BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Online Marketing As We Know It Is Changing With The Rise Of Generation Z

Following
This article is more than 5 years old.

It seems that on a regular basis, we hear about Millennials, their habits, likes and dislikes, and how businesses can best market to them. But believe it or not, it’s time to start looking at the next generation. Generation Z, who were born approximately between 1995 and 2014, are the first truly digital generation. They have grown up with technology from day one, are very adept to communicating on social media, are tech-savvy, and have always had high-speed internet (how lucky).

Whether you refer to them as iGeneration, Net Gen, Digital Natives, or simply Gen Z, their presence as consumers and in the workforce is changing online marketing as we know it.

Marketers are spending millions across all of the major social media platforms to gain followers and increase brand awareness. And just a couple of short years ago, that was the way to go because it worked. However, with Generation Z coming up economically, the old strategies just aren’t cutting it. Or if they are still working, it’s costing a lot more to make the same impact.

With an extremely saturated online marketplace, the competition is stiff, making it tougher to stand out.

So how can you grow your audience, increase brand awareness and turn online users into leads without spending a fortune in this new age of Gen Z digital native buying power?

Make it easy for the younger audience to engage.

On average, Gen Z spends between six and nine hours per day consuming media. And they use an average of five screens - smartphone, TV, laptop, desktop, and tablet - switching among them for different purposes. As a comparison, millennials use three screens on average.

This could be why they lose interest very quickly, no matter how good your content is. If it takes more than a step or two, you’ll lose the attention of most younger people. And that means that they won’t opt in, they won’t share your post and they may not come back to visit your website. So, the goal is to make it easy for them to engage.

“Add social sharing buttons to everything, and add a bunch of them. Facebook, Whatsapp, Telegram, Twitter, the list goes on. Give your Gen Z audience the option to share to any and all the platforms they may use, because that’s what they are inclined to do. When it otherwise would take a lot of effort to share your content, these buttons only take two steps. Now everything from your blog posts to paid offers can be shared easily, which means they will be shared more often,” says Vin Clancy, online entrepreneur and influencer who recently released a new eBook, Ace the Game. His book includes online marketing strategies that entrepreneurs at all levels can digest and easily implement.

“Only add one strong call-to-action. If you add a bunch of links or ask more than one thing of your visitors, you will lose them. Make it simple and let your visitors know exactly what you want them to do, whether that is comment, reply, purchase or opt-in,” adds Clancy.

Gen Zs are in a hurry and typically don’t spend much time reading an entire email or article. That’s why it’s important to keep headlines, titles for blog posts or webinars, and offers, clear and catchy. They need to be attention-grabbing and let readers know exactly what they will get for investing their time.

When social media strategies get popular, they also lose effectiveness.

While Facebook, YouTube and Instagram are among the social networks with the most users, they also have a lot more competition and aren’t the only options out there.

Photo Courtesy of Statista

The younger generation (and potential followers) are on other social media platforms and websites that aren’t as well known. In fact, only 10% of Facebook users are under 24 years old. If you are trying to reach the Gen Z consumer, Facebook would not be your best option.

Pinterest users are not only slightly younger, but it’s a great platform for marketing because one image can keep working for you time and time again.

You can also head over to Quora, a site where people ask questions about anything they want to know, and answer questions related to your industry. “Quora has proven to be a great way to not only gain followers but to also boost your credibility and brand,” says Clancy.

The key is to analyze many different social networks to determine where your target customer spends their time and develop a strong marketing strategy for that platform.

Optimize your content the right way.

There is so much content pumped out on the internet these days, it’s important to optimize that content so it gets widely read. In fact, you should spend 80% of your time promoting your content, and only 20% of your time actually creating it. There’s no point in publishing content if no one ever comes across it. Make sure you are driving traffic to your site or blog through all available means.

“Most people are familiar with how to use Google, but few really understand how it works. You need to understand it and then optimize your content for it. In order to do that, you need to understand what your potential followers are looking for online,” says Clancy. 

Once you’ve analyzed what your target customers are searching for, use that search data to come up with long tail keywords, which are three or more highly targeted words, and optimize your site for those phrases. This will get you more web traffic, and as a result, more potential clients.

When marketing to this generation who are high on likes, are too young to actually remember 9/11, and who see no difference between friends they’ve met in real life or only know online, it’s important to consider their unique upbringing and relationship with social media so you can deliver a marketing message that resonates.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedInCheck out my website or some of my other work here