How to Make Your Brand Appeal to Young People

We’ve all shopped online, whether that’s for a new outfit, the latest tech, or even for our weekly grocery shop. It’s such a popular consumer activity since it’s so convenient to do — sometimes all you need to do is click the pay button and your order is complete. It’s as simple as that. In fact, over 2.14 billion people are expected to purchase goods and services online in 2021 alone.

As a business owner, these stats demonstrate the importance of optimising your online presence, though it’s important to do so for younger generations in particular. These individuals have moved permanently from browsing physical stores to shopping online due to their love of convenience and lack of affinity towards in-store shopping. Indeed, those aged between 25-34 are the largest group of online shoppers in the UK. Targeting this young audience is therefore critical, but how do you do this exactly?

1. Offer quick delivery services

Driven by technology and a demand for instant gratification, more than half of customers aged between 18 and 34 expect same-day delivery. If this isn’t available, they are likely to find another shop that does offer it — hardly anyone is willing to wait three to five business days anymore. This expectation has been set by retail giants like Amazon, and customers now base their shopping decisions on how long it will take to receive their items.

Currently just over half of retailers offer customers same-day delivery, and while many businesses worry about providing this service due to additional costs, it’s worthwhile considering that 61% of users are willing to pay more for it. And fortunately for companies, there are many courier services that can help them with their delivery processes. Take CitySprint’s priority service, for example, where you can get your package collected in 60 minutes or less, making it an incredibly convenient service.

2. Embrace engaging design

The key to attracting young people in a world saturated by media is great visuals. Consumers, in general, are no longer interested in long chunks of text as our attention spans are shorter than they used to be, and this influences the content we consume. In fact, people start to lose their concentration after just eight seconds, so it’s important your branding is visually striking.

For your brand to catch a younger demographic’s eye, your design (including everything from colours and fonts to the types of images you use and website layout) needs to be modern and up-to-date with trends. This is because Gen Z are more tech-savvy and their values and styles differ from previous generations. For instance, they appreciate easily accessible content, immersive navigation and browsing, and a high level of functionality. The latter can be achieved through things like social features, fewer pop-up forms on websites and rich graphics and animations.

Generally speaking, aim for your design to be unique, aesthetically pleasing, consistent and authentic. The goal is to create a brand so visually strong that an image of it instantly pops up when mentioned, as this can help differentiate your company from others on the market. Take skincare and makeup brand Glossier, for example, which is very popular among millennials due to its simple fonts and two-toned colour palette. While dating app Bumble stands out due to its bold visual marketing, with a sea of yellow and black dominating its website and materials.

3. Address the issues they care about

The young generation have got their hearts in the right places, wanting to change the world by campaigning for issues such as sustainability, LGBTQ+ rights, and race. For your business to appeal to these individuals, your company mission and values need to match what they believe in and address the important stuff. Take sustainability, for instance, with 62% of Gen Zers preferring to buy from sustainable brands. By incorporating more eco-friendly practices into your business, such as eco-packaging and green energy, you can benefit the world and appeal to young customers.

Meanwhile, if your company works with charities, make sure your website and social media reflect your efforts. With 83% of millennials wanting businesses to align with their values, you’re missing the trick by not promoting your work. Your diversity and inclusion policies are also important to youngsters. Show that your business cares about current events and problems, like the Black Lives Matter movement, for instance, and you’ll definitely attract young people. However, this should be done authentically, rather than just shoehorning different beliefs into your branding for greater appeal. This can be achieved in many ways, such as updating your diversity policies to create better spaces for your staff and community, eliminating unconscious bias from your workplace, and publishing content about such issues.

4. Use the same platforms

A sure-fire way of getting more young customers is by using the same social media platforms they do. For example, research shows that users aged 25-34 are the largest demographic on Facebook, so if that’s not your market, choose a more relevant platform. The most popular apps among the young generation include Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, so be sure to use these and keep up-to-date with the latest trends on each of them. TikTok is definitely one to keep your eye on as different music clips go viral each week, and these can be used to your advantage during content creation, as can popular hashtags. You can create a new product video teaser on the video platform, for example, or make use of Instagram’s algorithm which recognises trending hashtags.

With so much competition online though, you’ve got to stand out. For example, Playstation is the most followed brand on Twitter, which is partly due to how active the gaming business is online. While Depop’s key to success is user-generated content and influencer marketing. These are just some of the methods used to attract young people, with others including humour, unique video content, and celebrity endorsement.