Marketing to Millennials
Stereotypes suggest that millennials are cheap, fickle and only make purchases online. But if your goal is to market to millennials, you’re better off not buying into these myths.
It’s true that millennials – defined as those born between 1981 and 1996 – are highly educated and tech savvy, as they’ve grown up along with the advent of computers at home and in the workplace, as well as the Internet.
What’s also true is that a core group of millennials, between ages 18 and 34, are starting to think about a place to live. Those who can afford it will be looking at their first home, likely investing in real estate for the first time.
Surveys suggest that the majority of millennials will use a real estate agent when shopping for a home, but there are also more likely to begin their search online, which makes sense for a tech-savvy generation. Keep in mind that millennials are more likely to respond to online marketing and communications efforts as opposed to newspaper ads, flyers and postcards. And although you may have a physical office, take advantage of your online virtual office, which will allow you to communicate directly with millennial homebuyers, through social media, e-mails and texts.
According to Real Estate Express, some of the most effective options for targeting millennial buyers are shareable blog posts and short videos posted on YouTube and Vine. Well-crafted videos appeal to potential customers on an emotional level, and are still relatively new in marketing terms, which helps marketers to separate themselves from the crowd. Quality is also important, with the focus on making a few great videos instead of many videos that no-one wants to watch.
In general, marketing aimed at millennials should be as creative as possible. Innovative marketing strategies will generally perform better with millennials than standard techniques. Millennials are largely tired of traditional methods of advertising, and while they want information, they want to select it instead of having it forced on them.
Remember that not all millennials will respond to the same messaging. Grouping an entire generation of people into one marketing demographic likely won’t provide positive results. Instead, segmenting different campaigns for the age group most likely to respond to them will go a long way toward making your message resonate.
Marketing to millennials may be challenging, but it’s well worth the effort. To successfully grow your business, remember to focus at least some of your advertising directly to this powerful target market.
