03Jan 24 Marketing Strategies To Reach Gen Z Consumers

Knowing the audience is the main mantra for marketing experts. Nevertheless, there is a lot of research and manual work that goes into finding the right type of organic audience for your brand.

You see, audiences change with time. The customers may love your products now. Nevertheless, there are possibilities that they were not aware of your brand yesterday or be interested in your products tomorrow. It is human nature that their preferences and choices change over time.

That’s a prime reason why marketers want to shift their marketing focus to Gen Z consumers.

Targeting a population that was born between 1996 and 2012 is quite challenging. This generation has not known a life without the internet but they also bring immense spending power to the table. This surely is a plus point if you can crack the perfect marketing strategy for them.

Let’s learn more about them before…

Gen Z in a Nutshell

Socially-minded, tech-savvy, and diverse, these three words perfectly describe Gen Z in short. They also carry a spending power of over $360B.

Raised with smartphones, internet social media, and digital content, these digital natives prefer to shop from brands that have a solid online presence, are inclusive, and have clear values.

Here are 8 Best Practices to Reach Gen Z

1. Leverage Social Media

A Gen Z’s life is incomplete without social media. They like to be an open book and that’s why they always post about themselves on various social media platforms. That makes your job as a digital marketer easier because you will be able to get all the data with simple social media research.

Learn what type of content they are reacting to and engaging with the most to form an effective marketing strategy. Think like a creator rather than a marketer as Gen Z appreciates an artistic view rather than whatever business proposal you have for them.

Check out these exclusive creator tips for social media marketing:

• Lo-Fi to the Rescue: We all know how much time and effort it takes to create one social media post that will resonate with the people. Having a huge budget for digital content is past because Gen Z is in favor of low-production content that looks and feels authentic. Start publishing content without internal reviews or being obsessed over every detail, it will pay off well. Trust us.

• Explore Dynamic Fields: There are multiple communities of your choice on social media. So, it allows you to experiment with different niches with a specific community in mind. Ultimately, you’ll figure out a niche that will resonate with your audience and align with your brand perfectly.

• Aim for Authenticity: Gen Z loves to interact, be it with people or brands. They will appreciate your input within all your content. Moreover, you should respond to their comments and questions as genuinely as you can.

2. Don’t Push Your Sell Right Away

Yes, we know that social media is the biggest platform for Gen Z marketing campaigns but that doesn’t mean that you will try to sell your products right off the bat.

You cannot reach your goals by creating your content solely for selling purposes. You need to establish yourself as a creator and entertainer first and make a selling pitch only after that.

We know that marketing itself takes way too much time to be effective and audience engagement on top of that will take more time. But that’s how you can approach the new generation as they stay away from brands that only have sales-first content.

One fine example of doing so can be keeping your content as a conversational piece that will encourage audience engagement such as comments. You can ask your targeted audience’s opinion about your new products or services and how to make those better for them.

3. Tend to the Attention Span

The more digitalized we are getting, the less attentive we are being. And it’s the universal truth for all the Gen Zers. Having 24/7 access to the internet, smartphones, tablets, and everything digital makes them very intolerant of stuff that lacks substance. Studies show that they will wait about 8 seconds on average before moving on to the next thing. A solid proof of how easily distracted this generation is.

But it is also a fact that people of this generation have a whole lot of stimuli, just a little time.

Their minds are accustomed to filtering through several posts, videos, and other digital content that are inauthentic, uninteresting, and with no substantial message. It’s not that they can’t focus on marketing content and the message brands are trying to convey, rather they are effectively ignoring stuff that doesn’t click for them. You need to be an effective storyteller to please them.

4. Focus on Establishing and Amplifying Your Brand Value

Have you decided on your brand’s overall goals or values?

If not, now might be the right time to think about it.

As we mentioned earlier, Gen Zers prefer ethics and clear values. So you need to establish your brand accordingly. As an example, 73% of the Gen Z population is willing to pay 10% more for sustainable products or services.

Think about it, do you want to cut back on waste with your products? Offer green products to your clients or give a small percentage of the profit to the needy? Pick one such initiative and let it shine through your digital marketing strategy.

The most important thing to keep in mind is fulfilling these promises instead of dimming them down over time. That can seriously harm your business’s reputation.

5. Produce More Videos

Videos are huge among Gen Zers and that is evident by the popularity of social media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. Moreover, short videos known as reels are most liked by them, which is probably why they have such a short attention span.

Well, you have no other option than to feed into this Gen Z buyer persona.

Your video content however should be as aesthetic and artistic as you can make them out to be. There is no shortage of relatable content nowadays, so you need to put in the effort to make your videos stand out from the rest.

We would advise you to follow some of the well-known social media influencers and their video format on different platforms. Audio placement, text presentation, and the overall feel of their videos can help you pick the ideal format for your brand. And try to keep the duration of the videos as short as you can without compromising on the quality.

6. Engage As Much As You Can

Posts on the brand account are not the only thing that comprise your organic content strategy. How you interact with material pertinent to your target audience is also covered.

The comment area on Gen Z-favorite sites like Instagram and TikTok can be just as interesting as the post itself, if not more so. Additionally, users may interact with comments by liking and responding, which makes the space a vibrant hub for humor and discussion.

To encourage interaction and brand loyalty, give your audience’s reviews, comments, and direct messages your full attention. To quickly reply, you may also employ social listening technologies to identify mentions of your company on various social media networks.

7. Build Valuable Partnership

If you are seeking partnerships, make sure that those are also genuine and valuable. Gen Zers would be able to tell whether your partnership with other brands, celebrities, and influencers is genuine and meaningful or not.

It’s becoming more important now that the influencer marketing landscape is growing. With Gen Zers following the footsteps of social media influencers and promoting brands, it is very important to consider collaborating with an influencer who genuinely believes in your products. Without that trust factor between the influencer and brand partnership, all your marketing efforts will be wasted.

According to recent surveys, 44% of Gen Z customers have stated that they will no longer choose firms that have an unauthentic partnership with a celebrity or influencer.

Finding influencers who adore your items and are preferably already lovers of your company is thus the greatest thing you can do. Since the influencer has probably previously mentioned your company several times, this might help your collaboration appear even more genuine.

8. Build a Community

Suggest people tag your brand whenever they post about your products. It enables prospects to connect and interact with your company. To reach this point, branding and hashtags play a pivotal role. Sharing and promoting user content on your brand website gives the audience extra assurance. A small example is if you buy shoes from a brand, share a picture of wearing the shoe, and tag the brand on any social media platform. You can do the same and post a review on their official website as well. It promotes the band on digital forums and enhances brand awareness greatly.

Other strategies for building a brand community and targeting Gen Z include social media customer polls (e.g., what are favorite consumer products, best product of 2024, etc), asking questions on Instagram live, stories, going live on TikTok, gathering ideas and feedback from the public, and holding giveaways.

The Bottom Line

In conclusion, you have to keep in mind that Gen Z is not a jigsaw puzzle that you need to figure out. They are very open and clear about what they want, you just have to do your due diligence.

You have to make use of the social media platform and the vast amount of data available there. All you have to do is align your marketing strategies with them in mind. Gen Zers are loyal, so once they are connected with you, it will be fairly easy to build a strong relationship with them.

Are you prepared to capitalize on Gen Z’s enormous purchasing power? With Use Per Wish, discover the trade secrets of successful marketing tactics. Expand the reach of your business and connect with Gen Z consumers. Don’t miss out on our smart trials for a premium experience.