Worried You’re Bad At Marketing to Millennials? It’s Cool, We’re Not (And Neither Are You)

Until Gen Z fully rips the title of “coolest, most coveted demographic” from the prematurely arthritic and permanently smartphone grip-shaped hands of the Millennial generation, “How to market to Millennials?” will continue to be one of the most important questions a business will be confronted with.

What Does “Marketing To Millennials” Mean?

How do you advertise to this mysterious, fickle, over-discussed generation? You will of course be immersed in the usual clouds of buzzwords when you ask most digital marketing agencies this question. Social! Influencers! Digital! Engagement! Jargon! It can all be extremely confusing if not outright exhausting. How many boxes do you have to check just to reach one freakin’ group of people?

The good news is that advertising to Millennials is not actually the hopelessly convoluted equation it can seem to be from the outside. The truth is, at its core, marketing to Millennials is not much different than marketing to anyone else. They want to buy quality products and services from honest, friendly people they trust and enjoy. After you come to understand that, all you have to do is decide how you want to reach them and prove you’re worthy of their business.

So How Does My Business Attract Millennials?

The most important thing to figure out is how you want to reach them, and how you want to convert them.

Is your business the sort that generally thrives on referrals? (Think doctors, lawyers, mechanics, restaurants, etc.) In that case, reaching out to influencers in your area to recommend your services (and how best to reach you) is a perfect way to advertise in a manner that doesn’t come off as forced or desperate.*

(*For example, as the child of two lawyers, I was always told growing up not to use a lawyer who advertised. Using an influencer to give your law firm an organic shout-out is a great way to skirt this rule and not come off as a cheesy lawyer you see hocking some awful shtick on daytime TV.)

Though there’s probably few if any businesses that wouldn’t benefit from a real human being recommending their services to their followers, there are some that would do just as well with more traditional, targeted advertising in the digital space.

And no matter what you do, continually updating the pages and accounts you want potential customers to see is an absolute must. Whether it’s a helpful blog on your website (promoted on Facebook, Twitter, etc.) or just some fun, quick Instagram posts or Snapchats from your business, staying visible is always important.

So Why Do People Make Advertising to Millennials Seem Like It’s So Difficult?

Because they’re bad at it? Or they want you to think you’re bad at it.

At the end of the day, the biggest challenge when advertising to Millennials isn’t what that generation does and doesn’t want to hear, or where to reach them. It’s managing the frustrating, ever-changing winds of what their preferred channels of discovery and engagement (namely social media and SEO) prioritize. That’s where turning to an experienced, cutting edge, anti-template digital marketing agency becomes important. That’s our problem to handle and conquer. Staying unique in a sea of uninspiring advertisers, and understanding what exactly the Zuckerbergs of the world want to have populating their platforms. And yeah, that part of marketing to Millennials can suck to deal with sometimes, but we know what we’re doing.