Marketing to Gen Z is something that looks easy but at the same time, it can be difficult for marketers. They influence the way their parents spend more than Millennials did, including over 70% of family choices & somewhere between 80% to 90% of items purchased for them. After all, Gen-Z comprises 40% percent of total U.S. consumers & with a force for buying $143 billion.
Here, I will be discussing with you, all the aspects of how you should be marketing to Gen Z. Also, this article will not be discussing common stuff like respecting privacy, your company being accountable, humanized contact & other jargon.
I mean it’s 2022 & now every generation, in general, will be looking for such things in a company. How can you say this strategy is specifically for Gen Z?
Starting from this point itself let’s get to how will you be marketing to Gen Z.
What makes Marketing to Gen Z Different?
1. Demanding Nature
Gen Z is the Tech-savvy generation that has got everything within their reach. Marketing to Gen Z can be a task as their attention span is around 8 – 10 seconds only.
So, if you are not quick to deliver your message, then you will be missed out instantly.
2. Experimenting Habit
Gen Zs like to try new things even though they are comfortable with one product. That is why the Retention of Gen Z is a very difficult job for marketers, as only 40% of Gen Z considers to be loyal to a brand. That is very less than any other generation.
3. Entrepruenial Mindset
This generation has all the means to access information. Research is a thing they do thoroughly before buying any product. Also, Gen Z is the generation that has the least budget to buy a product.
So, such restrictions make Gen Z look for products at the best price to match their expectation in quality & they will not sacrifice that.
4. Influencing Connections
They’re willing to challenge their parents, questioning things like how much they’re going to pay for something, trying to stimulate their price sensitivity. With that said, if marketers focus on Gen Z over Millennials, they’re likely to influence other generations as well.
Where to Find Gen Z?
First thing, marketers should know before strategizing should be where is their target audience. Based on the Pew Research Data, Youtube is the most popular platform among Gen Z. To further you can find them on social platforms like Tiktok & Instagram.
Some might find this surprising that Facebook & Twitter is not so active among Gen-Z. While an underdog coming up in the numbers would be LinkedIn, where Gen Z is having the fastest growth.
Tips for Marketing to Gen Z
Now, get ready for the main part of the show. As you will see some tips that will be worth your time.
1. Micro-Influencers are the Traffic Generator
Gen-Z considers influencers as one of the major elements is to recommend what products to buy or which company or business to look forward to. If you are a small business, then getting celebrity influencers can be expensive & inefficient for your business.
Instead, you can start with a group of micro-influencers & content creators. The micro-influencers are expanding their market share & continue to grow. They have expanded from 89% share in 2020 reaching the height of 91% in 2021.
Apart from this, open your products for review channels to get more brand awareness. Also, you can work for the improvement of your product. Getting influencers is crucial as they will give you a good reach.
2. Smart & Short Content is the Asset
Gen Z is being brought up in this technology revolution where every piece of information is just a click away. Hence, they have a short attention span of around 8 seconds.
So, your content should be adapted as the need. It is recommended to use Instagram reels, Youtube Shorts & other similar features where the content can be a maximum of 60 seconds. The cause is that Gen Z prefers to watch such content & hardly skip it at the half.
As a result, these features of social media can be a good platform for brand awareness & working as a touch point for your existing customers.
Now moving on to the quality of the content:
- First thing that should keep in mind would be the language or some term as “LINGO”
- If you are making a video ad for Youtube or other Social media should be around 10 seconds.
- If you want to make it for more time, then try to add some story, as this generation is also the one that binge-watches a series, so Gen Z gets hooked on it.
- The language of your article or the video should be familiar to them as being the least formal & use some trendy terms.
- But remember that you don’t overuse them. That will make you look desperate or a “WANNABE”.
- You must not make the content for offering your product but show them how you work & content relatable to them.
- Gen Z is very particular about addressing gender & further, don’t stereotype your content.
3. Touchpoints: More the Better, But Don’t get Clingy
Make yourself visible more often, as the Mere Exposure effect works well on the Gen-Z. Retargeting ads can be a correct choice for the touchpoint to Gen-Z. Gen Z can be reached better through a two-way conversation. Here, you can make some customizable automated message senders especially using Instagram DM.
But, getting too much exposure on the Gen-Z can get you into spam listed or even reported on different platforms. Hence, the better way of touchpoint should be between 3-5 times daily. Also, Social media & Text messages are better ways to engage than calling them.
4. Poor Mobile Experience is the Silent Killer
As 60% of Gen Z opt-out straight away from the apps if they find them slower, based on the survey from IBM, 75% of Gen Z frequently use mobile phones & almost all Gen Z have access to smartphones.
Marketers miss this part as most of the focus is given to website development. As a result, optimizing the mobile experience is a crucial aspect to have a higher customer conversion.
5. Pop-ups can be annoying. Then what to do?
Gen Z feels that random pop-ups for trying or selling the product while visiting a website make their experience disturbing. So, the key is don’t use the pop-ups to directly impose your products on them. Rather, use Pop-ups to connect them to your community & providing them with information about your products & other content surrounding your products.
Gen Z is the tech-savvy generation that likes to explore & research more. Hence, it would be better if you would, that the product visible to them but not give them random pop-ups on it.
6. Modify your Email Marketing
One of the myths considered by most marketers is that email marketing won’t work for Gen-Z. But as per the research by Media post, 53% of Gen Zs liked getting emails from their favorite brands. So, Email marketing still exists & can be considered for marketing to Gen Zs this depends on how you use it.
To keep email marketing relevant, you can do the following:
- Keep the email short & have a humorous tone.
- Restrain from giving any negative message in email.
- Make a thought-provoking question for which they should look for the answer.
- Don’t make the email monotonous: You can use some emojis & also GIFs if possible.
- And make it personalized.
7. Be more approachable to Gen Z
Gen Zs are the ones that expect fast service. Emails & chatbots are the standard methods that make your company approachable. Apart from these, as 95% of Gen Z is having access to smartphones then the suggestion would be to include social media chats like Instagram DM, Text chats & other similar features to be another source of contact.
Acknowledging & Replying to reviews & feedback on different platforms can be a great way to gain the confidence of Gen-Z. Such a facility by the company can be frustrating at the times, but remember these steps make a trustable brand image.
8. How to Retain Gen-Z Customers?
As discussed earlier retaining Gen Z is a difficult task. This can have a great impact on the Churn rate. Therefore, you can try some of these tips:
- Educating Gen-Z related to your product: Gen Z has a hunger for learning things, and as a result, updates them regularly with some core knowledge about stuff related to the product. Videos can be better preferred than an article here.
- Updating your product: Regularly upgrading your product makes marketing to Gen Z more attractive.
- Gift cards & Loyalty points can be the other ways to retain Gen Z.
Ending with
Expecting that you found the tips mentioned above valuable to help you in marketing to Gen Z. Brands that provide honesty in describing your products & being creative & approachable are the ways that you should be marketing to Gen Z. These tips can help you gain a good amount of Gen Z customers for the business.
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