Gen Z, which includes teens, is quickly becoming one of the target consumer groups. While a lot of marketing has been directed at millennials, brands are increasingly turning their attention to teens and young adults – a group that represents tens of billions of dollars in potential purchasing power.
Teens are part of the largest generation globally and have more fluid brand preferences, giving brands an opportunity to resonate with a mobile-native generation and earn lasting loyalty. Here’s how to create a successful marketing strategy for products, services, or mobile apps targeting teens.
Understanding Teen Audiences
Unlike the millennial generation, known as “digital pioneers,” teens have been online since their early youth. They have a wildly different world view and approach to problems, which factors into the marketing strategy.
Teens are well versed in digital technology and have been on computers and smartphones since childhood. They have an active presence on social media, communicate online, and prioritize enjoying what they’re doing.
In addition, this group seeks continuous self-education and makes rational buying decisions, preferring more organic marketing techniques over traditional, salesy approaches. They’re immune to ads and often use ad blockers, and prefer to give their money to socially responsible brands.
Marketing Strategies for Teen Audiences
Prioritize Visual Storytelling
Teens value experiences, and that’s best achieved through visual storytelling. Videos, infographics, and animations resonate with this audience, but they also crave honest stories about real people that put a brand’s products or services into real-world context.
This audience also responds to gamified content, video conferencing, and other hybrid approaches to content.
For example, if you had a driver’s ed app with teen driver resources, you could connect with this audience by sharing a user success story, instead of a dry ad-style video that shows screenshots and touts benefits.
Leverage Social Media
Social media platforms are the online hangout for teens. Many teens spend a significant amount of time online, so if you have a teen audience, you must have a considerable online presence.
If your brand doesn’t have a social media account on popular teen platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok, it’s important to get started. It takes time to build a following and an audience, but the sooner you start, the sooner you could reap the rewards.
You can sign up on social media for free and create brand pages, then encourage your audience to subscribe by:
- Publishing news stories related to your brand
- Creating and sharing interesting content
- Posting stories about customers or users
- Organizing contests and giveaways
- Asking customers to share impressions and leave reviews in exchange for discounts or free stuff
- Using gamification, polls, and promotions to engage with your audience
The benefit of social media is that you can personalize your brand and share its values and principles directly with your audience, which is what teens respond to.
For example, if your brand is involved with charitable organizations or takes a strong stance on social or ecological issues, bring awareness to it on social media. Teens gravitate towards brands that share their values, and this is an opportunity for you to show what your brand is about.
Partner with Influencers
Influencer marketing is highly effective for teen marketing. This group seeks information like reviews and testimonials, and they often take the word of influencers they follow and trust.
If you want to leverage the power of influencer marketing, find a few successful influencers in your niche and preferred platforms. Micro influencers, which have a small but engaged audience, are ideal. It’s also important to partner with influencers who share your values and will reflect on your brand in a positive way.
When you find influencers in your niche, you can collaborate on content, such as video product reviews, that showcase your brand and product to the audience. The review should be transparent and honest, addressing the questions and concerns of the audience.
For example, at Zutobi, a teen influencer could share a review of their learning experience with our driver’s ed resources. If the experience was positive, they can talk about all the benefits they had and how the app helped them ace their driver’s test, giving the audience more confidence in choosing to try it for themselves.
Use Gamification
Most internet users have short attention spans, but that can be worse among teens. They tend to navigate away if they don’t have a positive experience, whether it’s on a website, reading an online article, or using an app. Everything you present needs to grab their attention within the first few seconds.
What’s the best way to accomplish this? Gamification. You don’t need a game-based product or app to make this work. Gamification simply means you’re incorporating the typical elements of game play, such as competition, rules, and point scoring, to non-gaming activities. In doing so, you encourage engagement with your product, service, or app.
Athletic brands have used gamification effectively, especially with their competitive target audience. Nike created the Nike + app to allow users to track their route, steps, and calories when they go for a walk or run, then download it for gaming opportunities.
Another example is the innovative strategy from the Nokia N8 phone. The brand partnered with a well-known snowboarding enthusiast and developed sensors that could be attached to a snowboard and connected to the N8 smartphone. Snowboarders could then track metrics and compare performance with their peers and professional athletes on social media.
Additional Tips for Marketing to Teen Audiences
- Keep it short and concise to capture attention
- Leverage innovative features, such as VR and AR
- Create valuable educational content, such as apps, courses, and lessons to appeal to the teen desire for self-education
- Prioritize the experience of your product, service, or app
Key Takeaways
Modern teens are quickly growing to become one of the most important consumer groups. If you’re promoting a product, service, or app to teen audiences, it’s important to develop your strategy and campaigns around the habits, needs, and desires of teens.
