Know Your Audience: How to Reach and Engage Millennials

Regardless of what you think about them, if you are in a consumer-oriented industry (pretty much any industry), the millennials are your reality.

They are young people. Most of them are newly independent and ready to create lives for themselves. Your goal is to become one of those helping them on their way. Here is what they want.

Be current

Relevance is one of the first requirements imposed on you by the millennials. Whichever content you are trying to “sell”, you need to find a way of connecting it to “today”. Keep track of the news and the events worldwide. You do not necessarily have to talk about oil prices on the international market if it has nothing to do with your niche. However, you do have to be aware of the most popular viral videos. The millennials are interested in the things, people, and businesses they can relate to.

Stand for a cause

About 75% of millennials claim that they believe a brand should also give back to society and not only focus on profit. Find a way of giving back. You can start by being green. An environmentally conscious business can be appreciated by the millennials, and nature alike. You can raise awareness of certain issues, do fundraising, donate money, services, products, time etc. There are plenty of ways.

Tasteful frequency

Don’t be in their face. There is a thin line between being memorable and being annoying. Try not to cross it. “Spam” is a big and much-disliked word in modern society. Even if what you are sharing is content of great value to someone, once they mark you as spam you do not stand a chance. Choose to provide quality over quantity. Dedicate a couple of months to track user activity on your page(s) and that should give you a clear image of whether you should engage more “aggressively” and choose the right strategies.

Let them participate

Speaking of strategies, one of the best ways of engaging potential customers is by allowing them to provide content. This does not necessarily mean that they should write for you. You can organize contests, conduct surveys, and ask them to share their opinions and experience on a subject. Use an opportunity you were given to communicate directly with them. This way you can organize spontaneous focus groups and find out which direction you should take your business.

Use visuals

According to studies, you have about 7 seconds to catch a millennial’s attention, that is, catch their eye. What is better to catch an eye than an interesting image? Instagram is a perfect example of this. It is mostly used by the millennials and over 90% of the content is images. Also, the visuals are quite striking and easy to remember. This is why you should make sure that everything you publish is connected to visual content.

Be concise

Keep it short and simple. If you paid attention, a lot of websites point out and classify their posts by the length of time required to read them. With videos, the duration is almost always transparent. Even those who are not in a hurry, won’t spend much time reading or hearing on a subject. We spoke to 1 minute Video Production who say that 1 minute is optimal, and everything over 3 minutes is largely considered a waste of time. The viewers/readers will use that first couple of minutes to decide whether the subject is worth investigating into. That is when they will take the next step and look for something more elaborate.

Tell a story

They are no longer kids but they enjoy storytelling. This is the last bit of advice on this subject. The Millennials are not interested in hearing you say what your product can do. They want to know what a product can do for them, how it can solve their problem, and improve their lives. Furthermore, they want to know the background of your business and what made you create the product. It should possibly be something they can relate to.

You cannot fool the Millennials. Only 1% of them admits they could be persuaded by a commercial. The rest of the purchasing decision relies on their knowledge of the brand and other people’s experiences with it. As much as 60% of them claim they are a loyal customer. If you want to attract a millennial, work on building your brand image and a customer community. Listen to your customers and tailor your business to their needs.