The 4 Best Ways to Reach Millennials…Or Not

Reaching around the bend of adulthood, you come to the conclusion that communication is the life-blood of your existence. There is nothing that can further your career, relationships, or safety more than communication. Except now, there are some problems with it. Some unwanted forms of it. Methods of reach that drive you crazy the moment it shows up on your phone. Let’s explore what works and what doesn’t when communicating with the Millennial consumer market.

 

4. Phone Calls

Phone calls struggle to reach Millennials. Why?

• Time-Consuming

Whenever someone asks for that quick “10-minute” phone call, you know you’ll be lucky if the conversation ends at 30 minutes. While phone calls can be engaging, they waste time. You find yourself lost in greetings, small talk, goodbyes, and most often you have to re-focus on the original reason for the call, which can take a little while after steering off the path. Ultimately, the cost of time exceeds its actual value.

• Distracting

You could be making new discoveries to string theory when a phone call buzzes and levels your plane of thought. Phone calls are distracting. They pierce through our thinking and disrupt any chance of completing a productive thought.

• Ineffective

There’s a reason most of us take notes. During a phone call, it helps you capture near every word of the message but even then do small bits of information slip through the cracks. Important conversations, messages, are better absorbed visually rather than audibly. Hence, why email is the next best step toward connecting with Millennials.

 

3. Email

Email has a 22% read rate. (Mobile Marketing Engine) So Millennial or not, inefficiency erupts every time you press, “Send Message.” So whenever you click the button, you’ll immediately limit your reach. Why?

• Irrelevant

Most marketing emails try to tempt and persuade. Sometimes it hits the mark, but it only takes one bad message to develop disdain. And with every message, it grows and grows. A slippery slope where at the bottom resides the “unsubscribers.” This problem has the potential to inhabit every form of communication, but to risk it all for a 22% read rate?

• Inefficient

When it comes to time value, email is all but considerate. Compared to other platforms, it’s a dinosaur lost within the new digital age. Think about the last time you received and responded to an email. How long did the process take? Now think about other features on your phone: Slack, Facebook Messenger, chat apps, texting. All methods that can split the time it takes to send an email in half. It paints a clearer picture as to why Millennials favor cutting edge messaging platforms.

2. Apps/Push Notification

Apps are the foundation of the smartphone, the make-up of its existence. Without them, a smartphone is nothing, a disappointing alteration of the mobile experience. Despite the advanced capabilities of the device, it has some trouble reaching the Millennials. Why?

• Unreliable

Push Notification ranges with read rates around 20-80%. The data is inconsistent. The reason for this is because 99% of all apps only get used once. (Mobile Marketing Engine)

Apps may be easy on the eyes, but they aren’t reliable. Not like a text message that is instant and guarantees 90% of all messages are read within three minutes. (Mobile Marketing Engine)

 

1. Text Messaging

Text Messaging, otherwise known as SMS, solves EVERY problem listed above. Millennials have heavily relied on it for the past decade, yet businesses are just now learning how to utilize its power. It’s proven to be a solution that is:

• Instant

Just look at the statistic above. Within 3 minutes, 90% of users read an incoming text message. It conquers the phone call and email dilemma in regards to time consumption.

• Convenient

Millennials aren’t distracted when receiving a text message and can respond instantly at a more convenient time. So now they can be more productive without a lacking disruption of thought processes.

• Effective

It has a 98% read rate. (IRIO)

• Relevant

By relaying a text message that is convenient while instant, the odds of sending a relevant message increases exponentially. And as always, with a relevant message comes effective results.

• Efficient

Mobile offers are redeemed 10x more often, and text messaging is known to have an 8x higher engagement rate than email. (Mobile Commerce Daily) It’s the instant nature of text messaging combined with relevance that offers a convenience for the customer, which ultimately proves to be efficient in the use of communication.

• Reliable

Text Messaging has become so prevalent that it’s considered the choice communication during emergency situations. It’s fast, and it doesn’t need Wi-Fi to work effectively, all you need is cell service. Combined with a 98% read rate and the fact that 90% of users read a message within 3 minutes, there is no other form of communication out there that can better connect.

 

A solution proves reliable when offering relevance to the user, in this case, the Millennial, that relevance is offered in an instant, an efficient use of time and money that provides convenience for the customer. This is why text messaging is the most effective form of reach.

 

Take Action

Phone calls, emails, and apps can be successful tools in reaching your desired audience, but in your quest to reach Millennials, now the largest consumer market, consider an option that defeats the problems. Consider a product that offers every desirable solution. Consider a text message.