Millennials are a new kind of generational animal. Born between 1980 and 2000, they grew up fully immersed in a digital way of life. There are almost 100 million millennials worldwide, and they are now entering their prime spending years. If you want a slice of that pie, you dare not ignore video marketing for millennials.
In this article, we’ll list why digital and video marketing is so successful among millennials. We’ll also discuss the principles for video marketing success to millennials and explain how to do your video marketing safely without getting the heart ripped out of your business by data thieves and hackers.
Why is video marketing so successful in the bracket of millennials?
Millennial consumers expect targeted and personalized messaging. Therefore, they value the built-in opportunities for two-way conversations with digital and video content.
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Cost-effective referral marketing
Millennials provide a cost-effective referral marketing environment. Referrals by peers and friends are an extremely time- and cost-efficient way to extend your company’s reach and grow your customer base.
Personal recommendations
Millennials love the digital version of personal recommendations and word-of-mouth referrals. Their clicks, swipes, posting, and sharing are endorsements. That means that just one referral from a millennial can transform into thousands of clicks for your brand.
Influenced generation
Millennials are the ultimate influencer/influenced generation. When an influencer recommends a brand to their followers, millennials trust the recommendation as if it had come from a trusted friend.
Two-way conversation
Millennials love a two-way conversation. They love to get involved with brands that care about them, which means they love to help companies develop and shape future offerings. A collaborative approach, where you ask for their ideas and input, gives them a sense of ownership. Their sense of ownership is guaranteed to translate into fierce brand loyalty.
Loyalty programs
Millennials love loyalty programs. Customer loyalty programs work even better for the millennial generation than for the generations who came before – as long as it is in a digital format! Swipe cards work well, but better forms of digital loyalty programs are constantly being developed, with new formats that put rewards literally at your customers’ fingertips.
Caring nature
Millennials care about others and their environment. They are highly motivated by the concept of giving back, paying it forward, and sharing responsibility for a cause. A brand that aligns itself with a cause that millennials care about will find it easy to generate engagement and grow brand loyalty.
Good deal
Millennials love a good deal. They are perfectly willing to pay a premium for a highly desirable or great quality product if they feel they’re getting something extra from the exchange. The ‘extra’ need not be palpable but is usually emotional. The magic triangle (of quid pro quo) consists of the elements of product quality plus support for a cause that constitutes value for money.
Social proof
Millennials love social proof. They want to see proof that your brand is a success, but they also love contributing to social proof. Encourage your millennial customers to share their personal experiences on your website and social media channels. These authentic reviews carry massive clout!
The 7 rules for engaging deeply with millennials
Millennials, as well as younger consumers, spend far more time on their smartphones than older generations. In the process, they consume vastly more video content.
Repeat your message across different devices.
When people see your marketing campaign on their phone or tablet and come across it on their computer, they are far more likely to act or engage than if they see it on just one platform.
Repeat your message across different digital platforms.
Start by optimizing all of your notes for mobile phones. Use video-making software or tools to create fast-loading, short, well-branded videos with clear subtitles. Videos optimized for mobile phones will show as well on social media platforms as they will on your website.
Use a variety of content.
Create how-to or product guide videos, and add in a few inspirational, pure fun, or DIY videos to promote active sharing on social media. Take the time to build up a library of diverse but high-quality media that you can adapt and use across multiple channels at short notice. Be sure to cover both content to build your brand and content focused on products or services. Complement the videos with checklists, cheat sheets, or easy-to-complete digital forms.
Make it easy for customers to engage with you after viewing your videos.
Use prominent links, buttons, and CTA’s. Offer various ways for customers to engage. Each option should be easy to navigate and offer one-click engagement.
Try A/B testing with millennials.
A/B testing is something that only massive companies get to do satisfactorily. Most smaller companies will never have enough data to do meaningful split testing. However, since millennials love to get involved with the brands they admire, you could ask your audience to help you to refine your message. Let them choose their favorite videos with voting buttons, prize draws, and other rewards.
End video with clear CTA.
Each video should end with a clear call to action. The audience should know exactly their next step – even if it is just to click on the ‘share’ button!
Respect your customers’ data.
Millennials are starting to wake up to rampant data abuse by Big Tech, and they don’t like it. They are also becoming more concerned about data theft and hacking, and they want to see that you care about it, too. Respect what they share and encourage them to do so safely. They are just as concerned about hacking and social engineering as you are.
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Be protective of your business and video marketing data
Marketers are very susceptible to social engineering. They are – more or less – public figures and are highly visible on social media. Their identities and contact information are usually displayed prominently on websites and forums.
Because they receive hundreds of contact requests and messages, they are prime targets for phishing campaigns. A hacker can use a small piece of private information to dig out a deeper, more comprehensive profile of potential victims. It’s not hard to get private information about your marriage, location, family, lifestyle, or birthdays with a bit of help from Google. Eventually, hackers will have enough data to hack their victim’s social media accounts or email.
Once hackers have access to your email and social media accounts, they can easily lure your friends and family into the same hacking trap.
If that all ends in a data breach, it could spell the end of your company, even if there was no sensitive data such as credit card numbers or Social Security Numbers. At best, a data breach will damage your reputation, but it may also bankrupt you with financial claims against you or your company.
How to protect your video marketing database?
Protect your video marketing database with the same care as you protect your own digital footprint.
Software
Don’t download or use dodgy or unknown video software. You never know what comes included with that free software package! Hackers love to distribute compromised software via torrent sites or bundled in with the good stuff on software aggregation websites. Malware can ruin your computer, but it can also give criminals access to the sensitive information that you store on your devices.
Email addresses
Keep separate work and private email addresses. Never use your work email for banking or gaming. If possible, create a special profile to handle marketing on social media and exclude your personal contacts from your marketing account.
Passwords
Marketers tend to have loads more accounts and passwords than the average user. Use a password manager to create strong passphrases or passwords and change them often. A premium password manager like LastPass can also monitor data breaches to warn you if your credentials have been breached.
Internet security
Secure your router and WiFi access point with a VPN meaning you cut off hackers at your internet access point before they can eavesdrop on your internet data. An unencrypted internet connection means that your logins, email connections, and customer database can be compromised when you log in to social media platforms.
Pishing and viruses
Beware phishing. It can be impossible to distinguish a phishing email from a legitimate email. Always use anti-virus software in conjunction with a next-generation VPN that can block malware and malicious websites. It’s the only way to protect yourself from ransomware, malware, data theft, and identity theft. Also, protect your video marketing clients by double-checking the reputation of every link or recommendation that you use in your videos.
Data privacy
Seek out video-making and video marketing platforms with a good reputation for data privacy. Read the fine print of any tool or platform you use, be it for making videos or distributing them to your followers. Don’t be fooled by a boilerplate privacy statement. Millennials are becoming savvier about their data privacy choices. You don’t want to end up in a privacy scandal like these education tools that have been unmasked for secretly spying on children!
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Conclusion
Give millennials something to care about and connect emotionally with due respect for their digital safety and privacy. As a reward, your video marketing campaign customers will be just as passionate about your brand as you are!
Web developer and SEO specialist with 20+ years of experience in open-source web development, digital marketing, and search engine optimization. He is also the moderator of this blog "RS Web Solutions (RSWEBSOLS)".
