How to Generate More Google Reviews

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In a world where word of mouth and consumer feedback guides the decision-making process, Google reviews are critical when it comes to driving business to your company. As if a positive response from current customers isn’t enough, these testimonies can also go beyond their original purpose and be doubled as free marketing content for your other platforms. Who doesn’t love a twofer?

We’ve sourced some helpful directions on how you can generate more Google reviews, today. Let’s get started. 

Understand Google My Business

To begin with, be sure your business is registered and that you have taken all of the necessary steps that are needed for someone to be able to leave a Google review. Already have that under control? Great! If not, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered here.

Ask Directly

The answer is always no if you never ask, right? If you know or realize that a customer is satisfied with their purchase or service, simply ask them if they could leave a review about their experience. You can also use your social media accounts to invite people to leave a review, this isn’t as direct as an in-person request, but is still beneficial if you have a loyal and engaged audience. 

Make It Easy

When you’re asking for a review, you’re asking for someone’s personal time. In order to make the reviewing process as simple as possible for your customers, plan out a user-friendly process that will quite literally take them one minute of their day. 

Here are a few methods to try that save consumers time:

  • Texting or emailing a direct link after their purchase
  • Utilizing a survey platform, such as Typeform or Loyalty Loop
  • Creating QR codes that lead directly to your Google Review page

Utilize Your Platforms

Strategically place and plan where to include a review request. You can encourage your customers to leave reviews without being pushy. 

  • Digitally: Incorporate your Google review links in your email signatures, website, or landing pages.
  • In-person: Use QR codes in your waiting rooms, check-out counters, or menus. 

Ready to Plan a Reputation Management Strategy?

If you need more help creating your digital PR strategy, we’re ready to help you build your new marketing plan. Contact us today to schedule a consultation. 

3 Action Items to include in your Holiday Marketing Plan

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As the weather is slowly cooling down, the holiday season is quickly approaching. It always kind of sneaks up on you, doesn’t it? This year, your company can take advantage of the seasonal magic in the air and start designing your holiday marketing plan early. We’ve shared a few ways that you and your team can stay ahead of your competition by incorporating a few new elements into your marketing plan.

Curate Email Campaigns

Email marketing is one of the best ways to keep a potential customer engaged. Email is also one of the most influential ways to drive business and earn ROI (especially with Millennials). Plan and strategize your email content including specific promotions, engaging graphics, and the timeline that these should be distributed. Be sure to create a sense of urgency to make customers act fast (and be proud of their quick decision-making skills).

Design Festive Freebies

Whether content is available to current clients or is an incentive for new subscribers, free resources are always appreciated. Who doesn’t love free, valuable information? Add some holiday cheer to the mix to make it even more captivating. Think about your goods or services and customize some themed content that will help your customers solve a pain point. 

Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

  • Shareable “good to know” information
  • Holiday checklists 
  • Interactive illustrations
  • Expert advice for the season

Show Your Appreciation

There’s nothing quite like receiving a corporate token of appreciation—you feel like your business truly matters. Spend the time to learn what your customers would genuinely value (even in a virtual world) and invest in the relationship.   

The holiday season is also an incredible time to give back to your community or international nonprofits that your organization admires and supports. Utilize social media to raise awareness for the causes that your business believes in, and encourage your audience to help, strengthen and give back to others. 

Ready to Implement?

Feel like your marketing plan involves details you’re not sure how to implement? Contact us today to schedule a consultation and give your customers what they want this holiday season.

How to Write a Case Study that Brings in Business

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On your list of marketing goals, building trust with your audience should be somewhere near the top. As most customers will not consider working with you without thoroughly vetting others’ experience with your company, customer reviews are your first step. But, what if you want to take it a step further? That’s where case studies come in.

Case studies are some of the most beneficial assets that your company can have in its marketing toolbox. Not only are you featuring a positive experience with your company, but you’re explaining to your audience exactly how that customer benefitted—with statistics, quotes, and visual elements. To help you build your next case study, we’ve put together a few things that you should consider along the way, including how to get started and how to use it to attract new leads. Here’s how to write a case study that you’re proud of.

First, What is a Case Study?

A case study is an in-depth response project that allows you to highlight your business, products, or services and your real-life customers to share their experiences.

The opinions and stories of customers have incredible power over your prospects. Based on what people see or hear about a brand determines what judgment they have or what action they will, or won’t, take. Over time, by incorporating positive and genuine feedback into your various marketing strategies, you will gain more customers and drive more revenue.

Where Can I Use a Case Study?

You can use (and reuse) your case study in numerous forms that will attract your ideal client. The beauty of case studies is that it’s not what you are sharing about your service or product, it’s about what others are sharing, automatically creating an element of storytelling. 

Prove to potential customers that you have what they need by accentuating positive evidence through your:

  • Website: Often, your website is the primary location where potential consumers research information. By supplying helpful and authentic testimonials, you can help attract your ideal audience.   
  • Marketing Collateral: When creating your collateral pieces, use statistics or quotes found from the study to build your credibility. 
  • Social Media: You can design engaging graphics by utilizing takeaways or numbers found in your study.
  • Videos: Videos on all social platforms are becoming more and more popular each day. Repurpose your study results into movement creations with animated infographics, typography videos, or testimonials. 

Where Do I Start?

You first want to determine the purpose of your case study. In most cases, the purpose is to demonstrate how a common issue of your target audience is solved. An efficient way to determine what these issues are? Ensure your entire team is actively collaborating to compare existing or potential problems. 

After establishing the purpose, other key elements you want to implement are to:

  • Find the right candidate: The person or company you choose to focus the study on makes or breaks your case study. Choose someone who is willing to (enthusiastically) provide you with all the necessary information.
  • Emphasize your product or service: Be sure to let your audience know exactly which services or products you utilized in the case study. This way, they will become more familiar with your brand, and which features they are initially interested in pursuing. 
  • Be creative with your visuals: Did you help with a business’ website? Did a client have a transformative impact? Include content, photos, or screenshots of the candidate results to make the case study easier to follow and more attractive to view. 
  • Display numerical results: Numbers don’t lie, so it’s important to incorporate the “hard” facts into your final study. Present your impressive stats with pride, there’s a reason people like you and others should know that, too.  

Build a Reputation Management Strategy with Green Apple Strategy

Interested in taking your case study to the next level? Green Apple helps businesses like you improve their marketing strategies. Contact us today to schedule a consultation. We’re happy to learn more about you and help you accomplish your desired marketing goals. 

How to Turn Customer Reviews into Solid Marketing Content

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If you have raving fans, it’s great to let potential leads know it! Customers take online reviews seriously, and the role it plays in consumer decisions continues to increase. Research from BrightLocal shows just how seriously potential customers take online reviews. 84% percent of buyers give online reviews the same weight in decision making as personal referrals. 

Online reviews are now starting to eclipse referral-based business. as Northwestern University finds that consumers are 270% more likely to buy a product or service with 5 positive reviews than a product or service with no reviews. That’s hugely significant! In order to harness the power of these reviews, use them in your marketing efforts to increase consumer trust and boost sales.

Use Customer Reviews To Enhance Your Website SEO

There are a few ways to do this. The first is simply to embed the code for Google Reviews in your website so that Google Reviews. This is a good option if the majority of your reviews are positive. Google’s search engine algorithm will recognize the embedded rating system and is likely to rank your site more highly as a result. 

The second way to utilize customer reviews is to include them on your website, either by using parts of the review text directly or by including graphics of the positive reviews on your site. (Don’t forget to change the alt text on these images so that they’re search-engine friendly) Google and Yelp hold a high trust cache with consumers, and citing positive reviews can help your brand leverage that trust. 

Use Customer Reviews on Social Media

You may also have the advantage of. Keep an eye on videos or posts that tag your brand. If you have a social media manager, have them proactively research any posts where your product or service is tagged. They can use tools like BuzzSumo or Mention to help with this. If they come across a positive review, have your team DM the content creator to ask if the review can be used  in marketing materials. 

Some reviewers are happy to offer their thoughts gratis, while others work as part or full-time product influencers. Both types of social media reviews can be helpful to weave into your marketing strategy. Screenshots and re-posts of positive reviews can build brand awareness on multiple platforms.  

Let Negative Reviews Spur Institutional Changes

Online reviews through Yelp and Google provide business owners with what they say they want most: anonymous feedback close to the point of sale. But business owners are also human, and harsh or negative reviews can leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth. After you take some time to feel frustrated, see if you can find the kernel of truth in their words. The frustration may be about an inefficient process, an unhelpful team member, or a product flaw. 

Rather than stew in frustration, take specific actions to address the issue. However, don’t revamp your entire process over one negative review. Reflect and ask your employees if they’ve also seen evidence of what the review mentions. If it comes up several times, it may be time to analyze and address a potential pain point. 

Be Proactive about Interacting With Reviews

If you don’t have a Google My Business account or haven’t updated the account you have, you could be missing out on major opportunities to shape how your brand is perceived. One of these ways is by interacting with online reviews. Brands that interact with customers on Google cultivate a reputation for being proactive and conscientious. Plus, interacting with reviews often can allow you to pinpoint and identify possible customer needs or frustrations before they go viral. 

In the world of online reviews, negative feedback begets negative feedback. It shouldn’t go unaddressed, or you may see more of it. Instead, if you see a review that’s unfair or lacking context, you can provide that in your response to an online review. You can also offer to make it right, which goes a long way in securing customer loyalty. It says to potential buyers, “Even if we make a mistake, we will correct our error.”

Need Help Utilizing Your Positive Reviews?

Our strategic, full-service marketing team can help you plan and deploy an innovative marketing approach to court customers and build brand loyalty. Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your marketing goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

Defining Your Ideal Customer for Higher Lead Generation

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Hoping to improve your lead generation results? Knowing your customer on a deeper level allows you and your team to remain in alignment on the who, what, when, where, and how of your customers’ motivations. Your clarity in these areas allows you to build a strong lead generation strategy to guide your marketing and advertising efforts moving forward.  This article will explore how to define your ideal customer profile to better understand your customer’s motivations, needs, and challenges. We recommend that you take this information into account as you think through new ways to reach those customers and encourage them to take action. 

Understanding Your Customer: B2B vs. B2C 

Profiling your customers is helpful for both B2B and B2C clients—however, the approach is different for each. 
  • For B2B customers: Instead of imagining a single individual, you will be building a profile for the ideal business that you would like to work with. You may look at aspects of their business such as size, industry, values, and structure. These elements, and many others you might identify along the way, add up to paint a picture of what types of companies you prefer to work with, and why.  
  • For B2C customers: With B2C customers, you’re focusing on your customer at an individual level, identifying what types of people your products or services are for. Elements that you focus on may be their age, location, interests, needs, and several other factors. 
When determining who your ideal customer is, bring your team in on this conversation. Your perspective alone may not be enough to gather a comprehensive view of the types of customers you typically attract or the prospective customers you would like to target moving forward. 

Leaning On The Data

Your ideal customer isn’t merely a matter of perspective, opinion, or a shot in the dark. It’s also a matter of data. If you’ve been in business a while, you likely have metrics to reference when determining your typical customer. Look at your website, social media accounts, and email marketing statistics to gain an understanding of who your current marketing efforts are already attracting and where you might have an opportunity to expand your reach. 

Using What You Find

This is the best part—using what you discover. Once you’re ready, use what you’ve learned to build a robust lead generation strategy that hinges on your findings.  What does this mean? For example, suppose you found that your ideal customer is a young professional in your area who is motivated by excelling in their career. In that case, you might decide that the best way to reach that person is through targeted LinkedIn ads and face-to-face at local professional organizations.  Take what you now understand about that customer and use it to your advantage. You have the data you need to lead you straight to your ideal customer, and now it’s time to encourage them to take action with your company. 

Build a Lead Generation Strategy with Green Apple

If you want to dig into your customer’s characteristics even further, we recommend checking out our recent article “20 Questions to Ask Yourself that Will Improve Your Customer Profiles.” Green Apple Strategy can help you find your ideal customer and discover new ways to speak to their pain points. Ready to get started? Contact us today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

How Green Apple Adds Value to Our Clients’ Strategies

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When you hire a marketing agency, your primary goal is to add value to your business strategy. But, how do you know if a marketing team is adding the value you’re looking for? Let us take a few moments to share how Green Apple adds value to our clients’ strategies in hopes that it helps you determine how an agency might help you reach your business goals. 

We Provide Perspective

Have you ever felt like you can’t see something objectively because you’re too close to the situation? That’s how many of our clients feel when they come to us. By hiring a marketing agency, you add the perspective of a full team of people who can see creative potential and opportunities within your business that you may have never considered. 

The Green Apple team has the unique opportunity to add several different perspectives, as we work with our core team and an expansive team of Orchard members—contractors we work with who have been hand-selected based on their experience and expertise. 

We Share Years of Collective Expertise 

Our team is made up of seven professionals who excel in their respective fields—marketing strategy, PR, project management, social media, content writing—and we support our team with an additional team of contract professionals. So, when you’re hiring Green Apple, you’re getting a team with years of education and experience that have led us here, and it’s our pleasure to share that with our clients to create results-oriented marketing strategies. 

We Track and Share Our Progress

It’s easy to talk about the value we add, but our clients get to see tangible results that let them know that they’re making the most of their marketing investment. We send each client a monthly report, as well as an annual report, to show them exactly how our efforts are translating into web traffic, leads, and several other metrics. We enjoy creating and sharing these reports with our clients because it shows them where all of our dedicated efforts are going, and we love that the numbers can speak for themselves. 

We Bring in the Best Professionals for Your Project

As we mentioned, we use a unique agency model that includes a team of contractors whom we’ve chosen to work with based on their areas of expertise, experience, and industry knowledge. This way, we can provide our clients with a team built just for them based on their needs and goals. Our Orchard members work as an extension to our team—and an extension of yours as well. 

Make the Most of Your Marketing Dollars with Green Apple Strategy

By engaging with Green Apple, you have access to a team of professionals who can provide value to your business’ marketing strategy. Contact us today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

How to Find the Angle for Your Next Marketing Campaign

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Have you planned your next marketing campaign?  Your brand’s growth is reliant on a comprehensive set of tactics to educate and engage your clients. How you plan your campaign, and how you execute that campaign, will make all the difference in your brand awareness, sales, and customer retention. But, how do you find the best angle? How will you catch your audience’s attention?  We’re here to help. When you sit down to plan your next marketing campaign, use the following tips and points to guide your strategy. 

Find Your Audience’s Pain Points

When you put yourself in your audience’s shoes, you can begin to determine what their pain points are. Try to identify what motivates them to buy your product or service and what problem of theirs you’re trying to solve.  At the foundation, your campaign should speak to those pain points to show your audience that: 
  • You understand their issue
  • You’re here to solve it, and 
  • You can do it better than your competitors. 
Before you can present yourself this way, you must first thoroughly understand how your audience is feeling. If you’re having trouble putting yourself in your customers’ shoes, try building a customer profile with these 20 questions. 

Lean on Your Analytics

The numbers don’t lie! Your analytics can serve as a guide as you build your campaign. Review your numbers across all tactics (e.g., email marketing, blogging, website visits, social media, etc.) to analyze what is working, what isn’t, and where there are untapped opportunities.  From these numbers, you can see which topics and conversations garnered the most interest from your audience and what fell flat. Are your customers most interested in a certain area more than others? Maybe that’s a good place to start when planning your next campaign. 

Talk to Your Audience

Market research is now easier than ever, thanks to social media platforms and survey strategies. When planning your campaign, look to your audience to learn what they want to see from you and what they would benefit from. Depending on your social media platform of choice, this will look different. For example, if your audience frequents Instagram, you can easily set up a series of stories that poll your followers. However, on LinkedIn or Facebook, that may look more like starting a conversation with those in your industry. 

Take a Look at Your Competitors

Though you don’t want to emulate your competitors, you do want to make sure that you have a good understanding of what they’re offering your audience. This analysis helps you see what you can improve upon and how you can take your offering a step further. 

Put Your Differentiators at the Forefront

Your brand’s differentiators are what sets you apart from the crowd. It’s crucial that they’re at the forefront of your campaign, as these are your primary selling points. No matter how this campaign takes shape, ensure that your audience is always aware of what makes you different and how those differences serve them. 

Have Fun with It

Create a campaign that they’ll love! Your customers have enough of the mundane in their lives. By creating a marketing campaign with an element of surprise and delight, you can engage your audience and make them excited about the customer experience—and set them up to look forward to what they can expect from your brand in the future. 

Need Help Planning and Executing Your Next Marketing Campaign?

Are you looking for a strategic, full-service marketing firm to plan and execute your next campaign? Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

5 Benefits of Working with a Marketing Agency

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Every company has to decide at some point: should you do marketing in-house or partner with a marketing agency? While there are benefits to both, a marketing agency will most often give you the highest return on investment and take the most work off your plate. To help you make this decision, here are five benefits of working with a marketing agency that may change the way you think about external marketing. 

1. You Have Access to a Full Team of Professionals

Possibly the most significant benefit of working with a marketing agency is the opportunity to work with a full-service team of professionals. You have access to professional strategists, designers, photographers, writers, project managers, and a variety of others. With this multifaceted team, you have a team of experienced professionals working together, under one umbrella, to reach your business’ loftiest goals.

2. You Can Easily Identify (and Achieve) Your Business Goals

Marketing agencies have set processes that we use to identify your goals and needs. We thoroughly research your company, industry, competitors, and customers before we ever begin building a strategy. The team then uses that information to think creatively and strategically about how to reach the identified goals and how to find the ideal customer. You can engage with an agency knowing that they are doing the due diligence to take your business several steps further.

3. You No Longer Need to Train and Manage a Team

When working with an internal marketing team, there is a severe amount of overhead that goes into hiring, training, and developing the people on that team. Working with a marketing agency, on the other hand, eliminates the time and resources you would have spent managing internal employees. You, instead, have more capacity to focus on your core business.

4. You Have Insight from a Marketer’s Perspective

You’re working in your business day in and day out. So, it can often be challenging to see new avenues to venture into, especially in marketing. By bringing in an outside team’s perspective, you are introduced to different thought patterns and ideas that you may not have otherwise thought of. 

5. You Gain the Ability to Stay Ahead of New Technologies and Trends

Your marketing agency lives and breathes marketing. Because they’re spending time staying ahead of trends and technologies, you will, too, effortlessly. You will find that your agency will introduce you to tools that you didn’t know you needed—and those are often the ones that accelerate your marketing efforts. 

Are You Thinking of Engaging with a Marketing Agency?

Green Apple works hard to become a part of our clients’ teams. We take the time to identify their goals and needs before building a strategy to help them get there. It’s a tireless effort that we love to our cores, and we are always rooting for our clients’ overall success—inside and outside of marketing. Want us to join your team? Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation.

5 Books to Read When Looking for Your “Why” in Marketing

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Discovering your why when marketing your business should always be step one. It’s the foundation upon which you can build your entire brand—because people don’t create a business without a reason. They create a business because they are passionate about providing something to their audience or solving a problem.  This is especially important for your marketing strategy because when you fully understand what drives you and your company, you can explain it to others. Marketing is primarily storytelling, and you need a story to share with your audience. So, when you’re discovering your why, especially as you inform your marketing direction, where do you start? If you’re a bibliophile, we recommend these five books to find the true drive behind your company’s efforts.

1. Robots Make Bad Fundraisers: How Nonprofits Can Maintain the Heart in the Digital Age

For the nonprofit organizations that live on fundraising, your why is essential. People give their time and their money because they feel good about where those resources are going, and they want to make a difference. By discovering the heart of your organization and telling that story in the strongest way possible, you can insight passion in others and boost your fundraising goals.  In Steven Shattuck’s book, Robots Make Bad Fundraisers: How Nonprofits Can Maintain the Heart in the Digital Age, he ventures to answer an important question: Has technology actually gotten in the way of building a personal connection with our supporters? He would argue that, yes, the more digital our world becomes, the less our hearts are in it, and the further we stray from our purpose. We rely on these technologies to fuel our growth, but, in reality, they are allowing us to lose focus, and we aren’t telling the passionate story of purpose these organizations were founded on. This nonprofit-focused marketing book actually has an interesting lesson to teach us all, even in the for-profit sector—how to keep the donors you have, inspire new donors to give, and maintain your team members’ sanity.

2. Brand Storytelling: Put Customers at the Heart of Your Brand Story

A business’s purpose always circles back around to the most important person: the customer. We build these businesses because we want to help our audience overcome a challenge or feel a certain way. It’s only right, then, that we keep our customer at the heart of the brand story. Miri Rodriguez’s book, Brand Storytelling: Put Customers at the Heart of Your Brand Story, helps us do just that.  Rodriguez guides the reader to use storytelling to trigger the emotions that humans are driven by. She explains how to analyze, pull apart, and rebuild your brand’s story in a way that focuses the business as the “sidekick,” putting the control in the customer’s hands, allowing them to be the key influencer.

3. This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See

“Great marketers don’t use consumers to solve their company’s problem; they use marketing to solve other people’s problems,” says Seth Goldin, Author of This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See. This book description could stop here, as that’s the perfect way to describe what it means to discover the reason behind why you do what you do.  Goldin draws upon his many years in marketing to explain how marketers can make the world a better place through powerful marketing elements: empathy, generosity, and emotional labor. He walks the reader through identifying their viable audience, drawing on the signals to position their offering, building trust, telling a meaningful story, and giving people what they need to achieve their goals. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. Right?

4. Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

Does your message matter if your audience isn’t listening? In his book Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen, author Donald Miller shares his method for connecting with customers—helping them understand the benefits of using a brand’s products, ideas, or services. By simplifying your brand message, your audience will grasp it more quickly and be motivated to move forward. Miller helps readers do this through seven universal story points that all humans respond to.  When building our messages, we must keep our messages clear and engaging. And where does that message begin? You guessed it: your why. Your understanding of your purpose allows you to build a clear message. Miller can help you get there.

5. Marketing: A Love Story: How to Matter to Your Customers

We search for our why because we want to matter to our customers. That moment when you think, “I have this great service. Why is no one taking advantage of it?” It’s because you know how great it is, and your audience doesn’t. In her book, Marketing: A Love Story: How to Matter to Your Customers, Bernadette Jiwa explains that we “have no shortage of ideas, but we struggle to tell the story of how they are going to be useful in the world.” We couldn’t agree more. By posing a series of thought-provoking questions, Jiwa helps the reader dive into what about their brand will resonate and how to craft a message that will matter.  Are you looking to take your marketing to the next level? Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation.

What You Should Know About Marketing to Millennials and Gen Z

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By 2025, millennials will make up 75% of the workforce. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?  This statistic shines a bright light on how our marketing lens should shift as generations age. Before we knew it, Millennials will be three-quarters of the workforce, and in the blink of an eye, Gen Z will be right behind them. So, how do we market to these audiences? What makes them tick? In this article, we share what you should know about appealing to these two age groups.  But first…

Is generational marketing worth it?

Though many brands are hoping to attract an audience of any age, some are surprised to find that they are only seeing individuals who fit the same profile. Of course, one may think, “Well, that’s the audience that is attracted to our business.” While, yes, there is some validity to that, you may be missing entire generations of people who would be interested in what you have to offer.  If you’ve noticed that you aren’t attracting the younger Millennial and Gen Z generations, consider these tips. 

5 Things You Should Know About Marketing to Millennial and Gen Z Audiences

1. Your brand story should be authentic.  
Your audience can spot “fluffy” marketing campaigns from a mile away, especially Millennials and Gen Z. They have grown up with a surplus of information on their computers or at their fingertips, giving them years of practice at filtering out what isn’t worth their time. Tell a story that speaks to their motivations and their needs. Provide them with a practical reason to engage with your business because, trust us, this audience wants to feel good about the companies they support. You can allow them to feel connected to your message by crafting an authentic story they can care about.
2. Email marketing is still effective, even for Gen Z. 
Most people assume that Gen Z’s attachment to social media makes it the best, or only, way to reach them. However, according to a recent study by Campaign Monitor, 58% of those surveyed check their email multiple times per day—so there is very little competition for space in their inboxes. Don’t be too quick to assume that traditional marketing tactics are lost on younger generations—those may just be the avenues we need to grab their attention. 
3. Use your limited time wisely.
Make your marketing count. A widely-used and often disputed marketing statistic is that Millennials have a 12-second attention span, whereas Gen Z has eight seconds. Many believe that the issue is less about the ability to pay attention and more about an overwhelming amount of options. Whichever you feel is true, the goal is the same: your time is limited, so use it wisely. Let’s imagine that you only have eight to 12 seconds to make these younger audiences notice you. How are you going to stand out from the countless competitors vying for their attention? 
4. Hone in your customer experience. 
As we discuss the importance of authenticity and helping your audience feel connected to your brand, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention customer experience. Millennials and Gen Z have higher expectations than generations before them—not in a way that feels demanding, but rather they want to feel taken care of by the brands they’re trusting with their hard-earned money. Younger generations are more selective and want to believe that you want to help them solve a problem or meet a need. Analyze your customer experience to ensure ease of use and that each customer feels special and supported throughout the process. After all, who wouldn’t want that in a buying experience? 
5. Focus on diversity, inclusivity, and equality. 
Millennials and Gen Z help us identify areas in our society that need to be more diverse, inclusive, and equal. Though these challenges have long been fought for by many generations, these two age groups are using their social platforms to raise awareness about these issues—and it’s changing our expectations for the companies we support.  Take brands like Aerie and Target, for example. They identified that their customer base wanted to see more representation. These brands answered society’s call—embracing the idea that humans are diverse, and we deserve to see that in the brands we support. Both retail chains have begun to show greater representation in their marketing, including more diversity in body shape, race, and gender. You’ll notice this change in other areas as well, such as mannequin sizes and clothing options.  Though these are specific examples, we can learn from Aerie and Target when considering how to speak to our Millennial and Gen Z audiences—through supporting causes they care about and making a genuine difference in the world. 

We Can Help You Reach New Demographics

If you take one lesson from this article, let it be this: these generations want to feel good about where they spend their money. So, let’s do everything we can to show them we’re worth the effort. Do you need help finding the missing pieces to your marketing demographic? Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation.