Hi everybody, Naomi Burgess here. In this post I’ll talk a little about Generation Y, or Millennials, and how they can be a source of power and new income streams for your business.
The Millennials
If you’re in e-commerce, you probably already know the potential of the Millennials – chances are, they comprise about 50{71f0b96d7fb9125465257c4beabfd4b54654a6dcc01d6b761d78baf7e14996ab} of your target audience if not more. However, many businesses, despite claiming to be modern, still employ traditional business models and aren’t as welcoming of changes as they claim. Given that currently, there are around 80 million Millennials, and most of them grew up embracing new ideas and the culture of diversity and change, these old business models might not be the best ways to engage with them.
Who are They?
So how do you develop new business models and embrace the change? The answer is – you hire the very same people that represent it – the Millennials! One of the biggest myths about Generation Y is that they are lazy and only want to work for money. This is simply not true – these are the people who survived several economic turmoils, understand what it means to work hard and aren’t afraid to explore the yet unexplored sources of ideas and inspiration. Money is, of course, a motivating factor, and it should be, given the Millennials’ current difficulties with finding jobs, but most of them genuinely want to work on interesting and exciting projects and want to be a part of something. The majority of them are bright, educated people who understand the importance of being connected (more on that below) and of learning from others.
Getting to Know the Millennials
A stereotypical image that representatives of Gen X (baby boomers) have of Millennials usually features a person dressed casually and surrounded by various electronic devices. The sad truth is – this is not the image of a lazy person, it’s an image of someone who is looking for a job and is using all the possible venues to find it. He or she could be sending out CVs, writing websites, creating programs, or arranging Skype interviews. The digital skills that the Millennials have plenty of can really help your business. For example, technology has made it much easier to carry out various kinds of due diligence and marketing research, and young people are very good at researching and gathering information in the process. They’re also more aware of the current trends in their chosen industry, which is very important in today’s business landscape. It also goes without saying that Generation Y is the most environmentally conscious generation to date, and many young people come up with ideas to increase sustainability and be more “green” every day. All businesses can benefit from such initiatives.
As I said earlier, there are almost 80 million Millennials today. That’s a very large number, and that number makes up a significant portion of many target audiences for many businesses, most likely including yours. I’ve already outlined the benefits hiring Millennials can bring your company, but it’s also important to see how catering to them can also help you.
How Millennials can help your business
Having Millennials work for you would undoubtedly bring you more understanding of their target audience and more ideas as to how to market towards young people. If you want to avoid being the company that gets forgotten about because it failed to accommodate the needs of a large chunk of its audience, don’t be that company. Millennials are nowhere near as self-absorbed as the media paints them to be – actually most of them believe that the root of success lies within building relationships. In today’s business world, long-term client relationships are indeed incredibly important for any business. Millennials’ drive and desire to learn and experience as much of life as possible before “embracing traditional ways” means that they can communicate at all levels with many target audiences’ representatives, perhaps even in different languages. These skills, this potential, are what’s going to take your business to a different level.
How Millennials think
Millennials’ increased industry awareness that I mentioned earlier, combined with their IT skills, can also help you launch and develop new marketing channels. Many businesses today have social media accounts, and they’re very important, but Millennials don’t stop there. While their target audience can appreciate a loyalty discount as much as anyone, it’s not enough for sufficient retention levels. For example, many Millennials today have blogs and understand the software of blogging platforms; therefore, it’s likely that their contemporaries would expect the companies they buy from to have at least some understanding of how blogging works. The same applies to mobile apps – Millennials are fond of saying “there should be an app for that”, and there does indeed appear to be an app for everything today. If your business has an app, you’re already doing something right in relation to catering to the Millennials!
Overall, it seems to be clear that Millennials can indeed to a lot to help your business, both as employees and as representatives of target audiences. The question is – are you willing to overlook the stereotypes and try to capitalise on their knowledge, skills and experience?
