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Corey Kogan
Marketing Tips To Help You Reach And Impress Gen Z
Research shows that Gen Z’ers have a combined purchasing power of $44 billion, spending power of over $143 billion and influence over $333 billion in household income every year. This is a market any marketer with half a brain should be focused on if you hope to create a business with loyal customers for the next generation.
Who Is A Gen Z?
Gen Z is anyone born between 1996 and 2009, and they’re best known as the generation raised on the internet. Gen Z’ers are also the most diverse and one of the largest groups in US history with over 27% of the population. The unique thing about Gen Z is they grew up with the rise in technology and social media and they use the internet to their own advantage. Studies also show this percentage of the population will soon become the largest consumers in the United States.
While their predecessors, millennials, are also known to be tech-savvy, the Gen Z have taken the internet and social media to a whole new level. They use it as a tool for change and for other causes they’re passionate about – climate change, racism, LGBTQ and healthy living. What this means for brands is that if you want to target gen Z, you have to pay attention to what they value.
Gen Z are digital natives and unlike generations before them, they are fully aware of the power and impact technology and the internet has in their everyday life. As a marketer, it’s probably best to devise a strategy that will resonate with this group for you to enjoy a lifetime of brand loyalty and massive sales, thanks to their spending power.
In the next section of this article, we will give you some tips that will help you reach and surely impress a generation with an attention span of approximately eight seconds. Good luck with that!
Tips You Need to Reach and Impress Gen Z
Share Your Brand Values
The great thing about Gen Z is they care about their environment, health and the earth. If your business serves a genuine purpose that fits into the then Gen Z agenda, you’re surely going to get their attention.
The average Gen Z is aware of sociopolitical, economic and environmental issues and has a knack for using the internet as a tool for amplifying their demand for change. That’s why Gen Z have more brand loyalty to brands that are more socially, politically and environmentally responsible.
The cancel culture became more pronounced with this generation and any brand that doesn’t fit into the Gen Z ideal feels the full wrath of cancel culture. An average Gen Z will patronize a brand that represents their own values and expectations of themselves.
Profiling potential customers using demographics have little effect when you’re trying to impress and get a loyal customer out of them. Try creating an emotional connection and show them you value what they are emotionally attracted to. What does this mean for brands? It means you need to have a purpose other than your revenue. You have to show that you value what they value.
Offer Promos and Discounts
A lot of Gen Z children experienced the 2008 recession, they saw how their parents went from great jobs to no job, and their family from sufficient to hardly enough. They are very into saving culture. In fact, a lot of them believe that their saving culture is better than their parents’. They hardly have Fear of missing out (FOMO) – a term coined by millennials. They have Joy of missing out (JOMO) instead – a term coined by Gen Z’ers. So, they would rather buy cheap or miss out than spend a cent more than they should to buy a product.
Prioritize Influencer Marketing
Studies show 65% of Gen Z have purchased something because their favorite influencer recommended it. That’s how powerful influencer marketing is to this population. They don’t see social media as a means to achieve a goal, rather they view social media as a way of life. Influencers wield so much power on social media; they’re considered as a cultural phenomenon for the Gen Z.
So if you want to reach and impress a large portion of Gen Z, reach them through their favorite influencer. Get this powerful social media moguls behind your brand and see a massive surge in not just the number of your social media following but also your revenue.
Create Interactive Experiences
If you really want to impress the average Gen Z then adopt an experiential marketing strategy. Unforgettable experience comes in different forms. Let them feel what you have to offer, let them touch it, smell, hear and even taste what you sell. What this means is that you create opportunities where your average customers can participate in your business activities. Not necessarily to learn how to run your business, although that will also be appreciated by Gen Z – they see themselves as inventors so they’re always looking for means to learn how to create.
You can have regular pop-up shops in different parts of the world, have a brick and mortar office so that you can practice order online, pick at the store, etc. There are several ways to carry Gen Z along.
With this, they are participating directly in the entire marketing experience. Giving them an experience that will be stuck in their minds for a long time.
Be Human
Marketing campaigns before now looked more automated than human, you would think it was done by machines for machines, but recently things have taken a more interesting turn. Marketing campaigns have taken a more human approach. Instead of the formal rigid approach to engaging customers, brands have taken the informal route.
It’s common now to see the social media pages of Fortune 500 companies engaging in social and celebrity banter, and making viral jokes. This gives your brand a human face and Gen Z absolutely live for this type of brand personality.
On twitter you’ll sometimes see McDonald’s official page tweeting about football and making jokes that resonate with their audience – they know who they’re targeting.
Over To You
Capturing the eight seconds attention span of the average Gen Z, impressing them with your marketing strategy and making a loyal customer out of them is surely a huge task. However, applying the right steps like the ones listed above, you’ll surely reach and impress them and create a brand identity that will last you for a lifetime in no time.
