By Katherine Tattersfield
Hey print providers—are you targeting me yet?
Maybe you’re ignoring me because I don’t own a business…yet. Well, do so at your own peril.
Those of us on the older end of the Millennial spectrum are 30 already. It’s high time you started taking us seriously. We are pushing forward with our careers, and ready to take over corporate America. In fact, a few of us own some of the largest companies in the nation—surely the name Zuckerberg rings a bell.
Most of us are comfortable engaging with our favorite brands, although we are selective about our loyalty. We expect companies to live up to their brand promises, which makes us appear fickle to outsiders. Obviously I can’t speak for every member of a generation larger than the Baby Boomers; still, I believe the following list will give you a better idea of what the 18-30 year old demographic wants from your printing company.
7 Ways to make your business Millennial-friendly
Here are 7 actionable tips to help your business connect with 80s and 90s babies.
Communicate via direct mail- Otherwise we won’t pay much attention to you because we spend our lives consuming crap online. Print impresses us since we don’t encounter it as often in our daily routines. Send us your offers on postcards, your products in catalogs, and holiday greetings in beautiful cards. We’ll remember you for it.
Help us – We’re a DIY generation raised on information overload. As a result, some of us might not even realize that print design isn’t the same as digital. So please be prepared to catch our mistakes, and then point them out to us to we can learn from them. Don’t worry, we will pay you more for the hand holding (at least most of us will, myself included).
Invest in product packaging- Do you want us to tweet about you? Put your stuff in sweet packaging. Moo.com gets this. They sold me on their mini business cards because of those adorable, colorful boxes.I still have my die cut eyeball cards, but I’ve promised myself a set of Moo minis in the near future. Note: I realize custom packaging is pretty pricey. You don’t have to go all out to stand out. Throw in cool branded stickers with our orders or handwritten notes.
Be findable- Google knows everything. If we can’t use it to find you easily, we’ll probably go elsewhere unless a friend recommends you.
Use social media for customer service- we’re just not that into the whole email thing. We’re notorious for burying our faces in our phones yet we rarely make phone calls. Stay on social, and we’ll be able to reach you through our preferred channels.
Make your website mobile friendly- Your site needs to work on our phones (every platform except for Blackberry). Period.
Show some personality- Lighten up, especially on social media. We want to talk to fun brands, companies who represent a lifestyle we want to be associated with. Let us know you see us as people and that you’re human, too.
Talk to me
Do you have a question about marketing to my generation? Ask me anything about bridging the generation gap in the comments below!
7 Responses
I like the cool product packaging idea. I’ve never thought about that before.
More printing companies should be trying to get the attention of the younger generation! I think a lot of people think printing is going out of style because you can get everything digitally. However, printing is still a great way to get attention, especially for things like signs or business cards. Not everything can be done digitally. We should also be endeavoring to keep the print market up and running because even the digital world is safe from lost files and hard drive failures.
What is your feeling on photo printing? With all of the CDs in the world, what are millennials doing with their photos? Do they consider that the CD/DVD may not be accessible one day?
All great points. We have to evolve as printers to reach the younger generation, or as you put it, someone else will. I think there is still a market for printing, most business today still need the basics, not everything can be digital.
LeighAnneCrider no one is using CDs anymore for their photos. Its all in the cloud.
You make a good point that packaging appeals to millennials. I am looking for a good printing company myself. I do admit that I judge a company based on these things a lot.
Great ideas. Google knows everything 🙂 SEO could be a game-changer for any kind of business.