7 winning strategies for marketing to millennials

Targeting the millennial market is a bold move. Millennial marketing strategies require authenticity, high production values, and global awareness. These are steep thresholds for any brand to clear, and there’s no guarantee that millennial consumers will stick with you through every attempt.

To successfully engage this demographic, you need to learn how to advertise to millennials — what worked for previous generations won’t necessarily work for them as their culture and inclinations are vastly different. And as millennial buying power increases, so too do their needs.

Discover what makes this growing market unique and seven helpful strategies to help you market to millennials.

Who are millennials?

The millennial demographic consists of anyone born between 1981 and 1996. That places them after Generation X (born 1965 to 1980) and before Generation Z (born 1997 to present).

This demographic has seen firsthand how technology has transformed their culture. As children, they memorized landline phone numbers and learned things without the internet — some even remember sliding around in the back seat of a car without rear seatbelts. As technology rapidly advanced (along with safety standards), millennials experienced radical shifts in where they searched for information, which devices they carried with them, and what values to look for in a product.

Why you should be marketing to millennials

Marketing to millennials is crucial to every brand’s long-term staying power because they’re poised to become the dominant economic influence. They’re the largest generation in U.S. history, with over 72 million people. Compare that to the Baby Boomer generation, which has just under 69 million people.

Here are a few more reasons marketers should focus their efforts on the millennial population:

• They’re early adopters. A YouGov study found that at least 57% of tech early adopters are millennials. While Gen Z will undoubtedly surpass them one day, millennials currently have more buying power in the economy.
• They use multiple devices. According to the Pew Research Center, 93% of millennials have a smartphone, and 55% have a tablet. Millennials will likely become the primary consumers if these trends continue with newer devices like wearables.
• They’re tech experts. Since millennials have had to keep up with all these technological advancements, they’ve become experts in how they work. They might have higher standards for what they buy, but they’re also less likely to need costly customer support.

Why is it hard to market to millennials?

As open to new ideas as millennials are, they’re also fickler with brand loyalty. They’ve grown accustomed to shifting from one retailer to the next as controversy and changing ideals impact brand images.

For example, GoDaddy — once a household name in website hosting — fell from grace in 2011 when the founder, Bob Parsons, posted a video of himself hunting and killing an elephant in Zimbabwe. His company lost over 70,000 domains within a week, and GoDaddy has never fully recovered.

Millennials grew accustomed to brands going through these booms and busts in public sentiment. They remained ready to jump ship from one to another at a moment’s notice. To market to them, you need a cohesive brand image — and you have to avoid controversy. If trouble occurs, your team must navigate it with sensitivity, humility, and grace.

How to market to millennials: 7 strategies

Millennials prefer socially and globally conscious brands that engage passionately with relevant issues. Marketing campaigns that feature genuine stories about how your brand thinks globally and acts locally are much more likely to draw these consumers in.

For example, the Endangered Species Chocolate company donates at least 10% of their net profits to organizations that protect endangered species. They also use only Fair Trade Certified ingredients. All their marketing centers around these two facts, and that consistent messaging has kept them around for over 30 years.

Keeping authenticity and ethics in mind, here are seven strategies you can leverage to target millennials and drive engagement with this increasingly vital demographic.

1. Think mobile-first

Millennials’ first cell phones were probably Nokia or Razr, which paved the way for the Sidekick and iPhone. These shoppers have matured alongside the smartphone market, so they’re almost intuitively connected to and reliant on their devices.

To resonate with millennials, your brand needs to offer a robust experience on mobile devices. Launch dedicated apps, use responsive web designs for mobile, and incorporate mobile features that let users share your content on social media.

2. Place experiences above entertainment

A fun mascot or hilarious ad campaign used to do the trick for audience engagement — think Budweiser Frogs and the Taco Bell Chihuahua — but times have changed. Most millennials deliberately avoid ads, so subscription services base their pricing models on removing ads completely.

The new method is designing personalized, consumer-centric experiences that incentivize customers to share your product with friends. Snapchat and TikTok are excellent examples. They encourage users to share content at every turn and personalize feeds to discover what their users engage with most.

3. Consider brand values

Millennial consumers want to support brands that are doing good in the world. They understand that spending money on a product is the same as endorsing the company that made it, and they’re willing to spend time researching brands before making a purchase. Your brand needs to choose a niche and take a stance on important issues. Find ways to authentically involve your brand in those issues to appeal to millennials.

4. Stay genuine

Millennials have a strong distaste for patronizing ad campaigns. It turns out millennials don’t want to be condescended to with cameos and remixes.

Instead, take notes from companies like TOMS, who, after an emotional TED Talk from their CEO, Tom Dutta, centered their advertisements around how their company is doing good worldwide. Their “For One, Another” ad is a brilliant example — for every pair of shoes purchased, the company donates a pair to a child in need.

5. Optimize visuals effectively

A picture is worth a thousand words, and to millennials, they’re worth even more. Engaging, original visuals are essential in today’s marketing world, where pop-ups and web ads are the primary methods to drive traffic to your site. The space for these ads is at a premium, so stock photos won’t work. You need eye-catching, personalized experiences.

Amazon sets an excellent example. They track user purchases to determine what to market to them. When Amazon pushes web ads, they present appealing products with discounted prices to encourage consumers to click.

6. Offer incentives

After the pandemic, millennials are increasingly departing from the rise-and-grind culture they watched their parents endure — and endured themselves in the 2010s — in favor of a better quality of life. In fact, millennials would reportedly accept a 20% pay cut for a better work-life balance. That motivation sometimes inspires them to monetize their interests and find creative ways to earn kickbacks whenever possible.

To build engagement with your millennial audience, offer referral bonuses, partner programs, and other initiatives that provide monetary incentives to consumers who drive traffic to your brand.

7. Gather inbound marketing data

As privacy regulations become stricter, gathering data from third-party data warehouses is growing more challenging. This surge in privacy rights is also a key concern for millennials, so you’re doubly encouraged to gather data from your own in-house sources.

To navigate these concerns, pivot away from purchasing data and contact lists. Instead, use surveys, opt-in device analytics, and user reviews to inform your marketing strategies. This generates more direct customer feedback while illustrating your brand’s commitment to privacy.

Build personalized web experiences

To effectively market to millennials, you need the right web tools to create and optimize powerful, responsive websites. Website personalization takes this experience to another level, allowing you to create unique experiences for different audiences.

With Webflow, you can build personalized messaging and pages to effectively market to millennials — or any audience. To learn more about creating a highly personalized website experience for your customers and prospects, get in touch with our team today.