Millennials – What are they & why should I care?
Entrepreneur Magazine defines Millennials as young adults who are currently between ages 18 and 34 with $1.3 trillion in annual buying power. That’s significant buying power. You might not think you need to reach this audience and you may be right today. But that won’t hold true tomorrow. The Millennial generation is powerful and even if they’re not making decisions, they are most certainly influencing major decisions.
What do you need to know about Millennials?
The first thing you need to understand is that you can’t lump all Millennials into one general category. This means you can’t say you’re going to “Market to Millennials.” They are a generation that truly defies the one-size-fits-all approach. A common misconception is that if you want to reach Millennials, you have to be on the right social channels. An interesting study by Battery reveals that there are large sub-sections of the Millennial generation that simply aren’t on social, or they aren’t on the channels you think they should be on.
How Do You Reach Millennials with Your Marketing?
When considering how you will reach young adults ages 18 to 35, first determine which segment you want to target. According to Jeff Fromm and Christie Garton, your Millennial audience could fall into any of these six segments:
- Hip-ennial
The hip-ennial makes up 29% of the Millennial generation and can be defined as cautious, global, charitable, and information-hungry. They are the greatest users of social media, but they primarily look for entertainment. They do not typically push or contribute content online. This group is female dominant with a large number of students and stay-at-home moms.
- Old School Millennial
The Old School Millennial is characterized as confident, charitable, and independent, but disconnected and a cautious consumer. The Old School Millennials make up just 10% of the Millennial audience and they spend the least amount of time online. They tend to be older and have an above average number of Hispanics.
- Gadget Guru
The Gadget Guru is successful, free-spirited, and confident. He is in his best season. The Gadget Gurus, as indicated by the name, have the highest device ownership and like to push and contribute to content. This group is 13% of the overall Millennial generation. They are male dominated, single, and have a higher than average income.
- Clean and Green Millennial
The Clean and Green want to take care of themselves and the world around them. They are impressionable, cause-driven, healthy, green and positive. This 10% segment is the greatest contributor of content with most of that content being cause-related. The Clean and Green segment is the youngest of the Millennials. They also tend to be full-time students, above average Hispanics, and male dominated.
- Millennial “Mom”
The Millennial moms are wealthy, family-oriented, confident, and digitally savvy. They are highly social; they work out, and they spend a lot of time online. It goes without saying, the Millennial Moms are female dominated. They are in the older age range of the Millennials with the highest income level and an above average Hispanic share. The Millennial Moms make up 22% of the Millennial generation.
- Anti-Millennial
The Anti-Millennial is locally minded and conservative. They seek comfort and familiarity, focusing on taking care of themselves and their families. They do not spend more for green. This 16% segment is slightly more female with the lowest Hispanic share of the segments.
Reaching Millennials with Your Marketing
As you can see, there are a lot of differences between the various segments of the Millennial generation. What this means for you is that you can’t say you’re “marketing to Millennials.” It’s too broad of a persona for any marketing to effectively reach all of them. Determine who your real audience is and then narrow down your marketing efforts to just that audience. Narrowly focusing your marketing efforts may result in less top of funnel activity, but will increase your conversions in the middle and bottom of the sales funnel.
