3 Ways Businesses Are Becoming More Millennial Focused

Over the past five years, Millennials have officially taken over as the country’s biggest age group. That also means by default that they’re now the largest consumer group.

In order for businesses to survive, they have to market themselves to this huge demographic.

For companies unable to adjust their methods and think outside the box, this has proven rather difficult. After all, what brings a Baby Boomer shopper into a store is likely very different from what brings a Millennial shopper into a particular business.

You’ll find that today’s most successful businesses have implemented very creative plans to market themselves to Millennials. The rest, unfortunately, likely fall by the wayside.

While these plans all seem very complex and thought out, they all have one of three basic components.

Maximizing Convenience

If you walk into a store now and they don’t offer free Wifi, you’re a little disappointed, aren’t you? Several businesses have smartphone charging stations in or near them.

Millennials love for the shopping process to be painless, no matter what they’re buying. They don’t want to be haggled or have the wool pulled over their eyes, and they want to make the intelligent, informed buying decisions while simultaneously putting forth a minimum amount of effort.

Not to say that other age groups don’t love it when their lives are easier, but Millennials seem to love ease and accessibility more than any of the generations before them.

For example, Crave Mattress is mass appealing to the Millennial population with its “mattress-in-a-box” sensation. Crave ships your mattress right to you, making it easier than ever to get a new one.

This process eliminates the need to go to a physical store, where salespeople will try to push more expensive brands on you. On top of that, most retail stores tack on a minimum of $50 extra for delivery.

With Crave, the price you see is the price you pay, and if it turns out you don’t like the mattress, you can send it back. In this scenario, you have all the decision-making power and you don’t have to do any physical work, which are the top two items on a Millennial’s shopping checklist.

Businesses that make shopping an easy and stress-free experience are the ones that thrive.

Social Media Advertising

Marketing to your potential customers is all about forming and keeping a connection with them. And what do billions of people worldwide use to stay connected with one another? Social media.

Advertising on social media just makes sense. It’s the interface for online interactions, and is the perfect pool to fish from for potential customers.

There are so many different sites to choose from— Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Snap Chat— and each of them offer their own advantages and segmented audiences.

Most businesses are getting wise to the act, too. As of this year, 91 percent of retail companies have two or more active social media accounts.

It’s easier than ever to track and appeal to your potential customers. If a sporting goods store is trying to increase traffic, they might go follow the Nike Twitter page, and see who follows them. A boutique would go see who likes fashion-centric accounts on Instagram, and start following those accounts.

With social media, there are always specific audiences who will fit into a business’s desired customer base, and are right in front of them for the picking.

And with paid advertising, particularly with Facebook, businesses can pick certain audiences they want their ad to appear in front of. To the consumer, these seem a bit random, but because of their friends and the pages they like, they’re prime candidates to become new customers. They just don’t know it yet.

Going Digital

Did you know that no one picks up a phone book anymore? And the art of physically cutting coupons out of newspapers and magazines is quickly becoming extinct?

These days, more and more shopping is actually done online. If the product isn’t bought online, the coupon for it is.

This trend is why Amazon has become the Internet’s premier online retail giant. They’ve positioned themselves a global megastore where someone can buy anything at all and get it delivered anywhere. And it’s all done online.

In 2015, e-commerce sales totaled 341.7 billion dollars in the U.S., which was a 14.6 percent increase over 2014’s total of 298.3 billion. The point is, consumers are shopping online more than ever.

Remember that those numbers only reflect items that were actually ordered online. With the vast, vast majority of Millennials owning a smartphone and/or computer, it can be safely assumed that at some point in the buying process, some research was done online.

Transitioning to e-commerce, or online shopping, has given the power to the consumer. Customers are more informed than ever, able to read reviews, compare prices, and find convenient locations.