Social scientists describe millennials as the group of people born between 1980 and 2000. This is the largest generation in history, both in the U.S. and worldwide. A typical millennial (from their point of view) is tech-savvy, cool, young – and lazy.
Although millennials account for 25% of the total population, they are a coveted target market for many businesses, mainly because this demographic has a promising and rapidly growing purchasing power. Besides, millennials are exceptionally loyal to brands that manage to tap into their needs and engage with them on their most beloved platforms.
Here are some tips on how to attract millennial customers to your brand and win their loyalty.
Millennials are careful with their money
Unlike the previous generation of baby boomers, millennials are more cost-conscious and less susceptible to traditional ad formats. This is partly due to the fact they grew up in a more volatile world and economy. Also, many of them have student loans to pay and receive lower salaries. All this results in a more conscious buying behavior – before making a purchase, millennials usually do research online, compare different options, and look through reviews from real customers.
Brands, therefore, should make this whole pre-sale process as convenient and transparent as possible. Millennial customers need to know how exactly your offering will benefit them and why it’s better than at your competitor’s.
Innovative technological solutions, like conversational communications solutions, can help automate and personalize your marketing campaigns so that they attend to your audience’s needs. Virtual agents are also indispensable when collecting customer feedback, which is essential for millennials to make a purchase decision.
Millennials welcome technology and innovations
As already mentioned, millennials are a technologically advanced, truly digital-native generation. They have grown up with multiple digital devices providing communication, entertainment, shopping, and education – and can hardly imagine the world without the Internet anymore. For younger millennials, using smartphones has been the norm from the cradle. There’s little surprise that they expect technological solutions from brands and get upset or uninterested if something is not working properly or is long outdated.
Businesses have to keep up with the progress if they want to build rapport with this demographic. Practically, this means they should establish a sustainable digital presence across different channels, ensure a seamless customer experience throughout the funnel and use data to optimize their processes, positioning, and value propositions.
For example, equipping your contact center with virtual agents indistinguishable from human agents can be a significant step toward an innovative business model. Apart from cutting costs and easy upscaling, this solution will greatly benefit your customers since they can now get immediate responses at any time, via any channel, and in any language.
Millennials enjoy collaborating with businesses and brands
This is a generation that wants to be involved in the brand’s activities and development since they tend to build their identity, among other things, by associating themselves with particular brands. It’s a common practice for the majority of millennials to report any interactions with brands and share experiences on their social media pages.
Businesses that understand these specifics and find methods to engage their millennial customers in co-creation activities will certainly have a competitive advantage. With Neuro.net solutions, brands can easily increase customer engagement by launching highly personalized outreach campaigns or surveys. There’s no better way to show your interest in a client’s needs or hopes than to ask them directly.
Millennials prefer omnichannel experiences
Keeping in mind that millennials are the ‘digital generation,’ more and more offline businesses are launching online services and channels of communication. It is crucial that they balance these two modes, or territories, to ensure the same quality of experience.
However, there’s more to going online than simply building an online store and launching a Facebook brand page. Today, customers expect a truly omnichannel experience when interacting with brands. Omnichannel communications might include email, SMS, phone calls, messenger apps, newsletters, podcasts, YouTube channels, social media pages, and the list goes on. Even when talking about customer support alone, millennials would prefer to communicate with a brand that offers multiple options.
Modern AI solutions, like Neuro.net, can help businesses establish omnichannel communication systems that will benefit their customers and thus make them more loyal. A single virtual agent can be switched to a number of channels (emails, calls, messengers, etc.) and make your interactions with customers seamless and more convenient for both sides.
Final thoughts
By creating a millennial-friendly brand, businesses will be able to make the most of this demographic’s spending potential. It is vitally important to understand millennials’ needs, aspirations, spending habits, and behavior patterns to create a powerful omnichannel strategy. Luckily, today we have lots of educational resources and innovative solutions that can help achieve this goal.
