|
Marketing to Gen Y: The Do’s, Don’ts and Don’t Bothers
 Gen Y kids, those 75 million or so born between the mid-1970s and mid-1990s, have been bombarded with advertising from all sources almost since the day they were born — and as a result, they are numb to the bulk of it.
Sure, there’s clever but traditional advertising like the “Talking Volkswagen Beetle” commercial that winds up going viral on YouTube because it’s popular with Gen Yers, but that’s the exception.
For the most part, the conventional advertising that builders have employed in the past will be lost on this group because Gen Y sees the world and navigates through it a little differently than their parents and grandparents.
So, everything you knew about marketing and selling houses is about to stop working — if it hasn’t already.
Who They Are
It’s impossible to make broad generalizations about Gen Y, but the truth is, they really do see the world differently than the rest of us.
When the first wave was entering their teenage years, they were generally painted as self-absorbed, lazy and hard to manage — but as they’ve matured and actually started entering the workplace that picture has proven to be false.
As it turns out, Gen Y as a group is tolerant, loves their families and friends and embraces diversity. They are generous with their time and money, and volunteering is a big part of their lives. They also are honest and authentic, intellectually curious and highly driven to achieve.
They were raised with search engines at their fingertips and know how to find the information they need quickly. What’s more, they’ll reject a typical sales pitch in a New York minute.
- They are impatient: As kids, two minutes was too long to wait for the microwave at lunchtime. As adults, two weeks is too long to wait for a promotion at work. That impatience and insatiable hunger for information will be a major factor in how they approach major purchases, including new homes.
It’s true that members of Gen Y communicate continuously — but they do so in small bites. Your marketing messages need to be pointed and succinct to grab their attention, but they’ll take it from there and research the details themselves online, so the detailed information — and I mean detailed — had better be on your Web site. And if your Web site invites them to come to your model for more information, don’t expect them to.
- They move very quickly: By the time sociologists define a “trend,” Gen Yers are off pursuing the next thing. While they embrace technology, as a group they are not “techno-geeks” and won’t tolerate anything that’s difficult to navigate or requires much of a learning curve. If they don’t quickly find exactly what they’re looking for on your Web site, they’ll simply move on to your competition — and it’s doubtful if they’ll give you a second chance.
- They’re Social Online — and Offline: Before they could drive, they were mall rats. And before they were mall rats, you were probably scheduling endless “play dates” for them. As a result they love “live events” of all kinds — concerts and festivals; tailgating and sporting events; movies and the club scene.
Of course they also love being there “virtually.” Social networking Web sites and services are consistently among the top 10 sites that they visit, according to Alexa.com, which monitors Web traffic.
All of these places where Gen Y congregates present opportunities for you to meet and interact with your young prospects.
Reaching Gen Y Is More About Hanging With Them Than Marketing to Them
If you want their business, you’re going to have to earn it by genuinely understanding what they’re all about and offering them both a product line and an operation that’s in tune with the way they want to do business.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
- Fish Where the Fish Are. This seems obvious, but if you want to attract a Gen Y buyer, you have to go where Gen Y members hang out. It doesn’t make sense to spend money on newspaper advertising if they aren’t reading newspapers.
- Be Easy To Find. According to the National Association of Realtors®, a very high percentage of home buyers begin their search for a new place to live online. It stands to reason that if you’re building homes in Cleveland and a Google search for “Cleveland Ohio Builders” doesn’t put your company in the first page of results, you’re going to have a problem reaching Gen Y home buyers.
The good news, however, is that it’s easy to optimize your Web site for search engine results, and Google has all the information you need to do so at www.google.com/webmasters.
- Online Social Media — Word of Mouth on Steroids. Social networking is arguably the least understood aspect of Gen Y behavior.
A very high percentage of young adults spend a significant amount of time on these sites daily, and it’s typical for them to develop peer groups of hundreds and, in some cases, even thousands of like-minded people.
But to reach them through their social networks does not mean buying advertising on Facebook. Every time I hear consultants talking about developing tactics to take advantage of social networking sites, I cringe. Would you like to be taken advantage of? Of course not.
Instead, you should approach social networking Web sites in the same way you approach your local Rotary club or church work group — as a way to contribute and add value to a community of people.
Remember, Gen Y members appreciate honesty and authenticity. Participate on social networks with the sincere goal of becoming a trusted local resource and thought leader and you’ll gain credibility, followers and, eventually, business.
If, on the other hand, you approach these sites with the idea that the participants are sitting ducks just waiting for you to swoop in with heavy-handed advertising, spam-like posts and other tactics for the sole purpose of selling them a house, you’ll almost certainly drive these prospects away.
- Harness Viral Marketing. Most all of the various social networking sites and services offer a powerful platform where a digital photograph, video or blog post can spread to dozens, hundreds or even hundreds of thousands of other sites — at no additional cost to and no additional involvement from the builder.
If 100 of your “fans” each distribute something to 100 of their friends, who do the same to their friends, and so on it’s possible for a simple online post to gain an audience that rivals a national television broadcast — all for zero advertising dollars.
The trick to making it go viral for you is to provide something your customers and prospects want to share, and then making it easy for them to share it.
For instance, in addition to hosting photo galleries of your homes on your Web site, use one of the many photo-sharing services, too. Houston-based custom builder Allan Edwards uses the Web-based photo sharing service Picasa and video services like YouTube to share its project photos and videos with buyers and prospects.
- Think Pull, Not Push. Gen Y members will tune out practically any marketing effort they perceive as unsolicited or spam.
A much better approach would be to structure your electronic marketing so that prospects can pull information from you on their terms. Opt-in, permission-based mailing lists work well but RSS (Really Simple Syndication) — an electronic subscription- or permission-based format for delivering regularly changing Web content — is more effective with this generation. Make sure your Web site and blog content can be easily distributed using RSS.
Gen Y buyers want to stay in complete control of the information that makes its way onto their computer or handheld device. Instead of just blasting news about your new community to an e-mail list, consider using Twitter or Facebook to draw attention to an interesting post on your blog that also references your community’s Web site.
Most Gen Yers live on their handheld phones, and one of the most interesting new pull technologies that I’ve seen to connect with them is the Layar Reality Browser, what the company calls an “augmented reality browser.” Currently being tested in Amsterdam, the technology would enable anyone looking at your Layar-equipped new home community on their handheld to overlay real-time information — contact information, marketing info, floor plans and options — on top of whatever their camera “sees.” Be on the lookout for more of these kinds of phone-based “pull” systems.
- New Outdoor Advertising. If your highway billboards are no longer generating sales traffic, consider shifting those advertising dollars to signage at outdoor venues where Gen Yers hang out in your market area.
Local sporting venues and festival sites often offer sponsored signage, but you don’t have to limit your presence to signage. For example, Jagoe Homes, of Owensboro, Ky., sponsors a local summer waterfront festival in its market areas and, co-owner Scott Jagoe, the builder gets “a triple bang for the buck from the festival — the event itself; print and TV coverage of the event for weeks before and after; and traffic on our Web site from the event’s Web site, which is up year-around.”
“And we know it’s bringing us who we’re looking for because we track them coming in on the Web,” Jagoe says.
- Leverage Your Model Homes. A builder’s model home often represents its most under-utilized marketing investment. When targeting Gen Y buyers, instead of holding a boring Sunday open house, take advantage of their social nature and host monthly events such as a backyard barbeque or block party featuring up-and-coming singer-songwriters, comedians, magicians or even a popular political figure.
Then, to promote your events, set up social networking pages on Facebook and MySpace and develop a fan following by posting photos and videos and mirror that effort on your company blog.
Most people don’t realize that Twitter can be used to post updates to multiple places online at the same time — so have your “tweets” do triple duty by updating Facebook, your blog and Twitter at the same time.
However, don’t be fooled into thinking a “pure Web play” approach will be successful. No matter how connected you are online, you’ll also need to attend similar events in your market area in person in order to connect with your Gen Y prospects and distribute VIP tickets to your event.
- Contests and Raffles. Gen Y buyers love contests, and another way to add both fun and interest to your model home events is to partner with like-minded and complimentary merchants and service providers who add another dimension to your marketing and promotional opportunities.
For example, if you’re a green builder, partner with a local car dealership and raffle a hybrid vehicle. Or, partner with a travel agent and offer an all-inclusive trip for your young couple buyers, or maybe offer a houseful of furnishings by partnering with your local leading interior decorator.
And don’t forget to promote these contests and raffles through your social networking pages, Twitter feeds and by word-of-mouth.
Builders today who learn how to approach Gen Yers the way they want to do business are going to own their markets for the foreseeable future; much the same way that builders who learned how to cater to baby boomers as they progressed through the housing market during the different phases of their lives had an ongoing market through the years.
|
Several Selected Gen Y Marketing-Related Resources:
|
Joe Stoddard is the founder and principal of Mountain Consulting Group, LLC, a process and technology management consultancy devoted to helping home builders thrive in changing markets by streamlining their operations and leveraging the power of technology and the Internet. To learn more, attend Stoddard’s presentation, “Cheap Tricks 2010: Simple Technology Solutions to Big Business Problems,” at the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas in January, e-mail Stoddard, visit the Mountain Consulting Group Web site at www.mountainconsulting.com or contact him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/moucon.
 In Today’s Market, 'Think Sold!' With Help From BuilderBooks
“Think Sold! Creating Home Sales in Any Market,” available at BuilderBooks.com, is a practical, how-to guide for developing the self-awareness, knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the competitive field of new home sales.
The book covers everything from the home buying process and new home financing to strategies for making better sales presentations and sizing up the competition. It teaches readers how to overcome customers’ concerns and provides specific examples of how to explain the benefits of new home features in customer-friendly language.
“Think Sold” provides insights on how to approach sales and life from a position of optimism that will create successful outcomes; how to improve upon potential customer prospecting and follow-up skills; and how to communicate effectively with various types of buyers and learn how to adjust communication strategies to increase rapport and alignment with buyers’ motives.
To view or purchase this publication online, click here, or call 800-223-2665.
|
