How have Millennials changed brand marketing?
With the new media and internet overtaking the traditional media such as TV, radio and newspapers in it’s popularity, there has been a significant shift in the way business owners needed to start marketing their products and services online.
These days, it is not enough to have a website. Your website needs to be well designed, with high-quality images and a beautiful and engaging brand story. Your brand itself needs to be purpose driven and ethical. You need to be all over social media, in direct contact with your audience and offering value. So why all those changes? Those changes can be pinpointed to the influence of millennial generation who changed the way marketing works, forever.
As millennials, the digital natives, started to flood the market, not only the businesses marketing to that generation needed to change their way, there were much more far-reaching consequences! Smartphones now play an integral part not only in entertainment, but 43% of millennials make purchases through their mobile phones, and they are not the only ones. The convenience of your purchase being only one click away in your pocket spilled over into the earlier generations too.
But what is it that you need to think about, change and adapt in order to make your marketing efforts count in the digital world? Which strategies work for the Millennial-induced internet culture and what are the immediate steps needed for you to take in order to catch up? Don’t worry, I am breaking all of this down in the below article. And who knows, once the fear is gone, you might even enjoy the opportunities and channels to reach your ideal customers, offered by the new marketing paradigm.
So how can your brand succeed in this new reality?
Ready to go pro with a website that attracts your ideal customer?
Create a reward systems for loyalty
Even though you might have heard otherwise, millennials did not kill the concept of brand loyalty. They introduced the idea of getting something for their loyalty though. So while it might seem like all consumers completely gave up the idea of buying from one brand, in favor of the best deal and fastest delivery, there are ways around that kind of disloyal behavior. The solution offered by millennials is simple: offer a loyalty programme to your customers. With a reward system in place, people who bought from you (millennial or not) will be a lot more likely to consider you as their business of choice for coming purchases.
Can you offer discounts for recurring customers? How about special offers for your mailing list subscribers, offering them cheaper prices or maybe dips on new products you’re launching? Depending on your business you could also consider starting a loyalty card programme, offering advantages after a certain number of recurring purchases with you that your customers would not get when buying from competitors.
It’s your chance to create a customer base that keeps on coming back when they need products or services you offer.
Millennials are inherently distrustful
This is probably one of the most prominent changes millennials have introduced to the marketing world: blind trust has been extinguished. To win against competitors nowadays, your company needs to have its own personality. If consumers are comparing retailers to buy from, they now tend to choose the ones which are the most transparent about their business. So it is crucial to communicate to them “what you’re about”. Who’s part of the team? What is your background? Do you have a ‘rags to riches’ story to tell that will win the hearts of your customers over? Explain to them, what you do for your employees. Maybe share how you or your company is helping the community?
Also, a great personal brand is the best asset you can have to adapt to this change. Use personable images of your team not only on your about page, but across your website. It will make you and your team feel more approachable and trustworthy. Build trust through the copy of your website that portrays you as the expert you are and shows what you are passionate about. Get an expert to develop consistent, custom branding for your business, so that your website can be designed in the brand colours that represent the feeling and emotions that you would like associated with your brand. Create a logo that is simple but striking and memorable, and works across all online platforms and offline collateral.
You need to tell an engaging story through your website that captures the viewers attention and makes you appear transparent, personable and trustworthy! We’re way past the times where purely informational websites could convert leads …
Use customers as brand ambassadors
Word of mouth is still an amazing marketing tool (also, it’s saving you precious money if you offer services that people can’t help but talk about on their own accords)! It’s another great way to demonstrate to potential customers that you are a real, legit company and real-life people actually enjoy your service! … But wait, what did we learn about the trust of consumers?
Consumers research companies before they buy from them. They ask in groups and source information from all kinds of different places across the web, so merely having a text-based testimonial on your website might not be enough to convince people anymore. They don’t believe the cooked up too-good-to-be-true-testimonials (as real as they might be), they want to know the people behind the name! That is why peer-to-peer reviews on Facebook work really well, because there is a profile linked to it that verifies the reviewer as and actual person that might even have shared interests, making their review count more.
At Visuable we love creating Case Studies and showcase our customer’s success stories, showing off our work as well as giving a much needed push to a new business that needs to start getting exposure. We introduce our client’s to our audience, showcase them as experts that they are (even tho some of them don;t quite believe in themselves just yet). We share their testimonials in the context of a background story, validating them as “real life” to even the more doubtful viewers.
Make sure your website works great on mobile
Millennials love their smartphones! (the majority checks their phones between 80 and 150 times a day!) They do everything on their phones, which lead to major changes in the world, including mobile view of websites. As soon as Google introduced its mobile-first approach, prioritising mobile friendly websites in their search results, it became apparent that having a mobile friendly website was not only for companies marketing to the millennial generation, everyone had to get on board and catch up.
Missing out on potential customers, just because your website does not convert well into mobile view would be a pity, so if your website is not there yet, it is something your should get to as soon as possible! If you need a hand with how to get there, don’t worry, we can help you. All the websites we produce are mobile responsive, so we know a thing or two about how to design a website that does well on all kinds of screens.
Strategic brand consultancy in London
What’s the takeaway then?
So even if the changes were introduced by millennials, they shifted the whole marketing culture forever, and if you have not caught up with those changes yet, now’s the time to adapt. To make it easier, here is a quick, easy to implement summary of what needs to be done to stay relevant in today’s marketing environment:
Showcase what your business is about via great brand identity, expressive branding photography and insightful blog posts
Offer a service or experience they can’t resist: make your visitors feel like they’re part of your community, rather than a target by telling your story and having a personable online presence throughout different social media outlets
Show your visitors that other “real people” love your product by showcasing testimonials from previous clients in a believable way, and asking your clients to leave you reviews on your Facebook page
Install loyalty systems for them to become part of. Newsletter subscription discounts, loyalty cards, anything that helps them feel like they get a great value for a good price
Make your website mobile friendly if that still sounds abstract, why not give me a call!
Lidia xx
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