We’re in the midst of a large generational shift in today’s buyers. For decades, the commercial focus has been on Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers—how best to market and sell to people born between 1946 and 1982. But now, that target group is changing.
Representing one-fourth of the American population, Millennials have roughly $200 billion in annual purchasing power (Forbes, 2015). And if that’s not enough power, they also have a huge influence on what older generations will buy, too. Think teenage daughters telling moms that their 80’s aerobics outfit isn’t “hip” anymore or a college freshman helping grandpa buy an iPhone so they can FaceTime. Millennials have a lot of power in the world of commerce and our marketing strategies need to adjust in order to target them proportionately.
So what’s different about marketing to Millennials from marketing to the previous generations? Mainly, technology. Millennials have grown up with today’s technology and are more attached to it than any generation before them.
With the internet, cell phones and tablets, practically everything in life can be done with near immediacy. Movies can be streamed in minutes, books can be downloaded and read without leaving the couch, and friends across the globe can communicate in seconds. Life is moving at a much quicker rate, and people are becoming less tolerant of anything that involves waiting. Millennials won’t even wait more than 5 seconds for a webpage to load (HubSpot, 2015). What will make them wait hours, days, or even weeks just to see what a product or property looks like? Almost nothing.
This is why virtual content is crucial to marketing and sales in today’s society. With virtual marketing materials, like photo-realistic renderings or virtual tours, impatient buyers can see what your product really looks like within seconds of finding out it exists (or that it’s going to exist). Think of every advertisement you’ve seen for the iPhone, the single most popular phone in the world right now. Have you ever seen one that doesn’t show the iPhone? One that simply explains it with no visual representation? No. Because that doesn’t sell products, engaging and honest content does. Unlike previous generations, Millennials care about authenticity more than traditional marketing. Photo-realistic visual content is engaging and authentic in a way that fancy, eloquent wording isn’t.
And this shift in buyer personas reaches further than the products you find on the shelf. In the past, the largest group of homebuyers consisted of those between the ages of 25 and 34 (Bloomberg, 2015). This year, the oldest Millennials (born between 1982 and 2004) will be turning 34, meaning the largest share of homebuyers will fall entirely under the Millennial umbrella. Millennials are actually expected to buy 1 of 3 houses sold in 2016 (Bloomberg, 2015). Do you really want to be the only home builder or real estate company using black and white floor plans and fluffy descriptions in a world where virtual tours and engaging images sell?
Progress requires adaptability. We live in an ever-changing world and our marketing tactics need to change hand-in-hand with the needs and habits of our consumers. Today, technology has our consumers wrapped around its digital finger and the best way to ensure we capture their attention is to plug digital immediacy into our sales and marketing strategies.
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