Engaging Gen Z and Young Millennials With Sales Promotions in 2024

As Gen Z is moving towards adulthood, the importance of marketing to Gen Z and millennials is increasing with every passing year. We have entered 2024 and newly evolving technologies have already changed a lot in the way how sales promotions work. But technology is not the only factor reshaping sales promotions. It also depends on the changing interests and preferences of the younger generations. This is the reason why top sales & marketing companies in India now pay special attention to consumer needs and interests when building promotional strategies.

With this article, let us understand why it is important to engage Gez Z and millennials in your sales promotion programs and how you can do that:

The Importance of Engaging Gen Z and Millennials

Gen Z and millennials have become important audience segments for brands as they are considered the most influential generations so far. Gen Z is the largest generation globally and holds the utmost buying potential. And after that, the second most important generation to target in this decade is that of millennials. The spending power of Gen Z consumers is estimated to be $360 million in the US alone. This gives us an idea of how important it is to focus on these younger generations when running a marketing or sales promotions campaign.

Sales Promotion Strategies to Target Gen Z and Young Millennials

Gen Z and millennials form a large part of the target market of brands today. To make your sales promotion strategies successful in this Gen Z-dominated era, it is crucial that you pay attention to the interests and preferences of these generations. When partnering with a sales promotion agency or designing a promotional campaign on your own, keep the below factors in mind to engage Gen Z and millennial consumers:

1. Align Your Offerings With their Expectations

Gen Z doesn’t only look for the quality and price when purchasing from a brand, but they also consider if the brand’s core values align with theirs. Also, Gen Z and millennials are more inclined toward brands that offer sustainably produced products.

It has been found that more than 68% of Gen Z consumers expect brands to be socially responsible. By aligning your brand with social causes such as gender equality, inclusivity, sustainability, etc, you can make Gen Z and millennials feel positive about your brand and make your sales promotions more efficient.

2. Create Short Form Content

Younger generations like short-form content like memes, reels, engaging GIFs, etc. By incorporating these elements into your sales promotion strategy, you can attract more Gen Z and millennial consumers. You can use Gen Z language, i.e. short forms like Iykyk (If you know you know), GOAT (Greatest of All Time), and many more in your content to make it more engaging and relatable for your target audience.

Content plays a key role in making your sales promotion a success. Make sure that you follow the trend and use the latest Gen Z words in your ad copies, social media contest copies, marketing emails, etc, to drive maximum engagement.

3. Build a Community Around Your Brand

Many successful brands like Sephora (the beauty brand) are already doing this. Millennials and Gen Z consumers prefer brands that they feel connected to. And the best way to do this is by building a community around your brand. This allows consumers to connect and communicate with people who share their interests. You can do this by creating social media groups and channels.

Once you have a large community, you can even organize offline events. Allow your customers to share their views, create and co-create content, and become your brand advocates on social media. This makes them feel like they are a part of your brand and encourages them to engage more.

4. Gamify Their Shopping Experiences

Gamification can make the shopping experience of your customers even better. Gen Z and young millennials love the sense of getting rewarded for their purchases. And when these rewards are integrated with gamification strategies, they become even more interesting. By leveraging gamification-based sales promotions, you can ensure better customer experiences, which may result in more repeat business and improved customer loyalty.

You can partner with RewardPort, which is one of the top sales promotion companies, and leverage gamification strategies to make your promotions more impactful. RewardPort specializes in designing and running gamified sales promotions with plenty of reward options including sweepstakes, scratch2win, and a wide spectrum of games to engage your customers.

5. Offer Instant Rewards

Another thing that Gen Z and millennials seem to prefer is instant gratification. As soon as they make a purchase, reward them and give them a reason to come back. Now with the digitization of almost everything and continuously evolving technologies, it is easier than ever to offer instant digital rewards to your customers. If you are promising something under your sales promotion program (such as a discount coupon, cashback, or free gift), make sure that the customers get it as soon as they make a purchase.

6. Opt for a Mobile-First Promotional Strategy

In this mobile-first era, you cannot afford to not optimize your sales promotions campaigns for mobile devices. Both Gen Z and millennials are mobile-first generations. One thing that is always with them is their mobile phone.

Therefore, to make your promotions reach the maximum potential customers, you must ensure that your website or app, where you run campaigns, is mobile-friendly, has an interactive user interface, and has a fast loading speed. To improve the overall experience of your target audience, it is crucial that you focus on offering them the best mobile experience.

7. Send Personalized Offers

Personalization of offers is another aspect that becomes significant for brands targeting Gen Z and millennials. These generations crave personalized experiences. You can segment your target audience based on their demographic, interest areas, and other factors. After segmentation, you can design personalized offers or campaigns for each segment, which makes the program more interesting for them to participate in.

8. Leverage UGC (User-Generated Content)

UGC (User Generated Content) holds the utmost importance in the eyes of Gen Z and millennials. Gen Z consumers tend to trust users more than the brand, i.e. they believe in what users say about a brand more than what the brand says about itself. But how do you encourage your customers to create content around your brand and product?

This can be done by running contests or challenges on social media. Some examples include giveaway contests where you encourage your customers to share their experience with your brand or social media challenges where customers make videos about a specific product from your brand and the best video creator wins a gift.

9. Stay Updated With Trends

If you aim to run effective sales promotions in 2024, you will have to ensure that you stay updated with the latest trends and build promotions around them. If a meme is going viral, try to relate that to your brand to boost engagement among the Gen Z audience. If there’s a trending song, try creating a related reel on it, and so on. Brands that align their marketing strategies with ongoing trends tend to see higher Gen Z engagement than the ones that don’t pay much attention to social media trends.

10. Focus on Omni-Channel Marketing

An omnichannel marketing strategy always works better with millennials and Gen Z. Try to integrate your online and offline marketing strategies rather than focusing on just one of them. If you are running a sales promotion program, try to make it accessible to your online as well as offline customers. This becomes an important aspect to consider for brands that sell products online and also have offline outlets.

Partner With RewardPort To Design Sales Promotions Targeted at Gen Z & Millennials

RewardPort is a trust sales promotion agency in India, which is known for developing data-driven promotion strategies for brands and helping them reach their marketing goals. By incorporating gamification and the latest trends into your sales promotions, the marketing team at RewardPort can ensure maximum engagement from millennials and Gen Z consumers. The wide range of reward products, including sweepstakes, scratch2win, Cinerewardz, Gamebucks, etc, can make your sales promotions more interesting and effective. For any further queries or details, you can get in touch with our experts.

Contact us today to refine your sales promotion strategy.