Teen Magnets: How to Attract the Younger Audience, Pt. 2
Inside the Teenage Brain
As some of you may already know, teenagers can be very stubborn. Their psychological thinking process goes so much deeper than it may seem, especially when it comes to buying a product. This can affect how businesses should market their products to teenagers.
Businesses have to be very careful with how they present their product to teenagers if they want sales in this age group. Using the "mom and dad," tactic won't work, for example; If a 14-year-old wanted to begin an Instagram account but their mom won't allow them to, they are going to want it even more. No matter what the mom's reasoning may be, even if it's for their own well being and there is valid evidence of why they shouldn't, the opposite of what teenagers are being told is very alluring.
Teens can be very defiant when it comes to the wants of the "dominant party," such as your business. If you are trying to sell your product to them and use facts to do so, most times will fail. You have to put yourself in their position and find easy ways and methods to relate to what they are feeling or or going through.
Teenagers are more emotional buyers rather than statistical. Forcing your products on a millennial won't work. You have to mention the benefits for them as teens for what they can get out of your product as individuals.
Social Standpoints
The teenage generation is huge on social media. Everything good that happens in a teen's life is most likely revolved or has evolved from social media. I am going to cover three of the most popular apps that teens are on in this next section. Figuring out how to market your business to teens on these popular platforms is crucial to gaining teen sales.
Out of all platforms, Instagram is probably the most dominant and fitting for any business. You can make your own ads, advertise your brand, and show the world what it is about. But most importantly teenagers are always on Instagram. When bored and having nothing to do, they will scroll endlessly through the app. Another positive thing about the app is that you can post polls to ask your followers' advice on such things as, "What do they want to see?", or "What they want to know?".
Simple things like polls can have a huge impact.
The second app that is very popular and trendy right now is TikTok. I find myself on this app throughout the day, scrolling through endless videos, and the same goes for all teens. To succeed on TikTok it's all about your content and figuring out how to incorporate both your brand as well as the things that teenagers will enjoy into one short video.
The final app that is popular with today's teenagers would have to be Snapchat. The only issue with this app is the fact that it is very limiting. For instance, you can't really discover anyone, instead you have to add people and then be accepted to view their story (and vise versa.) One way around this is to have a "public story," meaning anyone can view what you post. My advice with Snapchat would be to build your Instagram first and the convert followers over to your Snapchat account.
To sum things up in order to market to teenagers, your business needs to be on the social media platforms that teens are on. Promote your products in a relatable way, and use emotions over facts to help sell your products to teenagers. Marketing to teenagers is very different from traditional marketing, but using these strategies can help you bridge the gap and sell your products to the teenage generation.
