When thinking about your sales pipeline, it’s important to consider who your customers are. While you might believe your customer base is purely older customers, within a few years it has probably changed. In fact, it might’ve changed quite dramatically.
One type of customer with very distinct behaviours is ‘millennials’. This term is used to describe younger customers, normally born between the early 1980s and early 2000s. This is a big group, but they have quite a few things in common. It’s likely that a proportion of your customer base is made up of this group who will bring their habits with them.
Here are a few habits which make Millennials unique and how they might affect your local business.
Millennials are one of the first generations to have grown up around technology that’s easy to access and explore. What this means is that they have high expectations when it comes to technology, including websites. They expect it to be easy to use, well-designed and up to date.
They’re also more likely to own a smartphone and access the internet through a mobile device. The Pew Research Centre found that 85% of 18-29 year old customers owned a smartphone (2015), using it for everything from connecting with friends to shopping online. This flexibility and access to data is another characteristic of this generation, who are accustomed to information being freely and readily available.
What this means for you
The key to attracting and keeping them is to ensure your website is easy to use, easy to read, clear, simple to explore and works across all devices. To read more about being mobile ready, download our guide.
Millennials are often on the look-out for good deals when they’re shopping too - they will be comparing your products and services with those of your competitors. An awareness of current economic problems means they are sometimes more likely to be driven by price than other customer groups and they’re ready to find a great deal at any time.
What this means for you
It’s important you give information about you, your products and your prices simply and openly – don’t make it hard for them to find out about you, or they won’t bother.
This includes ensuring your pricing is clearly displayed (in store and online) and up to date, making sure your team are knowledgeable about your products, or just explaining what services you offer in detail on your marketing materials. And if you can offer a few discounts on certain products, even better!
Millennials are constantly connected to their friends via social media and with things like LinkedIn this now extends to their work life too. They even expect businesses to be active on social media too. In fact, 34% of 18-35 year olds said when a brand used social media, they liked that brand more (Association of National Advertisers, 2015).
What this means for you
For a local business, this means doing a bit of research first: which channels do these younger customers use? How can you get them to follow your business on these networks? What can you post to get them interacting with you? For more information, read our dedicated guide for attracting more fans on Facebook.
Considering this group of people and planning your marketing like this can help make sure your local business has a strong pipeline and you’re giving these tech-savvy, connected customers what they want.
To help you make sure you’re appealing to a younger generation, take a look at these articles:
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