How to Build and Retain Business Relationships With Millennial Customers

Millennials (18-29 years old), or the “always connected generation,” are 80 million strong. Their estimated spending is $600 billion and they are responsible for roughly 21 percent of consumer discretionary power—certainly substantial enough to warrant marketing attention from anyone dedicated to being successful.

For those who want to tap into this Millennial potential, there are four keys to building and retaining those customers: authenticity, digital messages, multi-channel marketing, and incentives and rewards.

1.    Authenticity

Authenticity will sell more than ads.

In a study held by the communications and public relations firm of Cohn & Wolfe, consumers consider a brand to be authentic when the company delivers on what it promises, protects consumer data, respects privacy, and interacts with their customers with transparency and integrity.

A brand’s sales pitch is of little to no importance to Millennials. They are concerned with the brand’s actions, realized quality, and community awareness. These traits can be referred to in a broader category deemed “Customer Service/Relations.”

2.    Digital messages

Millennials respond well to social media messages and marketing. The 62 percent of Millennials that won’t be inspired by a simple TV commercial are more likely to become loyal customers if a brand engages them on social media. A brand’s social media presence has become so important that we even have awards for the most buzz-worthy. In fact, the Shorty Awards is in its eighth year, and it’s only growing.

The Shorty Awards celebrates brands and people who have gone above and beyond to convey excellent content using social media. Platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, Periscope, Facebook Video, and YouTube are being used to promote more than products or services; they are new formats that allow brands and people to connect, communicate, interact, and share.

3.    Multi-channel marketing

It isn’t good enough to have a presence on one or two social media platforms. There may be popular channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but great marketing occurs on as many social media channels as is necessary to reach the maximum potential target audience. Multi-channel loyalty works in the same way. Offering more than one way to build loyalty will draw a larger, more loyal audience.

Just as a broker suggests diversifying a financial portfolio, so should a brand diversify its marketing presence. Millennials are the most brand loyal generation; Elite Daily and Crowdtwist released a report revealing 50.5 percent Millennials claim extreme loyalty to their brands. When brands emerge on multiple social media platforms, they increase their visibility to the public. If the brand is authentic, people will take notice. Once a following begins, more people will flock to it and stand by that brand as “their” brand.

Many of the decisions we make are influenced by the people around us. Audiences will trust a brand that has been vouched for by family and friends, thus creating an online word-of-mouth marketing campaign that promotes itself. Multi-channel loyalty breeds a stronger connection with consumers, who in turn have a greater incentive to involve everyone in their social circle.

4.    Incentives and rewards

Millennials want more from their brand’s incentives and rewards as well. They want something that is shareable! When a brand offers an included and desired experience, it naturally generates organic exposure necessary to the social media platforms.

Brand loyalty relies on total brand equity—the brand represents a promise to customers and employees. Offering a strong positive experience to all parties involved directly results in the advancement of growth goals. Rewards should be transparent and simple to use to maintain loyalty.

Building and retaining loyalty with Millennials does not need to be difficult. It calls on brands to be personally available to their customers as well as define themselves through interaction in lieu of general claims.

It may be difficult to keep up with every new emerging platform, so focus on the platforms mostly used by your target audience. Millennials want to interact and create a story, not just make a purchase. So, give them an emotional connection, a chance to share, and in return, they will be loyal, share with their social circles, and remember the positive experience they were given.

5 Essential Travel Gadgets for a Comfortable Business Trip

Before, business trips only involved a smartphone and laptop or tablet. Today, travel gadgets have raised the standard for business trips to include gadgets that can streamline your work or solve some travel problems that have plagued phones and laptops in the past. Here are 5 essential travel gadgets that will make your next business trip more comfortable.

Smart Luggage

Haven’t we all experienced sitting at the airport, waiting for our flight, and wishing there was an available plug to charge our gadgets. Airport charging stations usually require either sitting on the floor or standing up for a couple of hours. There are now luggage brands that solve this problem with luggage that has built-in USB charging ports for charging a few times over. What’s more, the luggage also comes equipped with a built-in scale, lock, and tracking device in case you need to track after the airline leaves your luggage behind.

Noise-canceling Earbuds

While noise-canceling headphones have long been invented and have become a favorite piece of tech gear, the large around-ear headphones are not actually practical for business trips. However, noise-canceling earbuds are becoming more common, with Bose being the brand that leads the charge. Today, some brands are available as wireless Bluetooth earbud phones.

Hootoo Wireless Router

Wireless routers today seem to be rare for business travelers, something that business travelers need to discover soon. This type of underrated gadget actually has two important features for business trips: the wireless hotspot and the 10,000mAh portable battery. So this means if your smartphone or other USB-powered device is running out of juice, you can charge up again (aside from using your luggage-charger). The wireless hotspot is obviously useful if the hotels in your area are more old-school networks, or worse, the Wi-Fi signal is terrible. The Hootoo simply amplifies the signal to make it usable. It even allows you to connect two or more devices at the same time. Though a bit hefty at 8 or 9 ounces, it doesn’t cost a lot and is worth more than it costs on any business trip. Perhaps instead of just buying a portable battery charger, spend for a Hootoo that has two features in one.

Mini-Portable Drive

Portable drives are useful on business trips but they tend to lean on the bulky side. However, major brands like Samsung have brought out solid state portable mini-drives like its T3 that weighs less than two ounces. SSD mini-drives also measure around 2 to 3 inches x 2 inches x less than 1 inch, so it fits even in a small carry-on. They also come in two terabyte capacity, making it an invaluable carrier for lots and lots of business or company files.

Power Converter

This is especially useful if your business trips take you overseas and you don’t want to fry your gadgets. It may look a little bulky, but it’s worth taking along if your business trips abroad is for a significant amount of time. One such example is from BESTEK. Aside from its 3 outlet converters, it has 4 USB ports if you need to charge your smartphone or tablet.

Small Business Owners Should Strengthen Their Cyber Security (Here are Ways to Do It)

Small business owners should be wary because they make the most enticing targets for hackers. This is because most small business owners think they’re not worth being attacked, but according to government data, about half of small businesses experience a form of cyber attack at least once and approximately half of small businesses that are cyber-attacked go out of business within six months.

It’s imperative that small businesses build up or invest in good cybersecurity in order to be better prepared for cyber attacks. This becomes necessary with discovery of the security flaws that have been dubbed Spectre and Meltdown towards the end of 2017. It may only be a matter of time before hackers begin exploiting these flaws for cyberattack purposes.

Train employees

Create a cybersecurity policy for your business and make sure your employees fully participate and understand that, should the business fall, they fall as well. It should contain cybersecurity best practices that you expect employees to follow, such as not clicking on suspicious emails and links. Include procedures for keeping employee, vendor, and customer information safe. Have employees create strong, unique passwords for each account. They should have a password for every desktop and mobile device they use, along with strong passwords for business accounts.

Whenever you can, have your employees set up two-factor authentication. This requires a two-step sign-in process that adds another layer of security to accounts. Employees will need access to another device or code to complete the sign-in process.

Make sure automatic updates are set

You should regularly update your computers, including desktops, laptops, and mobile devices, by simply turning on the automatic update settings. Make sure your operating systems and web browsers are up to date to protect against the latest threats. Manually check all devices if they are receiving all the latest security patches to fight the Spectre and Meltdown cyber-threats. If your employees use mobile devices for work, make sure they use updated apps, including a security app.

Create backups

Regularly back up all important business information on computers. If the information is stolen or goes missing, you should have another copy somewhere else. All important information should have a copy such as having copies stored in the cloud, on CD’s, or external drives.

Limit access

Unauthorized people should never have access to company computers and accounts. Even a well-known, trusted person shouldn’t be allowed to access computers and information that they are normally unauthorized to use. For example, you should never allow a customer borrow a company laptop to look something up, no matter how close they are.

Secure the business Wi-Fi

Your business Wi-Fi can be an easy way to hack into data to steal anything, including money. Secure your Wi-Fi so only employees can access it. If possible, set up the Wi-Fi in a way that prevents employees from knowing the password. If you want an open Wi-Fi for customers to use, set up a separate network. Customers should not have the same Wi-Fi access as employees. This will help prevent unwanted people from being able to access into the business files.