Why target Millennials
in your prospecting? Because once their loyalty is secured, they are more
likely than non-Millennials to share their love of your brand, product, or
service with others. Furthermore, once you gain their loyalty, they will often
spread the word for you, especially if you help them do it. How do you go about
attracting this key customer base?
Use multiple channels. Millennials are multi-channel researchers. One
study of their travel planning habits found that Millennials use an average of
10.2 information sources during the planning stage [1].
Don’t provide irrelevant information. Millennials don’t like to be inconvenienced, so
target and personalize the message. Know what types of information they are looking
for and how they want that information shared before you move them into the
sales funnel. Respecting channel preferences is critical to these consumers.
Shorten the timeframe. Millennials use a lot of devices and draw on lots
of information sources during the research process, but they make the actual
buying decision fairly quickly. If you are selling brick-and-mortar, adding QR
Codes to hang tags, product packaging, and in-store displays is a great way to
take this audience directly to customer reviews, product comparisons, and feature-rich
product videos that can help them make that decision right then and there.
Make it easy to share. According to the Boston Consulting Group,
Millennials are twice as likely as non-Millennials to share pictures or
experiences online using their mobile phones [3]. So help them do it! Create
incentives for social-media sharing such as “Post a picture of yourself in our
store on Facebook or Instagram and get 10% off immediately!”
Take the time to get
to know Millennials and refine your strategies to woo them. After all, what could be better than
attracting customers who, once their loyalty is secured, will turn around and
attract more of the same type of customers for you?
[1]
http://hotel-online.com/News/PR2013_2nd/Apr13_MillennialTrends.html
[3]
http://mashable.com/2012/04/16/millennial-consumers-study/
