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Unlocking Gen Z’s Market Potential

Understanding Generation Z

Generation Z, or Gen Z or Zennials, follows Millennials and precedes Generation Alpha; this cohort includes people born between 1997 and 2012. Like all age groups before, experiences profoundly influence Gen Z. Generation Z has encountered events such as pandemic lockdowns, economic instability, and internet presence.

Notably, they are the first generation to have the internet integrated into their daily lives from a young age, known as internet natives. However, growing up with the internet can be a double-edged sword. While it allows for constant connection and communication, it can also create a false image of people’s lives, leaving viewers unsatisfied or even depressed about their own lives.

Generation Z relies on the internet for entertainment, work, shopping, dating, making friends, and finding information and is rapidly emerging as a dominant force in the market. Here are three ways your business can best market to this age group: by knowing who they are, what they value, and how to gain their attention.

Know what Generation Z values. What does Gen Z like?


According to a McKinsey study, 73% of Generation Z reported trying to purchase from companies they consider ethical. Nine of ten Zennials believe companies are responsible for addressing environmental and social issues.

Zennials value:

  • Authenticity
  • Ethical values
  • Experiences
  • Health and wellness
  • Self-development
  • Sense of connection to a brand
  • Transparency/trust
  • Independence

Businesses achieve value by interacting with consumers, sharing behind-the-scenes content, and hosting engaging polls and competitions on social media. Gen Z wants to feel involved in the brand, almost like a personal connection.

Knowing Generation Z by comparing them with Millennials

Numerous similarities exist between the age groups, primarily attributed to the significant rise of social media and the internet during their lifetimes. However, there are also distinct differences.

What Are the Core Characteristics of Generation Z? - The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Studies indicate that capturing the attention of Millennials is significantly more challenging than it was with previous generations. Millennials perceive life as an ongoing learning journey, so creating content that is informative and relevant to their interests may sustain their attention over extended periods. Additionally, this generation embraces multitasking as it enhances efficiency.

n contrast, Gen Z prefers consuming content in shorter bursts. With constant exposure to various media, brands must stand out quickly for any chance of capturing their attention. While not necessarily prioritizing formal learning, this age group is interested in self-improvement, although only sometimes aligned with traditional educational pursuits like the Millennials.

How to get Generation Z’s attention. How can your business gain it?

Before we can understand how to capture the attention of this cohort, we need to dive deeper into the different kinds of attention.

Most of us have likely experienced driving to work while listening to music. In this scenario, our focus alternates between the music and driving, demonstrating a low level of selective attention to both tasks.

Caucasian guy using mobile phone while watching TV at home Stock Photo | Adobe Stock

Another common example is scrolling through social media while a game or TV show plays in the background. Occasionally, we tune into a specific play or scene, displaying selective attention to one thing while primarily focusing on another.

Therefore, it’s not necessarily that our attention spans are getting shorter, but rather that our attention is being pulled in more directions than in previous generations. This can make it quite challenging for businesses to compete for consumers’ focus.

As a business aiming to reach consumers with a message or product, you must encourage consumers to shift their attention from what they are intentionally focusing on to unintentionally paying attention to you.

So, what are some ways you can shift their attention?

  • Relatability
  • Video Content
  • Storytelling
  • Staying current with trends
  • Developing a brand personality
  • Incorporating influencers

Take your marketing to the next Generation with our help.

With Generation Z’s up-and-coming buying power, they will soon wield more influence than any other age group, making it essential for businesses to adapt their marketing strategies accordingly. The three ways your business can best market to Gen Z areto know who they are, what they value, and how to grab their attention.

Call us if you need assistance learning the best marketing strategies for your business!

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VIA Idea #27: Improve your Sales Strategy with Inbound Marketing

Back in the day, advertising was simple: TV and print ads pushed products or services and we responded by buying those products or services. Those days are gone. Prospects of all ages now Google items or brands they’re interested in, visit the company’s website and ask Facebook friends for advice.

To thrive, businesses large and small must continue to evolve their sales strategies by employing inbound marketing. Effective inbound marketing engages early-stage potential customers as well as fosters relationships with established customers. Inbound marketing includes a variety of “pull” tactics:

  • Web content
  • Blogs
  • Webinars
  • Videos
  • Reports (inc. white papers and ebooks)
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletters/ezines
  • Press releases
  • Social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, etc.)
  • Infographics
  • Mobile offers/coupons
  • Apps

Note that none of these are “pushing” customers to buy; each serves to demonstrate your company’s expertise, builds trust and encourages conversations. Because you want to engage existing and potential customers, the key is to generate fresh, relevant content often enough that they pay attention. Everything you generate should be optimized with your top keywords. Search engines love inbound marketing tactics and done right, will reward you for your participation with higher rankings.

The goal is to structure inbound in ways to get someone’s permission to capture data such as a name and email address. This is a great way to fill your pipeline with leads for follow-up programs. The beauty of inbound marketing is that once you create strategic content, it works for you as long as it’s active. You have an asset that keeps on giving.

 Inbound Marketing needs to accomplish these four goals

Our industry says many businesses are currently budgeting an average of 30 percent (up from 26 percent) of their marketing dollars to inbound tactics. They also say many businesses haven’t even begun to work in this arena. HubSpot, the company who literally wrote the book on inbound marketing, revealed that inbound marketing’s cost per lead is 60 percent lower than traditional outbound marketing.

How do you know which inbound marketing tactics are best for you? Ask yourself the same questions that you would before starting any marketing initiative; keep in mind that marketing must be about customers and prospects, not you.

Who are you trying to reach? Why do they need you? What message, information or offer would entice them to start a conversation with you? How are you going to follow up? How often are you going to post or email an offer?

If you need help in sorting through what to do first, contact Julie for a free consultation on how we can create an action plan.

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VIA Idea #26: Communicate Effectively with Consistent Email Marketing

Businesses like yours send out emails to customers/clients all the time. You might have hundreds or even thousands of email addresses on file. But are you using the ability to connect with those people to your company’s best advantage?

There are lots of ways to “touch” a customer via email: newsletters, special incentives, coupons and white papers come to mind. It’s likely that a contact who is interested in getting a white paper doesn’t care about coupons. You may want to give your current customers one incentive but offer past customers a different offer.

By letting you call out different groups and adding the same person to more than one group, email services such as Constant Contact, Mail Chimp or Emma allow you to manage your database without investing a lot of time. (You can import data from Outlook, Excel and other programs; you don’t need to re-enter data!)

As with any marketing effort, you first need to define the audiences and objectives. Do you want to promote a service or product? Do you want to inform or share advice? Do you want to build or cement a relationship? Knowing these answers will drive the type of emails you send and how often you send them. Communicate too seldom and you won’t get noticed. Send out emails too often and/or to the wrong audience and your customers will unsubscribe.

Strategies may be fine-tuned by accessing reports that track data like bounces, opens and click-throughs. Armed with this kind of information, you can see trends such as the best day of the week and the best time of day to send the emails. A report can also show you the email addresses that unsubscribed. You’ll also be in compliance with the Federal CAN SPAM Act, which mandates that a sender give the receiver a way to opt out of future mailings.

Email service software allows you to use a custom-designed template (VIA created our own) or you can choose one from their library. You can also include icons that make it easy for your email recipients to share your correspondence on their Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social networks.

By now, we hope you are thinking about ways to connect with your customers by using email marketing. If you want help to get started or would like to discuss strategy, content writing or a custom template, get in touch with us.

Communicate effectively with consistent email marketing