A recent study by the Manta group discovered that many small businesses are losing out on business opportunities because they aren't marketing to millennials. Only 15% of these businesses said that they marketed to millennials. Given that the millennial demographic is one of the chief slices of the market today, this untouched segment is gold mine waiting to be tapped into.

The details of the report are even more telling. A quarter of those surveyed don't consider millennials a significant demographic. Those who do market do so only through social media. Another quarter lack the budget. These are big hurdles that businesses will have to overcome if they want to nab the attention of millennials.

Mobile Marketing

When was the last time you saw a millennial without a smartphone or a tablet? Mobile is the modern game and if you want to succeed in gaining the attention of millennials, you will have to do your best in marketing on mobile devices. This is the first and foremost step in winning millennials over. Sometime ago, Google introduced rules that benefited websites that optimized their pages for mobile viewing. That alone gives you a huge disadvantage. Have you done the same? In mobile optimization, function is valued more than aesthetics. Mobile apps are also an essential element of mobile marketing.

Blog

Industry experts and writers with experience in their fields are often hired by businesses to provide content for their blogs. Businesses know that millennials turn to their blog pages for advice on whatever services they offer. Millennials show a lot of interest in the knowledge of their favourite industries, and they're willing to spend some time to read credible information. If you can't yourself, hire someone to handle your blogs. A few blog posts a week will also contribute to your site's SEO.

Videos

Vine, Instagram and YouTube are incredibly popular among the new generations. It's even being used, quite cleverly, for advertisements. You'll see entire articles communicating in GIFs and vine videos, and the millennials are lapping it all up.

Devise a way to incorporate this up and coming trend into your marketing campaigns. Videos that tell stories over a series of posts seem to be doing well with viewers, so perhaps that's a good place to start.

Content Marketing

Much has been said about content marketing. E-mail newsletters and blog feeds play a critical role in maintaining loyalty among customers. Content is a big part of the daily lives of millennials. They develop a liking for certain sources over time and stick to them for their daily fix. Content marketing is a ballgame of its own, but you need to strengthen it, both for the general benefits that it brings and the enormous one in attracting younger readers.

As Always, Build Relationships

Millennials love to have their opinions heard, and Twitter and Facebook excel in this. They want to interact with their favourite brands and communicate ideas and disappointments. They like to offer their input and make their own personal contribution to the brand's development.

This is where social media comes into the picture. It allows quick, short and transparent communication with your customers. A good social media presence can cement your company's reputation and a bad one can break it.

Marketing to millennials isn't too difficult, though it is different from marketing to other groups in the market. These millennials, and the generations to follow, will soon become the major part of the market, making it essential for any business, big or small, to nail the marketing tactics that will convert them. The tips above will help, but they are not the extent of marketing advice. Keep the research going and pay attention to the trends.

Source: http://www.ivyclique.in/home/listofPost/NDQ3NQ==/MTE1/Digital-Marketing/Marketing-To-Millennials-What-Small-Businesses-Need-To-Do