How to Win Millennial Business

By Eric Shafer

Love them or hate them, millennials are one of the largest markets in the country. Loosely defined as those born between 1980 and 1995, these individuals make up the nation’s largest living generation. With over 75 million people, millennials have some serious spending power. It’s time to make them the focus of your advertising. If you’re still skeptical, the Pew Research Center recently reported that the millennial generation is spending about $600 billion annually. However, even before the pandemic, fewer and fewer millennials were spending their money in restaurants and instead choosing take out over brick & mortar reservations. The number of dining occasions recorded in the same study shrunk by 20% over the last few years, so many have spent more time trying to crack the code of millennial spending habits. If you want to see a boom in your small business, keep reading for our tips on appealing to this audience.

Up Your Social Media Game

So you have an Instagram account, a Facebook profile, a website, and maybe even a Twitter handle — will it be enough? To stand out, you’ll need to employ best social media practices across all of your platforms, just as you would with anything else at your business. This means posting regularly and trying to use as many of the features each platform offers. Studies show that users who post photos, videos, stories, and reels on Instagram are more likely to be featured on the explore page. Likewise, you’ll also need to do your best to keep up with your fans. As your platform grows more popular, you’ll gain more followers, and it’s essential to make sure you’re keeping them engaged. Most businesses measure success on social media by two metrics: impressions and engagement. Impressions are visible to any user and include likes, comments, and views. Engagement measures how many impressions your posts received and asks how many times your posts are shared, your click-through links are clicked, and how people interact (whether they save, read, or ignore) with your posts. An easy way to keep your fans engaged is to share any tagged content. When somebody tags your business or posts a video of your products, make sure to post it to your feed and tag them back! This will encourage your followers to share their content around your business, which will generate more views for you and your team. As more and more people share photos of your products, you can incentivize new posts by hosting giveaways for fans who follow and tag their friends on your posts or share your post to their page. For each fan who shares, hundreds of new faces will learn about your brand and be tempted to follow you themselves.

Grease the Wheels

If the study says that millennials aren’t dining in and are spending more time online, then it’s time to make sure your business is ready to reach them by any means possible. If you’re a restaurant, do what you can to create fast, convenient options for take-out. If you can incentivize take-out or delivery deals around your slowest time of day, you may be able to find a great opportunity by adjusting to this new audience. If you’re a salon or beautician, try to pinpoint what trendy services you can offer and then spread the word about them on your social media. Consider offering a new customer or student discount, as younger customers will be eager to try your business out if they can take advantage of a promotion. Here, social media giveaways are especially powerful as you can create content around the winner and post before and after photos from their time with you. This will allow you to spread the word about any new services and provide a customer to promote your brand through word of mouth. Finally, if you’re a dry cleaner, you may consider offering specials for new customers or handing out a price guide for your entire list of services. Many younger customers may be unfamiliar with what your business has to offer and unsure whether they can afford your services. Offering specials on linens, winter coats, or special event wear may be all you need to create a new community of regulars. It may be easier to target these millennial shoppers where they eat, work, and play rather than take to social media. Shoppers are more likely to go with a business that seems close, convenient, and affordable. Once they know your business is right around the corner, it’s only a matter of time before they stop in. A great way to get the word out is by using a mailer campaign, which will also allow you to target an entire zip code or any particular area known for student housing. Consider working with a graphic designer (many freelancers available for affordable rates on sites like Upwork and Fiverr) to perfect your handout and then get ready to mail it out.

Targeted Advertising

Of course, there is one place where you can hit all of your targeted audiences at once: the grocery store. Grocery store advertising has remained popular over the years because it helps advertisers reach their communities. No matter your business, running supermarket advertisements is an effective way to launch any promotion. Programs like coupon receipt advertising allow users to print their coupons on the backs of grocery store register tape so that every customer goes home with their ad in their pocket. From there, every time that customer returns, they are going to see your business’s supermarket advertisement, allowing you to build brand recognition across your town. Combined with the hyper-local targeting grocery store advertising allows — most stores pull customers in from a three-mile radius of the store — are part of why these campaigns remain a popular avenue for all small businesses.

Tags: Advertising 101 , Coupon Advertising , Online Advertising

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