Marketing to Millennials and Everyone Else

November 22, 2015
Mike Dolpies

 

The question I have…

What is the deal with Millennials?

Every morning I listen to Bloomberg Radio on my Samsung Galaxy while I make breakfast and do my part for a smooth start for the family.

Some of the commercials during my morning radio time stick out and others don’t.

One that has been sticking out over the last two months is this one talking about some millennial study.

How to hire them.

How to handle them.

How to baby them (I guess) and appeal to their values and self-interests.

And… as this commercial hits my reticular activator – I start to think about all of the other noise out there…

“How to Market to Millennials.”

“How to Sell Millennials.”

“How to Kiss Millennial ass.”

Call me old-fashioned… I’m 36, so I am sort of a millennial myself (I guess) and perhaps that adds to the confusion…

Some define a Millennial as “coming of age” in the early 2000’s (me).

But then… You can see where Millennials were born between 1980 and 2005?? I missed that cut off – but hmm… my oldest daughter was born in 2004 so she is a Millennial?

How about this…

Old School…

Why don’t we think about them like any other generation when it comes to marketing and selling?

Like any generation, if they have the desire, the money and you show them value and they “want/need” what you have – then… they’ll buy it.

No so fast…

You have to know how to reach them. They won’t just magically find you… well… at least most won’t.

AND… that’s where too many businesses are failing.

Not understanding, how millennials consume so much digital media. Under-estimating the importance of digital marketing… NOT … Just for millennials… but EVERY generation.

Heck… My 73 year-old mom is on her smartphone most of the day.

It’s about where the eye-balls are.

But OK…

I will give you this.

Environment, Current Times… etc… all play a role in how someone views the world.

And that… will shape how you market to them.

I’ll tell you this…

Millennials are human like the rest of us.

They have fears, they are greedy, they buy on emotion and justify with logic.

For every one millennial that has a super-duper tech start-up company there are a bunch that have no idea what they want to “be when they grow up.”

But, isn’t every generation like that… a few winners and a whole bunch of losers?

(Business owners… Yea … You… You are the winners and I am thankful this Thanksgiving week that I get to write to you!)

So here’s the newsflash… for Captain Obvious…

You don’t have to adjust your marketing for this generation, you have to adjust it for ALL GENERATIONS.

OK… that’s it.

This week’s idea…

Facebook Marketing ideas… It is simply how you can reach your ideal market for pennies.

I am taking on 3 New Facebook Clients for early 2016. It’s not for everyone. It starts with a chat about what you currently have going on.

About the author

Mike Dolpies Mike Dolpies (aka Mike D.) owns “Ocean View Publishing, LLC” - a diverse media/Internet Marketing and Consulting Company. He started his first business when he was just 18 years old. By the time he was 23 that business had generated well over a Million Dollars in sales and was consistently in the top 20% of its industry. He's the Author of 6 different books. His first book, “Motion Before Motivation, The Success Secret That Never Fails,” became a bestseller on Amazon.com He's been a guest on the Fox Morning News several times and has been written about in many newspapers. His work has also appeared on Entrepreneur.com and Fox Businsss.com