4 Ways To Market To Millennials – That have nothing to do with marketing

So how do you get Millennials to respond to your marketing?

There are at least 4 things that make a big difference when “Marketing to Millennials” that have absolutely nothing to do with “Marketing”.

The truth is “millennial” or not, the rules of marketing don’t really change … but there is some secret sauce you’ll want to use for maximum results….

Transcript….

I’m not sure if this video is cutting off the top of my head or not, but I’m gonna say hello, anyway.

Hello. I was gonna make this video a blog post, but I’ve decided to do a video.

So it’s come from a couple of questions that I’ve had from clients on about how to reach millennials.

Now, listen, I don’t think the process is any different reaching millennials compared to reaching anybody else, but there are some really cool things that you can do that I think make a big difference.

I want you to think about this: when you want to order a pizza, what do you do? You pick up your phone and you Google it.

When you want to order a taxi, what do you do? If you’ve got Uber, you probably go to Uber, but you Google it on your phone.

The phone has become the device that we all use to access the services and businesses that we want to access.

So why is this important?

Well, if you’re not making it easy for people to engage with your business on a mobile device, then you’re putting up a barrier that is going to mean someone hits the back button and goes somewhere else. I can prove it.

Well, in fact, you can prove it yourself. Just think about the times when you’ve done the same thing. When you’ve gone to look for a local service from a local business, you’ve gone to their site, it’s too confusing and you just go back and you find something else.

Loyalty in business, for local businesses, is dropping massively because local businesses are making it far too difficult for their customers to actually contact them and reach them. What can we do about it? There are four tips that I think make a big difference to accessing and dealing with millennials, but pretty much anybody when you’re doing local business marketing.

Number one is on demand, instant access.

Haven’t figured out the right name for it, but on demand, instant access means that when someone finds you, you’ve got to make it super easy for them to engage with you. So think about the biggest websites in the world right now. You go to the sites and, typically, you’ve got one or two options on the front page. The way that you do that is you think of your business as a tool for solving a problem. Why are people visiting your site? What reason have they got to visit you in the first place? That should be the first thing they see, a solution to their problem. It should be hit this button and we’ll solve your problem.

Now, if you’re a hairdresser, why would you be on the hairdresser’s website. Maybe you’re looking for opening times, maybe you’re looking to book an appointment. So maybe you’ve got two buttons that say opening times and information, and book an appointment.

Let’s say you’re a pizza shop and you wanted to order a pizza. Do you want to talk to someone or do you want to order online? You can make things so easy by doing that. It doesn’t take much effort and time. It doesn’t take much money. It does take the effort to think about how to do it. That’s probably more accurate.

So you’ve got to find a way to make your complicated, well, maybe your complicated business, very, very simple and make the first step something that someone can click and execute on there and then. It could be, send us a message. It could be, ‘click this button and fill in a form.

It doesn’t matter, but think about the best version, the best possible way, to solve your problem for the customer and the quickest way to get it done, and that’s what you need to have on your front page. So the first point is on demand and instant access.

Point number two is open and honest reviews. See, in this world, where everybody is online and everybody is social, we expect to understand a bit about the people we’re doing business with before we do business with them.

Google roofing firms in your local town. So type in roofing firms, roofing companies and type your town’s name in. You’re gonna get a list of firms. Now, there’ll be some of them that have reviews and there’ll be some that don’t have reviews. I’m telling you

So type in roofing firms, roofing companies and type your town’s name in. You’re gonna get a list of firms. Now, there’ll be some of them that have reviews and there’ll be some that don’t have reviews. I’m telling you

You’re gonna get a list of firms. Now, there’ll be some of them that have reviews and there’ll be some that don’t have reviews. I’m telling you now if you don’t have reviews, if you don’t have people who are existing customers giving you reviews, it’s very unlikely people are clicking on you.

So that’s number two is make sure that your customers are giving you open reviews.

Put them on your website. Put them on Facebook. Put them on Google. Make sure they’re visible.

The third rule is, well, okay, it starts with customer loyalty, I said, earlier on, is dying down, but you can improve customer loyalty.

In fact, you can make it a massive feature of your business when you incorporate community and rewards into your model.

So what I mean by that is is when you have, let’s say, the hairdressers, when you have customers come in, why not make it part of the process that you offer a photograph taken of your brand new haircut and you ask them if we can use this photograph to send to all of our customers?

Next time you come in, we’ll give you some money off. Maybe not everyone wants their photo taken, you say. Well, what else could you do? Maybe you just offer them the ability to click on a button and say, “Hey, I’ve just been into the hairdressers and any of my friends who want to come in next time, use this code and you’ll get a free cup of coffee.”

Think of a way to build community and rewards into your model, so that when people use your service, they feel part of your company, they feel like a member of your business, and they’re telling all their friends about it as part of the service, and they’re getting rewarded for doing so. Your marketing can almost be free when you incorporate community and rewards into your business model.

Chris Gibbons: I’m not sure if this video is cutting off the top of my head or not, but I’m gonna say hello, anyway. Hello. I was gonna make this video a blog post, but I’ve decided to do a video.

So it’s come from a couple of questions that I’ve had from clients on about how to reach millennials. Now, listen, I don’t think the process is any different reaching millennials compared to reaching anybody else, but there are some really cool things that you can do that I think make a big difference.

I want you to think about this: when you want to order a pizza, what do you do? You pick up your phone and you Google it. When you want to order a taxi, what do you do? If you’ve got Uber, you probably go to Uber, but you Google it on your phone. The phone has become the device that we all use to access the services and businesses that we want to access. So why is this important?

Well, if you’re not making it easy for people to engage with your business on a mobile device, then you’re putting up a barrier that is going to mean someone hits the back button and goes somewhere else. I can prove it. Well, in fact, you can prove it yourself. Just think about the times when you’ve done the same thing. When you’ve gone to look for a local service from a local business, you’ve gone to their site, it’s too confusing and you just go back and you find something else.

Loyalty in business, for local businesses, is dropping massively because local businesses are making it far too difficult for their customers to actually contact them and reach them. What can we do about it? There are four tips that I think make a big difference to accessing and dealing with millennials, but pretty much anybody when you’re doing local business marketing.

Number one is on demand, instant access. Haven’t figured out the right name for it, but on demand, instant access means that when someone finds you, you’ve got to make it super easy for them to engage with you. So think about the biggest websites in the world right now. You go to the sites and, typically, you’ve got one or two options on the front page. The way that you do that is you think of your business as a tool for solving a problem. Why are people visiting your site? What reason have they got to visit you in the first place? That should be the first thing they see, a solution to their problem. It should be hit this button and we’ll solve your problem.

Now, if you’re a hairdresser, why would you be on the hairdresser’s website. Maybe you’re looking for opening times, maybe you’re looking to book an appointment. So maybe you’ve got two buttons that say opening times and information, and book an appointment.

Let’s say you’re a pizza shop and you wanted to order a pizza. Do you want to talk to someone or do you want to order online? You can make things so easy by doing that. It doesn’t take much effort and time. It doesn’t take much money. It does take the effort to think about how to do it. That’s probably more accurate.

So you’ve got to find a way to make your complicated, well, maybe your complicated business, very, very simple and make the first step something that someone can click and execute on there and then. It could be ‘send us a message.’ It could be, ‘click this button and fill in a form’.

It doesn’t matter, but think about the best version, the best possible way, to solve your problem for the customer and the quickest way to get it done, and that’s what you need to have on your front page. So the first point is on demand and instant access.

Point number two is open and honest reviews. See, in this world, where everybody is online and everybody is social, we expect to understand a bit about the people we’re doing business with before we do business with them.

Google roofing firms in your local town. So type in roofing firms, roofing companies and type your town’s name in. You’re gonna get a list of firms. Now, there’ll be some of them that have reviews and there’ll be some that don’t have reviews. I’m telling you now if you don’t have reviews if you don’t have people who are existing customers giving you reviews, it’s very unlikely people are clicking on you. So that’s number two is make sure that your customers are giving you open reviews. Put them on your website. Put them on Facebook. Put them on Google. Make sure they’re visible.

The third rule is, well, okay, it starts with customer loyalty, I said, earlier on, is dying down, but you can improve customer loyalty. In fact, you can make it a massive feature of your business when you incorporate community and rewards into your model. So what I mean by that is is when you have, let’s say, the hairdressers, when you have customers come in, why not make it part of the process that you offer a photograph taken of your brand new haircut and you ask them if we can use this photograph to send to all of our customers? Next time you come in, we’ll give you some money off. Maybe not everyone wants their photo taken, you say. Well, what else could you do? Maybe you just offer them the ability to click on a button and say, “Hey, I’ve just been into the hairdressers and any of my friends who want to come in next time, use this code and you’ll get a free cup of coffee.”

Think of a way to build community and rewards into your model, so that when people use your service, they feel part of your company, they feel like a member of your business, and they’re telling all their friends about it as part of the service, and they’re getting rewarded for doing so. Your marketing can almost be free when you incorporate community and rewards into your business model.

So, the final rule is engage. Now, engage means you’ve got a be a member of your local community, your local area. So, he hairdresser, be on all of the local forums, be on all the local Facebook groups. Make sure that you are connecting with people who visit you in your store. So every time a customer walks in your store, why not make friends with them on Facebook through your page? Ask if that’s okay if we connect on Facebook, so we can send you some future offers. Then, what you need to do is a document and talk about what you’re doing in your business every single day. Make it part of the job of the team in your business to document and record what you’re doing.

We’re having amazing results with one of our clients at the moment who’s basically documenting the process of talking to customers, they’re having some fun with the team, and they’re sharing content about how their business day is going. The local community love it because when they go into the store, they see the same people that have been on the videos. It’s a brilliant way to make sure people know what’s going on in your business but, more importantly, every time they open up their phone and they’re scanning through the news feed, they’re reminded of your business.

The final part of engage is very simple, but it’s really powerful. Make sure that your customers are the ones being reminded to come to your business, not them having to remind you. So a number of hairdressers, I keep coming back to hairdressers ’cause it’s on my mind. I’ve got my haircut in about five minutes, I’ve got to leave. But, hairdressers, why do I have to call my hairdresser to book an appointment? Why wouldn’t they call me at a certain time on a certain day, every single month? Even better with Facebook and Messenger, why wouldn’t I get a Facebook message? It doesn’t even have to be intrusive, it could be a very gentle reminder. Now, you might have some views about how much you want to engage with your prospects or not, but you’ve got to find a level that suits your business.

So, to recap on the rules: instant engagement, transparency with your reviews, community. Make sure that you incorporate community, and loyalty, and rewards into your business.

The third one is engage. Make sure that you’re in control of the relationship and you’re reminding your customers and offering your customers opportunities to come back in when they need your service.

Now, engage means you’ve got a be a member of your local community, your local area. So, he hairdresser, be on all of the local forums, be on all the local Facebook groups.

Make sure that you are connecting with people who visit you in your store. So every time a customer walks in your store, why not make friends with them on Facebook through your page? Ask if that’s okay if we connect on Facebook, so we can send you some future offers.

Then, what you need to do is document and talk about what you’re doing in your business every single day. Make it part of the job of the team in your business to document and record what you’re doing.

We’re having amazing results with one of our clients at the moment who’s basically documenting the process of talking to customers, they’re having some fun with the team, and they’re sharing content about how their business day is going. The local community love it because when they go into the store, they see the same people that have been on the videos.

It’s a brilliant way to make sure people know what’s going on in your business but, more importantly, every time they open up their phone and they’re scanning through the news feed, they’re reminded of your business.

The final part of engaging is very simple, but it’s really powerful. Make sure that your customers are the ones being reminded to come to your business, not them having to remind you.

The number of hairdressers, I keep coming back to hairdressers ’cause it’s on my mind. I’ve got my haircut in about five minutes, I’ve got to leave. But, hairdressers, why do I have to call my hairdresser to book an appointment?

Why wouldn’t they call me at a certain time on a certain day, every single month? Even better with Facebook and Messenger, why wouldn’t I get a Facebook message?

It doesn’t even have to be intrusive, it could be a very gentle reminder. Now, you might have some views about how much you want to engage with your prospects or not, but you’ve got to find a level that suits your business.

So, to recap on the rules: instant engagement, transparency with your reviews, community.

Make sure that you incorporate community, and loyalty, and rewards into your business.

The third one is engaged. Make sure that you’re in control of the relationship and you’re reminding your customers and offering your customers opportunities to come back in when they need your service.