Influencer Marketing and Millennials: How to Make Them Work Together

With the rise of influencers on social media platforms, marketers have started collaborating with them to target millennials. You’ve likely heard of millennials before. But if not, millennials are the generation of people born between 1980 and 2000.

In general, millennials are a group of people who were taught to reason and question. This particular generation has seen the growth of technology and is highly comfortable with it. These people are the first ones to use the internet as well as cell phones and innovations such as Kindles and iPads. And they have the highest spending power too.

A study by Millennial Marketing found that 25% of the total US population is comprised of millennials. They also make up 21% of consumer discretionary purchases, which equates to a direct buying power of about a trillion dollars.

Here are some more powerful statistics about millennials that may come as a surprise:

1. Almost 50% of millennials report that they consider using brands that actively support social causes.
2. 37% of them are willing to pay more for products or services that support a cause.
3. 80% of millennials want to be entertained by brands.

Traditional advertising simply does not work on millennials. They find it pushy, spammy, or intrusive. Naturally, those “brilliantly created ads” by marketing geniuses are facing the wrath of ad blockers. There are now 615 million devices that use adblock. This makes influencing purchases a tricky job when it comes to targeting millennials.

That’s exactly why influencer marketing and millennials have become so synonymous with the digital marketing industry recently. Being real people and being knowledgeable in their fields, influencers know how to appeal to this age group, and compel them to make a purchase decision.

Below are five ways that will help your brand target millennials effectively using influencers.

#1. Create A Message That Millennials Can Relate To

Does your brand stand for a social cause? Does it believe in eco-friendliness, or makes a charitable donation every time a purchase is made? The previously-cited Millennial Marketing study revealed that millennials want to buy from brands that are concerned about a good cause.

The good news is that this is one of the many things that millennials and influencers have in common. This is perhaps because many influencers are millennials themselves.

Like we mentioned earlier, millennials belong to that section of society who are extremely well-informed. Winning them over to your brand is certainly not going to be easy. However, because most of them believe in social causes, you need to work on messaging that they can relate to.

For example, maybe your brand had humble beginnings, and you now create products that improve people’s lives. That’s a great story that will resonate well with millennials.

Whatever be the cause, you should share this with millennials so that they are genuinely interested in following your brand. Collaborating with influencers who stand for such causes can greatly help you win over millennials and gain their trust.

Influencers are loved by their audiences because of their credibility and authentic content. So these audiences consider the opinions of the influencers they like when it comes to making a purchase.

Example: Boxed Water

Image via Instagram

Here a great example from the company Boxed Water. Boxed Water collaborated with National Forest Foundation and started a social campaign. In the campaign, the company would plant two trees for every Instagram photo posted with this particular hashtag “#ReTree.” As the campaign had a cause associated with it, many millennials joined the campaign making it a huge success.

#2. Leverage Instagram Stories

When Instagram Stories was launched, it wasn’t expected that it would become a big hit globally. This is simply because at that time, most social media platforms like Facebook and Snapchat already had this option available

However, in one year, Instagram Stories saw 200 million people using it every month. Millennials love this feature and it has become a very successful method for brands to promote their products. With endless creative possibilities, Instagram Stories have become an opportunity for influencers to target millennials.

Example: S7 Airlines

Image via Instagram

Here, Russian Domestic Airline company S7 Airlines, used Instagram Stories to promote their latest addition to their fleet. The company added an A320neo to their fleet and used Instagram Stories to promote this. The ad was well received by millennials, and the campaign turned out to be a highly successful one.

Both millennials and influencers effectively make use of their Instagram Stories to engage with their followers. So if you’re wondering how to make your influencer marketing campaign truly influence millennials, ask your influencers to leverage Instagram Stories.

#3. Use Rewards And Incentives

Providing incentives and branded rewards can help you drive conversions among millennials and influencers are the perfect channel to promote them. These offers can seem like VIP treatment to millennials.

By partnering with influencers to promote your brand with special discount codes, you can effectively target millennials. When you use this approach, the millennials you’re targeting are not just receiving rewards but receiving them from their favorite influencers. That certainly creates a better impact on their brand loyalty and on your conversion rates.

Example: Daniel Wellington

Image via Instagram

Here we see popular celebrity and model Kendall Jenner promoting the brand Daniel Wellington. Kendall is wearing a Daniel Wellington watch and cuff and has provided a special discount code to her followers. This not only boosts brand awareness and credibility but also encourages millennials to make a purchase.

#4. Encourage User-Generated Content (UGC)

According to an Olapic study, 56% of consumers would be more interested in buying a product that they have seen in a positive or relatable photo posted by another consumer. User-generated content has become a major tool for brands in marketing their products.

If your brand is not utilizing it, you’re missing out on considerable opportunities of winning over millennials. A study by CrowdTap showed that millennials spend 18 hours a day on social media. And they spend 30% of that time looking at user-generated content.

The study further shows that 71% of millennials refer to social media sites at least once every day. This makes them prominent figures when it comes to loyalty-based promotions of your brand.

So user-generated content should be a vital part of your attempt to target millennials and influencers can play an important role in this. The right influencers can urge their audience to create content featuring your products. And in the process, you will be able to reach other millennials who are following these users.

Example: Daniel Wellington

We mentioned earlier how Daniel Wellington uses influencers to promote their watches using discount codes as incentives. The watch brand combines this strategy with user-generated content to make their campaigns even more effective.

They run photo contests regularly inviting people to post photos of their Daniel Wellington watches with the hashtag #DWPickoftheDay. They then feature the winners of this contest on their Instagram page and give them a free watch. Here’s an example of a post by an influencer encouraging their followers to create user-generated content for Daniel Wellington.

Image via Instagram

Conclusion

Brands need to shift from traditional advertising methods to influencer marketing as millennials live on the internet.

When targeting millennials, you should focus on understanding their tastes and preferences. They have a good sense of popular trends, and can quickly identify if an influencer is credible or not.

The strategies mentioned above will help you leverage your influencers effectively to target millennials. Just make sure that you find the right influencers. People who will be able to target millennials with their content.

Remember, millennials are the ones who have the highest purchasing power. So being able to influence their purchases will be great for your business.

Can you think of any more strategies to target millennials? Feel free to share them in the comments below. Also, if you are looking for an Influencer Marketing Consultation for your brand then feel free to contact me.

Originally Published at Shanebarker.com.