What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is marketing that occurs online, and it’s the most effective form of marketing. Because all of your marketing is done online, you’re able to reach the biggest possible audience to promote your brand. Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) and Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) are considered to be the “younger” generations that are active online. When your marketing efforts are directed towards a group that spends a lot of their time online, you’re more likely to gain new customers and retain old customers. Here are some digital marketing strategies that are most effective with these two age groups.
#1: Affiliate Marketing, Brand Ambassadors, and Sponsored Content
Affiliate marketing, brand ambassadors, and sponsored content all have something in common: they allow your customers to be a part of your company. Affiliate programs are typically open to anyone willing to promote your products on their platforms, while they earn a small commission whenever someone purchases your product (usually through an affiliate link or code). Brand ambassadors are your most loyal customers who care deeply about your brand, and they usually have higher commission rates and/or receive products for free to promote. Sponsoring individuals is very similar to having brand ambassadors for your company, except that these individuals are usually famous celebrities or popular online influencers. Whether your customers are well-known or not known at all, the younger generations love feeling that they are a part of a bigger brand.
#2: Marketing Automation
As the name suggests, marketing automation is marketing efforts that occur automatically. The best example of this would be social media posts: almost all platforms have a tool that allows you to schedule posts so your followers are always receiving quality content. As a busy entrepreneur, you may not have time to constantly post to your social media accounts every day (which you should be doing), so it’s easier to schedule content in advance to ensure that your platforms are updated daily. Another example— and another form of digital marketing— is email marketing. Your website should have a feature that allows your customers to voluntarily sign-up for email updates, where emails are automatically sent out every day, promoting your products.
To take your email marketing to another level, you can turn emails into text messages without any extra effort. This will guarantee that your emails are being seen as SMS have as high as 98% open rates.
#3: Social Media Marketing
Finally, we’ve reached the most influential form of digital marketing towards the Millennial and Generation Z generations: social media. The majority of time spent online by the billions of online users (of all ages) is spent on social media, so it’s no wonder that the previous two forms of digital marketing can tie back to social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok are four of the most popular social media platforms used by these two generations— especially Instagram. Instagram is a platform that gives information both visually and quickly, which are both important to these generations. With that being said, Instagram should be a part of your social media marketing plan if you’re trying to target these two generations, no matter what type of business you run.
While these three strategies are very effective at targeting the younger generations, don’t neglect other digital marketing strategies that have been proven effective. An example is SEO marketing. SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it’s a technique that gets your website to rank higher on search engines. Google is the most used search engine (by all age groups), so when a user searches for content related to your business, you want your website to come up on the first page at the very least. SEO helps your website to come up within the first few results on that first page.
The bottom line is that you should have a strong online presence in order to run a successful business, especially if your target audience is a generation that grew up in the digital age. Have a company website, create business accounts on social media, and be active!