With millennial and college-age consumers, it’s all about the mobile experience and making sure you’re reaching them where and how they are most often. That’s why thinking about how your marketing efforts come across on mobile devices is so crucial — and here are some things to keep in mind to make sure you and your business are mobile-ready.
1. Is your website mobile-friendly? You don’t want to limit what will show up on phones as many of your potential millennial consumers or return customers will be engaging with your organization on their smartphones. Everything that shows up on your web when you look at it on a computer should be available and accessible through a mobile device as well. That being said, you don’t want your site to take a long time to load so it’s worth investing some time and resources into establishing faster mobile loading times. From browsing to actually buying, you need to ensure your website users can easily navigate and shop on your site from their phones or you may lose business. Additionally, having content that’s interesting, catches the eye, and sized correctly for any mobile screen will go a long way.
2. Are you on social media? Your company needs to have the works: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn — even Pinterest, Reddit, and YouTube may be beneficial depending on your industry. Social media makes up a huge part of what millennials do or look at on their phones — so posting consistently, interacting with followers, and optimizing your profiles and pages will help you reach your target demographic, no matter what device they may be using. A great way to gain more followers and likes to your social media accounts is to advertise that your company offers discounts or promotional codes to those connected with your organization on social media. Millennials love to get a deal and will be more likely to engage with your business if they may get some sort of coupon or freebie out of it!
3. Are you blatantly advertising or trying to sell something? If so, you may want to change up your methods. With the overwhelming majority of Gen Y-ers owning smartphones, and growing up with them, they are less likely to trust traditional advertising and will respond better to collaborative efforts, native advertising, or more covert brand and product placements. Consider using User-Generated Content (UGC) in marketing campaigns, partnering with an influencer, or sponsorship of something in line with your business that will allow you to get your company name out there in a more discrete and less salesman-like way.
Use these three tips to better your mobile marketing efforts to millennials — while you may not see radical changes or increases in your engagement or sales right away, they will definitely improve your company’s standing with that key demo in the long-term.