — online and traditional.
Millennials want marketers to level up their efforts and show them exactly why becoming a customer is advantageous. They value a brand’s loyalty and authenticity, not celebrity-studded commercials and banner signs at large-scale sporting events. If you can capture their psychology and behaviors, you’ll find it easier to draw their interest.
Use incentives and experiential elements
Remember that millennials prize experiences over consumer goods. However, that doesn’t mean you have to run a travel company to attract their business. Millennials still buy from retailers, just like other generations. However, they’ll pay more attention to your ads if you incorporate an experience — through a story or incentive — into your advertising efforts.
For instance, if you’re a nonprofit organization seeking young donors, you could create a short video describing your cause and how donations make a positive impact.
Building relationships and community
Millennials grew up during several momentous occasions, including 9/11 and the Great Recession. In adulthood, they witnessed the COVID-19 pandemic. Those experiences inform their need for trustworthy relationships with a brand. They want to buy from companies focusing on personal touches and long-term community building. To capitalize on those needs, try incorporating a few of these strategies.
Maintaining transparency and ethics
Millennials are all about clear communication and commitment. They’re not fans of hidden fees and extensive terms and conditions. They want to be able to make a purchase knowing the conditions upfront — what your return process is, how much notice they must give to cancel a subscription, and what they’ll pay for shipping.
Millennials also care about ethics. They’re not fond of brands that engage in unethical practices, like child labor, animal abuse, or environmental harm. If your brand supports any social causes like wage inequality, reproductive rights, or LGBTQIA+ rights, let customers know — that may make a difference in whether they purchase from you.
Community-driven marketing efforts
The more you can engage your millennial audience, the better. Give them opportunities to share their feelings and experiences with your brand through user-generated content. You can reward top content with special discounts, bonuses, or other incentives. In addition to sparking millennial interest, it helps spread brand awareness to new people who see the content.
The role of technology in millennial marketing
Since technology is so intertwined in millennial’s lives, it only makes sense that it should play a significant role in your millennial marketing strategies.
Using AI and automation tools
While personalizing content for individual millennial audiences may seem time-consuming, using artificial intelligence (AI) and automation can seriously boost your efforts. AI can play a strategic role in content development, particularly for email subject lines, short email copy, and even image generation or enhancement. AI may also help you refine your customer data and target customers based on demographics, behaviors, interests, and prior interactions.
You can implement automation tools in your email marketing strategies. For instance, you might set up automated millennial marketing campaigns to intrigue new clients and ultimately drive them to a purchase. You can also use automated emails for other customer interactions, such as welcome emails, birthday recognition, and abandoned cart notifications.
Constant Contact can handle your email marketing and social media posting needs. It combines AI and automation technology you can leverage for your next campaign. Use it to design personalized communications tailored to your millennial audience.
Impact of future tech trends on millennial marketing strategies
As technology continues to make waves, count on new techniques to improve marketing performance and better connect with your entire audience, including millennials. For instance, some retailers offer technology that helps consumers virtually try on clothing and accessories. You can also find home goods stores that let you see how artwork or wallpaper would look in your home.
Immersive millennial marketing trends may be a massive boon for retailers that integrate them, especially as they develop and become more accurate and precise.
Planning and execution
There are many ways to market to millennials, but it’s best to develop a comprehensive strategy rather than trying everything to see what sticks.
Start by defining your marketing goals and your ideal customer profile. If your target audience is millennials, there may be other attributes you want to market to, such as income level, family size, location, and buying behaviors. If you need a little inspiration, look at millennial marketing examples from brands that millennials flock to, like Apple, Converse, and Ulta.
Then, select a single strategy to focus on. You can incorporate an omnichannel marketing approach that includes email, social media, website, and paid ads. However, the more channels you use, the greater the effort and time you’ll need to invest in consistent marketing to keep your audience engaged.
Once you implement your strategy, make sure to track its performance. Use analytics available across platforms and services to see whether you’re meeting your objectives. Remember, marketing is fluid — you can always make adjustments if you don’t see the returns you’re hoping for.
A carefully designed millennial marketing strategy can bring results
The first part of a successful millennial marketing strategy is knowing your audience. When you understand what millennials believe in and look for in the brands they shop with, it’s much easier to cater your marketing strategies to their tastes. To learn more about marketing concepts and how they can benefit a millennial marketing strategy, read “How the 7 Ps of Marketing Fit Into Your Marketing Mix.”
