A GUIDE TO CONTENT MARKETING. WHAT DO MILLENNIALS ... Content Strategy. A lot of clients come to us with questions about
A GUIDE TO CONTENT MARKETING
WH AT DO MIL LEN NIA LS WAN T FRO M CON TEN T?
www.greenlightdigital.com
Content Strategy
WHAT DO MILLENNIALS WANT FROM CONTENT? BY KEVIN O’CONNOR, CONTENT MARKETING MANAGER
A lot of clients come to us with questions about how they can best target Millennials. Since they are the most active user base online, especially when it comes to social media, it makes sense
However, before brands decide to target Millennials, there are three key questions they need to ask themselves:
that you would want to create content which caters to them. Millennials, depending on who you talk to, can broadly be described as young people who grew up with the internet and identify as ‘digital natives’. This segment includes people aged anywhere from 12 to 35, but generally speaking, brands tend to group
QUESTION 1
SHOULD I EVEN BE TALKING TO. MILLENNIALS?. The answer to this question, of course, depends on what your product or service is and whether it’s suitable for a Millennial audience. An audience which is more
Millennials as anyone born in the 90s or early
easily influenced by online content and improved
millennium who are active online.
search rankings sounds like an easy way to grow your
It’s understandable why any brand would want to target customers in this category; they have more spending power than previous generations, are not as influenced by traditional advertising and are more informed by what they read online when it comes to purchases. They’re also excellent brand ambassadors and freely share content that connects with them, whether it is branded or not.
user base, however the challenge is whether you can grow within that demographic while still remaining relevant to your core audience. Much like the old saying that the British and Americans are two peoples separated by a common language, creating content for Millennials can sometimes leave some key points lost in translation between generations. That’s not to say that content cannot be created for both, but an investment in proper cross-platform content forms and styles should be considered.
2
www.greenlightdigital.com | +44 (0)20 7253 7000
QUESTION 3
WHAT KIND OF CONTENT DO THEY. ACTUALLY WANT?. Recent content innovations such as listicles and short content forms such as Vines and Instagram videos have come to define the current generation of content creators and seem to confirm that Millennials are easily bored and want a constant stream of bitesize, disposable content. The sheer output of these types of QUESTION 2
HOW DO I COMMUNICATE WITH. MILLENNIALS?.
content from sites such as Mashable and Buzzfeed (sites which have come to define current online trends) is overwhelming and seems to confirm this. However, if you look beyond the noise, you will still see that well
There are several rules of thumb that are good advice,
researched, long-form and quality content still has its
but not all encompassing, such as ‘Millennials hate to
place at the table and Millennials are willing to put in
be sold at or talked down to, they are very savvy and
the time to seek out this content if it’s about something
they can tell when they are being advertised to’. While
they’re passionate about, or something that holds
this is true, it’s a good rule for any type of branded
relevance for them. Recent trends such as Facebook
content in general. The biggest mistake is to think there
Live, the continued rise of podcasts and a resurgence in
are hard and fast rules when creating content for
printed content means that just focusing on short-form
Millennials. Millennials are not a solid monolithic group
content can indicate that you’re not forming lasting
who all think and act the same way, some Millennials
relationships with your audience, but a mistake some
can be tarred with the same brush of saying they only
brands make is spreading themselves too thinly across
care about Netflix, Snapchat and emojis, but of course
a lot of channels. Finding the right platform(s) for your
once you drill down into the persona research, you’ll
audience should be the first problem that’s solved
find that this portrait doesn’t hold true for most young
before any content is created.
people today. Post Gen-Y consumers are passionate about social issues and are very considered with their purchases, they’ll do extensive online research and more than anything, they take recommendations from friends, online influencers and crowd-sourced reviews, such as third party ratings and comments on product pages. Giving a good user experience and connecting with customers through social and other channels can not only foster brand ambassadors, but can also be mined for user-generated content and used as research for future campaigns. The line between online and offline is blurring more and more every day, and this experience should be reflected in your communications.
After you’ve hired some Millennials in an effort to create content which speaks to a younger audience, you may find that the rules which apply for creating content for Millennials look very similar to the rules which apply to all content. Make it useful, make it shareable and use it to help answer the needs of your customers, not just search engines. If you follow these rules, the rankings and social interactions will follow, and so will the Millennials.
www.greenlightdigital.com | +44 (0)20 7253 7000
3
www.greenlightdigital.com The Varnish Works, 3 Bravingtons Walk, King’s Cross, London, N1 9AJ +44 (0)20 7253 7000
[email protected] 