Three tips for effectively engaging with millennials

Are you a marketer that is struggling to engage Generation Y effectively? Well, fear not! Growth Tank director David Willey provides some words of wisdom on how you can get the attention of Millennials – and keep it.

Millennials are now the most sought after market segment the world over. With 4.5 million of them in Australia alone, with a spending power of over $530 million, brands are still finding it a minefield to reach the most misunderstood generation of consumers yet. Can your company afford to not effectively engage with this generation?

Here’s a handy list of some key tips to help:

Millennials DO Use Email

While we all know it’s important to engage with Millennials on social media, new research by Adestra shows that email is the clear winner when it comes to how Millennials want to be contacted by brands. It is therefore important not to discount email marketing to Millennials. However, it is also key to understand that both are quite different in the millennial eye. Social media is a place for customers to engage with brands and to share content that they think valuable or cool, whereas email marketing is more of a way for customers to receive news and product info. Use email marketing to drive customers to your site and social media and then engage them there with valuable and shareable content.

Be Authentic

Authenticity and transparency are words that get used a great deal when it comes to Millennials, and with good reason. As the most connected and advertised to generation, they are often the hardest to engage. They know when they’re being sold, and they don’t like it. The trick is to make your ads so good they can’t ignore them. This advice is also true while engaging with Millennials on social media. If you’re inauthentic, whether trying to conceal a mistake or responding to feedback, they will see right through it and call you out. If you made a mistake, or someone has a genuine complaint, hold your hands up and apologise publicly. Your honesty will be refreshing and welcome, and everyone will see what a proactive company you are.

Deliver Valuable & Shareable Content

One in three Millennials claim to read blogs or reviews before making a purchase, or engaging with a brand, meaning you need to be putting out good content. Where poor or ‘deceiving’ content (read salesy) will turn Millennials off your brand, good content (read valuable and shareable) will not only win you sales, but create brand loyalty. The trick is to think not ‘how will this piece of content sell my product?’, but rather ‘what value is the content to the customer, and why are they going to engage with it?’ If they are engaging with your content, then they are engaging with your brand and are much more likely to make a purchase or share your content.

In general, there are three reasons Millennials will share content: because it resonates on a deeply personal level with them and their friends, because it addresses a personal need, and because it makes them look smart, in the know or cool in front of their friends.

These three points barely touch the surface of where to start with effective Millennial marketing. If you want to hear the most up to date research, marketing secrets and practical strategies of how to get the edge with them as consumers, Growth Tank are hosting the Millennials Marketing Conference in Melbourne at ACMI on the 25th & 26th May.

Hear from top experts from Facebook, Instagram, MTV, Buzzfeed, VICE Media, NOVA Entertainment, TRIBE, The Urban List, Pedestrian, oOh! Media, Junkee Media, Hello Social, Soap Creative, McCrindle Research, Hubspot and many more! For more information and tickets visit the site.