Small business owners are missing out on a potentially big piece of the action by not marketing to millennials, a key consumer demographic, according to a recently released survey.
Only 15 percent of small businesses across all industries are marketing to millennials, the survey resultsreveal.
As a result “the vast majority are missing out on a large and powerful segment of the consumer population,” says Manta, which released the data. The company polled 791 of it small business members to produce the report.
Targeting Millennials is difficult. The market is fragmented, for one thing, with some preferring the “yuccies” label (for Young Urban Creatives) versus the larger “hipster” Millennial group that some companies gear their marketing efforts towards.
Small business respondents offered a list of reasons why 85 percent of them are not marketing to millennials. (Manta polled 791 small business owners this past April via online survey for the results.)
Most (26 percent) say they lack the budget. Almost as many (25 percent) simply don’t believe Millennials are significant consumers.
Still, marketing products to this consumer group is well worth the effort, according to Manta, which notes that 80 percent of small business owners who do market to them see positive results.
The majority (55 percent) of businesses polled that focus on millennials do so via social media, primarily using Facebook, the dominating platform by far.
Manta notes:
“A closer look at small business owners’ social media efforts to reach Millennials reveals that … Facebook still dominates the social network arena, with 63 percent of social communication between business owner and Millennial customer, followed by LinkedIn with 18 percent.”
Some small businesses — particularly online-based entities offering convenience services – certainly cater to Millennials in other ways, if not by marketing to them as consumers.
Considered “the most tech-savvy generation,” millennials tend to spend a lot on online services such as Uber and TaskRabbit. This is why more than half (57 percent) of small business owners have changed or are planning to change their products and services to better cater to this generation.
For those interested in learning more about millennials and how to target this overlooked generation, Manta is offering access to a free on-demand webinar featuring Millennial marketing expert Brendan Shaughnessy.
Young Professional Photo via Shutterstock
[“source-smallbiztrends”]
