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Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format. With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)
 

A Great Marketing Opportunity

By Fiona Woolf
September 17, 2013

Would you like to increase your sales to customers who will promote your company and products? If so, look to your marketing relationship with Millennials...

The largest consumer group in history...
What is the largest consumer group in history? Contrary to popular belief, it is not the Baby Boomers but Millennials (aka Generation Y). The children of the Baby Boomers, Millennials comprise Americans born in the 1980's and 1990's. Today, their ages range from 13 to 33; in 5 years from 18 to 38; and in 10 years, from 23 to 43. As Millennials come of age, they will be the vanguard of cultural, technological and business developments. Already, their size and influence makes them a key retail demographic.

What sets Millennials apart from previous generations is their unprecedented spending. In his book, The Age Curve, Kenneth Gronbach contends Millennials will have an epoch-making impact on retail: "Of massive marketing opportunities, Gen Y is the most massive in history. Their appetite for consumption is already 500% greater than their parents." As Millennials enter their peak buying years, it will be critical for retailers to understand the mindset and lifestyles of these uberconsumers to build a marketing relationship with them.



Millennials have grown up in a culture of computers, and their relationship with (and reliance on) technology defines their lives. The term "digital natives" has been coined to describe Millennials. (Older generations are considered nonnatives). The Internet has enabled Millennials to become a uniquely social generation: hyper-connected and highly interactional. Millennials differ from their predecessors in that it is typical of them to go online and share their opinions, product preferences, and everyday experiences with the world at large, not just tell others face-to-face. This means that retailers should not only view Millennials as customers, but also potential brand ambassadors.

Marketing to Millennials
The same marketing methods that worked on Baby Boomers and Generation X will not suffice for Millennials. Internet marketing is now an added requisite. Recognizing how the Internet shapes the lives of Millennials (and influences their purchase decisions) is the first step toward strategizing a marketing relationship with them.

Two major factors driving purchase decisions for Millennials are brand popularity and the opinions of others (family, friends, online community). For this reason, Millennials are more prone than older consumers to actively seek outside information (customer reviews, price comparisons, etc.) to make purchase decisions. A 2011 study by Aimia, Inc. surveying the attitudes and habits of Millennial and non-Millennial consumers, found that 58% of Millennials check user reviews before making a purchase compared to 31% of non-Millennials.

So how do you market to a generation of consumers who turn to outside sources for reliable and trustworthy advice? Have the people who purchase your products promote them. Consider this, for years marketers have been paying celebrities top dollar to endorse their products. But average consumers who use your products and choose to promote them can prove a more effective (and less costly) way to advertise.

Millennials as Marketers
Millennials are significantly interconnected with social media, so it is not surprising that companies are looking to social media marketing to target this demographic. According to Aimia, 72% of Millennials cite using Facebook often or very often; moreover, almost half (44%) of Millennials express willingness to promote a product or brand through social media for rewards. To accommodate this, a number of companies and loyalty programs encourage (and incentivize with rewards) certain online activities including:

Conclusion
In the past, businesses had complete control over what was being publicly broadcast about their company and products. Today, the Internet makes it possible for anyone to be an online commentator on companies' services and products to a global audience. Equally important, future directions in marketing are Internet-based and direct-response marketing through traditional media alone is no longer sufficient.

Encouraging consumers to indirectly market your products through certain online activities (consumer-to-consumer viral marketing) is advantageous for attracting and engaging Millennials ... a generation of consumers inclined to be skeptical of information directly conveyed by retailers, favoring the advice of family, friends, and online outsider information to make deliberate purchase decisions.

Effectively marketing to Millennials and, in turn, having Millennials market for you is a two-way exchange. Demonstrate to Millennials that you value their opinion (and are willing to reward them for it) and they will reward you with online recognition.

Copyright © 2013 - 2025 Fiona Woolf

About the author...

Fiona Woolf, a graduate of the University of Virginia, specializes in market research.

Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format.

With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

You'll learn to sell yourself, sell your products, and sell your brand on the internet, writing high-conversion landing pages, social media posts, and more. You'll start attracting customers you didn’t even know existed, and learn the top trade secrets for customer retention.

You'll become a lean, mean selling machine. See how the experts do it and learn to adapt what they've done for your own profit. You'll learn to write strong, powerful, effective sales copy, whether it's for a sales script, sales letter, flyer, insert, advert or just about anything else.

You'll learn how to sell whether you're selling by telephone, by mail, or even meeting prospects face-to-face. You'll find out how to size them up, present yourself, nail down their true needs, close the sale, and learn to tackle the tricky ones.

You'll discover the biggest secrets of successful direct mail sellers, sales letter writers, and how to segment and choose the right prospects for each campaign.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)
 
Copyright © 2001-2025 Peter J. Clark