5 Great Ways to Appeal to Millennials and Gen Z

Millennials, anyone 21-35 years old, and Gen Z, anyone 20 and under, are coming of age where they can make their own buying decisions. Let's pair this with the fact that they are the first two generations in the world to grow up with technology being so potent in their lives.

With their level of buying power and resources to make it happen, getting their attention is harder than ever before. Our franchise PR firm has these five proven ways to appeal to this dominating demographic.

Be relevant but not desperate. There is a difference between using terms, mannerisms, and other processes from Millennials to be more visible and trying too hard. When a company uses a modern phrase, they have to be careful the way they say it and not cringeworthy. It can be painfully obvious when a brand is not sure how to use a phrase or slang, or connect with the thought processes of Millennials, and it can have a major boomerang effect.

Learn to love creativity. The younger generations like to be creative and unique. They embrace it. This means that businesses need to follow in their footsteps. It can be intimidating to be truly creative due to the fear of messing something up and being offensive. While you need to use judgement and veto any ideas that are truly wrong, don't be afraid to be creative and fun. Nobody likes a business that is boring, especially a demographic that has resources to entertainment everywhere.

Use real-time communication. Consumers under the age of 35 (even up to 40) are big users of social media to communicate with brands for concerns, questions, compliments, or just conversation. Even if you don't want your business to be on social media, unfortunately, you don't get to make that call. Any great franchise public relations team will tell you that you not only have to be present on social media but active on it; simply posting a generic post once a week is not truly using social media.

Post useful information such as articles and stats, post questions, post fun/entertaining things, show some love to people and other companies, and show you hear people who contact you.

Allow people to find you. Even if people are searching you, it doesn't mean you don't have to make your profiles as accessible as possible. On social media profiles, make sure to do the following:

• Hashtags for industry terms
• Have brand consistent messages on all platforms but don't post the exact same content on all platforms. Ex: a new product? Post it on all platforms but change the way you post it, such as the content around it. 
• Make sure that all profile fields are filled out: URLs, bios, mission statements, everything. 

Consider utilizing user-generated content. One thing that Millennials and Gen Zers like to do is help brands with content, it makes them feel heard and appreciated. If you are willing, consider having a campaign that is user-generated. Be aware that there will be trolls and watch out for them and scan all content prior to publishing. 

As a Chicago PR agency, All Points PR is all about connecting with target markets. Does your business need help connecting with Millennials? Then email All Points PR.