When marketers want their campaigns to be seen by a wider audience, they opt for a generalist approach. Examples of this type of strategy include direct mail campaigns – to promote seasonal events like sales for instance – or billboard advertising. This type of ad targets such a wide audience that it can feel impersonal at times. Indeed, this is what many consumers feel when they are on the receiving end. Only 1 in 7 people believe that more than half of the marketing emails they receive are useful to them.
This annoyance is particularly felt by younger generations. 64% of Gen Z expect personalised brand experiences. Worse, because they don’t see themselves in the brand, they can’t relate to the messages being communicated. This demographic group don’t engage with brands they don’t relate to, don’t buy their products nor follow them on social media. The only thing that might change their minds is if the company talks about social issues that they feel strongly about, like the environment. But sharing a message about this topic won’t be enough to attract the attention of these increasingly demanding consumers.
What can we do about it? How can companies reconnect with their target customers? Given the situation, you need to carefully consider your communication so that it best reaches your target audience. Don’t worry though, it’s fairly simple. While traditional advertisement channels don’t typically work well with Gen Z, other new ways have fortunately emerged!
What are the main communication channels?
To speak to their target audience, companies have came up with a few little tricks. New technologies are very helpful as they are a vast playing field for marketers. There are at least seven different marketing communication channels. They are very varied and include speaking in the media, creating a website, emailing or even print. Each of them has a specific goal: sharing a message with as many people as possible, reconnecting with your customers, promoting products…
Over the past decade, a new tool has been added to this long list of communication channels: social media platforms. They have become an important marketing tool thanks to the thousands of people who use them every day. Social media users have varied profiles which allow brands to reach various targets, depending on their strategies. A dream come true for marketers! Being on these apps has therefore become a necessity.
But being active on social media and posting ads is not always easy. First, you’ll need to choose which social media platform you want to use: Instagram or TikTok? And what about YouTube? Generally, companies choose an application after looking into what type of users are on the platform, even if today, most people use multiple platforms. Once they’ve selected their social media platforms, brands must understand their codes. Posting on Instagram is not like posting on TikTok or YouTube. You have to be aware of this to have a greater impact and to not look out of touch. Then, once all of these decisions have been made, the content creation stage comes into play.
The steps may seem short, but they are not that simple. For companies that aren’t social media savvy, it can be quite tricky. But again, there is a solution: influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing – a communication channel not to overlook
When a brand partners with a content creator, the collaboration has a specific purpose. The company may want to increase its presence on social media, raise brand awareness with a specific audience, increase sales conversion or even improve its image. Influence marketing is also a good way to share your message with a well-defined community. There is no shortage of goals to achieve and for companies that feel a little lost, having an influencer on their side is a plus.
Influencers who’ve been using social media for many years have acquired several sought-after skills. First, they were able to create a community from scratch by simply sharing content. As a result, they know exactly what works on a given platform. They are the foremost experts on social media platforms.
Beyond skills, there is another fact that is likely to interest companies: many people follow at least one influencer. This is important information when you want to give your advertisement campaign extra impact. According to Morning Consult, 72% of Gen Z and Millennials follow influencers. These numbers drop to 16% for Gen X, and 9% for Boomers. Contrary to the generalist marketing approaches mentioned earlier, influencer advertising is not badly perceived. When it’s well thought out and personalised, followers tend to like it. In the UK, 61% of consumers trust influencers’ recommendations and find them useful. Collaborations between brands and influencers is important considering that 77% of consumers prefer shopping with brands they follow on social media.
Influencer marketing – an effective communication channel
Influencer marketing is not something brands can opt out of these days. Indeed, 93% of marketers stated they’ve used influencer marketing in their campaigns. It is in the best interest of brands to use social media advertising channels to reach an audience they usually find difficult to target, because they are not part of their primary audience or they don’t have the means to do so.
Nevertheless, it is important to think carefully about the right strategy. As we’ve just seen, influencer marketing is part of a much larger advertisement strategy. It allows companies to ensure good results with different channels.
For your next communication plan, think big, think influence marketing. How about you? Do you already collaborate with influencers?
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