Content Marketing For Generation Z

This is the transcript from our new video so it may not read as well as a normal blog post would.

Hi there. My name is James. I’m the Content Marketing Manager here at Koozai, and today we’re going to be talking about content marketing tips for Generation Z. So we’ve heard the term Baby-Boomers, Generation X, Millennials.

Well, now is the time for brands to get their heads around the new crop of teenagers, the new generation, Generation Z. So these are the people that were born between the mid to late ’90s all the way up to mid-noughties. It’s really important for brands at the moment to get their heads around this new consumer, the intricate nature of this hyperconnected consumer. We’re going to do that today. We’re going look at ways in which we can do that.

So there’s engagement, interaction. There’s newsjacking. There’s the idea of being multi-platformed. There’s the idea of relying on reviews and testimonials, as well as the idea of social responsibility. So let’s delve into some of those in a little bit more detail.

So engaging and interaction. Now, you want to use social media to your advantage. To do that, don’t just rely on these kind of approaches. You want to listen and communicate with your consumer. So that’s what young people want. That’s what Generation Z want. They want brands to engage and interact with them. So there’s a growing need for brands to be a bit more agile. Agile marketing is another term that we’ll really start to hear of. If you’ve not really heard of it already, you’ll really start to hear of it in the coming months and years.

It’s this idea that brands need to be a lot more responsive. They need to be a lot more transparent. They need to be adaptable to the changing nature and functions and habits of consumers. It all boils down to the idea that using social media, they really should be communicating, interacting, and engaging with their consumer.

So that’s one thing to massively rely on and to think about when creating content and when working out your marketing strategies is how integral social media can be. I’m not just talking about the traditional platforms, Facebook, Twitter, but I’m also talking about things like Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram, the things that young people are using on a more regular basis than they are with the traditional platforms.

So newsjacking, this idea of instant gratification. So your brand needs to be part of the news. It needs to be part of where young people are getting their information from and the ideas that young people are seeing on an everyday basis. So what you want to do is you want to create content that’s going to reflect topical news, such as easily consumable, kind of bite-sized pieces, such as memes or visual content, short videos, clips, Vines, that type of thing.

Alternatively you want to outreach to journalists who have covered a news story on a topic that’s relevant to your brand, and you want to supply them with comment, analysis, insight, editorial, again to really push that to get your brand on the agenda, when journalists are reporting on particular news. So it’s another way that Generation Z are consuming and effectively understanding more about brands if they’re seen on a regular basis, especially in the news.

Multi-platform. So it’s not just about these traditional push approaches anymore. Above the line marketing, TV, radio, ads, print ads, absolutely fine. But what brands need to get their heads around is this idea that you want to leverage those above the line marketing techniques and platforms to push not so much your message, but to push your consumers and Generation Z back online and have those conversations online.

You’re starting to see a lot of this with traditional advertising. A lot of brands are encouraging their consumers to use particular hashtags, to have that conversation back online, because this is where Generation Z feel most comfortable, and this is where especially brands can track and engage a lot more with their consumers.

So have this idea of a multi-platform approach, whereby you can leverage above the line and below the line. In addition to that, really start to think about how you can use mobile. So we’ve heard a lot recently about the mobile update from a search engine marketing point of view. But in a general marketing point of view, mobile is absolutely integral to Generation Z and the way that they’re consuming content and the way they’re interacting and engaging with brands.

Reviews. So there’s been loads of research on how young people actually rely very much on reviews and testimonials, especially from their own peer groups, especially from their own friends. They trust them. We’re in this new connected world, whereby young people are relying on people that they know to give them the reviews and the views of particular brands, products, and what have you on a fairly regular basis, and they trust them.

So what brands need to start doing is getting their heads around this idea that the transparency, the reviews, they’re good. They’re open. Be open. Think about using third-party review services, but also start looking at ways in which content marketing you can start to create user-generated content. So start marketing with Generation Z, not marketing at them.

Now finally social responsibility. We’re now in a world where young people are very savvy. They’re socially savvy. They have a good social idea or grasp of social responsibility, and they have a social consciousness as well. So brands that are doing really well at the moment are those that are transparent about their supply chain, for example, if they have an ethical supply chain. They want to be nice and transparent and showing their consumers just really what they’re all about. So this is an idea that when it comes to creating content, factor this into your activities, this idea that you want to show that you’re a socially responsible company even from an environmental point of view or whether it’s concerning social issues, something like that.

Whatever it might be, this isn’t just done on a whim. This is something that has to be really factored into your overall philosophy of your company. But if you are engaging in any of these socially responsible activities, it’s really important to shout about it and talk to your young audience about it because this really resonates well with them.

Okay, so that pretty much covers it for today in terms of ways in which content marketing can be used to help market toward Generation Z. If you have any other tips that you’d like to share, please leave them in the comment section below or tweet me.

That just leaves me to say thank you very much for watching. For more information, please check our social profiles coming up right now.