Studies show that only a very small percentage of businesses effectively advertise to a Millennial Audience.
“ Only 15 % of small businesses across all industries market to the millennial buyer. The main reason being lack of budget (26%) to doubts that marketing even works on millennials (7 %) believe millennials are turned off by marketing or sales pitches. Additionally, many 25% small business owners just don’t believe Millennial’s are key buyers in their industry.”
Because of this, businesses may be surprised to know that print advertising is a cost-effective way for small businesses to reach a millennial audience. This is because print advertising directs Millennial customers to your website or business through the direct response process. In fact, studies show that most millennials are turned off or ignore online advertising but pay particular attention to magazine, direct mail and even coupon advertising that can be found in newspapers or inserts. For more information on what type of advertising Millennial advertisers choose check out this additional blog post here.
Studies done have concluded that even digital natives 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.
Be it a display ad or an article; they are looking for something that “speaks to them.” Print does this. Even more, astounding it’s a great way to reach audiences like Boomers and Millennials that are hard to target because 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 and then directs them to your mobile-friendly site.
Move over Boomer “As a general rule, millennial’s are willing to spend more money for higher quality and unique products, which gives you as a small business owner a distinct advantage.”This means that millennial will soon be the most sought after generation to advertise over any other audience that is around today.
“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 millennials are running start-ups, compared to just 9% of self-employed Baby Boomers. A quarter of self-employed millennials say their businesses rely on technology that did not exist 20 years ago.”
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. Millennial’s 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 which 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. For thrifty advertisers 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 Exer 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 Outbrain can be a great resource.
As a young generation that was dealt a bad hand in the economy, they were, however, fortunate to reap the benefits of a childhood that primed them to understand the basics of advertising and marketing their own brands with today’s modern technology. Consistency and selecting a few focuses that will provide long lasting results is a great way to manage this lofty project.
