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According to a report in MarketWatch, research reveals that only a small percentage of business effectively advertise to a Millennial Audience.
“only 15% of small businesses across all industries market directly to the millennial buyer. The reason for this ranges from a lack of ad budget (26%), to doubts that marketing even works on millennials (7% believe that millennials are actually ‘turned off’ by marketing or sales pitches). Additionally, many small business owners just don’t believe millennials are key buyers in their industry.”
(Millennials, also known as Generation Y, are popularly defined as people born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s or early 2000s.)
Because of this, it may be surprising to learn that print advertising is in fact a cost-effective way for small businesses to reach a millennial audience. Print directs millennial customers to your website or business. In fact, studies show that most Millennial’s are turned off or ignore online advertising, but pay particular attention to magazine, direct mail and even coupon advertising in magazines, newspapers or inserts. Effectively advertise to a Millennial Audience across all of their devices and in multiple forms of media.
Studies have concluded that even digital natives – those who grew up in the digital age – have a strong preference for printed literature. This is surprising considering the massive amount of time they spend online. Actually, when it comes to advertising, print is the first “touch” in driving people to your product or service. Being able to reach out and touch an ad actually makes it resonate in deeper parts of the brain so that the viewer is able to recollect and remember the brand image better later on. Effectively advertise to a Millennial Audience in traditional media and reduce your ROI while increasing your brands exposure throughout the course of your campaign.
Be it a display ad or an article, Millennial’s are looking for something that “speaks to them.” Out of all other forms of advertising Print does this the most effectively. Even more interesting, it’s a great way to reach audiences like Boomers and Millennial’s that are often hard to target. They are either too expensive or you just are not sure how to efficiently capture their attention. As shown by the Association of Magazine Media, an astounding 91% of people of all ages read magazines regularly.
For small businesses to reach a millennial audience successfully, it is important to make sure that the call to action in your print advertising campaign tells your audience what you want them to do. It must then direct them to your mobile-friendly site.
“68% of millennials say running their own business has been more profitable than they expected and 50% say their profits have increased over the past 3 to 5 years. A third of all self-employed millennial are running start-ups, compared to just 9% of self-employed Baby Boomers. A quarter of self-employed millennial say their businesses rely on technology that did not exist 20 years ago.” For more information on Millennial Business owners check out this additional post
Digital forums and social networks are not just a place to post selfies. Millennial business owners are skilled online advertisers who have years of experience in the digital world. Forums like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have changed the way the world works and advertisers and the millennial generation has to lead the way. Millennials have been networking online for much of their life so it comes very natural to them. Most Millenials are very aware of how to take pictures and create posts that are both informative and visually appealing. This is a huge plus when there is a lack of budget for additional expenses like advertising.
In most cases, it is beneficial for any size of business to incorporate several different types of media into their campaign. Cross channel campaigns typically perform better and reach a broader audience than just focusing on one thing and is an effective way for businesses to reach a Millennial Audience. For thrifty advertisers, print can be just the media to help add legitimacy to a brand but also not use up an entire budget.
Ideally, it is a good idea for any business owner to consider adding informative content to their websites that show their audience that they are an expert in their field. While Millennials like to think of themselves as especially tech-y, Boomers and Gen Exers are quite adept at online researching and vetting. Let’s be honest, everyone thinks they are an expert these days, and they expect you to be one too. Millennial business owners will be happy with the SEO benefits that come from that added website content. Keywords help search engines find you, and once a post is up, there is no additional work – just clicks. For someone with more of a lofty budget, paid promotion for published content from tools like can be a great resource.
Move over Boomer, Millennial’s have been fortunate in that they have been able to reap the benefits of a childhood that primed them to understand the basics of advertising and marketing their own brands with today’s technology. Consistency, and selecting a few focuses that provide long lasting results, are a great way to manage marketing to Millennial. Businesses that are the most effective at reaching a Millennial target Audience are those that understand how to reach them on a variety of traditional and digital technology. If you are interested in having reaching this influential demographic we would love to help!