A Beginner's Guide To The Millennial Demographic In The UK

Earlier this week we discussed how millennials are one of the most talked about generations in the marketing industry yet people still struggle to understand them. This is because millennials were the first generation to grow up in a technology-dominated world, making them incredibly interesting to study. To recap, Goldman Sachs suggests that a millennial is someone who is born between 1980 and 2000. Millennials show a different pattern of online behaviour to their elders, and because social media now has such a big impact on peoples lives, millennials are different to market to than previous generations. Come on, do you really see Nanna Dorris snapchatting her weekend anytime soon? #BingoNight?

Influencers prevail

AdAge have shown that millennials spend an average of 25 hours per week online. PER WEEK. That is over a whole day craving content-driven media. Millennials love to like, share and comment, but only on content they find authentic - this is where influencers come in. Millennials are inspired by people they know in person or online, and these influencers are trusted with their authentic opinions - 73% of millennials say that they find it important to read others’ opinions before purchasing.

Social media, social media, social media

As we have said before, millennials are not all the same. Due to the speed at which technology has changed, research has shown that there can be a large gap between which particular technologies each age group within the millennial group few up with. For instance, a 35 year old millennial may favour Facebook, yet her 20 year old niece may only use Instagram. Therefore you want to be promoting your brand across all social media channels to ensure that you don’t miss out on the opportunity to engage with millennials.

Consider promotions and discount codes

Studies by University of Massachusetts Dartmouth have shown that 66% of millennials in the US follow a company or brand on Twitter, and 64% like a company or brand on Facebook to score a coupon or a discount. Therefore in order to increase your social media engagement, consider offering regular promotions and discount codes to reward your followers and gain new ones. After all, millennials are masters at cutting costs in our economically-driven world.

If you want to effectively engage millennials, you should really be targeting where they hang out, aka the social world. Give them authentic, content-driven media around the clock and you will see how many more shares you get.