Three Strategies for Reaching Millennials in Marketing

By Craig Blake

Millennials are a tough nut to crack, but with the right tactics, are one of the most receptive generations to the right sort of communications and engagement. Here are three tips for breaking through the noise to reach this often hard to corner generation:

1. Reaching Influencers

Who would you trust for a dinner recommendation? My neighbor, Ted or Martha? Although Ted does make a mean Rice-a-Roni, Martha Stewart has a considerable amount of knowledge and influence.

Generally, people are time-poor, so instead of going through news publications and studies themselves daily – they increasingly depend on someone else they trust to do the hard work for them and summarize their newsfeeds or information. This is where influencers come in.

By focusing your content creation on targeting influencers you can increase your sales figures through the connections that the influencer has, while also improving your website’s search engine ranking, helping your customers and prospects find you faster. But how can you harness influencers?

According to a report issued by TD Bank, Millennials believe that they could benefit from some advice on finance topics like savings, credit cards and creating a budget. They seek this advice from parents, their own bank, or friends.  So developing a content marketing strategy targeting the influencers such as parents, peers, and others, a company can establish an environment of transparency and customer advocacy.  It not only encourages people to become brand champions, but also builds brand credibility in search, increased conversion and enhances customer retention.

2. Millennials Respond to Direct Mail

We’re not here to make the old argument that “Direct mail is retro and cool,” (although there is research to suggest that is a factor), but more so that direct mail is proven to cut through the clutter of a generation that sees multiple advertisements per day across devices.

For instance, 84% of Millennials look through their mail on a regular basis, and Millennials are more likely than other generations to share what they see in the mail with other people, according to research performed by US Presort. Additionally, the millennial generation has shown to trust direct mail more, and studies show that mail brings inferred credibility.

Make sure direct mail is part of your strategy to reach your millennial audience, and find ways to integrate mobile technology alongside the printed piece to help drive conversion. This article on connecting the online world to direct mail offers some tips on integrating mobile-friendly strategies alongside mail.

3. Recognize the role of contextual advertising with Millennials

Contrary to the belief that privacy concerns would turn millennial users off to a brand, there is research suggesting:  “If you have the data, why not use it to market to me more effectively.”

Targeted, relevant, marketing communication has become the expectation for most consumers, and especially for Millennials. Consumers understand that their data is being tracked online and off, and the privacy barrier/concern has dwindled over the past several years. Millennials, especially, view relevant advertising as a must and understand why they are seeing targeted ads and content based on their online activity.

A number of tools to effectively target prospects online have grown exponentially over the last several years, and companies have more options than ever to build campaigns through Google, Facebook and Twitter, based on interests, browsing activity, personality traits and past buying behavior.


Craig Blake is CEO of Sourcelink