The new age of customers is here, and they’re much more selective than you think. Generation Z has taken over millennials and brought social commerce to the main stage. They value authenticity, purpose, and transparency, which sounds quite intimidating at first if you don’t know how to approach them. As such, Gen Z Marketing is a unique proposition that requires careful analysis and understanding to get right.
If you’re one of many businesses that cater to the new generation, please keep reading. Here, we’ll discuss the top Gen Z marketing tips you can use to bolster your online presence and reach the right audience at the right time.
As social commerce continues to take precedence, more and more customers look for a unique shopping experience that’s unlike any other. Generation Z spearheads this change and makes up 20.35% of the U.S. population. So, why is Gen Z important to marketers?
The answer is simple: their enormous spending power. Gen Z is slowly transforming into the biggest group of consumers in the foreseeable future, and marketers should prepare now if they wish to build loyalty with this group.
Gen Z’s role in e-commerce continues to expand, as people born from 1997-2012 are dipping their toes into employment and stimulating the market with their disposable income. They’re also responsible for creating trends that the older generation follows (TikTok ads are a great example). Thus, the importance of Gen Z is much larger than most people realize.
So, how do you go about motivating a new generation to purchase your products?
Gone are the days when marketers pump the same advertisement repeatedly to drive business growth. The younger generation is more savvy and aware of what’s happening around them, meaning you need to have the influence to catch their attention. Here are a few Gen Z marketing tips to fuel your campaigns.
Most Gen Z customers prefer Instagram and YouTube as their platforms for media consumption. Given the rising trend of short-form videos, it’s a good idea to implement it into your marketing strategy to drive brand engagement. Stories are a great example as it’s a prominent feature on both Instagram and YouTube, where marketers rely on visuals and overlays to captivate their audience.
And by creativity, we mean standing out from the competition. You don’t need Hollywood visuals; you just need to think outside the box. For example, you can host a social media takeover and select an influencer who’ll temporarily manage your account.
Such a form of marketing drives engagement to your page through entertaining content, a unique take from your conventional stories or social media posts.
When marketing to a Gen Z audience, one way to drive engagement is to leverage the use of tags. Whether encouraging them to share user-generated content (UGC) or asking them to tag friends for your social feed, Gen Z customers love appearing on their favorite brand’s page.
This strategy works great if you have a physical store where customers can tag themselves at your store’s location. Not only do you appeal to the Gen Z audience, but you also benefit from increased exposure as they promote your store.
If there’s one content strategy you need to implement for a Gen Z audience, it’s definitely humor. The younger generation responds well to humor posts because they showcase the brand’s personality, making them stand out from competitors who create vanilla content.
The secret to injecting humor content into your posts is to look at what’s trending on the internet and use them tastefully. The last thing you want is to use a month-old meme to put your audience in a good mood, which might make you look out of touch.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of humor content is that it shows the human aspect of your brand. Often businesses focus on a suit-and-tie approach, which can work if you’re targeting a mature audience. But since you’re marketing for Gen Z, keeping it light-hearted can lead to more reactions and engagement.
The Gen Z audience is savvy and extensively researches brands before purchasing. If they think your brand’s values aren’t in line with theirs, there’s a good chance they may seek other competitors that fit more within their beliefs.
Because of this, you must amplify your brand’s values so that customers will understand your true purpose. Businesses that take bold stances are becoming commonplace as consumer expectations rise (particularly with Gen Z customers).
One great example is Bodyform, an intimate care brand that launched its ‘Womb Stories‘ campaign in 2020. The campaign shed light on how periods, infertility, and endometriosis can affect women’s mental health. Bodyform received massive engagement on platforms like Twitter and Instagram and got praise for telling the ‘unspoken truths’ regarding women’s physical experiences.
Once you craft marketing material that resonates with your core audience, they’ll be more inclined to support your brand and turn into loyal customers down the line.
We all know how important reviews are for building a brand reputation, and the younger generation values them more than you may think. As a generation with high expectations, most Gen Z customers look into product reviews before making a purchase decision.
By incorporating social proof into your marketing, you send your customers a message that your product can meet expectations. It also strengthens your brand’s credibility by conveying trust to your consumers.
One way to showcase product reviews is to share them on your social media pages. You can screenshot a tweet, a comment from an Instagram post, or even a rating from your website as social proof. Posting user-generated content is also a great way to highlight reviews as it gives authenticity to your brand.
Make sure to use a review management tool to keep track of reviews across multiple platforms.
It’s no secret that the Gen Z audience loves TikTok, as 60% of its users are Gen Z’ers. That’s why it’s a good idea for businesses to leverage TikTok’s paid ads to gain more exposure and reach the younger generation.
The great thing about TikTok is the potential to go viral as it favors content that hops onto the latest trends and hashtag challenges. TikTok will only grow from here, so you can best stay ahead of the social media marketing curve and take advantage of paid ads.
Considering how influencers dominate the headlines in the marketing world, TikTok emerges as a hotspot for collaborating with such individuals. Gen Z users have a strong affinity for influencers that resonate with their core values. By leveraging paid ads and collaborating with influencers, you can effectively deliver your message and win over your audience on TikTok.
Generation Z grew up in the era of smartphones, spending most of their online shopping from mobile devices. Thus, it makes perfect sense for brands to optimize their website for mobile browsing to ensure a seamless shopping experience. Google favors mobile-friendly websites, positioning them higher on the search engine results pages (SERPs) than those with sub-optimal responsiveness.
As we previously mentioned, Gen Z customers do a lot of research before purchasing a product. The last thing you want is for them to arrive at your landing page only to wait 10 seconds before it loads. Speed up your website’s loading times, making you more likely to appeal to the younger audience.
The future of Gen Z marketing relies on three key factors: influence, trends, and personalization. We live in an age of influence where the younger crowd takes action based on their favorite influencer’s recommendations. They’re also the trend-setting group that defines how online shopping looks now and in the future.
Finally, hyper-personalization will determine the effectiveness of a brand’s marketing campaign. By implementing these tips, you can cater to the tastes and preferences of Gen Z and reach them more effectively.
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