Getting Millennials Into Your Sales Funnel: A Complete How-To

[Ed. note: Today's post comes from guest author, Jen Spencer, Director of Sales and Marketing for Allbound.]

If you've ever wondered how to market to millennials, you're not alone. When it comes to this huge demographic (currently the most lucrative market), the old marketing tricks don't work anymore, and many marketers are wondering what to do. Fortunately, there are many effective ways to attract millennials and ensure that their $200 billion annual buying power is in your favor. While marketing to millennials can be intimidating, the following five tips can help you get inside their heads.

1. Focus on authentic content

Inbound marketing is all about content, but millennials want specific types of content. Today's millennial spends about 25 hours per week online. Much of that time is dedicated to searching for authentic content. Millennials love companies that focus on beefing up user-generated content and other forms of user-centric content that mimic the feelings, thoughts and concerns of their demographic.

2. Kill your outbound

While outbound marketing still has a place in the grand scheme of marketing, it won't work on millennials. Eighty-four percent of millennials report feeling turned off by traditional advertising. That said, you can make your channel marketing more appealing to millennials by doing away with things such as pop-ups and other forms of disruptive or unwanted advertising.

3. Develop custom content

The importance of content truly can't be overestimated when it comes to successfully marketing to millennials. When you create content that caters to the interests of millennials (rather than their wallets), you stand a far better chance of attracting them to your company. For example, think about Taco Bell's "Millennial Word of the Week" campaign or their taco emoji engine.

4. Offer opportunities for collaboration

Forty-two percent of millennials want to play a large role in the product development of the companies they purchase from. When you give millennials an active role in your company, they're more likely to purchase your products. Think of the Lay's "Do Us a Flavor" campaign, which is a great example of collaboration with millennial customers.

5. Get thee to social media

When it comes to channel marketing to millennials, social media is your best friend. The majority of millennials use two Internet devices each day, and nine out of 10 millennials check their smartphones upward of 45 times each day.

What's more, millennials report that they gain the majority of their online information through social media. By building and maintaining a solid web presence, you become instantly more attractive to the millennial market.