Marketing to Millennials in 2021

18 February 2021

Millennials are fast becoming the most important consumer group in the world. Born between 1980 and 2000, this cohort is now entering career prime time, which means higher disposable income and more purchases.

Currently, one-third of all people across the planet is a millennial, and more than 40 per cent has a bachelor’s degree, making it the most educated generation in history.

But how are marketers supposed to communicate with this particular group? Let’s take a look.

Stand For Something More

Like it or not, millennials are the most educated group in history. Their upbringing has taught them that there’s more to life than the accumulation of physical possessions. And many of them have quasi-philosophical views about how the world should be run.

Companies run in the traditional way can struggle to understand this aspect of millennial culture. Unfortunately, simply offering a great product is no longer enough to entice today’s generation of highly conscious buyers. They want their brands to align with their values.

But there’s a problem with this: millennials tend to have quite diverse values. While many have come out of education left-leaning, they have eclectic political views.

As a company, therefore, you need to stand for something more than just the quality of the products or services you supply. You need to appeal to something aesthetically important to your audience that won’t switch off specific subgroups. Good examples include working towards disease cures or helping foster greater independence.

Invest In Social Media

Millennials grew up on social media. Many started using it during high school and continue to do so to this day.

Social media has become a kind of daily habit for many. A lot of young people view it as “the internet” itself, instead of just an aspect of it, using it for all their shopping, socializing and information-gathering.

Data suggest, for instance, that 50 per cent of millennials trust influencers for product advice and around three quarters use social media to learn about new products.

Having a presence on social media can be a challenge, though, because of the sophistication of the audience. The vast majority of millennials love products, but they hate digital marketing. So firms reaching out over social media need to avoid appearing “salesy” and focus more on entertaining and informing. It can feel a little awkward, but sales will eventually arrive following this approach.

Accumulate More Reviews

There are two main reasons millennials love reviews:

They provide social proof that your brand can deliver on its promises
It gives buyers confidence that they’re going to get something that meets their requirements

Gaining reviews is relatively easy, but it does require some persistence. Most millennials won’t leave reviews about you immediately and may require a couple of follow-up emails. However, once you get a critical mass of reviews, your SEO will improve and more people will take the plunge and try your products for themselves.

Boost User-Generated Content

Forget trying to create unique marketing content yourself. Instead, just leverage users already out there to gain access to their audiences. Again, social proof can go a long way.