How to Write Copy that works for Millennials

When I heard Joanna Wiebe of Copyhackers was looking to hire remotely, I got a bit excited. She's at the cream of the crop when it comes to Canadian copywriting excellence. It got me thinking, namely a lot of startups we work with these days, need to scale their content marketing and social channels with the view of appealing to Millennials, the consumers of today and tomorrow.

Contrary to public opinion, Millennials read more than previous generations, it's just a lot of it is online. In fact, the most educated generation of all-time likely has been exposed to more content, marketing ploys, video content and advertisements than ever, than anyone ever before. As such, when you write targeting this audience, your content has to stand out in multiple ways. 

Writing for Millennials is another kind of engagement scenario: lower attention spans, visual and influencer marketing prone, and ideally, appealing to corporate social values, storytelling and that feeling of being more authentic. Millennials who are digital and mobile natives, need more entertaining copy, video content and creative imagery. Here are my top tips for you: 

Top 13 Tips to write Copy that works for Millennials 

-1- Design it for Seconds

The majority of content won't get more than a few seconds, a scan. So visually design it to be engaging that catches attention. Millennials grew up with Instagram and GenZ are growing up with snapchat, therefore design your banner images and even put video snippets within articles to keep your audience engaged. Make your content have a sense of urgency, immediacy and pop. 

-2- Is it Entertaining?

Millennials have also grown up with mobile multi-tasking and YouTube, so you'll want your content to have a personable and feel authentic. Is the content valuable to your audience while being entertaining and salient enough to keep reading? These online addicts have seen it all and entertaining could mean a lot of things, so long as it holds their attention. Articles on Medium for instance, a blogging platform for Millennials often have a "vulnerable" quality that's a bit like reading a life-hacking article. 

-3-  Storytelling Content

Storytelling content means it's not just a 500 word article that anybody could have written. Articles have to have some value substance that syncs with Millennial values to truly be a narrative worth hearing. Does it address experiences and link to the Millennial reality? Storytelling means the content isn't all about you, it's connected to trends, memes and the future of tomorrow's consumer. Storytelling creates value via narrative that's often more emotional and has a direct implication with regards to social justice, social causes and corporate social responsibility. 

-4- Mobile Looks & Millennial Interactivity 

Your content articles for Millennials has to feel native to mobile devices. The layout and design has to take for granted that the majority of your Millennial readers are accessing your content on a smartphone. That's why quotes, snippets, video embedding, questions and a focus on comments and interaction is so relevant. Mobile doesn't just mean it's responsive, it means that's it's appropriately interactive for Millennials who are anything from being a passive audience. Content has to add value but also have a CTA that's social to be truly effective and build rapport. 

-5- Learning Ops 

Millennials recognize content of value is educational, so actionable content that's educational a topic is appealing and a worthwhile read of their time. This is why listicles ("Top 10....") have traditionally done so well, they are an efficient way to learn about a topic through scanning. Many Millennials don't read in the same way, we scan, because that's how we live, to assimilate and enjoy experiences in the moment to the max. 

-6- Millennials Enjoy Snippets

We're starting to recognize Millennials are no more channels than ever before, so one way around this is to introduce frequent snippets of content to get their attention. For example, a brand on Instagram or Pinterest that is Millennial customer centric, will often post VERY frequently new content to prime their audience with "showcased" content that really creates a positive impression. Images, quotes, micro-videos, value-statements all count as content snippets. 

-7- Shareworthy Content is Long-Form 

Due to the proliferation of content (and bad content), shareable content that has the best chance to go viral is either video content or long-form content, that is, approximately longer than 1300 words. This high quality long-form content usually has the best chance of giving value enough to be shared. Whether it's inspirational, educational or just damn good content, Millennials trust content shared by their peers. 

-8- KISS Millennials with Original Content

KISS as you all know, stands for keep it simple stupid. This doesn't mean you have to dumb-down your content too much, but keep in mind typically the most viral content lives at a reading level of 6th to 8th grade level English. Keeping your text focused and scrupulously original and with a great editorial tone, ensures that they don't lose you along the way. Readers want answers and to be inspired, and Millennials need that immediacy of value from your content to become engaged and begin to identify with your brand. 

-9- Edit for Readability 

Find your golden ratio of images to text, and headlines to text. Since Millennials scan content very quickly, the average first impression of your content has 2 seconds to give them a quick yes/no of whether they will give you 20-30 more seconds of their attention. Links, headlines, infographics, images with human faces, quotes - not just text, will win you this multi media savvy generation of readers. White space, bullet points, easy of reading, it all counts. 

-10- Be First on Memes and Salient News

Millennials want that immediate access to new information and the trends of your industry. Being first and offering the highest quality first few posts on the web about an interesting development is a race for quality, SEO and the Millennial audience. Incorporating current memes and news into your content calendar, is one of the biggest ways you can hack your Millennial audience. 

-11- Identify and Showcase the Personality of Bloggers & Guest Bloggers

Many corporate blogs don't highlight the people writing the content enough. Millennials like to identify with and know about the people behind the brand. Millennials are people-centric and not as brand loyal, so part of making content more authentic is making the tie with the people in the stories, and the writer themselves is a big part of this. Having a copywriter who interacts with comments with empathy builds rapport and socially animates the discussions that can result from the content. 

-12- Drive your Content Where Millennials Are 

If your are focusing on a Millennial audience are sharing your blogs on LinkedIn & Facebook, you may be missing out on those channels where many Millennial are. However, sharing your articles on Medium, Reddit, Facebook Groups ( insert other popular publication with Millennials) and having a branding presence on Instagram, there's a greater chance Millennials will reach your corporate blog.

Not too happy with Email marketing? Try SMS marketing and getting Millennials to sign up to receive snippets and links to your blog articles via SMS and texts. In other words, the inbound lead generation funnel is quite different for Millennials. 

-13- Research Copywriting Tricks

Seducing Millennials with copy-writing means using the tried same old tricks that work through decades of sales and marketing copy experience. The generation may be different, but the human brain is the same. Here's a revolutionary thought for you, actually have a young Millennial write content that's targeted to young Millennials. The closer the voice and style mimics contemporary language, filters, memes and even cultural references, the better. 

Content, media, PR and copywriting are all evolving very fast, having the most talented copywriter can go a long ways to gain traction with Millennials. Having a graphic team, video content team and social media team that can truly inspire and elevate your brand to another level of content engagement means truly making your copy creative, experiential and interactive at a whole new level. 

Special thanks again to Joanna Wiebe, for inspiring this post, check out her company's blog here for more awesome articles on copywriting.