How to successfully reach younger consumers

Published October 10, 2014 at 9:23 am

All marketers need to keep demographics in mind when they craft campaigns, and because younger people tend to be more adept at newer technologies, it’s especially important that you reach this audience. Doing so requires a constant refresh of what makes this sort of campaign effective and what platforms younger people are using.

An article for CIO on teen digital marketing looks at some of the specific online behaviors that teens are likely to indulge in. Understanding which apps have a large teenage base and learning to “think like a teen” helps companies learn the rules of marketing in this space. This naturally includes some of the most popular social media and image sharing platforms, especially those designed to be easily accessible by mobile.

CIO quotes Sammy Lau of the analytics company Canopy Labs on the types of marketing that teens will be receptive to in this day and age. It’s not enough to just try a blanket approach to all social media sites, like Facebook, because some of the most popular ones are losing ground among teens, Lau says.

“As young adults leave the ‘old’ world of Facebook for the newer spaces of Tumblr, Snapchat and Instagram, brands need to take their marketing strategies to these platforms as well,” he noted. “Brands can add links to pictures of their products that allow viewers to purchase the product on the spot.”

In addition to looking at these applications that teenagers favor, you should also think about the other companies that do successfully reach out to younger consumers and how they’re able to accomplish that. This can all factor into the decentralized marketing strategy your business uses.