Why is it Important to Market for Generation Z?

According to the research of Fung Global Tech, by the year 2020, 40% of all consumers will be born between the years of 1995-2000 – commonly known as Generation Z. As such, it’s time to start looking ahead to your potential target market. So, if you haven’t already taken notice of Generation Z, now is the time to start. 

There was a time when digital marketers and businesses were told they should be marketing themselves for millennials and they were correct to do so. However, with time comes a new demographic and it is now Generation Z that makes up a significant proportion of our society. Already outnumbering millennials and baby boomers, they are the ones to impress if you want to ensure long-term success and ignoring it could cost you further down the line. Here are some facts about Generation Z that may surprise you but ultimately will help you to create successful marketing strategies and structure your website more efficiently…

Marketing for Generation Z

Generation Z care about UX (User Experience)

It has been proven that Generation Z owns an average of 5 devices each and so it’s never been more important to consider the responsiveness of your website across mobile, tablet and desktop. Having always had the internet readily available to them, they are naturally a generation of researchers – constantly searching for the best possible value and the user experience. 

Generation Z has been lucky enough to be born into a world of high-speed internet and search engines. With an attention span of just 8 seconds (compared to the 12 seconds of Millenials) they are used to getting what they want fast. This should affect your marketing strategy in several ways; prioritising adverts which are concise and direct and websites which are fully optimised in terms of speed and ease of use. If your website takes more than 2-3 seconds to load, the chances are they’re likely to lose interest quickly and find a competitor that loads faster than yours. 

Here are some further UX statistics found by VisionCritical;

  • On average, Generation Z uses their smartphones 15.4 hours per week. That’s more than any other type of device.
  • Generation Z consumes 13.2 hours of TV content per week (significantly less than boomers and millennials).
  • There has been a 41 per cent increase in the use of ad-blocking software in the past 12 months so this should be considered in your online marketing strategy. 

Generation Z use Social Media 

In another study conducted by Pew, it was found that Generation Z use social media for up to 7 hours per day and it is a common method for communicating with brands and purchasing online. This alone shows that it has never been more important to be active on social media and get ahead of social media marketing trends. If you haven’t already, you should be reaching out and engaging your current and potential customers via platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you’re an ECommerce website, it may also be worth looking into working with social media influencers to build on your brand awareness and product reviews. 

Generation Z want quality over quantity 

They seem like a demanding bunch but they’ve got a good point. If you think about it, Gen Z has been exposed to online marketing since birth – so they have high standards and expect more. On top of their website speed requirements, over 80% of Generation Z already understand their age group is important to retailers and brands in general. They recognise their value and expect a high level of treatment from brands which means we must work harder – and that’s not a bad thing. 

The best way to do this is to look at the bigger picture. When putting together your digital marketing strategy, consider all areas such as engaging website design, engaging and unique content, email marketing that captures their attention and even apps. But overall, a strong social media presence and well-targeted advertising are both absolute musts for customer service and generating loyal brand consumers. 

If you’d like to learn more about how to market for Generation Z or how to improve any of the services we’ve mentioned above, get in touch with Brave today via the contact page or give us a call. We’d love to hear from you. 

Written bybrave

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