Whether or not Millennials are your current target market (or maybe they will be in the future), here is one statistic you cannot ignore:
Millennials will soon have the greatest combined purchasing power of any generation alive. They will hold this mark for 40+ years (longer than any previous generation) and they do not respond to traditional forms of advertising.
According to Jason Dorsey, the #1 Millennials & Gen Z speaker/researcher from The Center for Generational Kinetics, Millennials:
- Have the greatest lifetime value of any customer in the marketplace
- Have the least-established loyalty as customers—but they are very loyal once they select a brand, service or company
- Are most likely to refer their friends when they have a good shopping or buying experience
Here’s a video from Facebook E-Commerce Blueprint course where CEO of Enlightened Marketing, Jeremy Howie, goes over the concept of the lifetime value of a Customer
Instagram recently introduced some targeting options that were only previously available on Facebook. Now, business owners can create the following custom audiences for their E-Commerce Stores:
- Everyone who has engaged with your business (on Instagram)
- Anyone who visited your business profile (on Instagram)
- People who engaged with any post or ad (on Instagram)
- People who sent a message to your business profile (on Instagram)
- People who saved any posts or ad (on Instagram)
Warning: Instagram will only track data back to June 2017 (However, after 2018, you can track data back anywhere between 1 to 365 days).
A lot of Millennials have flocked over to Instagram, perhaps partly because of the app features and most likely, to get away from their parents and grandparents who are on Facebook in full force. Can you blame them? Who wants to be embarrassed by their parent or grandparent who doesn’t know proper social media etiquette?
As a marketer or a business owner (usually one and the same), you want to be where your audience is and Millennials are definitely hanging out on Instagram. The first thing they check when they wake up, or before they go to bed, is their phone. Essentially, you can put a billboard on a mobile device that they check between 43 -150 time a day (that’s not a typo).
Personalized Experience
A January 2017 Forbes article stated that Millennials want a customer-centric experience in which they feel wanted and valued, whether it is in-store or through social media channels; showing interest in these shoppers creates loyalty. One of the best and most cost effective ways to accomplish this is through Dynamic Product Ads.
If you want to learn more about Dynamic Product Ads, sign up for this FREE webinar training here.
What are Dynamic Product Ads?
Have you ever gone to Amazon.com, looked at a product and not purchase to only see that very same product on your screen a few minutes or hours later? It doesn’t get any more personalized than that: automatically promote products to people who have previously expressed interest on your website.
If you are not quite ready for Dynamic Product Ads, you can simply re-target anyone who has engaged with your business profile, visited your business profile, engaged with any post or ad, messaged your business profile or saved your post or ad (on Instagram) to stay in front of them. From their perspective, it seems like you are everywhere (or investing a lot of money in advertising).
Another way to personalize a customer’s experience is by targeting them based on their purchase behavior. You can segment your buyers by their purchases and suggest what they should buy next based on what they have previously bought. Simply upload your segmented list of buyers in ads manager and target them on Instagram.
Build Millennial Referral Magnets
Millennials, more than any previous generation, trust their friends and family before authoritative ads according to Jason Dorsey. If your brand is shared by a friend, it is much more likely to be received and trusted by a millennial. Lead with value and most importantly entertain your prospects. Remember, Instagram is a social platform first and a traffic source second. Although it is a misnomer to say that Millennials are “tech savvy,” according to Mr. Dorsey, they really aren’t. They are simply tech dependent; they wouldn’t know how to fix their phone if it broke, however, they can’t live without it. They are, however, savvy enough to tell the difference between marketing ploy and a genuine brand who wants to create an online community of like-minded people.
Once you have built a custom audience of engaged prospects/customers who are crazy about your brand, you can build look-alike audiences in order to find other E-Commerce Buyers or brand enthusiasts like them.