Your Digital Marketing Team is Now Your Sales Team

In order to sell to the Millennial generation, you must understand us. Discovering how we think, act, and purchase is only the first step to finding new opportunities to engage with our community.

We are the newest and most diverse target audience. As our purchasing power increases and we continue to drive consumer demand, it is necessary to reevaluate our generation and develop strategies for attracting us. Put yourself in my shoes and I will show you some effective ways to market to my generation.

You must utilize specific-use mobile apps to simplify my experience with your brand. I am heavily reliant on mobile apps for my search for discovery of needs or wants. If you don’t use mobile apps then I don’t know you exist or even care to know who you are.

Humans occupy a physical and virtual space. This means mobile devices are inevitably linked to social media. You must actively use social media tools to connect with Millennials. A fancy website with product descriptions is not the standard anymore. Publish papers, blogs, posts on twitter and provide me a clear path to consumer feedback. The bottom line is content is king.

Please never call me

Please never call me! I am not interested in talking to someone on the phone. It is a complete and utter waste of my time, and “yours.” At my convenience, I need to be able to find your geographical location, read your customer reviews and place my orders on your mobile app or website. In other words I should not have to contact you at all. Your mobile presence will provide me content that answers all of my immediate questions or concerns.

Also, Don’t sell to me! Your digital marketing team is now your sales team. I will be very uncomfortable if you sell to me over the phone or face-to-face and for the love of god DO NOT SEND ME EMAILS! None of us use Groupon or any similar service, so stop filling up my inbox with worthless content. Again, don’t try to contact me, I will find you via your consumer connection through data aggregation.

What is SoLoMo?

You must be apart of Social-Local-Mobile (SoLoMo)! This is a prerequisite to forming any kind of connection with me as a consumer. As a SoLoMo consumer I expect businesses to provide contextually relevant online content and resources that inform and entertain me, or resolve a need or a want (Chris Horton). In other words SoLoMo has shifted the power to me, the consumer. And guess what? I know it.

In order for you to survive and thrive in the market that my generation ultimately controls, the consumer-driven digital age, you must figure out how to provide contextually relevant content and resources to me. You are going to need information and feedback, a way to tap into the endless streams of consumer-generated data, all in an ongoing attempt to connect with me, your target audience. Properly measured data can highlight areas of opportunity. In other words you must have analytics.

Does your data have a meaningful interpretation?

Does your data have a meaningful interpretation? Your greatest challenge does not lie in the data itself, but in the efficient aggregation and how I perceive your data. You need to have the ability to quickly compare marketing campaigns with real-world results in order to refine your brand messaging and marketing initiatives (Chris Horton). The best way to do this is by providing contextually relevant content to form deeper connections with me, the Millennial consumer.

A guest post written by zahnk.com